Tanner Morgan 2.0

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HoustonTXGopher

HoustonTXGopher

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Tanner has proven that he is an elite college QB, no question about that. I wonder if there is an entirely different dimension to Tanner that we haven't seen yet because of limited talent behind him this year.

I think opponents were able to completely discount Tanner running the ball, which led to defenses totally focusings on the running backs. If Tanner is able to keep the ball 4-5 times a game I think the offense opens up even more than this years offensive success. If Tanner keeps the ball a few times a game, there are fewer defenders to pursue the running backs, there would be opportunities to throw or keep the ball off the bootleg. The opportunities become endless with the threat of the QB keeping the ball.

Cant wait for the 2020 season already!
 

I'm not sure Tanner running would change much.

Tanner already is talented enough that other teams make getting to Tanner a priority anyway.
 


I am a little torn on having Tanner Morgan run more. On one hand you can see him fake the QB run as the RB takes it and you can see it is wide open. That play would be there and he could be even more dangerous running. On the other hand, I have seen him try to run and he takes a pretty good shot out there. I don't like that as it is an injury risk and I think we can all agree we do not want that to happen.

I don't mind seeing Morgan run a bit more, but we have to be careful on that too. Next year we will be better off at QB as we get Annexstad back and Jacob Clark will have another year under his belt too. But number one rule - protect Tanner Morgan so he can throw lots of touchdowns!!
 

If only this offense implemented the great aspects of the Kill offenses, like throwing to the TEs and the QB keeping the ball. Then we’d be really good, right?
 


Most running QBs miss games with injury. Tanner has proven to be durable, which is important for teams like ours, with virtually no depth. ZA is still unproven, IMO.
 

John Galt said:
If only this offense implemented the great aspects of the Kill offenses, like throwing to the TEs and the QB keeping the ball. Then we’d be really good, right?
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I don't mind throwing to the TE's at all - that can be an extremely effective weapon if you have some good ones like Iowa. Running Mitch Leidner 20 times a game is not ideal -- I like our offense now much better than anything we have seen around here in a long time, although I still give high marks to Mason's old offense, too.
 


For all of Morgan’s talents, running the ball isn’t at the top of the list. You’re probably never going to see him keep it 5 times a game. And you especially weren’t going to see it this year with 2 true freshmen as back-up QBs.
 



PitinoFan said:
Most running QBs miss games with injury. Tanner has proven to be durable, which is important for teams like ours, with virtually no depth. ZA is still unproven, IMO.
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Absolutely PF - my point is we should at least have a little more quality depth next year than we did this year. ZA is still unproven but I like having him as a healthy option.
 

If he can improve his pocket presence and eye discipline, there’s no reason he can’t be first team all conference (which is insane to say about a Gophers QB but here we are). More so eye discipline because I think we’ll see improved pass protection with some continuity on the OLine. Could see Schmitz locking down the center position this offseason which should help in making pass pro calls at the line. A lot of it’s by design on these RPO plays but looking off the safety on some of the longer developing pass plays could really open things up and make the offense all the more explosive.
 

Trevor Lawrence is Clemson's third leading rusher with 407 yards
Justin Fields is Ohio State's third leading rusher with 471 yards
Joe Burrow is LSU's second leading rusher with 289 yards
Jalen Hurts is Oklahoma's leading rusher with 1255
Tanner Morgan is Minnesota's tenth leading rusher with -59 yards

Have I made my point yet?
 

Teams are going to key in on figuring out how to get to him by neutralizing his ability to make quick throws like Wisconsin and Iowa did.

Tanner 2.0, the team must figure how how to evolve and counter the corrections the opponents are making.
 



HoustonTXGopher said:
Trevor Lawrence is Clemson's third leading rusher with 407 yards
Justin Fields is Ohio State's third leading rusher with 471 yards
Joe Burrow is LSU's second leading rusher with 289 yards
Jalen Hurts is Oklahoma's leading rusher with 1255
Tanner Morgan is Minnesota's tenth leading rusher with -59 yards

Have I made my point yet?
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I think there are two points to make. QBs that can run and throw are better than QBs that can only do one or the other. I think everyone understands this. The other is that Morgan isn’t the runner that some of those other guys are.
 

Are any of the Gophers' QBs able to run? Annexstad? Clark? Kramer?
 

John Galt said:
I think there are two points to make. QBs that can run and throw are better than QBs that can only do one or the other. I think everyone understands this. The other is that Morgan isn’t the runner that some of those other guys are.
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Tanner banged up his knee in one of the first noncon games and I think the coaching staff pretty much shut him down running after that. There was no depth behind him this year once Annexstad got hurt.
 

Tanner had a few effective runs here and there, but they weren’t designed runs. It just hasn’t been part of the game plan. A few times, he tried to take on the tackler, which I’m not a fan of with the most important player on the team. Obviously, the 30 sacks are the reason for the negative yardage. Take those away, and he probably had 150-200 yards of positive running plays.
 



Wisconsin got to QB Fields last night at least as much as they did vs MN. WI probably would have had close to double digit sacks without Fields ability to scramble and without his strength. He had some Houdini moves on an astounding number of snaps.

