Morris Elite 11

Not the praise we were hoping for....

http://espn.go.com/high-school/football/events/elite-11/2012/story/_/id/7732187/skyline-qb-devante-kincade-earns-first-invite-elite-11-finals

But, following the Twittersphere, Morris was impressive to many of the scouts and recruiting gurus there.

Here's a tweet just a minute ago from Max Olson, the Texas (state) recruiting guy from ESPN:

Michigan's Shane Morris understandably bummed he didn't make top 6. Accuracy was issue. He has a cannon, must improve 50% completion pct.

This was from Olson earlier today during the camp:

Michigan commit Shane Morris throws one heck of a fastball. Probably the most mature/developed-looking guys here. #Elite11

And, this was from Shane's twitter shortly after the camp:

Shane Morris ‏ @S_Morris12 Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Rough day... Could have done a lot better!! Gotta bounce back tomorrow #NFTC

That's all he said about it. He's got a positive attitude, that's good. There's another camp tomorrow, also in Dallas. I didn't know he was going to that as well, but sounds like he is.

This was Shane today:

Thanks, I was curious how he did. Evidently it wasn't too good but to put a positive spin on things this will make him work even harder in the off-season and next year in his Senior season in High School.

It basically went along with what I heard on the Michigan Man podcast Friday that I downloaded. The guy he interviewed said he's really good, but has some areas to improve, including his accuracy, especially on clutch situations.

Observation from 247sports:

"The long-time Michigan commit looked the part of an elite quarterback even through fighting through some inconsistencies in terms of accuracy. He had arguably the best pair of feet at the event in drill work. As always, Morris impressed with his velocity, which was among the very best at the event. While he didn't perform as well as he has at times in the past, we still feel like Morris is one of the top prospects in the 2013 class. From a physical tools standpoint, Morris was the best quarterback in the event."

Here's a rundown of all the QB's there yesterday:

http://247sports.com/Article/Elite-11-Dallas-Top-Performers-67198

Tom Luginbill, the national recruiting director for ESPN, said:

* He is as talented if not more than most guys, but is struggling with accuracy right now.

* A lot of talent, inconsistent accuracy.

* Struggled with accuracy. This is his area of development. Tools are all there.

* He will be fine. I place very little on one 2 hr session.

There's another camp today (NFTC), hopefully he performs better.

Just my opinion, but it's kind of more important to me how he does when he puts on the maize and blue!! Go Blue!!!

He didn't get an invite after the NFTC either, though two others did. On to Columbus!

Maybe he should spend more time working on his game instead of recruiting his "homeys".

GOBLUEJOE66 wrote:

Just my opinion, but it's kind of more important to me how he does when he puts on the maize and blue!! Go Blue!!!

Amen. Now maybe folks will calm down and not expect him to be Andrew Luck his freshman year.

THEstjoemfan wrote:

Maybe he should spend more time working on his game instead of recruiting his "homeys".

LOL, I don't think a few Tweets take all that much time, at least watching the way my kids text. They're crazy fast, although I'd probably hate to see the spelling, etc!

Yeah but have you also seen your kids sit for hours sending tweets and texts? Yeah they can send one in .001 second but when they send a gazillion and receive a gazillion it does take their time.

Anyway, I'm not that much of a stick in the mud. Just thinking maybe he needs to re-dedicate himself to football and leave the other stuff to others.

Hoping he does not get complacent. I also think that texting may not be the issue but being at U of M every weekend may be. He may need spend some time back on the field.

Man, I think we are making some pretty big intuitive leaps here about his current dedication to football. Relax folks, it is just one camp over one weekend. Even if he had done well it means little to what actually will happen when he shows up.

Besides, all work and no play turns Shane Morris into Todd Marinovich

Orion_Wolverine wrote:

Besides, all work and no play turns Shane Morris into Todd Marinovich

Touche'. And we already had our Todd Marinovich clone in one Tate Forcier. How did that work out?

Good point Orion.

I don't think anyone is doing anything. It is a discussion board and people are giving feedback based on his performance at a recent camp. I do not think discussions of Shane being distracted are far fetched.

Your point is taken but remember, Shane is still a Junior in HIGH SCHOOL and it's Spring-time. He needs to be a kid now and then, and being so far away from Football season this seems like the perfect time. IMHO, May or June would be the optimum time for him to really start training for his Senior season in HIGH SCHOOL. Granted, after he begins his Senior season he shouldn't have much time off from training, maybe a day or two here and there, but nothing substantial. Well, maybe a month surrounding his HIGH SCHOOL PROM but seriously that is it (unless he Red-Shirts his Freshman year at Michigan).

