Tanner Morgan's Pace

[MNVCGUY]

It's simply amazing to me that any show of enthusiasm on this site is immediately greeted with 3-4 variations of the "Hey, there... calm down, now" response.

I mean, immediately and without fail.

As I've said before, I'm a life-long Minnesotan, so you'd think I would know by now... but it still has me scratching my head sometimes.

It is a Minnesota thing for sure and also a major Gopher football thing because of the number of times the team has let the fanbase down over the years. A large portion of our fans just assume things are going to fall apart and it is tough to blame them because historically that has been the case for a long time around here.

Spoofin may be right to say that calling QB a position of strength is a bit premature. That said, I would bet you would not be able to find a lot of teams out there with 2 legit starting QB options that they know can be trusted to get the job done. In this day and age of QB transfers it is a rarity to have more than one proven quality option on the roster.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

What's your opinion on Tanner DP? You tend to be a stats are what the stats are kind of guy. Do you think this kid is as good as the stat story tells? Or do you anticipate that the "feeling's" around Tanner will be more in line with his tenure as a Gopher QB.

Personally I cannot erase what I feel my eyes see in him which has been some curious turnovers and the inability to throw a quality deep ball. I openly admit, however, that he's a college QB and I cant help but expect him to be a NFL caliber qb and I don't think that's fair or realistic.

I'd ride that hand as long as he's winning.

I think that’s a pretty ubiquitous quality in young college QBs, and most NFL QBs. Tua had an atrocious game, for example. Take a sample size of that game and people would say he’s terrible.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

Burns works really hard at what he does and is very good at that and drawing interest in to gopher football which I absolutely love. Its good for the program. Breaking down talent or X's and O's isn't really his strength though. I get sick of seeing a "fast start" as the key to the game. Yeah we would love to open up with 7 too..lets talk about schemes or individual matchups.


Love Burns though and like I said he definitely plays a part and contributes to increasing interest in gopher football which is great.

I love Burns, don’t get me wrong. He’s a good sport about it all. Awesome podcast. Nobody, not even the professional scouts and coaches are 100% on this stuff, obviously. Too many factors. Some are better than others...some claim to be.

 

[dpodoll68]

What's your opinion on Tanner DP? You tend to be a stats are what the stats are kind of guy. Do you think this kid is as good as the stat story tells? Or do you anticipate that the "feeling's" around Tanner will be more in line with his tenure as a Gopher QB.

Personally I cannot erase what I feel my eyes see in him which has been some curious turnovers and the inability to throw a quality deep ball. I openly admit, however, that he's a college QB and I cant help but expect him to be a NFL caliber qb and I don't think that's fair or realistic.

I'd ride that hand as long as he's winning.

I think he has the potential to end up as one of the best Gophers QBs ever, statistically, which is an admittedly low bar to cross. He is very accurate and has enough speed to keep the defense honest when needed. He's short, but I think that's all overplayed anyway (at both the college and pro level). His arm isn't great, but is strong enough to complete a 20-yard out, which is more than enough to be very good in the Ciarrocca offense.

I also think that, if Fleck is being honest, Morgan will show that he deserves to start despite Fleck's clear affection for Annexstad.

 

[dpodoll68]

I love Burns, don’t get me wrong. He’s a good sport about it all. Awesome podcast. Nobody, not even the professional scouts and coaches are 100% on this stuff, obviously. Too many factors. Some are better than others...some claim to be.

I like Burns, but he turns into an extreme sycophant for whoever the current coach is and allows it to cloud his judgment/reporting. Kill was the greatest thing ever until Fleck, and now Kill is a piece of garbage. The mental gymnastics needed to latch on to every positive and blow it out of proportion, while completely ignoring any negatives, are annoying among the posters here - but inexcusable for Burns as a quasi-journalist.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

It’s ok to be a homer. It’s the virulent thought police that rub me the wrong way.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Fleck has to be loyal to Annexstads. Zach recruited Faalele and Dunlap here, all while agreeing to Maroon Shirt (they didn’t have the name yet, but he was the first) on his own dime for a year. And he got brutalized out there, with our crappy OL play, on top of some unfortunate, mobility killing injuries.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Fleck has to be loyal to Annexstads. Zach recruited Faalele and Dunlap here, all while agreeing to Maroon Shirt (they didn’t have the name yet, but he was the first) on his own dime for a year. And he got brutalized out there, with our crappy OL play, on top of some unfortunate, mobility killing injuries.

I truly believe Fleck will play the QB he thinks gives the team the best chance to win this fall because he knows that he is hitting the point in his coaching tenure here where the results on the field will determine his long term future with the school. That isn't the case in the first few years but starting this year and especially in 2020 how the teams performs will reflect directly on Fleck because the roster will be mostly his players.

