Tanner Morgan is 2nd in Big Ten QB rating

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Plus two obvious drops that should have been made. Endzone drop and Douglas long wide open drop. While wide receivers clearly much better than the past, we could step it up another notch.
 

I thought he held it a bit too long yesterday a few times and actually had some wonky throws, but he is young and there were drops.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I thought he held it a bit too long yesterday a few times and actually had some wonky throws, but he is young and there were drops.
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Lollipop long balls as well, overall he far exceeds what you'd expect for a Gopher backup.
 



goldengophers said:
Lollipop long balls as well, overall he far exceeds what you'd expect for a Gopher backup.
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Is he the backup anymore? ZA was available and played in relief. Either way, it feels good knowing we have two young QBs who can credibly move the offense.
 

fmlizard said:
Is he the backup anymore? ZA was available and played in relief. Either way, it feels good knowing we have two young QBs who can credibly move the offense.
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This.

Morgan seems to be doing a lot of things right, and he's benefitting from our receivers finally going up and getting some of those 50-50 balls. That wasn't happening through the first half of the season.

Both QBs have been burned by drops, though. I agree that as good as our receiving corps is, it needs to get better.

JTG
 

On the long ball, I wonder if that is how he is being coached to throw them? toss them up and give the WR a chance to win the jump ball?

It just strikes me as odd, because both Morgan and Annexstad have good zip and accuracy on the short and intermediate routes, and throw with good rhythm. But on the long balls, they lob them up. So, again, I have to wonder if that is by design?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
On the long ball, I wonder if that is how he is being coached to throw them? toss them up and give the WR a chance to win the jump ball?

It just strikes me as odd, because both Morgan and Annexstad have good zip and accuracy on the short and intermediate routes, and throw with good rhythm. But on the long balls, they lob them up. So, again, I have to wonder if that is by design?
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I wonder too, but with game experience, our guys are starting to win more of those battles. I believe Fleck said in an interview earlier this year that the thought on those is to gravitate from 50/50 to 90/10 success as the WR's gain confidence and game experience. We are starting to see this improvement.
 



I like TM over ZA. Yes, he held on to the ball at some points. Yes, he missed some open reads. Overall he looks comfortable in the pocket and goes through his progressions for the most part.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
On the long ball, I wonder if that is how he is being coached to throw them? toss them up and give the WR a chance to win the jump ball?

It just strikes me as odd, because both Morgan and Annexstad have good zip and accuracy on the short and intermediate routes, and throw with good rhythm. But on the long balls, they lob them up. So, again, I have to wonder if that is by design?
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I'm guessing it has more to do with arm strength, or lack thereof.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
On the long ball, I wonder if that is how he is being coached to throw them? toss them up and give the WR a chance to win the jump ball?

It just strikes me as odd, because both Morgan and Annexstad have good zip and accuracy on the short and intermediate routes, and throw with good rhythm. But on the long balls, they lob them up. So, again, I have to wonder if that is by design?
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I've been saying since the second or third game that we have to assume the lobs are intentional, that we're relying on our receivers to make those plays work. If we weren't, the coaching staff would have been beating both QBs over the head with a clipboard (or iPad).

JTG
 

Very happy with the QB's this year. Both are freshmen and both are night and day better than what we have had here in recent years. I hope they both can continue to improve because if they can keep progressing, by the time they are juniors and seniors they could really be special. This is key for us getting better!

I was very surprised that Leidner never seemed to get better even as a 4 year starter. Mitch was tough and had excellent running ability and the passing game problems were not completely his fault. But I would take the offense we have right now in a heartbeat. We finally have some excellent young receivers who will all be coming back and I hope one or both of these QB's can take it to the next level the next few years. Right now, there is a lot to be excited about next year especially on offense. If we get Brooks and/or Smith back next year and the QB can be solid, look out because that offensive line should be very good! It just might be the best offense we have since Maroney/Barber were in town!
 



Tanner Morgan is getting better each game. The O-Line is clicking together.

We fixed the QB situation that had a long broken continuity thread running three coaches back. We have two credible QBs in the stable, and it appears that we are loaded at the RB position for next year.

If PJ Fleck somehow improves the defense next year, the Gophers will surprise a lot of people.

We see shades of great plays and execution here and there in a season full of foibles. We just need to make them consistent.
 

Tanner Morgan has been playing great for us (even in the bad games).

He is just enough of a threat to run to keep them honest and he gives our WRs a chance to make a play.

ZA has a stronger arm and likely a higher ceiling, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out between these two.
 

Annexstad has an issue getting a ton of balls tipped at the LOS from my memory. Don’t know why, isn’t he that much shorter?

But Morgan has not had that issue
 

Morgan had Rhoda like numbers against Purdue. Morgan's higher completion percentage is the difference between the two, otherwise their numbers are very similar.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Morgan had Rhoda like numbers against Purdue. Morgan's higher completion percentage is the difference between the two, otherwise their numbers are very similar.
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Your point is? He didn't have to throw much yesterday because the team was up big. Yeah 10/18 for 139 yards is not eye popping but there were also 2 really bad drops that could have bumped the completion percentage and yardage up even more.

