Tanner Morgan or Seth Green have shot at starting QB?

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If Vic isn't starting, someone either took a huge step up in the offseason, or we're winning 5 games again.
 

pharmacygopher said:
I try to read as my Gopher articles and listen to podcasts as I can and I honestly don't remember this take. I'd like to read/listen to what TC/RB thoughts were on Green and McLaurin not being plan A. Especially considering they took McLaurin and not Jordan Ta'amu. That had/has ramification on the Gophers QB situation.

Again, if you have an actual link to the article or podcast I'd appreciate it. I've looked on GH, GI, 247, TDG but am not coming up successful.
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We wanted Ta'amu but he chose Ole Miss over us.

Ta'amu is actually a great comparison to Vic and the level he played at while at Ole Miss this season is what I'm expecting out of Vic.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
But last year you had Croft who was not a PJ recruit and Rhoda who was not a PJ recruit (other than being asked to stay sight unseen) and Green, with Morgan on RS. It's not like they were his guys and Green wasn't. The QB play was flat out terrible, and yet Green barely got mop-up duty when Croft was suspended. On top of that, when Croft was reinstated, he jumped right over Green, despite some conflict between Croft and Fleck (per Croft). I don't see how Green being "not PJ's guy" explains any of that. At this point, I think he is another QB that was signed and developed by the Kill/Claeys regime that fell far short of expectations. I've heard nothing from anyone that has seen him at practice that makes me believe he will be able to compete for the starting job. Hopefully something clicks for him and he is at least competing for the starting job, but after how little he was used last year in those circumstances, I just don't see it happening, purely based on talent.

As far as him playing under Claeys, it maybe would have been a better fit, but don't forget Claeys also brought in Neil McLaurin and the rumor was it was to start, so not sure he would have played then either.
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I thought that the guy Claeys brought in for 2016 (off. coordinator at UL-Lafayette the previous season, and from Lakeville) was of the same basic mindset as our current off. coordinator: shotgun, read-option, chuck-n-duck. You know, the norm in college football these days (which is sad, but that's my opinion only).


Anyway, I largely agree with you that it has nothing to do with Green not being PJ's guy. Clearly, PJ does not like something about Green playing QB, or he would've gotten reps this past season. Something just wasn't there, whether it was bad practices, bad attitude, etc.


With spring ball having VV and Morgan all needing to get a huge number of reps to show what they can do, not to mention ZA coming in early will probably get some reps (but would be shocked if he plays next year, as a true freshman) ... I frankly just don't see enough "room" for a guy like Green, or the other two PWO QB's that are shown on the roster, to get much of a chance.

Maybe early in spring ball they'll get a couple reps on the 3rd team offense, and if they make a couple good throws, could earn some more reps. But otherwise, just don't think the coaching staff has the time and the reps to honestly evaluate 6 QBs this spring.

If I was Fleck, I would ask Green to switch positions this winter, if he wants to stay at Minnesota, or otherwise ask him to transfer.
 

Just got feeling...

1 Vic
2 Morgan
3 Annexstad - redshirt
4 Green. If even that.
 

die hard gopher said:
We wanted Ta'amu but he chose Ole Miss over us.

Ta'amu is actually a great comparison to Vic and the level he played at while at Ole Miss this season is what I'm expecting out of Vic.
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Taamu looked like a more polished passer with better passing numbers while VV looks more explosive on the ground. I think VV gets first, second, and third opportunity to show he can be a dual threat at this level but Morgan is waiting in the wings. 2019 who knows.
 


die hard gopher said:
We wanted Ta'amu but he chose Ole Miss over us.

Ta'amu is actually a great comparison to Vic and the level he played at while at Ole Miss this season is what I'm expecting out of Vic.
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The coaching staff (Tracey Claeys) chose McLaruin over Ta'amu due to his running ability.
 


grumps said:
Just got feeling...

1 Vic
2 Morgan
3 Annexstad - redshirt
4 Green. If even that.
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Guess we can speculate all we want. When next fall comes around and that is a long time out at this point, who knows who will take charge. This means working out, learning the system, improving not maintaining, and jelling with the players and coaches.
 




