Wideout Tyler Morris has 16 career receptions and is now in his third year at Michigan. With departures in the receiver room, Morris will be one of the players rising up the depth chart.

Outlook moving forward

Morris was a four-star prospect in the class of 2022 and was ranked as the No. 18 WR and No. 104 overall prospect in his class. Morris received offers from the likes of Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame, among others.

Morris was a high school teammate of former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy at Nazareth Academy in Illinois. During Morris’ sophomore season at Nazareth with McCarthy as QB, Morris and McCarthy hooked up for 68 receptions, 1,237 yards, and 17 touchdowns.

Morris had three grabs for 25 yards during his freshman campaign at Michigan. His sophomore season in 2023 featured 13 receptions for 197 yards and one touchdown, the first of his career. The touchdown couldn’t have come at a better time — with Michigan tied 7-7 against Alabama in the Rose Bowl Morris caught a 38-yard touchdown pass where he showcased that he can be dangerous in traffic and pick up yards after the catch.

Outlook moving forward

With Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson now in the NFL players such as Morris, Semaj Morgan, and Fredrick Moore will be relied upon and receive the bulk of snaps at receiver. Morris should easily set career highs in snaps and in every receiving category this fall. Morris has a bit of former Michigan wideout Ronnie Bell in his game. Morris is elusive and shifty at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds and it would be no surprise to see him have explosive plays as a junior. Morris is one of the next men up for Michigan. He waited his turn and 2024 will be his time to shine.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s lawsuit seeking to shut down part of a petroleum pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac belongs in state court, a federal appellate panel ruled Monday.

The pipeline’s operator, Enbridge Inc., moved the case from state court to federal court more than two years past the deadline for changing jurisdictions. A three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Enbridge clearly missed the deadline and ordered the case remanded to state court.

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Nessel filed the lawsuit in June 2019 seeking to void a 1953 easement that enables Enbridge to operate a 4.5-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of Line 5 beneath the straits, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Concerns over the section rupturing and causing a catastrophic spill have been growing since 2017, when Enbridge engineers revealed they had known about gaps in the section’s protective coating since 2014. A boat anchor damaged the section in 2018, intensifying fears of a spill.

Nessel won a restraining order from a state judge in June 2020, although Enbridge was allowed to restart operations after complying with safety requirements. The energy company moved the lawsuit into federal court in December 2021.

Nessel argued to the 6th U.S. Circuit panel that the lawsuit belongs in state court. During oral arguments before the panel in Cincinnati in March, her attorneys insisted the case invokes the public trust doctrine, a legal concept in state law in which natural resources belong to the public, as well as the Michigan Environmental Protection Act.

Enbridge attorneys countered the case should stay in federal court because it affects trade between the U.S. and Canada. Line 5 moves petroleum products from northwestern Wisconsin through Michigan into Ontario.

The judges — Richard Griffin, Amul Thapor and John Nalbandian — did not address the merits of the case.

Enbridge filed a separate federal lawsuit in 2020 arguing that the state’s attempt to shut down the pipeline interferes with the federal regulation of pipeline safety and could encourage copycat actions that would impede interstate and international petroleum trading. That case is pending.

Enbridge also has been working to secure permits to encase the section of pipeline beneath the straits in a protective tunnel.

The pipeline is at the center of a legal dispute in Wisconsin as well. A federal judge in Madison last summer gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation. The company has proposed rerouting the pipeline around the reservation and has appealed the shutdown order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That case is pending.

WASHINGTON – The University of Michigan failed to assess whether protests and other incidents on campus in response to the Israel-Hamas war created a hostile environment for students, staff and faculty, according to the results of an investigation by the U.S. Education Department announced Monday.

The department’s Office of Civil Rights investigated 75 instances of alleged discrimination and harassment based on shared Jewish ancestry and shared Palestinian or Muslim ancestry. The investigation found that the university’s responses did not meet its Title VI requirements to remedy the hostile environment.

In one instance, when a Jewish student reported being called out for viewing a graduate student instructor’s social media post about pro-Palestinian topics, the university told the student that “formal conflict resolution is not a path forward at this time,” because the incident occurred on social media.

In another instance, when a student who participated in a pro-Palestinian protest was called a “terrorist,” the university said it held “restorative circles” to address the incident but did not take further action.

In its resolution agreement, the University of Michigan agreed to administer a climate assessment, implement additional training and revise its policies as necessary. It also agreed to monitoring by the Office of Civil Rights through the end of the 2026 school year, reporting its responses to future incidents of discrimination to the department.

It’s the first investigation to reach a conclusion among dozens launched by the Education Department since Oct. 7, the day Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.

Complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia have led to inquiries at more than 100 universities and school districts, including Harvard and Yale, community colleges and public schools from Los Angeles to suburban Minneapolis.

The complaints vary widely but all accuse schools of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. Colleges and schools are required to protect students from discrimination, and when they don’t, the Education Department can invoke penalties up to termination of federal money.

Protests over the Israel-Hamas war upended the final weeks of the school year at many campuses across the country, with some cancelling graduation ceremonies or moving classes online after Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampments in campus spaces.

The protests have tested schools as they aim to balance free speech rights and the safety of students. The Education Department has issued guidance detailing schools’ responsibilities around Title VI, but the results of the agency’s investigations could provide a clearer line showing where political speech crosses into harassment.

Finding that boundary has been a struggle for colleges as they grapple with rhetoric that has different meaning to different people. Some chants commonly used by pro-Palestinian activists are seen by some as antisemitic.

Some of the federal complaints under investigation argue that those phrases should be barred, including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “intifada revolution.”

Meanwhile, some complaints say Arab and Muslim students have faced abuses only to be ignored by campus officials. At Harvard, the Education Department is investigating separate complaints, one over alleged antisemitism and the other over alleged Islamophobia.

More investigations are expected to be resolved in the coming weeks, but Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said his agency is struggling to keep up with the influx of cases.

Republicans have rejected requests to increase money for the Office for Civil Rights in recent years, while the average case load increased to 42 per investigator in 2023. Without more money, that figure could increase to more than 70 cases per investigator, Cardona has said.

“We are desperately in need of additional support to make sure we can investigate the cases that we have in front of us,” Cardona told members of the House in May.

On average, cases take about six to eight months to resolve. The vast majority of the agency’s civil rights investigations end with voluntary resolutions. Schools usually promise to resolve any lingering problems and take steps to protect students in the future.

While the Education Department investigates, several colleges and school districts have separately been called before Congress to answer allegations of antisemitism. Republicans have held a series of hearings on the issue, grilling leaders accused of tolerating antisemitism.

The hearings contributed to the resignations of some college leaders, including Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard’s Claudine Gay, who was also embroiled in accusations of plagiarism.

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