Tyler Morris Prepared To Lead Michigan WR Room In 2024

Without the veteran leadership of Roman Wilson or Cornelius Johnson around, wideout Tyler Morris has a major opportunity in front of him.

Jan 1, 2024; Pasadena, CA, USA; Michigan Wolverines wide receiver Tyler Morris (8) runs for a / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

In the early stages of spring ball, Michigan is taking a firm look at its offense and figuring out how to replace many of the key playmakers from last year’s National Championship run. Younger Wolverines like wide receiver Tyler Morris, who still had a productive 2023 campaign and made several important plays, will move up the depth chart into a more important role this fall. So far, Morris has been working with the other U-M pass catchers to elevate their game as a unit before the season arrives.

“We just, as a room, as a whole, we are expecting everybody to step up, everybody to step into their new roles and be their best selves,” Morris told the media on Tuesday. 

Morris highlighted Fred Moore, Peyton O’Leary, Semaj Morgan and himself as players who have contributed sparingly up to this point but will be relied upon in crucial moments this season. 

“It is everybody,” Morris began, “but Fred and Semaj, I feel like just being young guys, they were the freshmen last year and this year they've shown that they can step up. Semaj. I feel like last year had a lot of, you know, the quick game stuff and this year, I've told him like, that was nice, but we need you to do more and that's kind of the expectation. With Fred, we are going to need one of those deep-ball receivers. I mean, Peyton hasn’t played a lot. We've talked about it too. We need everybody to step up and just be able to do everything.”

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Last year, Morris and his fellow receivers had the experience and leadership of Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson to lean on. Both Wilson and Johnson occupied different roles in the U-M offense, so they helped teach the younger receivers quite a bit, and now it’s time for Morris to translate that knowledge onto the field. 

“Honestly, I think it's just there's a lot of stuff that you learn with playing football at the receiver position,” Morris said. “So, sometimes it can be hard just to, you know, come here right away and just really understand football. I feel like the more reps they get against our defense in practice and the more opportunities that are given, I mean, everybody wants to step up and make more plays than they did.”

During Michigan’s undefeated 2023 season, Morris is perhaps best remembered for his 38-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the Rose Bowl. Overall, the speedy wideout notched 13 catches for 197 yards and one score last year, but he’ll see the field a lot more regularly this season. 

“I've been telling the guys we don't have Roman, don’t have CJ,” Morris said. “So, it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It's just, you know, it's our chance to go do something. I think every day just come in now understanding that we, as a group, like individually, we haven't done a whole lot yet, and this is a year for a lot of us to show up.”

How do you see Michigan’s wideout group shaping up in 2024? Who will be the Wolverines top pass catcher? Let us know and follow @EricJRutter on Twitter for more Wolverine Digest updates.