All he owes Annexstad or any other player really is a fair shot to win the job. At this point, if Morgan is the better QB of the two he will play, if Annexstad beats him out to win the job back then so be it. Legit competition at any position is a good thing as long as both players are good options. And with Morgan and Annexstad we have every reason to believe that whichever one of them is under center this fall, chances are he is going to do a good job.

 

[Urbandale]

Fleck has to be loyal to Annexstads. Zach recruited Faalele and Dunlap here, all while agreeing to Maroon Shirt (they didn’t have the name yet, but he was the first) on his own dime for a year. And he got brutalized out there, with our crappy OL play, on top of some unfortunate, mobility killing injuries.

I think Fleck has made it clear to all the players that a job is never assured. If ZA starts, it's because Fleck thinks ZA is the best man for the job, not out of any sense of loyalty.

 

[John Galt]

It's simply amazing to me that any show of enthusiasm on this site is immediately greeted with 3-4 variations of the "Hey, there... calm down, now" response.

I mean, immediately and without fail.

As I've said before, I'm a life-long Minnesotan, so you'd think I would know by now... but it still has me scratching my head sometimes.

It depends on what you mean by "position of strength." Do we have depth and better play at QB than we've had in a long time? Yes.

Is the QB position better and deeper than other position groups on offense? I would say RB is better and deeper. I would say WR is better and deeper. I would say OL is better but not as deep.

 

[Clark W. Griswold]

Was ZA healthy at the end of the year or bowl game?

 

[PoockItInfor6]

Also ZA5 seems to have a lot of pride in our program and our state... 99.99999999999% sure he’d want the best player to be out there even if it was not him. I think ZA5 has huge upside, but Morgan played extremely well too. I do think ZA5 could greatly benefit from a redshirt year to keep putting on weight as well... Clark looks legit too and might have the most upside of all 3?! I really have no idea who is playing QB at the beginning of the year or the end of the year, and I’m glad it’s not on me to make the decision... but I am very glad we have what looks to be 3 excellent options!

 

[Gophers_4life]

All three will be dressed for every game. I think we’ll need both TM and ZA as starters this year. As we did last year. Would love to get Clark in there for his four games, mop up duty, sling some balls around, but redshirt him nonetheless.

 

[MNVCGUY]

All three will be dressed for every game. I think we’ll need both TM and ZA as starters this year. As we did last year. Would love to get Clark in there for his four games, mop up duty, sling some balls around, but redshirt him nonetheless.

Getting way ahead of things but I am not sure you would want to put Clark out there next year unless you were at a point where you desperately needed him. Sure you could play him and still red shirt him but in playing him you would showcase him to other teams who could then potentially swoop in and use the fact that our other QBs are really young to get him to consider jumping ship.

But all that is just reckless speculation at this point as we have no clue how things will play out next season. I do agree that will almost certainly need both Morgan and Annexstad at some point next season due to one reason or another (injury, blowout....).

 

[GoGoGopher12]

It is a Minnesota thing for sure and also a major Gopher football thing because of the number of times the team has let the fanbase down over the years. A large portion of our fans just assume things are going to fall apart and it is tough to blame them because historically that has been the case for a long time around here.

Spoofin may be right to say that calling QB a position of strength is a bit premature. That said, I would bet you would not be able to find a lot of teams out there with 2 legit starting QB options that they know can be trusted to get the job done. In this day and age of QB transfers it is a rarity to have more than one proven quality option on the roster.

Honest question. Other than Minnesota and probably Rutgers, what other Big10 programs would Morgan or Zach been a starter last season?

 

[tikited]

All three will be dressed for every game. I think we’ll need both TM and ZA as starters this year. As we did last year. Would love to get Clark in there for his four games, mop up duty, sling some balls around, but redshirt him nonetheless.

Yep. We will always need two QB's for sure and often times three.

 

[GoGoGopher12]

Getting way ahead of things but I am not sure you would want to put Clark out there next year unless you were at a point where you desperately needed him. Sure you could play him and still red shirt him but in playing him you would showcase him to other teams who could then potentially swoop in and use the fact that our other QBs are really young to get him to consider jumping ship.

But all that is just reckless speculation at this point as we have no clue how things will play out next season. I do agree that will almost certainly need both Morgan and Annexstad at some point next season due to one reason or another (injury, blowout....).

This makes absolutely zero sense. If I'm following you here, don't play Clark because he's probably so good that it'll show off his abilities and other schools will want him but he's not going to be good enough to play ahead of TM or ZA while they are still on the roster. Uh....sure.

 

[PoockItInfor6]

Honest question. Other than Minnesota and probably Rutgers, what other Big10 programs would Morgan or Zach been a starter last season?

Morgan would have been an upgrade for many B1G teams based on his stats... Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana...

 

[PMWinSTP]

Was ZA healthy at the end of the year or bowl game?

