It’s Michigan wide receiver Semaj Morgan’s third year with the program, and Morgan’s junior season has had mixed results. Morgan has 19 receptions for 214 yards with one touchdown, and also has six drops on the season and a drop rate of 24%.

Morgan has also struggled as a punt returner, with 11 returns for just 27 yards after totaling 100 yards on nine attempts last season. Against Michigan State, Morgan had two returns for two yards and fair caught a punt at the five-yard line, which wasn’t optimal.

“The fair catch at the five. He’s just got to be better there,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said. “There’s just communication things when your gunners or your jammers are playing. He’s got to do a better job communicating with those guys to stay away from the ball.”

Freshman receiver Andrew Marsh, who returned a punt against Michigan State, could be in line to return more punts this week against Purdue.

“Constant competition. He’ll be back there,” Moore said. “And they’ll compete this week the same way they did last week.”

Morgan, who Moore says has been performing better in practice, will continue to have competition for snaps at receiver as well. Against Michigan State, Morgan ranked No. 3 in snaps at receiver with 26, but Channing Goodwin was right behind Morgan with 21.

“He practices at a high level. He practices hard, practices with energy. But we challenge him. We challenge him just like we challenge everybody else,” Moore explained. “There’s constant competition with him at punt return. There’s constant competition with him at receiver. We’ll constantly do that to put the best product on the field we can.”

In the name of meritocracy, Moore’s approach is what will get the best out of Morgan moving forward, or it’ll get the best out of others, such as Marsh and Goodwin. The cream always rises to the top.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was a busy day for Semaj Morgan on Saturday, but for all the wrong reasons.

The Michigan wide receiver committed a series of errors in the 31-20 win over in-state rival Michigan State, turning a trying season for Morgan into one he soon may want to forget.

In the span of one night, Morgan saw a pass from Bryce Underwood hit his face mask and fall to the field, collided with running back Justice Haynes during a long run and called for a fair catch at the 5.

“We’ve just got to be better there,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said, describing a sideline conversation with Morgan following the errant fair catch call. “There’s just communication things when your gunners, your jammers are playing. We’ve just got to be doing a better job of communicating those guys to stay away from the five.”

Things had already been rough for Morgan, the 5-foot-10, 174-pound slot receiver who leads the team in drops now with six. And while he’s turned 19 catches into 214 yards and a touchdown, Morgan appears to have been passed over by freshman Andrew Marsh when it comes to the offense.

Against MSU, Marsh had three catches for 54 yards on four targets, while Morgan had zero catches on two targets. With the mistakes piling up, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood has been less likely to look his way in recent weeks.

“He practices at a high level, he practices hard, he practices with energy,” Moore said. “But we challenge him; we challenge him just like we’re going to challenge everybody else. There’s constant competition with him at punt return, there’s constant competition with him at receiver.”

Moore has been candid in recent weeks about the drops, a sticky subject with a hard-throwing quarterback and group of wideouts still feeling things out. You don’t want to risk alienating a player, or worse, hurting their confidence. Instead, the response has been a hands-on approach: Encouraging more work in practice.

But on Saturday, two plays before halftime, Morgan saw a fastball zipped to him by Underwood, only for it to bounce off his face mask and onto the Spartan Stadium field. Last week in a win over Washington, Morgan saw a fourth-and-1 pass fall off his finger tips that could have went for a big gain.

“He’s doing everything that he’s supposed to,” Michigan receivers coach Ron Bellamy said recently. “Staying on the jugs machine, staying after practice, working with Bryce. He’s doing those types of things. We’ve just got to keep building his confidence up, because he is a very confident young man.”

Teammates are doing their best to keep him in the right frame of mind, too. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Michigan running back Jordan Marshall chalked it up to a confidence issue at this point for Morgan, who he called a “great player” that he trusts “with all I have.”

It was just two years ago that Morgan starred as a true freshman on Michigan’s national championship team, catching 22 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns and returning a punt 87 yards in the Big Ten title game against Iowa.

That same year, Morgan pulled off a 44-yard rush on an end-around in a game against Purdue.

“We’ve all seen it,” Marshall said. “Semaj can make plays. He made plays last year. He made plays this year. He made plays his freshman year.

“There’s no trust lost because he dropped a ball or this (happened. He’s going to have to make a big play for us at some point this year.”

Michigan, Sherrone Moore Withdraw NCAA Appeals for Sign-Stealing Punishments

Michigan and Sherrone Moore are no longer fighting for their NCAA sanctions for Michigan’s illegal sign-stealing operation.