CAB watch

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FredCoxRocks said:
Not to be a Richard, but Andy Greder and Saturday Tradition keep calling CAB the "best" receiver on the roster. Is he the best, or just the most experienced? Maybe some of the younger guys are better but we just don't know it. I mean, none of us watch these guys every single day.
If CAB is out for a while (which I hope he's not), this is a good opportunity for any one of the other receivers to step up and shine. And, maybe by reading "the best" next to CABs name some of these other guys will have a "well, watch this" attitude.
I like our receiving corps.
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CAB and Jackson are the only two known commodities at WR right now. So by default I think CAB will be viewed as our "best" option. I'm excited to see what we have in some of the young guys who haven't had the opportunity yet to prove themselves. WR is a position where a kid can come in and make an impact right away if he is good enough.

That said, I'm also a big fan of CAB so I really hope the injury isn't serious because he is a very good receiver and a lot of fun to watch.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
Not to be a Richard, but Andy Greder and Saturday Tradition keep calling CAB the "best" receiver on the roster. Is he the best, or just the most experienced? Maybe some of the younger guys are better but we just don't know it. I mean, none of us watch these guys every single day.
If CAB is out for a while (which I hope he's not), this is a good opportunity for any one of the other receivers to step up and shine. And, maybe by reading "the best" next to CABs name some of these other guys will have a "well, watch this" attitude.
I like our receiving corps.
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While others may have more potential for better stats or a longer NFL career he is currently the best we have to win now.
 
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Unregistered User said:
Daniel Jackson also left the field later, and spent time with a trainer, just next to the field while play continued. No idea what it could have been, but he returned to the O side sideline. Something along the lines of cramp, wind knocked out type of thing.

Dylan Wright looks smoooooth, and fast. Jonathan Mann looked big and fast, but did not get many reps vs the 1’s and 2’s during 11 on 11.

Gable was there for most of the practice, dapped it up with Boye and looked almost tiny next to him.
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Thank you for this update - Seems like his upside is Bateman level but good to hear what others see in person!
 

FredCoxRocks said:
Not to be a Richard, but Andy Greder and Saturday Tradition keep calling CAB the "best" receiver on the roster. Is he the best, or just the most experienced? Maybe some of the younger guys are better but we just don't know it. I mean, none of us watch these guys every single day.
If CAB is out for a while (which I hope he's not), this is a good opportunity for any one of the other receivers to step up and shine. And, maybe by reading "the best" next to CABs name some of these other guys will have a "well, watch this" attitude.
I like our receiving corps.
Click to expand...
I think CAB is our best wide receiver at this moment. With his experience and knowledge, he likely understands formations, schemes, and the like a bit more than some of the younger guys. I also think Daniel Jackson is going to be a solid wide receiver. He seemed to get the most separation out of anyone on the WR corps during yesterday's practice. I do believe there is a lot of upside for some of the guys that haven't seen much action. Geary, Stephen-Brown, Emilien, Wright, Boyd, Brockington all have the potential to see the field. I think Boyd is going to be one of the better WRs in a couple of years. I like our WR corps as well but someone needs to step up this year and help Morgan out.
 

MplsGopher said:
Rumors of a shoulder injury for Tanner last year, I recall? He seemed to struggle with deeper throws, and they weren't doing those throws much at all last year. So that rumor might fit. Or maybe it's completely wrong and just an excuse.

I think he (also) just struggled switching from Ciarrocca's 7 (even 8!) man protections to Sanford's more standard 6 and sometimes empty, and getting more pressure/not having all day to sit back and wait for the route to develop before throwing.
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"If it ain't broken, don't fix it"! Why on earth did PJ Fleck allow Sanford to switch to a traditional six-man front? The Gophers were very effective with that extra protection set. They corralled Auburn's Defense and still allowed Mo to leak thru or reverse course for a ton of yardage. With their RPO, they caught Auburn sleeping trying to counter the 7/8 man front. TJ caught a TD bomb that broke their back. The Gophers when they are clicking on all cylinders are unstoppable.

I sure hope that Harasymiak does not leave and bring Simon and other coaches with him.

If the Gophers are smart, they should not get away from what was very successful. I can understand engaging the TE to catch passes. But, what will be the tradeoff? We will occasionally lose the seventh and eighth man.
 



No coach is going to be 100% open about injuries, but Fleck does seem to be pretty secretive about any kind of injury or roster information.