Hard to know since he was listed as the backup QB the rest of the season. My guess is that he was not 100% at any point after the injury.

It definitely will be fun to watch the competition between those two. Zack had to see the improvement of the OL and WRs and want to get out there...especially with his two IMG buddies out there. He picked up the offense very quickly and I expect he has learned much more watching from the sidelines.

I do think he'll need to really separate himself from Tanner to be the starter game one He was able to do it last year with less than half the time to learn the offense compared to Tanner, but there will need to be a lot more separation this year. That was what impressed me the most about Zack last year...how quickly he learned.

 

[RememberMurray]

Enthusiasm has a whole spectrum, from minor to absurd. I believe he was just acknowledging that the comment was more on the absurd side of the enthusiasm spectrum.

Here's my original sentence, which caused more than a few wet blankets to fly through the air in my direction. See if it really qualifies as "absurd", to use your descriptive word:

------

"It appears that quarterback has become a position of strength, with good depth."

------

Wow. In re-reading what I posted, I can see your point. Start soaking the blankets. This is totally out of control!

 

[MNVCGUY]

This makes absolutely zero sense. If I'm following you here, don't play Clark because he's probably so good that it'll show off his abilities and other schools will want him but he's not going to be good enough to play ahead of TM or ZA while they are still on the roster. Uh....sure.

Not at all what I was saying. QBs are transferring all over the place these days. If you send Clark out there in mop up duty it gives teams a chance to watch him play and evaluate him based on actual game film. Even though teams can't technically recruit a player from a different teams roster I think we would be naive to think it doesn't happen in this day and age.

If Clark comes in and is the best option on the roster next year I 100% think he will be starting. I just don't know if you use him in garbage time even though you have the 4 games to work with if needed.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I think it is a valid point. It depends on Clark’s mindset coming into this spring and this coming fall. Does he think he should be the starter right now, and is he going to be pissed if he isn’t named starter after spring or in the fall? Or is he OK with the idea of redshirting and learning from the older guys? I have no idea. Hopefully Fleck and Ciarroca will.

 

[RememberMurray]

If Clark is indeed good enough, as an incoming freshman, to beat out Morgan, Annexstad, et al...

... would it then be absurd to say that QB is becoming a position of strength, with good depth?

 

[Gophers_4life]

If Clark is indeed good enough, as an incoming freshman, to beat out Morgan, Annexstad, et al...

... would it then be absurd to say that QB is becoming a position of strength, with good depth?

Depends on how well he plays!

 

[GoGoGopher12]

Morgan would have been an upgrade for many B1G teams based on his stats... Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana...

Morgan would NOT have started at Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State. Very doubtfully at Illinois or Indiana.

 

[HoustonTXGopher]

The position is way ahead of where it was, and the staff deserves your kudos - but let’s not get carried away here.


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Tis the Season, to get carried away!

 

[GoGoGopher12]

Not at all what I was saying. QBs are transferring all over the place these days. If you send Clark out there in mop up duty it gives teams a chance to watch him play and evaluate him based on actual game film. Even though teams can't technically recruit a player from a different teams roster I think we would be naive to think it doesn't happen in this day and age.

If Clark comes in and is the best option on the roster next year I 100% think he will be starting. I just don't know if you use him in garbage time even though you have the 4 games to work with if needed.

Ok. That makes a little more sense and I appreciate the clarification. But, if Clark is that impressive in mop-up duty, he'd likely be ahead of TM or ZA anyway.

Personally, I'm all for kids transferring elsewhere if they want to play. Coaches transfer all the time for their personal gain. The kids should be able to as well.

And I don't think ZA or TM are really all that good. They are both "game managers". Neither have the big arm to stretch the field. I hope Clark and Kramer are better than both of them because we'll be that much better as a team then.

 

[RememberMurray]

Depends on how well he plays!

For the sake of the exercise, let's assume Morgan, with last season's experience under his belt — improves over last year. That's not inevitable, but I'd say it's certainly possible, maybe even likely.

And if used as as a starting point, I'd argue that his freshman season was pretty solid.

Therefore, Clark would be beating out a pretty good QB. He'd have to be playing pretty well to do that, I think.

 

[Gophers_4life]

We’ll see!

 

[Spoofin]

Here's my original sentence, which caused more than a few wet blankets to fly through the air in my direction. See if it really qualifies as "absurd", to use your descriptive word:

------

"It appears that quarterback <b>has become </b>a position of strength, with good depth."

Yep - still absurd.

If Clark is indeed good enough, as an incoming freshman, to beat out Morgan, Annexstad, et al...

... would it then be absurd to say that QB <b>is becoming </b>a position of strength, with good depth?

Did it hurt moving the goalpost this far?

Also, curious why you changed the bolded parts?


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