Their numbers in a game might look similar from time to time but as QB's Morgan is light years ahead of Rhoda already and he is only a freshman.

The key in all this is that Morgan and Annexstad are both freshman, they both make mistakes but it is also clear that there is some ability there. If they keep developing we will be in very good shape at the QB position for multiple seasons and that isn't even factoring in the new faces that will be added to the mix in recruiting. Been quite a while since we have been able to feel good about the QB position here.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Morgan had Rhoda like numbers against Purdue. Morgan's higher completion percentage is the difference between the two, otherwise their numbers are very similar.
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Here are their numbers so far:
............................. Com ATT YDS COMP YPA TD INT RATING
Conor Rhoda 2017 --- 59 109 839 54.1 7.7 5 4 126.6
Tanner Morgan 2018 - 54 91 948 59.3 10.4 6 4 159.8

Definitely a notch better, although not as far ahead as I thought. Morgan can also run a little bit which Rhoda could not.
 

Gold Rush said:
Here are their numbers so far:
............................. Com ATT YDS COMP YPA TD INT RATING
Conor Rhoda 2017 --- 59 109 839 54.1 7.7 5 4 126.6
Tanner Morgan 2018 - 54 91 948 59.3 10.4 6 4 159.8

Definitely a notch better, although not as far ahead as I thought. Morgan can also run a little bit which Rhoda could not.
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Was comparing Morgan and Annexstad...numbers are similar but for Morgan's higher completion percentage.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Your point is? He didn't have to throw much yesterday because the team was up big. Yeah 10/18 for 139 yards is not eye popping but there were also 2 really bad drops that could have bumped the completion percentage and yardage up even more.

Their numbers in a game might look similar from time to time but as QB's Morgan is light years ahead of Rhoda already and he is only a freshman.

The key in all this is that Morgan and Annexstad are both freshman, they both make mistakes but it is also clear that there is some ability there. If they keep developing we will be in very good shape at the QB position for multiple seasons and that isn't even factoring in the new faces that will be added to the mix in recruiting. Been quite a while since we have been able to feel good about the QB position here.
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Lighten up Francis. I've consistently posted that the QBs are much improved from last year's.
 



To my untrained eye, Zack seemed more accurate on short passes (but not by much), but his deep throws were always off... I can't even remember one on target pass past 30 yards. Tanner seems more accurate on the deep passes, although his long passes are usually jump balls, but at least the receivers have a chance to get them. He also seemed to have more mobility, but then again, it could just have been Zack being injured and we haven't seen Tanner do much running recently. I honestly think they are pretty similar in talent, and so I'm glad we have this "issue." I'd leave Tanner in because he's playing well and has the better deep ball which teams have to be aware of.
 



improved QB play came at the point that Dan-Mountain Faalele was inserted and protection became visually better. Next year with a healthy QB corp and hopefully a stronger OL all around we will see even more improvement. Add the 2 RB's that are coming back from injuries and boom big ten offense!!
 

John Galt said:
Much improved from anything we saw under Kill and Claeys, right?
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Passing stats yes...it is a bit harder to compare because of the differences in the offenses, with their very run heavy RUTM scheme. Here is 2014 QB performance through 10 games. ML was a sophomore so I figure it is a similar comparison. Gophs were 7-3.

ML played all but the SJSU game...which was the Streveler 1-7, 7 yards passing game.

89/178, 1310 yards 50% 10 TD, 8 INT, about a 135 rating. QB position also had 460 yards and 7 TDs rushing in those 10 games.

2018 Gophs 5-5.

155/285 2261 yards 54% 17 TD, 12 INT, about a 132 rating. QB position has added 165 yards and 9 TDs in those 10 games.
 
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DoubleB said:
improved QB play came at the point that Dan-Mountain Faalele was inserted and protection became visually better. Next year with a healthy QB corp and hopefully a stronger OL all around we will see even more improvement. Add the 2 RB's that are coming back from injuries and boom big ten offense!!
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I agree that we should be better with more maturity and health, particularly on the lines, but we will have injuries next year just like we do every year. As far as the RBs, Ibrahim is pretty impressive in his own right. If healthy, I'm not sure Ibrahim will be replaced automatically by Rodney and I'm not sure Brooks will remain healthy for the entire year.
 

PMWinSTP said:
2018 Gophs 5-5.

155/285 2261 yards 54% 17 TD, 12 INT, about a 132 rating. QB position has added 165 yards and 9 TDs in those 20 games
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OK, but Morgan is at 59.5% and over 10 yards per attempt (granted much of that credit is due to a better and more athletic receiving corps). This team is better offensively than that team but that team had a way, way better defense and that is why they had a much better record.
 

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