Michigan football's Mike Morris ready to play vs. TCU, at '95-100%' for CFP semifinal
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For Michigan football defensive lineman Mike Morris, there was never a doubt.
Morris, a senior, had never beaten Ohio State in Columbus. In fact, he'd never even played in "The Horseshoe" prior to last month. So in his mind, it didn't matter what his health status was — he was suiting up.
"I’m not missing this game to save my life," Morris said Wednesday of his effort to play in Columbus. "I don’t care what my body is going through, I’m not missing this game. If I can only take 10 snaps, five snaps I’m going to take them because I couldn’t let my team go out there and fight our biggest rivals in the biggest rivalry in football history and not try to play."
Morris aggravated his ankle injury following the OSU game, keeping him out of the Big Ten title game the following week. It was another tough pill to swallow, essentially missing most of the Wolverines' two biggest games so far this season.
"Heartbroken. Emotional, just pain," he said Wednesday. "But again, I couldn’t let that show, I had to be there in my team in another aspect which is being their cheerleader. I’ll cheer them on until I lose my voice."
He'll have a much more active role Saturday when the Wolverines face No. 3 TCU in a College Football Playoff semifinal in the Fiesta Bowl, however.
"I’m probably 95-100 percent right now," he said. "So I’m feeling great. For a while I haven’t been able to play a lot, I hurt my ankle, so my shoulders have been healed, my hips feel great, my body feels good, it’s just now it’s my ankle.
"But I feel fine and feel my ankle can handle 70-80 snaps."
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Morris suffered a high ankle sprain late in the fourth quarter against Nebraska on Nov. 12.
He didn't play the following week against Illinois but assisted on one tackle against the Buckeyes on Nov. 26 as he gutted through 11 snaps in Columbus.
The Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year didn't question the path in front of him.
This is the same player who had three hip surgeries while biding his time behind teammates Kwity Paye, Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo. Now, as he recovers from the most recent setback, he's looking at the recent month with a glass-half-full mentality, saying in some ways his body is as healthy as it's been all season.
Over the past month, he has just been working to get back on the field. Week 1 was starting to jog. Week 2 was jogging and a soft run. Week 3 was running at full speed, so he was cleared for practice.
"Now this week has been 'push it, push it, push it,' " he said. "And I’ve done that and I feel great."
For most of the season, Morris was the main name on Michigan's 'no-name' defense. The Belle Glade, Florida, native had the best year of his career recording 21 tackles, 10½ tackles for loss, seven sacks and a forced fumble over 10 games.
His honor as the conference's top d-lineman was a fulfilling moment for the one-time Florida State commit.
"It meant everything, I’ve been praying for this moment," he said. "All the seniors like Mazi (Smith), DJ (Turner), Mike (Sainristil), we’ve been saying since we were in high school in 2018, watching the 2018 team go to Ohio State and lose, that we weren’t going to be that team,. We’re going to be different, we’re going to be better, we’re going to be stronger and we’ve proven that.
"Being named Defensive Lineman of the Year (on top of that) just shows the hard work I’ve put in this offseason. I’ve put my body through hell just to get to where I am."
Minter making magic
Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said he knows it sounds surprising, but his decision to leave Vanderbilt (which went 2-10 in 2021) for the same position at Michigan coming off a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff appearance wasn't as easy of a decision as seemed.
“People probably won’t believe me, but it was hard to leave there just because of relationships,” he said. “You dive in, especially on the ground floor of trying to turn something around, you dive in with the coaches and the players there, but then Jim Harbaugh calls.
“I knew it was a great opportunity.”
Of course, as he joked Wednesday, that was until he realized he wouldn't have more than half the starters, three of whom — Hutchinson, Ojabo and defensive back Dax Hill — had first-round NFL draft grades. Minter said for every unit he coaches every season, he has high expectations.
It didn't take long into spring practice for him to realize the Wolverines had the talent to replace those key players.
"You look around and you’re like, 'OK, this O-line won the Joe Moore Award last year and just added the best center in college football to it," he said. "Then, you’ve got all these skill players with Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards, we’ve got two quarterbacks in the spring that were capable of leading this team to a championship.
"As we were defending them and going through that process, my expectations kept rising and I was like ‘OK, we got a chance here.’ "
The Wolverines capitalized on that chance. The defense ranks No. 3 in the country in total defense (277.1 yards per game), No. 3 against the run (85.2 yards per game) and is tied for fourth in scoring defense (13.4 points per game).
Furthermore, it took on an identity as a second=half team. Minter's unit allowed just 29 points after halftime of its final eight games; That included five field goals (three by Purdue, one by Ohio State, one by Penn State) and two touchdowns (both by Illinois) and four shutouts.
Much of of the credit has gone to strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert, but Minter's philosophy has been key as well. He has developed depth along the trenches, as the Wolverines can go nearly 10 deep along the line and keep rested bodies cycling in.
"It's why you're good in the second half, because guys are fresh," Minter said. "We play so many guys, guys stay fresh. Braiden McGregor is a fresh rusher in the fourth quarter of a game when he may have played 10 or 15 snaps up to that point. Where as a lot of teams, that's the 50th or 60th snap for that guy, and the game is on the line and they're not rushing the way they're capable of.
"You earn playing time at Michigan so if you're ready to play, you earn playing time and get a chance to play. It helps with morale and helps with the whole mentality of the group."
It's reflected in the stats. The Wolverines have one player — Junior Colson — with 95 tackles, four others with at least 50 tackles and 10 with 15-45 tackles. A year after the Wolverines had two players with double-digit sacks, only Morris has more than four, while 11 others have between at least two.
That depth has been key to the Wolverines' defensive success. It's something Minter saw many months ago and it has played out through 13 games.
"The program has been built along the line of scrimmage, so you’ve got people up front capable of putting together a stout run defense," Minter said. "With the coaches in place like coach Clink (Steve Clinkscale), coach (George) Helow, coach (Mike) Elston, Jay Harbaugh moving to the defense, I knew we had the right ingredients."
Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @realtonygarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's Mike Morris ready to play vs. TCU at '95-100%'