The 2-deeps they put out the week of the game are almost worthless. they routinely list players on the 2-deeps who are injured, so as someone said, fans may not know if Bell is available until the teams warm up before the OSU game. for once, a reason to listen to Gaard on the pre-game show.....
 


hungan1 said:
"If it ain't broken, don't fix it"! Why on earth did PJ Fleck allow Sanford to switch to a traditional six-man front? The Gophers were very effective with that extra protection set. They corralled Auburn's Defense and still allowed Mo to leak thru or reverse course for a ton of yardage. With their RPO, they caught Auburn sleeping trying to counter the 7/8 man front. TJ caught a TD bomb that broke their back. The Gophers when they are clicking on all cylinders are unstoppable.

I sure hope that Harasymiak does not leave and bring Simon and other coaches with him.

If the Gophers are smart, they should not get away from what was very successful. I can understand engaging the TE to catch passes. But, what will be the tradeoff? We will occasionally lose the seventh and eighth man.
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I preferred the heavy rpo offense with tons of slants too.

As far as Morgan last year, I get that it was a step down from 2019. We also had historically good receivers and a couple of tough games (for any QB). I think he was better than his stats showed last year (and likely not quite as good as his stats from 2019).

Iowa - He was really bad. There is no getting around it.
Michigan - His numbers weren't fantastic, but if anyone remembers that game, he was nearly murdered back there. It was brutal.
Wisconsin game - It wasn't great, but it was more the kind of game. We were run dominant and when we needed him, he delivered (Game tying drive).
Nebraska game - We were extremely thin (down 33 players) and we played ball control (similar to WI).

I'm not trying to go game by game and make excuses. I am just trying to show that in a run-dominant offense it's hard to look at just numbers. I thought he regressed a bit last year, but I still think he was the clear leader on the team and I trust the ball in his hands more than any Gopher QB I've seen.
 



CAB was very good at knowing Morgan is often short on deep throws and was able o come back for the ball or draw a foul when the CB would impede his comeback.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Wisconsin game - It wasn't great, but it was more the kind of game. We were run dominant and when we needed him, he delivered (Game tying drive).
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He also under threw Ko Kieft (I think it was) on third down in OT leading to a missed FG. It was a misdirect play with Kieft sneaking out back to the other side of the field and he was WIDE OPEN. Morgan under threw it allowing the scrambling defender to get a hand on it. Should have been an easy six.
 

stocker08 said:
He also under threw Ko Kieft (I think it was) on third down in OT leading to a missed FG. It was a misdirect play with Kieft sneaking out back to the other side of the field and he was WIDE OPEN. Morgan under threw it allowing the scrambling defender to get a hand on it. Should have been an easy six.
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These types of throws make me wonder if there was something to the shoulder injury rumor. May not be, but it makes you wonder. Granted there was also the personal stuff with his dad. Who knows.


But it also makes you wonder ..... what about ZA?? Or even Clark or Kramer?

That is another thing you can potentially fault PJ Fleck for: sticking with a QB too long. I get that it's not a good position to have a quick hook. Get that. But there is also sticking with a guy too long. I mean jebus, ZA basically had to be broken in half before Fleck finally gave the job to Tanner.
 

MplsGopher said:
These types of throws make me wonder if there was something to the shoulder injury rumor. May not be, but it makes you wonder. Granted there was also the personal stuff with his dad. Who knows.


But it also makes you wonder ..... what about ZA?? Or even Clark or Kramer?

That is another thing you can potentially fault PJ Fleck for: sticking with a QB too long. I get that it's not a good position to have a quick hook. Get that. But there is also sticking with a guy too long. I mean jebus, ZA basically had to be broken in half before Fleck finally gave the job to Tanner.
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With the evidence we have Fleck will leave his QB in until he has to be physically removed from the field.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
I preferred the heavy rpo offense with tons of slants too.

As far as Morgan last year, I get that it was a step down from 2019. We also had historically good receivers and a couple of tough games (for any QB). I think he was better than his stats showed last year (and likely not quite as good as his stats from 2019).

Iowa - He was really bad. There is no getting around it.
Michigan - His numbers weren't fantastic, but if anyone remembers that game, he was nearly murdered back there. It was brutal.
Wisconsin game - It wasn't great, but it was more the kind of game. We were run dominant and when we needed him, he delivered (Game tying drive).
Nebraska game - We were extremely thin (down 33 players) and we played ball control (similar to WI).