Rhoda and Croft both played last year. I'm certain Fleck would give Morgan a chance if Vic is having a bad game.
 

You guys have this all wrong. Vic is starting.

The real question is who is the backup who comes in if Vic gets hurt.
 





A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
PJ talked up Moran quite a few times.
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You could look at it that way or did he just talk about his bigger picture of red shirting freshmen and use Morgan as an example? I heard nothing about Morgan's abilities, just his red shirt as an excuse for limited options at QB.
 


Johnnyboy18 said:
The coaching staff (Tracey Claeys) chose McLaruin over Ta'amu due to his running ability.
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Speaking of McLaurin, he just signed as a WR with Southern Mississippi.

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60's Guy said:
You could look at it that way or did he just talk about his bigger picture of red shirting freshmen and use Morgan as an example? I heard nothing about Morgan's abilities, just his red shirt as an excuse for limited options at QB.
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I felt like it came up more around the questions at QB than much else, but yeah red shirting was the topic too.... everything is a topic at a press conference.

I mean it's not like he mentioned Green much compared to Morgan...
 

mkAz said:
Speaking of McLaurin, he just signed as a WR with Southern Mississippi.

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"...will make the best of being a Golden Eagle". Wow, that's got to make Southern Miss fans happy that he's making the best of being there.

I do wonder what conversations happened here before he was asked to leave. Did they discuss switching positions, for example, or did Fleck just want nothing to do with him?

The whole situation was rather odd, but hopefully it works out for him in the end.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
"...will make the best of being a Golden Eagle". Wow, that's got to make Southern Miss fans happy that he's making the best of being there.

I do wonder what conversations happened here before he was asked to leave. Did they discuss switching positions, for example, or did Fleck just want nothing to do with him?

The whole situation was rather odd, but hopefully it works out for him in the end.
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That was one of the situations that actually kinda disappointing me with PJ. I don't get what happened but Neil was sort of with the team and PJ just didn't talk about him... very awkward.
 

This is a fun discussion, at least it would be if our QB hadn't been so putrid last year. Certainly PJ set low expectations so that the result of 9 or less wins would look elite. Don't think he really ever anticipated only 5 wins and no bowl. Does anyone really think that he brought Rhoda back in year zero because he didn't want to win and wanted to double down on failure in order to win? I don't. No one expected our QB play to be so terrible. Many of us were excited about Croft until he played, even then many excused him for a number of games. Not until NW and Wisky did we all accept he was a bust. Under those circumstances, without VV coming in, why didn't Morgan play? Maybe he hasn't developed yet. I am anxious for spring training. This is wide open and I hope a couple of these young men really get it together at QB.We could have a pretty good year with good QB play.
 

diehard said:
This is a fun discussion, at least it would be if our QB hadn't been so putrid last year. Certainly PJ set low expectations so that the result of 9 or less wins would look elite. Don't think he really ever anticipated only 5 wins and no bowl. Does anyone really think that he brought Rhoda back in year zero because he didn't want to win and wanted to double down on failure in order to win? I don't. No one expected our QB play to be so terrible. Many of us were excited about Croft until he played, even then many excused him for a number of games. Not until NW and Wisky did we all accept he was a bust. Under those circumstances, without VV coming in, why didn't Morgan play? Maybe he hasn't developed yet. I am anxious for spring training. This is wide open and I hope a couple of these young men really get it together at QB.We could have a pretty good year with good QB play.
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I think he brought back Rhoda because he wanted more depth and experience at QB and he wanted another scholarship available for the 2018 class. Put it this way, had Rhoda been a SO/JR, I don't think Fleck tries as hard to bring him back.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I think he brought back Rhoda because he wanted more depth and experience at QB and he wanted another scholarship available for the 2018 class. Put it this way, had Rhoda been a SO/JR, I don't think Fleck tries as hard to bring him back.
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So if Rhoda was a SO/JR you think he would have pulled his scholarship?
 

MaxyJR1 said:
So if Rhoda was a SO/JR you think he would have pulled his scholarship?
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No, I don't think he would have pulled a scholarship. Rhoda was not on scholarship when PJ arrived.

