The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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QB Redshirt sophomore Russell Bellomy appeared in five contests as a reserve quarterback in 2012, but he suffered an ACL tear in the spring, leaving U-M without an experienced backup at quarterback heading into the fall. photo by lon horwedel An Offensive Remodeling The offense will look different with Gardner under center. He possesses the speed and athleticism to run the football — he scored seven touchdowns in five games a year ago and rushed for 177 yards on 36 carries (4.9 yards per rush) before sacks (11 for negative-76 yards) brought his average down to 2.1 yards per carry. However, with no proven backup, and because he is a more gifted passer than Robinson, Gardner will see limited touches as a designed runner. "The days of our quarterback carrying the ball 25 times a game are done, and if it does happen, it's an aberration and not by design," Borges said. "At the same token, when you have an athletic kid like this kid is, you don't want to shut that down. But we're not going to turn him into a tailback, which is really what we did with Denard. "Devin looks to scramble more than Denard did, and he has free reign to do some of that, but because of our situation, we have to be very careful. We don't want to put ourselves in the same situation we were in last year where our starter gets injured late in the year. Unlike last year when Devin bailed us out, we don't have a guy that has been trained at quarterback for two years now." Two-Man Race For The Backup Role If the season started today, Cleary would hold down the post backing up Gardner after performing at a higher level in spring ball than fellow walk-ons Alex Swieca and Shaun Austin. Morris was set to arrive on campus and begin team workouts in early June, and Borges will not make a final decision on his No. 2 until taking a long look at the heralded freshman in fall practices. The state of Michigan's top recruit in the 2013 class, Morris was a three-year starter for De La Salle Collegiate, completing 51.1 percent of his 568 pass attempts for 3,762 yards with 47 touchdowns and 33 interceptions. His accuracy numbers, on the surface, raise red flags, but it isn't a question mark in Schembechler Hall. "If he had bad numbers and I had never seen the kid in person, I probably wouldn't have recruited him, but I've seen enough of Shane and know what this kid is capable of," Borges said. "He's not going to be anointed. He will have to earn everything, but his skill set is exactly what we're looking for as we move this offense forward. "He's a 6-3 kid with a rifle arm and is very athletic, too. That's the part of his game that might be the most underestimated. He can throw deep and short. He loves the game and is highly competitive. He has The Wolverine 2013 Football Preview ■ 81