My takeaway after watching some of these championship games is how amazingly accurate Morgan is if he has 3+ seconds to allow routes to develop. Outside of Burrow and perhaps Coan his accuracy is second to none. Fields has a howitzer arm and wheels but he held the ball too long and his overall accuracy wasn’t elite IMO. Wasn’t impressed with Utah’s QB, Herbert reminds of Stanley which is good and bad.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Wisconsin got to QB Fields last night at least as much as they did vs MN. WI probably would have had close to double digit sacks without Fields ability to scramble and without his strength. He had some Houdini moves on an astounding number of snaps.

My takeaway after watching some of these championship games is how amazingly accurate Morgan is if he has 3+ seconds to allow routes to develop. Outside of Burrow and perhaps Coan his accuracy is second to none. Fields has a howitzer arm and wheels but he held the ball too long and his overall accuracy wasn’t elite IMO. Wasn’t impressed with Utah’s QB, Herbert reminds of Stanley which is good and bad.
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Coan? He barely completed 50% of his passes against OSU>
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
Trevor Lawrence is Clemson's third leading rusher with 407 yards
Justin Fields is Ohio State's third leading rusher with 471 yards
Joe Burrow is LSU's second leading rusher with 289 yards
Jalen Hurts is Oklahoma's leading rusher with 1255
Tanner Morgan is Minnesota's tenth leading rusher with -59 yards

Have I made my point yet?
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Not sure I’m following. Anything else?
 

idagopher said:
Coan? He barely completed 50% of his passes against OSU>
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Yep, but on the season he did pretty well including vs MN in less than ideal conditions. Coming into the season I thought Coan was not going to be good. Ohio State makes a lot of QBs look less than good.

I’ve been a major TM2 backer from literally his first time on the field - just acknowledging there is some other talent out there. Morgan is my guy. I’m not sure I’d trade him for anybody outside of Burrow and maybe not even then for the intangibles. I’ve heard some criticism on pocket awareness, sacks etc being Morgan’s fault but I’d argue he did well with the time he had in most cases. Sure, you’d like him to be a little bigger for durability and maybe a bit quicker and elusive like Fields but all in all he’s going to deliver the ball on time and with good accuracy.
 

Here is the point, you aren't going to win championships with a QB that has negative yards rushing for the season. Yes, I get that sacks are included in rush yards. I also get the fact that none of us are really sure if TM is capable of running the ball effectively, I have a hunch he is capable. There is no doubt that TM is restrained from running because of the lack of an experienced QB behind him. Tanner is indeed a very special Gopher QB, the question is, if he can turn that -59 rushing in 2019 to a positive 200+ yards rushing, I believe the entire offense benefits from his positive menial rushing yards.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
Here is the point, you aren't going to win championships with a QB that has negative yards rushing for the season. Yes, I get that sacks are included in rush yards. I also get the fact that none of us are really sure if TM is capable of running the ball effectively, I have a hunch he is capable. There is no doubt that TM is restrained from running because of the lack of an experienced QB behind him. Tanner is indeed a very special Gopher QB, the question is, if he can turn that -59 rushing in 2019 to a positive 200+ yards rushing, I believe the entire offense benefits from his positive menial rushing yards.
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I would like to see Morgan keep the ball a little more often as well. But I'll throw some stats out just to argue your point a little with other QB's that won natty's with minimal rushing yards.

2018 - Trevor Lawrence 177 yds
2015 - Jake Coker 68 yds
2012 - AJ McCarron 4 yds, 2011 -22 yds
2009 - Greg McElroy 83 yds
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
I would like to see Morgan keep the ball a little more often as well. But I'll throw some stats out just to argue your point a little with other QB's that won natty's with minimal rushing yards.

2018 - Trevor Lawrence 177 yds
2015 - Jake Coker 68 yds
2012 - AJ McCarron 4 yds, 2011 -22 yds
2009 - Greg McElroy 83 yds
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Tua doesn’t run much either. He had 17 yards rushing in 9 games this season. 190 and 133 in the previous 2 seasons.

www.sports-reference.com

Tua Tagovailoa College Stats, School, Draft, Gamelog, Splits | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

Check out Tua Tagovailoa's College Stats, School, Draft, Gamelog, Splits and More College Stats at Sports-Reference.com
www.sports-reference.com www.sports-reference.com

I do think Tanner could if they wanted him to. Just teach him to slide, please.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Wisconsin got to QB Fields last night at least as much as they did vs MN. WI probably would have had close to double digit sacks without Fields ability to scramble and without his strength. He had some Houdini moves on an astounding number of snaps.

My takeaway after watching some of these championship games is how amazingly accurate Morgan is if he has 3+ seconds to allow routes to develop. Outside of Burrow and perhaps Coan his accuracy is second to none. Fields has a howitzer arm and wheels but he held the ball too long and his overall accuracy wasn’t elite IMO. Wasn’t impressed with Utah’s QB, Herbert reminds of Stanley which is good and bad.
Click to expand...

Burrow is very good. I had no idea until today that Burrow was an Ohio State benchwarmer before last season. OSU just plugs and plays great talent.
 

I would love MN to have a top-tier passer who is also a threat to run. I agree that’s a powerful added dimension that can demoralize a defense. However, I don’t think Tanner is that guy, and I don’t think we can risk injury by designing runs for him. IMO, he only runs on broken plays/scrambles, and slides almost 100% of the time. Maybe down the road we’ll have a guy like that (Athan K?).
 

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