Steve Morrison

Steven Craig Morrison (born December 28, 1971) is a retired professional American football linebacker who played for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL) from 1995 to 1998.

He is currently the associate head coach/linebackers coach at Bowling Green Falcons football.

He previously served as the linebackers coach for the Eastern Michigan Eagles football team, on the coaching staff at Western Michigan, and as the linebackers coach at Syracuse Orange football.

As a senior, Morrison was part of a 1989 team that lost in the Class A semifinals 6–0 to Martin Luther King High School at Atwood Stadium.

The team had been ranked as the number three high school team in the Metro Detroit Area by the Detroit Free Press in its pre-season poll.

Morrison had been hailed as a blue chip athlete entering his senior season in the same pre-season summary.

The team was 11–0 and the number one ranked area high school team prior to the loss.

Once, Morrison executed an 82-yard punt during a high school game.

During his senior season, his coach, Al Fracassa, was the Detroit Free Press Coach of the Year and Morrison was a First-Team All-Metro Detroit selection at linebacker.

However, fellow fullback/linebacker two-way Detroit area player Jerome Bettis was the first team fullback.

Both players earned first-team Detroit Free Press All-State honors.

However, a poll of 14 experts selected Bettis first-team all-Midwest (Big Ten States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin because Penn State had not yet joined the conference), but only selected Morrison second-team all Midwest.

In high school, Morrison was an All-American in lacrosse, along with Brother Rice and Michigan football teammate Gannon Dudlar.

Prior to these professional experiences, he had excelled in college football as an All-Big Ten Conference inside linebacker from 1990 to 1994 for the Michigan Wolverines, whom he served as captain.

In high school, he had been a Detroit Free Press first-team All-State (Michigan) and second-team All-Midwest selection in football and an All-American in lacrosse.

After retiring from professional football as a player, he gained his first two years of coaching experience as the defensive coordinator for Michigan High School Athletic Association football champion Brother Rice High School (his high school alma mater).

He then served as an assistant coach at the University of Michigan for three years.

He then assumed a role as an assistant at Western Michigan University.

At Western Michigan, he has served as the linebacker coach after spending a year as the defensive line coach.

In 1990, he was the first true freshman to start on defense since 1987.

He became a rare five-year varsity letter winner while wearing #36 for the Michigan Wolverines football program from 1990 to 1994, He was mentored by 1991 Butkus Award winner Erick Anderson.

He helped the 1990 three-peat Big Ten Conference Champions defend their title for a total of five consecutive conference championships ending in 1992.

In his 1991 debut for Michigan against the Boston College Eagles, he opposed former Brother Rice teammate Pete Mitchell, who was appearing in his first game.

On Mitchell's first career catch, Morrison was warned for making a late hit against Mitchell.

A total of seven Brother Rice alumni played in the game.

He was a Catholic High School League Hall of Fame athlete and was inducted in the 1995 Hall of Fame class that included Shawn Respert, among others.

After attending Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, his college decision eventually came down to a choice between Michigan and Michigan State University.

He was part of a highly touted Michigan recruiting class that was ranked fourth in the nation and that included five of the top twelve players in the state and seven of the top twelve regional players.

He spent five years at the University of Michigan where he anchored the defense as an inside linebacker.

The 2009 Western Michigan Broncos season marked Morrison's fifth season on the team's staff, his fourth as linebacker coach and his second as defensive coordinator.

He then went on to serve as the linebackers coach at Eastern Michigan and Syracuse.

In 2019, he was hired as the associate head coach/ linebackers coach at Bowling Green State University.

After the conclusion of the 2022 season, Morrison was promoted to defensive coordinator.

Barbara Morrison, Steve's mother, says Steve was read his last rites on the day of his birth because he had the same lung disease that Patrick Kennedy, the son of United States President John F. Kennedy, died from.

He was then put in an incubator where his mother could not touch him for 12 months.

Morrison wanted to be a linebacker because of the tenacity of the position.

His favorite book was a book about Jack Lambert and Jack Ham and he grew up a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

He played soccer when he was a youth.

Morrison competed for Brother Rice High School of the Detroit, Michigan Catholic High School League.

As a junior who played both fullback and linebacker, he was sidelined for the remainder of the season with a knee injury in his third game, but the team went 7–2 for the season despite his injury.