It’s Michigan wide receiver Semaj Morgan’s third year with the program, and Morgan’s junior season has had mixed results. Morgan has 19 receptions for 214 yards with one touchdown, and also has six drops
on the season and a drop rate of 24%.
Morgan has also struggled as a punt returner, with 11 returns for just 27 yards after totaling 100 yards on nine attempts last season. Against Michigan State, Morgan had two returns for two yards and fair caught a punt at the five-yard line, which wasn’t optimal.
“The fair catch at the five. He’s just got to be better there,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said. “There’s just communication things when your gunners or your jammers are playing. He’s got to do a better job communicating with those guys to stay away from the ball.”
Freshman receiver Andrew Marsh, who returned a punt against Michigan State, could be in line to return more punts this week against Purdue.
“Constant competition. He’ll be back there,” Moore said. “And they’ll compete this week the same way they did last week.”
Morgan, who Moore says has been performing better in practice, will continue to have competition for snaps at receiver as well. Against Michigan State, Morgan ranked No. 3 in snaps at receiver with 26, but Channing Goodwin was right behind Morgan with 21.
“He practices at a high level. He practices hard, practices with energy. But we challenge him. We challenge him just like we challenge everybody else,” Moore explained. “There’s constant competition with him at punt return. There’s constant competition with him at receiver. We’ll constantly do that to put the best product on the field we can.”
In the name of meritocracy, Moore’s approach is what will get the best out of Morgan moving forward, or it’ll get the best out of others, such as Marsh and Goodwin. The cream always rises to the top.
