Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Junior Season Highlights: Shane Morris

11 comments:

  1. My boys all play club sports with kids who go or went to De La Salle and as such we get weekly updates on Shane Morris and the magnificence of his left arm, every word of which I hope to be unexaggerated.

    Personally, I wish we were looking at four more years of Denard, that spreadish thing we currently run with the zonish blocking featuring guys pulling in every direction, and called QB runs.

    As much as I love the fade and what we used to call the sideline and go Henne would throw to Manningham and Arrington. I've really enjoyed our offense the last two years. Maybe more than any offense we've ever run at Michigan going back to Ron Johnson and Bob Timberlake.

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  2. @ Roanman 7:58 a.m.

    I do love watching "Good Denard" play, but there are always stars that come along. We haven't had a star running back since Mike Hart (until Fitzgerald Toussaint, I guess), and we haven't had a star receiver since Mario Manningham. There won't be a Denard at Michigan after 2012, but we will find someone else to admire, whether it's Devin Gardner, Shane Morris, Thomas Rawls, Amara Darboh, or somebody who has yet to commit.

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  3. Agreed, and I've seen a raft of them and hope to see a future raft of equal measure.

    I'll admit that I'm far less troubled by "Bad Denard" than almost anybody just because I always feel like "Good Denard" is just a snap away and that missed wide open receiver makes the hapless linebacker face down in the turf all the more exhilarating.

    I think what i've really liked is the wide openess of this offense as compared with the exasperating and claustrophobic predictability of the Lloyd period.

    I remember calling plays in advance and my son thinking I was a flipping genius while watching one of a couple Northwestern debacles.

    I'm still laughing about them having our signals, like they really needed them to know where Lloyd was coming. His play calling was exactly as fresh as his signals were.

    I've got into trouble for saying this before, but what the hell.

    I think Gary Moeller was a helluva football coach and had he not run amok at Malchus Red Fox, would have had a legacy that would have nudged Bo back a notch, or at least expanded it to Bo/Mo. That legacy would have included a far more explosive offense than we experienced during Lloyd's tenure.

    Without sacrificing our tradition of outstanding D which Rich Rod couldn't even begin to get his brains around.

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  4. Morris looks terrific. I think I'm most impressed by his pocket presence. He really knows when it's collapsing and when to take off. Hope he realizes some of those throws will not work in college. Definitely given some grace since he's still in HS, but hopefully he can gain more confidence and ability with a stable offensive line around him.

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  5. His throwing looks a little off. He does get the ball where it needs to be, but this is also a highlight tape. Is it just because he's a lefty or do his mechanics need some work too?

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  6. Shane has a good arm. His windup is big but Shanes release is so quick it doesn't matter. A lot of these highlights are him throwing quickly to a predetermined receiver, but he shows great instincts too, so far. When he faces a college pass rush things will be different but I suspect he'll adjust. I wish Denard would decide to takeoff running as quickly as Shane does. Kid sets himself on the run pretty well too. I wouldn't expect him to be as accurate as he is "on the run" (he really stops and resets himself.) He sets quickly, but not so fast that it messes up his mechanics. Al Borges is going to love his deep ball and accuracy. Holy hell this kid is ideally suited to Als offense. He'll need some college experience against better DBs to learn what he can get away with and what will burn him but it looks like he could learn to throw guys open just as easily.

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  7. @ Anonymous 10:34 a.m.

    Morris has some work to do, but so do most juniors in high school. I think one thing he needs to work on is holding the ball higher and maintaining ball security. He tends to hold the ball down near his chest, which makes for a long motion. He also sometimes scrambles with the ball held loosely in one hand, as if he learned from the great Tate Forcier. But he has "arm talent" and pocket awareness, so there's a lot to work with.

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  8. It's not quite Tebow-motion, but yeah, his windup is a little big.

    Sweet, sweet deep balls.

    As much flak as Denard gets for holding the ball in the wrong arm, Magnus, he does shift to holding it properly immediately when he takes off. No loaf-of-bread stuff.

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  9. @ David 12:54 p.m.

    Nah, Denard almost ALWAYS holds the ball in his left arm. He doesn't switch it to the proper arm.

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  10. @ Magnus

    You realize that you want a QB to hold the ball in his chest right? That up by the shoulder crap gets adjusted once these guys get to the NFL. Look at Aaron Rodgers. He held the ball up high by his shoulder in college, and the Packers completely reworked his mechanics in the pros. Now the ball is down in his chest. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, etc. All down in the chest.

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  11. @ Anonymous 1:24 p.m.

    I don't want him holding it by his earhole (a la Rodgers at Cal), but I don't want him holding it down by his belly button, either. There are a couple times where it seems to sag.

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