Three Dog Night wrote a song about him–well, maybe not about HIM–but if Robinson plans to get right as a program and as a defensive unit, then “Eli’s Coming” should describe the shouts of opposing offensive lineman and quarterbacks this season for the Knights if they want to ensure they get back to their winning ways.
Defensive Eli Morris (6-1/250) isn’t the only one that needs to step up, but make no mistake about it–there needs to be leadership from the seniors remaining from last year’s squad and Morris is one of those seniors that contributed mightily for Robinson in 2015 as a junior. Morris came into the season coming off a sophomore campaign that saw him total just 25 tackles, but he nearly tripled that output with 70 during his junior season–a season that ended in a 4-6 record, but a season with plenty of positive takeaways–especially on the defense.
Morris also tallied 5 sacks–which tied him for first on the team with Keldric Preston–to pair with the second-highest tackles on the team with the aforementioned total. He also was credited with a fumble recovery and two caused fumbles, which is something the Knights will need more of this Fall for certain. The Knights must fill the voids left behind by Marcus Tomlin and Preston–who take 125 tackles and 8.5 sacks with them upon their graduation.
The harsh reality is that the Knights only picked off two passes from opposing quarterbacks, but the silver-lining is that those two players that recorded the INT’s are just sophomores in Chase Volpi and Eann Johnson. Another positive that can be extracted is that the unit’s top tacklers will be back. Morris was just behind Anthony Krouse Jr. who led the team with 71 tackles while the unit as a whole will return guys that contributed more than half the team’s sack total.
If you’re looking for positives still–defensively speaking of course–checkout their points-against and you’ll find the Knights gave up an average of 21 points per game–which is isn’t bad by any means when you take into account short fields due to turnovers and all the other variables involved. Although the 21-per isn’t going to set the world on fire, when your offense struggles to score 17 points a game, things become exponentially tougher. The unit averaged one takeaway per contest with their 12 caused fumbles and two interceptions, but adding some more “umph” to those totals will help the offense in-turn.
The Knights are already in a better spot by virtue of not having to be located in a district with Tampa’s biggest heavyweights, but they’ll certainly have their work cutout with Jefferson and Jesuit in the group–and it’s going to start with the fellas on defense. Morris is also an Xecutives invitee by way of his performance at Ignite this past January.