I'm not trying to go game by game and make excuses. I am just trying to show that in a run-dominant offense it's hard to look at just numbers. I thought he regressed a bit last year, but I still think he was the clear leader on the team and I trust the ball in his hands more than any Gopher QB I've seen.
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They pretty much ran RPO heavy and threw a bunch of slants yesterday.
 

stocker08 said:
He also under threw Ko Kieft (I think it was) on third down in OT leading to a missed FG. It was a misdirect play with Kieft sneaking out back to the other side of the field and he was WIDE OPEN. Morgan under threw it allowing the scrambling defender to get a hand on it. Should have been an easy six.
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This was the difference between 2019 and 2020. In 2019 that pass would have been a completion. Think back to Witham's catch in the Auburn game... Tanner enjoyed that sort of clutch reception all season, and didn't get much of that in 2020. I'm hoping that conditions will allow Tanner to get the help he needs to replicate his 2019 performance this season.
 

MplsGopher said:
These types of throws make me wonder if there was something to the shoulder injury rumor. May not be, but it makes you wonder. Granted there was also the personal stuff with his dad. Who knows.


But it also makes you wonder ..... what about ZA?? Or even Clark or Kramer?

That is another thing you can potentially fault PJ Fleck for: sticking with a QB too long. I get that it's not a good position to have a quick hook. Get that. But there is also sticking with a guy too long. I mean jebus, ZA basically had to be broken in half before Fleck finally gave the job to Tanner.
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I think that Morgan regressed last year....but he was by no means bad. And part of that was because of the piecemeal line. Wasn't Andries shuffled from LG to RT? I mean.....Morgan was under attack for the majority of the year. I think he's going to be much more comfortable this year and look a lot more like his 2019 self.
 

PMWinSTP said:
They pretty much ran RPO heavy and threw a bunch of slants yesterday.
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Were they true slants like 2019, or were they shallow crossing routes like last year? I hope more like 2019 because it was affective against both man and zone coverage.
 


MplsGopher said:
These types of throws make me wonder if there was something to the shoulder injury rumor. May not be, but it makes you wonder. Granted there was also the personal stuff with his dad. Who knows.


But it also makes you wonder ..... what about ZA?? Or even Clark or Kramer?

That is another thing you can potentially fault PJ Fleck for: sticking with a QB too long. I get that it's not a good position to have a quick hook. Get that. But there is also sticking with a guy too long. I mean jebus, ZA basically had to be broken in half before Fleck finally gave the job to Tanner.
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I think Fleck thought Annexstad was the better passer, but he had trouble with pressure, and once the defense broke through, he struggled.

Morgan was excellent at using the pocket, feeling the pressure, and continuing the play after a breakdown.

One of those cases where the better football player beats out someone with more athletic skill.
 

We had a small discussion today about this and we’re thinking if it’s an ACL or anything real serious we will likely find out this weekend or real soon as with social media there’ll be some leaks
 


WAGopher said:
I think Fleck thought Annexstad was the better passer, but he had trouble with pressure, and once the defense broke through, he struggled.

Morgan was excellent at using the pocket, feeling the pressure, and continuing the play after a breakdown.

One of those cases where the better football player beats out someone with more athletic skill.
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The offensive line members were different people for Tanner. Zack had zero time. Some guys got healthy and they put Big Dan in at tackle after ZA got hurt. The line play was way better as that season progressed.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
I preferred the heavy rpo offense with tons of slants too.

As far as Morgan last year, I get that it was a step down from 2019. We also had historically good receivers and a couple of tough games (for any QB). I think he was better than his stats showed last year (and likely not quite as good as his stats from 2019).

Iowa - He was really bad. There is no getting around it.
Michigan - His numbers weren't fantastic, but if anyone remembers that game, he was nearly murdered back there. It was brutal.
Wisconsin game - It wasn't great, but it was more the kind of game. We were run dominant and when we needed him, he delivered (Game tying drive).
Nebraska game - We were extremely thin (down 33 players) and we played ball control (similar to WI).

I'm not trying to go game by game and make excuses. I am just trying to show that in a run-dominant offense it's hard to look at just numbers. I thought he regressed a bit last year, but I still think he was the clear leader on the team and I trust the ball in his hands more than any Gopher QB I've seen.
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Good synopsis. In the Iowa and Michigan games, Morgan was sacked a total of nine times. That had to contribute to some shell shock and the poorer performances.

