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Longtime Michigan football assistant coach Tirrel Burton dies

Jamie Morris was lost when he came to Michigan as a tailback in 1984.

Not confused. He just couldn't see past his linemen when running the ball.

That’s what happens when you’re 5-feet-8 and your offensive linemen are about 6-5.

But his position coach, Tirrel Burton, saw the possibilities.

“That’s an asset, you use that,” Morris recalled of Burton today, after Burton died Tuesday, at age 86. “These are things that these coaches recognized. I knew I was doing something. They couldn’t find me for some reason, but he was the one that said, ‘You get behind those offensive linemen, and they can’t see you.