I think it takes a goodly amount of dedication to fly to Dallas for two camps in which you will be a relative outsider, and compete against the best in the southwest. He could have just waited until Columbus and competed in the more favorable midwest region. He has measured himself and come up short, gotten great advice from coaches and pro QBs, and now he knows what he needs to accomplish by May 4th.

For the record, tweeting isn't like texting, you don't require and rarely desire a response and therefore you don't reply to thousands of responses. Basically you are putting your thoughts out there and to hell with what others think.

The truth is nobody on this board know the personal schedules, training habits, dedication, etc. for any of the recruits unless they know them personally. Let's not attribute things to him that become the truth merely because they are repeated often enough to cloud reality.

It appears from all accounts that he is an excellent talent and could very well be the next big thing at QB for Michigan. Nobody really knows how all of this will play out until he hits campus and suits up, but there certainly seem to be reasons to be optimistic. Let's enjoy that and watch it unfold rather than criticizing the kid for no real reason.

I agree with Orion.

And, as far as his tweeting habits go, he's a HUUUUUGE reason why we have 16 badasses signed up already for '13.

Here's my question:

Does he come from a well-off family? How can this kid afford to fly to all of these camps? If you're invited to the camps, do they pay for that stuff for you?

Trust me, when I'm at that stage in my life when I'm ready to have kids, I hope I have a boy who is a complete stud at something....but I couldn't imagine paying for all that stuff. Although, probably pays off to spend 10-30k on sending him to camps and all other things in order to earn a full-ride schollie (my guess is one is valued anywhere between 75-150k, depending on if you stay in state or go out of state). Pretty good return on your investment.

Hey from expierence, have a son who loves hockey, not good enough for division 1 but still camps for 8 years $500 per camp. 8 years playin $1200 travel about $150 per weekend if lucky . Having an athelete in the family isn't cheap. Cost about $20,000 not inc all the equip and thats just for hockey. He also played Baseball for 8 years . traveling and equip.

Shane is what 17 or 18...let the kid be a kid

Orion_Wolverine wrote:

The truth is nobody on this board know the personal schedules, training habits, dedication, etc. for any of the recruits unless they know them personally.

Really? Well unless Shane is lying he has been in AA 3 of the last 4 weekends. The kid tweets his life it is not that hard to know what he is doing.

Admin wrote:

I agree with Orion.

Here's my question:

Does he come from a well-off family? How can this kid afford to fly to all of these camps? If you're invited to the camps, do they pay for that stuff for you?

Trust me, when I'm at that stage in my life when I'm ready to have kids, I hope I have a boy who is a complete stud at something....but I couldn't imagine paying for all that stuff. Although, probably pays off to spend 10-30k on sending him to camps and all other things in order to earn a full-ride schollie (my guess is one is valued anywhere between 75-150k, depending on if you stay in state or go out of state). Pretty good return on your investment.

Good question. I do not know the answer but you had a pretty good answer yourself. You can do a lot of traveling and camps for the 100k it would cost you to send a kid through college. He goes to De Lasalle. That is private right? I am guessing his family isn't hurting either.

MichiganFootball13 wrote:

Shane is what 17 or 18...let the kid be a kid

Delusional? Shane gave up his childhood a long time ago. He is not hanging out at the mall and movie theater. He is spending weekends recruiting for the winning-est football program in the country. He is jetting off to Dallas for football camp. Most of us I do not think could relate our teenage years with Shane's.

That said, I am pretty sure Shane is not changing his schedule or behavior because we are talking about him. No one is stopping him from anything.

WillieMfan wrote:

Delusional? Shane gave up his childhood a long time ago. He is not hanging out at the mall and movie theater. He is spending weekends recruiting for the winning-est football program in the country. He is jetting off to Dallas for football camp. Most of us I do not think could relate our teenage years with Shane's.

That said, I am pretty sure Shane is not changing his schedule or behavior because we are talking about him. No one is stopping him from anything.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is exactly what people hate about Michigan fans. You are looking at this situation as if Shane's entire life is football. Are you forgetting that the kid is still a teenager? Your point about most of us not being able to relate our teenage years to Shane's is fairly accurate though. However, you must admit that everyone must experience the stages of development regardless of athletic status. Shane still has the same questions, same desires, same confusion, etc. as everyone else. Sure he has been blessed with a gift that he has worked very hard to develop but he still needs down-time. I covered this before in a previous post ON THIS THREAD but if you don't take time for yourself it will most likely end up in disaster. My simple and recent point, Tate Forcier. The kid has been training to be a QB his entire life. Look what happened? LET THE KID BE A KID!!!! If Shane really wants this (which I think he does) he will work on it at his own pace.

