Michigan's offense has been one of the worst in college football this season. The Wolverines are ranked 129th out of 133 teams in total passing offense and are dead last in passing yards per completion.
In the team's 21-7 loss to Illinois on Saturday, the Wolverines scored fewer than 10 points for the first time since 2014.
It's been an abysmal offensive season, but Michigan has a chance to — somewhat — redeem itself with a rivalry game against Michigan State. On Tuesday night, wide receiver Tyler Morris met with reporters to discuss the offensive struggles.
On the state of the offense
"I think it's obvious that we need to pick it up. Just get the ball going, gotta be consistent. I think there has been times when we've shown that once we get rolling we are hard to stop, but we've had trouble getting rolling."
"I think we just gotta focus in on doing all the little things, and just keep being us, keep going through the season. Like I said, keep being consistent and just do the little things right and just keep it going. When we do get rolling, we can't have little mistakes or things that set us back."
On if people are looking to him as a leader
"We're just trying to do our best for the team. Every week we go into the gameplan and we have a certain role, and whatever plays end up being called during the game, that's what we're gonna go out and execute to the best of our abilities."
"No. It hasn't been the season we've expected, but we're gonna go out and do our best and put all our effort out every play we can. So, once those opportunities do come, we'll be ready."
On how challenging it is to play not knowing who the QB is
"I think we just have to make it not a challenge. Mentally, can't be thinking about it too much because we can't control it. That's just what it is."
"That's what it is, so like I said before, whoever's out there on Saturday, that's who we're rolling with, and we support them 100 percent. And yeah, we can't think about it too much and get too caught up on what's uncertain or anything that comes with that."
On if it's hard to go from good QB play in J.J. McCarthy to bad this season
"It's not like we can change anything as far as how that goes. So every week, we're coming out just ready for whoever's gonna be out there, and we're gonna play to the best of our ability."
On if he's seen the offense get simplified this week
"I mean, yeah, I've seen it. But I think with whatever gameplan it is, simplified or not, we gotta be ready to go execute. So, I mean, I think it does make things easier. Just try to do things that are easy for us, make it hard for them. So regardless of what the play is called, we gotta go out and execute."
On if the QB competition feels wide open
"I mean, today was our first day of practice. So we're just out there running our routes, executing our plays. And like I said before, as receivers, we don't try to focus too much on who we think is gonna be out there and who this and that and whatever. We're gonna go whatever play is called, that's what we're running. And whoever's at quarterback, we're expecting them to be able to get the ball to us and just the whole offense to execute."
On if there's a disconnect between practices and games
"Yes, at times I do, because there's times where in practice where we look real good. And we just gotta apply more to the game where we're messing up small details that we were good with all week in practice. So I think it just comes with calming down a little bit during the games and just going out and executing. That's really all I see because we have more than enough time during the week to get things right. And there's just, yeah, there's been times where we've executed all week. And then there's just been something off during the game."
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