Shane Morris

A few weeks into his senior season, he had risen to 26th at ESPN, but suffered season-ending mononucleosis with five games remaining on the schedule.

By the beginning of November, he was the top quarterback in the country according to some evaluators.

Shane Ryan Morris (born August 4, 1994) is a former American football quarterback.

He was a highly touted five-star prospect from De La Salle Collegiate High School in Warren, Michigan, until he endured mononucleosis midway through his senior season.

Morris was born to Bruce and Jennifer Morris on August 4, 1994.

Morris has two younger siblings, Brent and Gracie.

From the start of ESPN's rankings with the class of 2006 through the class of 2012, no Michigan quarterback ever ranked in the top 100.

Morris, who quarterbacked the all-boys De La Salle Collegiate, led the 2009 freshman team to the Catholic League championship before being called up to finish the season with the varsity team.

When the starting quarterback was injured in the fourth quarter of the scoreless district final game against Grosse Pointe South High School, he was put in the game because the backup had a broken thumb.

He led the team to victory in that game and 27–6 victory over Southfield High School in the Division 2 Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) regional playoff game before losing 12–3 to Inkster High School in the state semifinals.

This was the second straight year that future teammate Gardner led Inkster to the state championships.

As a sophomore, he totaled 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns, while helping De La Salle achieve a 9–3 record in 2010.

He led the team to the MHSAA Division 2 quarterfinals where they lost to eventual state champion Farmington Hills Harrison 33–23.

He began getting scholarship offers starting with Cincinnati, but as a lifelong Michigan fan, he hoped for an offer from Michigan once they abandoned Rich Rodriguez' spread offense and hired head coach Brady Hoke and offensive coordinator Al Borges.

The closest were Rob Bolden (112th, 2010) and Gardner (128th, 2010).

Before Michigan made him an offer on March 28, 2011, he also received offers from Bowling Green and Toledo.

He gave Michigan a verbal commitment on May 10, 2011.

He participated as one of the four quarterbacks in the July 2011 Gridiron Kings event at Disney World (with the top 24 quarterbacks participating in the 2011 Elite 11), but he was overshadowed by Matt Davis.

As a junior in the fall of 2011, he passed for 1,684 yards and 19 touchdowns.

He led the team to the 2011 Division 1 MHSAA state quarterfinals where they lost 9–6 to eventual state champions Cass Technical High School.

Prior to his senior season, he was regarded as one of the best quarterback prospects produced by the state of Michigan, a state whose greatest quarterback products have been Gary Danielson, Earl Morrall, Craig Morton and James Ninowski.

He ended his high school career ranked 127th by ESPN and 81st by Rivals.com.

During the summer of 2012, he was at first unable to qualify for the 2012 Elite 11 in his home region, but participated in a second regional contest and was named MVP, earning an invitation.

Morris was described as having the strongest arm of the 25 quarterbacks at the Elite 11 finals, although he did not finish in the top 11 of the competition.

On September 6, 2012, he was the first quarterback selected to participate in the January 4, 2013 Under Armour All-America Game for high school seniors.

As he was attempting to regain momentum following his battle with mononucleosis, he was reported to have been unimpressive in the week of practice and in the game.

He played in the 2013 Under Armour All-America Game.

Morris saw limited action at Michigan as a freshman until starting in the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in place of starter Devin Gardner.

He became Michigan's first commit of the class of 2013 in order to eliminate recruiting distractions.

Once he committed, he actively recruited prospects for the team.

Prior to his senior year, he was ranked as ESPN's 37th best and Rivals.com's 17th best prospect and rising in the national class of 2013.

Entering his senior season, he and Max Browne were the only two 5-star rated quarterbacks in the class of 2013 by Rivals.com.

In the game, he was notable for being the recipient of a vicious tackle by Matthew Thomas, who was the top-ranked outside linebacker in the class of 2013 according to ESPN.

The Detroit News named him as the top prospect in the state of Michigan on their 2013 Blue Chip List.

By January 2013, Morris had been so inundated with media requests, that he chose to discontinue any direct media contact (although he was an active social media participant) until he arrived at Michigan.

On February 7, 2013, Morris was the first player to commit in writing to Michigan on signing day with a 7:01 a.m submission of his National Letter of Intent.

During the 2014 season, he started one game and suffered a concussion.

He did not appear in any games during the 2015 season.

He redshirted during the 2015 season was the third-string quarterback (behind Wilton Speight and John O'Korn) for the 2016 Michigan Wolverines football team.

He transferred to Central Michigan for his redshirt senior season.