Remember, these are student athletes. They aren't supposed to be perfect and they sure don't need to listen to a bunch of arm-chair QB's who never made it to D-1 Football. If you want to criticize athletes the Detroit Lions are about 30 minutes east, they are professional Football players. They get paid to play.

I am beginning to feel sorry for Shane. He is still over a year away from arriving on campus and he is already being criticized, and for things that have been manufactured in the minds of some fans. Geez, give him a break.

For all we know Gardner turns into Warren Moon, the kid from Texas turns out to be the next Tom Brady, the kid at Cass Tech is a phenom who chooses Michigan and Shane never sees the field. Unlikely, but the point is nobody can predict with certainty what the future holds for him.

Regardless, he deserves some time to grow into whatever he is going to become without being prematurely judged by a bunch of people who know nothing more about him than what they read and what he tweets.

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is exactly what people hate about Michigan fans. You are looking at this situation as if Shane's entire life is football. Are you forgetting that the kid is still a teenager? Your point about most of us not being able to relate our teenage years to Shane's is fairly accurate though. However, you must admit that everyone must experience the stages of development regardless of athletic status. Shane still has the same questions, same desires, same confusion, etc. as everyone else. Sure he has been blessed with a gift that he has worked very hard to develop but he still needs down-time. I covered this before in a previous post ON THIS THREAD but if you don't take time for yourself it will most likely end up in disaster. My simple and recent point, Tate Forcier. The kid has been training to be a QB his entire life. Look what happened? LET THE KID BE A KID!!!! If Shane really wants this (which I think he does) he will work on it at his own pace.

Where is the bang your head on a brick wall emoticon? For the umpteenth time nothing discussed here is changing the way these kids (Shane or anyone else) are living their lives. For the past month he has been recruiting in AA or at a football camp. Meanwhile most kids his age are going to the mall, working a part time job and spending countless hours on facebook. How is Shane's life normal? How is he being a kid? This is the life of a D1 CFB prospect.

Orion_Wolverine wrote:

I am beginning to feel sorry for Shane. He is still over a year away from arriving on campus and he is already being criticized, and for things that have been manufactured in the minds of some fans. Geez, give him a break.

For all we know Gardner turns into Warren Moon, the kid from Texas turns out to be the next Tom Brady, the kid at Cass Tech is a phenom who chooses Michigan and Shane never sees the field. Unlikely, but the point is nobody can predict with certainty what the future holds for him.

Regardless, he deserves some time to grow into whatever he is going to become without being prematurely judged by a bunch of people who know nothing more about him than what they read and what he tweets.

Sigh....This is what is wrong with America, hell maybe it is not just here. People sympathize for the poor D1 athlete that has the world by the balls. God forbid they experience any pressure or criticism. Poor Shane! Meanwhile there are kids growing up in abusive homes or listening to gun shots every night. Those are kids that really have a future filled with uncertainty. One way or another Shane will be fine I assure you.

Why is it everyone gives a shit when someone like Whitney Houston dies?? It's on the front page and every news broadcast. What a tragedy!! She did it to herself!!! Is her life more important than the soldiers dieing overseas? More important than the over 70k that die EVERY DAY?

Quit putting these people on such a pedestal. Get some perspective. These people are living a life most people only dream of.

/End rant.

@WillieMFan
Delusional? No I just know what the recruiting process is like. Now I was not highly recruited like Shane but I did have offers from most Big Ten schools (until I "met" Tommy John) so i know the process of everything and how life changes for kids who are still teens. Yes there were moments that I "basked in the light" of being wanted but there were also times that i felt that people were expecting me to do certain things, act certain ways, and make choices that were going to affect my life for years to come and I was just 16/17 years old. So maybe I am a little delusional about letting Shane live his life out before coming to Michigan but maybe we should let him enjoy himself a little before the expectations of Michigan football hit him like a ton of bricks next year.

He goes to school? He thinks about girls (I assume)? He has fun? Saying that most kids do this or that is stereotypical at best. I am just suggesting that the kid take some down-time. You know, play video games, date, hang-out with friends, or whatever he wants to do.

I am not saying that he wants to just bum-around and do nothing. His goal is to play professional football and he knows that he needs to do certain things to attain his goal.

But at the same time he is a student-athlete. Your mental health is vital, especially during your development. All work and no play makes for Tate Forcier (hey, that rhymes).

Look at Denard, he is the exact opposite of what I'm concerned about happening to Shane. I'm pretty sure that Shane will do what he needs to do but Denard is both thriving in college and living, as close as possible, a regular college students life (as far as going to games, events, etc.).