100 Days of Florida Football: No. 3 Antonio Morrison

Linebacker Antonio Morrison showed a lot of promise in high school and during his first season with Florida, but last season, he struggled. Morrison was in the doghouse from the beginning of the season when he got arrested for parking at a police K-9. He ended up finishing second on the team in tackles despite missing over four games. His production in his limited time shows just how much of a playmaker Morrison can be when he puts his mind to it.

Hailing from Bellwood, IL just west of Chicago, Morrison played his prep football at Bolingbrook High School. He burst onto the scene with a superb junior season. Morrison racked up 101 tackles, seven sacks, three forced fumbles, an interception for the Raiders. He followed that up with a nice senior season, in which there are no statistics for. Bolingbrook finished the season with a 13-1 record and the school’s first IHSA Class 8A State title, even though Morrison didn’t play for the Raiders in the game after breaking his foot earlier in the season. He�did earn some honors for his season, however. Morrison ranked 36th in the POWERADE Fab50, selected to the ESPN High School Illinois All-State Team, a high school All-American at LB by�USA Today (second team), ESPN (third team), and Sports Illustrated (honorable mention), and was invited to play in the 2011 Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl.

Whoever won Morrison’s services was getting an extremely strong, good tackling linebacking prospect. His 6-1, 225 pound frame isn’t the biggest, but his size is adequate. He looks a lot like former Gators LB Jelani Jenkins as far as size goes. 247Sports composite rankings had Morrison as a four-star prospect, ranked as the 17th ILB, seventh player from Illinois, and 346th overall from the class of 2012. He chose Florida over Alabama, Arizona, Tennessee, and Purdue, among other offers.

Morrison arrived on campus in January of 2012 as an early enrollee and immediately made an impact on the field. He played an all 13 games his freshman season, starting four, and had his breakout game in just his second game, the SEC opener against Texas A&M. LB Jelani Jenkins left the game with a broken thumb and Morrison stepped in and didn’t miss a beat. He notched six tackles on the game, second most on the team against the Aggies. He finished the year with 34 tackles including two tackles-for-loss and one sack, and a forced fumble. Both the sack and fumble came against Florida State in what would be a very important win for Florida. His freshman season earned him a spot on the SEC Coaches All-Freshman team and his work in the classroom put him on the SEC Honor Roll.

The summer between Morrison’s freshman and sophomore years didn’t go nearly as well as his first season. He was arrested twice in 25 days: Gainesville Police arrested Morrison for simple battery after he punched a bouncer�and then a little over a month later for the infamous dog barking incident. Morrison was suspended for the season opener against Toledo and didn’t start the second game of the season. He ended up playing in eight games and actually put up good numbers before going down with a season-ending torn meniscus against Vanderbilt, an injury which required surgery. Before the injury, Morrison racked up 77 tackles with three TFLs.

By all accounts, Morrison has stepped up this offseason and put his past immaturity behind him. That’s good as the Gators will need his production from the linebacker position. He has the talent to be the next great Florida linebacker, but needs to keep his focus on the field to achieve that. We don’t have to wait much longer as there’s only three days until kickoff.

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