The run game wasn't always great last year but it was good enough for Fleck to rely on it consistently as the primary weapon. The lowest rushing total for a game in 2020 was 129 yards. In contrast, 2019 featured four games where the Gophers failed to gain 100 yards on the ground; the Gophers averaged 2.3 yards per rush in those games. In those games, Tanner had passing yards of 289 (GA Southern), 396 (Purdue), 368 (Iowa), and 296 (Wisconsin).
 

cjbfbp said:
Good synopsis. In the Iowa and Michigan games, Morgan was sacked a total of nine times. That had to contribute to some shell shock and the poorer performances.

The run game wasn't always great last year but it was good enough for Fleck to rely on it consistently as the primary weapon. The lowest rushing total for a game in 2020 was 129 yards. In contrast, 2019 featured four games where the Gophers failed to gain 100 yards on the ground; the Gophers averaged 2.3 yards per rush in those games. In those games, Tanner had passing yards of 289 (GA Southern), 396 (Purdue), 368 (Iowa), and 296 (Wisconsin).
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What that tells me is when we run the ball we win. If we are forced into passing the ball we are going to struggle. That scenario is made more challenging this year w the injury to CAB. Two years ago we had Bateman and Johnson shredding defenses when we needed big plays. We need two more receivers to show up big this year to take the pressure off our run game. We want to pass when we want vs when we have to.
 

Just have to change up the offense if he's out.
Remember when Chris Streveler threw for 7 yards in a win?
Matt Limegrover remembers.
 

Hopefully some of the highly rated recruits can perform at this position. Even if CAB is healthy there needs to be others who can step up and help out.
 

stocker08 said:
I think that Morgan regressed last year....but he was by no means bad. And part of that was because of the piecemeal line. Wasn't Andries shuffled from LG to RT? I mean.....Morgan was under attack for the majority of the year. I think he's going to be much more comfortable this year and look a lot more like his 2019 self.
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We didn't have Faalele and Dunlap, from the Auburn bowl game line, but we still had Schlueter, Olson, JMS, and Andries.

Nebraska game when we had a bunch out for covid, they had Boe at center and true freshman Ersery at RT - who played well!

LG was the main difficulty. We had Ruschmeyer, who was hurt early in the year. He was a peg-leg for the Michigan game, still played his ass off, but it was getting embarrassing and potentially dangerous by the end, with how limited he was in pass-pro. Had to put Nate Boe in at the end of the game, if I recall correctly.

This is from the final pre-game notes for the Wisconsin game (can't remember if anyone was still missing from that game):
WuinfpI.png



Now with Faalele back, we can put Andries at G. I think he, Olson, and JMS make a damn good interior OL. Olson and Schlueter back for 6th years.

If/when we get Dunlap back, just icing on the cake. Would honestly rather he take a redshirt year - if we don't need him! - and come back strong for 2022. But whatever coach has planned, that's what we'll go with.

EDIT: I also forgot we got Shaw as a transfer from Utah State. Don't know if he'll crack the 1's this year with Olson back, might be prepping for 2022? But it's a long season anything can happen

EDIT 2: in the other thread, someone mentioned they say #56 rotate in with the 1's on OL. That's Dunlap. So maybe he's already back healthy and ready to go? If so, we have four very talented interior OL that have played a lot of Big Ten football in Andries, Olson, JMS, and Dunlap, and coach is gonna have to find a way to get all those guys in the game. Good problem to have
 
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skiumah1 said:
We had a small discussion today about this and we’re thinking if it’s an ACL or anything real serious we will likely find out this weekend or real soon as with social media there’ll be some leaks
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Just like we ever got the official word from a player's social media or Fleck's mouth about what Oliver's actual injury was, right?

It was eventually just "this is known." mentioned in the media that he had a knee injury IIRC, but I don't think it was ever said officially. If I'm wrong I apologize, but please put the link.
 

hungan1 said:
We don't want a repeat of 2015! That was the year that the Gophers played against TCU in the opener. The team resembled a MASH unit.

😬
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Back in 2015, some folks thought that the Goph’s over-prepared physically for the opener against TCU—because Kill wanted to show well against his buddy Patterson—pushing harder in practices, more full contact, etc. I don’t know if that rumor is true or false, but pushing too hard too early to prepare to open against a highly-rated opponent can have some natural and expected consequences that also could dog a team all season, as recuperation is largely impossible during league play. Let’s hope CAB is OK, needs only a brief recuperation period, and can be held out of full contact drills pending the opener. It’s not like he is a novice to the system or to B1G contact.
 
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