Michigan Wolverines football third-year redshirt freshman defensive end Mike Morris sat out his first season and dealt with an injury to his hip, then played just five snaps during the 2020 campaign.

In came new coordinator Mike Macdonald, with a fresh set of eyes. Morris was able to climb the depth chart with a standout spring and continue the momentum into the fall. Now, he's seen action on 74 snaps through three games, totaling five tackles, including a half-stop for loss.

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Morris got to the point he's at now by playing assignment football and limiting mistakes, gaining a lot of trust from the coaching staff in the process.

"I’m having so much fun. I’m a big guy; they’re moving me all across the line, so it’s good to have somebody who can just be like, ‘Mike, go in there,’ and not have anything bad to say about it," Morris said. "It’s good. Mac has a lot of faith in me, so it’s definitely good to have that."

The Wolverines are lining Morris, who started against Washington Sept. 11, up anywhere from the stand-up outside linebacker spot to the inside shade of the guard, and he's embracing each and every spot.

"I definitely like being on the edge, but on third down he wants to move me inside to get me one-on-one with the guards," Morris said of his role and how Macdonald is using him. "I have no problem with that, and I’m just accepting this role and doing whatever I’ve gotta do to help the team win.

"I feel like you have a lot more space and time with a tackle, so you usually make contact at about four or five yards if you’re at the end. But if you’re at guard, they can jump-set you right now, and you don’t even know what’s going to happen — you don’t know if it’s run or pass — so I feel like that’s definitely a lot harder. I just like contact, so I don’t have a preference."

While Morris has gotten mostly positive reviews from his coaches, they're still pushing him to get better, something he appreciates.

"They get in our butt consistently, but they’re coaching us up every chance they get.," Morris explained. "It’s always constructive criticism, and we just have to take it and deal with that and do better. I really like how they’re coaching us, and not necessarily just getting in our butt, but knowing that we can and should do better, and holding us to a higher standard."

After the Maize and Blue's defensive line struggled as a whole last season, Morris and Co. have gone to work, flipping their mentality and aiming to become one of the squad's strengths.

"We definitely took that personally," Morris said of outsiders doubting the defensive line entering the season. "[Junior defensive end] Aidan [Hutchinson] always says it all the time, and we just changed our mentality to being the dogs of the team, just going out every day and doing what needs to be done in the trenches and just being some monsters. That’s what we have to do and that’s what we have to be."

It's a similar mindset to the one the entire team has taken on. Michigan was unranked to begin the year, and the expectations were relatively low. The Wolverines embraced being underdogs, and that's not going to change after a 3-0 start, despite some giving them a bit more praise — including Vegas oddsmakers, who have pegged the team as a 19-point favorite over Rutgers this coming Saturday.

"We know as soon as we lose one game, everyone’s going to be like, ‘Michigan sucks again,’ so we’re just taking every game as an underdog game," Morris explained. "I feel like we’re underdogs against Rutgers; everybody probably feels we’re going to lose that game.

"Everybody probably thinks we’re going to lose every game in the Big Ten right now. So we’re just taking it as, it’s us versus everybody, and we don’t care whether that team is 3-0 or 0-3. We’re just taking it one week at a time, and just kicking everybody’s butt."

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