I don't think he would have aggressively tried to get Rhoda to return to football at the U (he was planning on leaving, walked on SR day as a JR, etc.).
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
No, I don't think he would have pulled a scholarship. Rhoda was not on scholarship when PJ arrived.

I don't think he would have aggressively tried to get Rhoda to return to football at the U (he was planning on leaving, walked on SR day as a JR, etc.).
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That's right, I forgot he was still a walk-on. I agree.
 

diehard said:
This is a fun discussion, at least it would be if our QB hadn't been so putrid last year. Certainly PJ set low expectations so that the result of 9 or less wins would look elite. Don't think he really ever anticipated only 5 wins and no bowl. Does anyone really think that he brought Rhoda back in year zero because he didn't want to win and wanted to double down on failure in order to win? I don't. No one expected our QB play to be so terrible. Many of us were excited about Croft until he played, even then many excused him for a number of games. Not until NW and Wisky did we all accept he was a bust. Under those circumstances, without VV coming in, why didn't Morgan play? Maybe he hasn't developed yet. I am anxious for spring training. This is wide open and I hope a couple of these young men really get it together at QB.We could have a pretty good year with good QB play.
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Sadly I think there are some that believe he brought Rhoda back exactly for the reason you mentioned however I also don't buy that and think he brought Rhoda back because he got a good look at our QB situation and knew he was going to need the depth. As for why Morgan didn't play my guess is he just wasn't ready and then once you get to those last couple games it is pretty rare to pull a redshirt unless you are fighting for a championship. I highly doubt Morgan would have been able to change the result of the NW or Wis games so it would have been foolish to burn his year in a last ditch effort to get to 6 wins. Green is the big question mark in this, in that there would not have been an obvious reason not to play him unless they just had zero confidence in him.

Hopefully the QB position starts trending back in the right direction next season but there is the very real possibility of some growing pains because you have a JC kid making a transition or young guys that have no college experience as your options. Best case scenario is the VV hits the ground running and with an upgraded receiving corps the offense starts to be more productive. The QB battle in spring will be interesting to watch.
 

The team will be competitive when we upgrade the areas that need improvement and find replacements for departing players:

Offensive line
Receivers
QB
Tight end
Short yardage back
Defensive line
Linebacker play
Secondary play
Place kicking
Kickoffs
Punting
Coaching

Not necessarily in that order. If Fleck can get the team to 6 wins in 2018 I’ll consider that a successful year. In 2019 and 2020 will expect more.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I think he brought back Rhoda because he wanted more depth and experience at QB and he wanted another scholarship available for the 2018 class. Put it this way, had Rhoda been a SO/JR, I don't think Fleck tries as hard to bring him back.
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I would buy that if Rhoda hadn't been the starter. Croft appeared to be the future pre-season. He just didn't have it. It looked like attitude/behavior at first but it also ended up being level of talent. If Morgan had the talent last year he would have started ahead of Rhoda. He didn't and we do not know that he ever will. You don't think VV was brought in to be Morgan's back up, do you? Even with open competition for QB, the coaches certainly have some ideas in mind.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
I'm pretty glad that we aren't living in that world of what the offense would have looked like had Claeys and Co. continued to coach the team.
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yeah. because when he fired the OC and QB coach the new guys (including O-line coach) had less than one year to change things. One difference in the offense of this past season - we wouldn't have given up against Northwestern and Wisconsin. Games might have been uglier, but we would have tried.

That said, PJ Fleck is our coach. Claeys was fired for a reason. Wny the constant need to kick the man after he's down, and well behind us in the rear view mirror?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I think he brought back Rhoda because he wanted more depth and experience at QB and he wanted another scholarship available for the 2018 class. Put it this way, had Rhoda been a SO/JR, I don't think Fleck tries as hard to bring him back.
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I think he brought Rhoda back because he was a prop that fit the script PJ Fleck is working from. Like the scholarship given to the 5th string walk-on punter in an awe shucks, gee whiz, ain't life grand kind of staged and filmed moment that was designed to convey the culture Fleck is selling, real, imagined or completely fabricated situation - doesn't matter. Fit the script.
 

It is righteous to kick any coach that only won 9 games!
 

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