After moving to three different schools in four years, Shannon Morrison was ready for an easy transition to a new school.
When he was hired as Ball State’s defensive backs coach in February, he got exactly what he wanted.
He was an assistant coach for Butch Jones’ staff at Cincinnati in 2012. When Jones left to take the job at Tennessee, Morrison found himself as the newest coach at Ball State, coaching alongside Pete Lembo after being an assistant with him at Lehigh.
Coming from Cincinnati, the move to Muncie was a harmless transition for him and his wife.
“This was the easiest move; before spring ball, I was home every weekend,” Morrison said. “The other jobs it was eight to 10 hour drives, so I wasn’t home every weekend.”
Morrison comes in to coach a Ball State secondary that struggled last season. During the offseason, Lembo announced a reconstruction of the coaching duties in the defense, which included the cornerbacks and safeties being under the instruction of one coach — Morrison.
With Morrison having control of the entire secondary, it allows Ball State to have a more fluid secondary that is on the same page and will have better chemistry by the season opener in August.
He also brings a new energy to the defense, which has shown from being one of the most animated coaches during spring practice.
“I want them to know I’m upset and pissed at them,” Morrison said. “But at the same time I still love them. It’s not all serious. It can’t be all serious because if I yell at them or go at them, [the players] will start to think I’m attacking them and I don’t want that to happen.”
But his energy hasn’t gone unnoticed by his players. The secondary seems to respond to his animations and energy in a positive way.
“It gives me juice to go out and play every play,” cornerback Eric Patterson said. “I know he’s watching and if you don’t go hard, he sends you up the bleachers.”
Alpines, or commonly known as stadium steps, is what Patterson refers to as punishment for not giving full effort. At the first spring practice of the year, some members of the secondary had to run up the snow-covered steps.
“It sucks,” Patterson said while laughing.
Morrison said the secondary struggled with communication and not being in the same page in 2012, which has been a No. 1 priority for him. He also wants to get his players in a mindset of being able to respond better when there is a let down during a game.
While he admits he can be hard on his players, he said the way he does it lets them know he cares about them as players and as people. More importantly, he wants to have fun coaching, which is why he became a coach in the first place.
“I’m still a kid at heart, my wife tells me that all the time,” he said. “That’s the reason why I got into coaching. I didn’t want to grow up. I still want to be around the game.”
