John Shipley: Bench Gophers QB Tanner Morgan? You’re talking crazy; fifth-year senior has proven he can win big games

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per Shipley:

Now instead of riding a five-game winning streak and basking in a week of hype for a mammoth game at Iowa, the Gophers will prepare for their biggest game of the season under the cloud of apathy that comes so easily for Gophers football fans. Fleck has resurrected Minnesota’s program, but he’s 1-7 against Iowa and Wisconsin. Virtually no one believes the Gophers will beat Iowa to keep alive the possibility of a season finale against Wisconsin with all the chips on the table.

They might not — the Gophers haven’t won in Iowa City since 1999 — but Morgan gives them their best shot, and it’s the coaching staff’s job to put him in position to do it. It didn’t on Saturday.

Is it possible backup Zack Annexstad could come in and give the offense some juice, or at least some urgency? Yeah, it’s possible, but is it likely?

If the Gophers are to finish their 21-day sprint with a Big Ten West title, Morgan will have to play better than he did on Saturday, but he has played better. We’ve seen it. To start a new quarterback now is crazy; maybe not sign-Doug-Flutie-a-week-before-the-NFC-Championship crazy, but crazy nonetheless.

www.twincities.com

John Shipley: Bench Gophers QB Tanner Morgan? You’re talking crazy.

The Gophers can still win the West. Why would you bench the quarterback who led Minnesota to a historic 11-2 season in 2019?
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
 

This is just something we have to trust the coaches on, based on what they see in practices.

This isn't the NFL where perhaps the backup was successful with another pro team, or was a huge college star, or a top draft pick.

All we have to go on for the backups are a few spring game throws, some high school Hudl clips, or a couple games of action a few years ago that wasn't any better than this.
 


Wrong Shipley. He’s gotta take a break when he makes a god awful interception and gets his head in a bad place. Give the kid a chance to recover and get out of his head. Damn OC can’t design a game plan to play to his strengths and give him confidence. The fault is way more on Sanford but Tanner is pressing.
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
Wrong Shipley. He’s gotta take a break when he makes a god awful interception and gets his head in a bad place. Give the kid a chance to recover and get out of his head. Damn OC can’t design a game plan to play to his strengths and give him confidence. The fault is way more on Sanford but Tanner is pressing.
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A ball that gets tipped at the line is a god awful interception?
 


btowngopher said:
A ball that gets tipped at the line is a god awful interception?
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No of course not. I’m not only talking about this game (although the last one was ugly) You can let him work through things but can tell when he’s rattled. He’s putting a lot on him, he’s trying to make big plays every time vs taking what’s there. When he’s not in his own head he doesn’t do that. This is a season long issue because if we can’t run the ball the coaches are not coming up with a good backup game plan to play to his strengths.
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
Wrong Shipley. He’s gotta take a break when he makes a god awful interception and gets his head in a bad place. Give the kid a chance to recover and get out of his head. Damn OC can’t design a game plan to play to his strengths and give him confidence. The fault is way more on Sanford but Tanner is pressing.
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I would say we don’t have the athletes at WR to run the game plan Sanford tried to play yesterday. So he really should’ve adjusted at half and didn’t. First half on the wideouts. Second half on fleck and Sanford
 

I wonder what John Shipley thought about benching Spencer Rattler. Don’t throw good money after bad.
 

fmlizard said:
This is just something we have to trust the coaches on, based on what they see in practices.

This isn't the NFL where perhaps the backup was successful with another pro team, or was a huge college star, or a top draft pick.

All we have to go on for the backups are a few spring game throws, some high school Hudl clips, or a couple games of action a few years ago that wasn't any better than this.
Click to expand...

On the one hand, he has looked really shaky in multiple games this season. On the other hand, he is 24-11 as a starter. Since we really don't know the quality of the backups very well at this point, we have no clear evidence to support a belief that they would do better. The second truthful statement above seems to outweigh the first one to me.

Iowa replaced their QB (like many fans were calling for) early in yesterday's game and that decision appeared to pay off in that game but is no guarantee that he will play as well against us next week. When Tanner replaced Zach, he was for the most part a substantial improvement for the rest of that season. But, in the season before, when Demry Croft replaced Rhoda in the second half of the Michigan State game, he played well in that game but mostly was terrible the rest of the season.
 



matt said:
I wonder what John Shipley thought about benching Spencer Rattler. Don’t throw good money after bad.
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There is one elephant sized difference. That being Lincoln Riley and Mike Sanford.
 

Interesting that folks are agreeing with Shipley. Rare occasion indeed.
 

Heart says "maybe" to making a change but my head says "no."

Although clearly yesterday the "bad Tanner" was on the field, it was a full team loss top to bottom. As noted in other threads, Coach Bielema's conservative play calling certainly allowed the defensive squad to at least appear somewhat prepared for the game. Nothing like that for the offense though.

I think 2021 at this point defaults to Tanner. His experience trumps the other QBs because of all the intangibles being thrown at the offense...injuries, inexeperience at WR, inconsistent pass protection, and inexplicable call playing. It's just where we are.
 

At the very least I hope Kramer is a bigger part of the game plan going forward. This is probably the most we can hope for.
 




He was 30 TD to 7 bits under old OC. He’s 13 and 10 since. It’s not on him.
 

Mike Sanfford took over as QB coach for a first round draft pick and destroyed him his senior year, lead the NCAA in INTs.

Tanner Morgan was a game winner against some pretty big teams, Mike Sanford takes over at OC and QB coach and Tanner Morgan plays like a 3A high school player.

Let's look down the correct end of the telescope here, folks...
 

goldengophers said:
There is one elephant sized difference. That being Lincoln Riley and Mike Sanford.
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Oh, I thought you were going to say the difference was the fact that Caleb Williams was the #1 or 2 ranked QB prospect in the nation. If he was on MNs bench I'm calling for him in week 3.
 

goldengophers said:
There is one elephant sized difference. That being Lincoln Riley and Mike Sanford.
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Another difference is the Oklahoma backup quarterback is a different player than the Minnesota backup.
By the way, if Spenser rattler was our backup we should play him
 

The OL and WRs were as much or more at fault for the poor QB play yesterday.
Morgan was sacked multiple times, there was no running game allowing an all out pass rush and the WRs did not cover themselves with glory.
After a hurry up offense proved effective why was it not used the rest of the game or tried earlier?
 

cjbfbp said:
On the one hand, he has looked really shaky in multiple games this season. On the other hand, he is 24-11 as a starter. Since we really don't know the quality of the backups very well at this point, we have no clear evidence to support a belief that they would do better. The second truthful statement above seems to outweigh the first one to me.

Iowa replaced their QB (like many fans were calling for) early in yesterday's game and that decision appeared to pay off in that game but is no guarantee that he will play as well against us next week. When Tanner replaced Zach, he was for the most part a substantial improvement for the rest of that season. But, in the season before, when Demry Croft replaced Rhoda in the second half of the Michigan State game, he played well in that game but mostly was terrible the rest of the season.
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It is not all or nothing. Replacing Tanner simply means giving someone else a shot. Maybe a series, a quarter, or a game. Tanner will still be there and ready.
 




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