The Little Brother: : Joe Morris’ Footsteps Are Being Followed

Pasadena and the Rose Bowl are a long way from Ayer, Mass., but for two members of the Morris family of that small army town in north central Massachusetts, getting there has been a high priority this year.

Jamie, the younger brother, has already made it. He’s here as Michigan’s leading ground gainer for Thursday’s Rose Bowl game against Arizona State.

Joe, Jamie’s big brother, is getting closer. He is the leading ground gainer of the New York Giants, who need two wins in the NFL playoffs to make it to the Rose Bowl for the Super Bowl on Jan. 25.

“We’ve been talking about it all year,” Jamie said Sunday at Industry Hills as he waited for the team bus to take him to a workout at Mt. San Antonio College. “Joe and I talk once, maybe twice, every week and it’s mostly about football. After we beat Ohio State and knew we were going to Pasadena, I told Joe, ‘Hey, maybe we’ll both go to the Rose Bowl. If we both win, we can trade rings.’ It would be a dream come true for both of us.”

The Morris boys, sons of a twice-wounded Green Beret veteran of Vietnam who is now the postmaster of Groton, Mass., are squat, bull-necked speedsters built in the image of their father, a 5-foot 7-inch high school tailback in St. Louis. Joe and Jamie are also 5-7. Joe, 26, in his fifth year as a professional after breaking all of Jim Brown and Larry Csonka’s rushing records at Syracuse, weighs 195. Jamie, 21, and a junior at Michigan, weighs 179.

“We’re a close-knit family, real close, and we stay in touch all the time,” he said. “When my father went to Vietnam, my mother had to go to work, and my sisters took care of me. When they went off to college, Joe took over. Then he left, and it was Larry and Mike’s turn. I was the baby, and they all looked after me.”

Joe, Larry and Mike all went to Syracuse, so when Jamie won the Massachusetts high school 100-meter championship and was most valuable player in the state high school all-star football game, most people assumed that Jamie would follow suit.

“My friends thought I’d go to Syracuse, but Joe told me to go where I would be happy,” Jamie said. “When I told him I felt I’d be happier at Michigan, he said, ‘Go, Blue.’ ”

Coach Bo Schembechler recruited Morris primarily as a kick return specialist, but by the third game of his freshman season, he was the Wolverines’ starting tailback.

“The first time I ran out on the field at Michigan, I was scared to death,” Morris recalled. “I was ready to run right back off. I had never seen so many people in my life.”

The population of Ayer is 8,325, mostly army families from Ft. Devens. The attendance at Morris’ first game was more than 105,000 in a stadium where the Wolverines have played 72 consecutive home games with attendance of more than 100,000.

Morris responded to his starting role against Wisconsin by rushing for 138 yards and went on to become the first freshman since 1945 to lead the team in rushing. Last year, he gained 1,054 yards rushing, caught 33 passes for 216 yards and returned 13 kickoffs for a 21.4-yard average.

A knee injury forced him to miss this year’s Wisconsin game, and a slow recovery made a 1,000-yard season appear remote in mid-year, but Morris finished with a flourish--210 yards in 29 carries against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl decider and 118 yards against Hawaii in the season closer. This gave him 1,039 and a 5.3-yard per carry season average.

“That pop on the knee (in the third game against Florida State) hassled me a lot,” Morris said. “Even after I came back, it bothered me when I tried to cut. The trainer told me that only time would heal it, that I had to be patient. I finally felt good in the Purdue game, and even though we unfortunately lost to Minnesota, I felt like I was all the way back. Against Ohio State, I knew it.”

As Morris prepares for the Rose Bowl, his biggest concern is playing on the grass, instead of the artificial turf at Michigan and at most Big Ten schools.

“You can’t make inside cuts the way you can on a carpet,” he said. “and grass makes you feel slower. You have to learn to keep your feet under you more or else you’ll slip. It’s definitely different, but we beat Notre Dame and Purdue on grass, so I don’t think it will bother us.”

Morris had two of better days on grass. Against Notre Dame in the season opener, he scored three touchdowns--two rushing and one on a 27-yard pass reception--as the Wolverines edged the Irish, 24-23. Against Purdue, he gained 91 yards in 16 carries for a 5.68 average.

“It’s just a state of mind. It must make the other guys feel slow, too,” he said.

Asked his opinion of the Arizona State defense, Morris said, “They look quick in the films.” Then, a wide smile breaking over his face, he added: “Coach Schembechler says they’re quicker in real life.”

Morris said he feels having a brother in the NFL was an advantage.

“Everywhere I go, people ask me how he’s doing and that’s makes me feel proud to know that so many people think about my brother,” he said. “I think a lot about him, too. I try to catch as many Giants games as I can, especially Monday nights. I love to watch him run.”

Joe, with 1,516 yards, finished second to the Rams’ Eric Dickerson (1,821 yards) in NFL rushing.

“When he called to wish me a Merry Christmas, I told him I was a little nervous getting ready for the Rose Bowl,” he said. “He told me to just go out and play my butt off. That’s what I’m going to do. I just wish the game was today.”