Poll: Who should be QB1 vs Northwestern?

Poll: Who should be QB1 vs Northwestern?

  • Tanner Morgan

    Votes: 30 10.2%
  • Athan Kaliakmanis

    Votes: 263 89.8%

  • Total voters
    293
I simply put Athan as I believe it's Tanner's second concussion of the season. If he's had others in the past he should consider shutting it down. I believe the training staff will make the call.
Looking at the reply of the blow to the head, he got hit with a helmet to the front and driven down into the turf with a force to the back of the head. I'm not a Dr., but once concussed, future injury to the head is more likely. I doubt very much we'll see him on Saturday. Best wishes out to Tanner.

On a positive note; it would be nice to give AK a week to work out timing. Each QB has their own way and the team gets used to the QB who's been the starter (for years). 1 week is not enough, but it's better than coming in cold in the middle of game.

AK has a heck of an arm. I like it that he's not gun-shy either.
 
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I don't think people are talking enough about the energy change in the receivers in the second half. It could just be the offensive scheme changed but the guys seemed to be playing with confidence and energy when AK was out there. Dylan Wright did a complete 180 and started playing to his size, and seemingly out of nowhere Jackson was creating space between him and the back.

It could be coincidence but it seems like the receivers are enjoying a deeper threat behind center. It will be interesting to see how they play a full game if AK does make the start on Saturday.
 

Up to this point a lot of the argument for AK has been about playing for the future. Which I still completely disagree with. We play the guy that gives this team the best chance to win right now. And I think AK is that guy right now. He adds a few other dimensions Morgan can't. And with a bad WR group, I think that's extremely important. It also seems to be important to the play-calling as it was night and day different from 1st half to 2nd half.
Agree. If one QB has skillsets that can create plays with his arm and feet that can make up for some of the other deficiencies, then that is who should be at the helm. As a defender, my approach changes when I have to deal with somebody who can run and throw frozen ropes past my head. An extra 1/2 second of thinking can mean the difference between a receiver getting open or a receiver struggling to get separation. If I know the QB is no real threat to run and isn't going to beat me with precision rockets, especially deep, I can focus almost entirely on blanketing the receiver instead.
 

Gophers took full advantage of the change of pace AK brought to the offense. It will be a totally different story when the opponent is prepared for it.
So it's easy for defenses to prepare to defend the entire field?
 

Sure, you can try to prepare for a very athletic/mobile QB bringing that extra dimension.

But you can only do that if you take away from other areas you're trying to defend.
The next three opponents all have to prepare for AK in expectation they will see him at some point in the game. It is easy to prepare for Morgan because Gophers are basic vanilla with him. You crowd the box, crowd the receivers and defend a a small, tight section of the field.

It is much more difficult to prepare against Kaliakmanis because now the receivers have time to use a much bigger field. This in turn opens better running lanes for Mo as linebackers are unsure of dropping or playing run.

To compound the defensive challenge you can also end up with Dbacks and LBs back in coverage and the QB tucks and runs.

With AK the Gophers go from easy to defense to complicated and difficult to defend against.
 


The next three opponents all have to prepare for AK in expectation they will see him at some point in the game. It is easy to prepare for Morgan because Gophers are basic vanilla with him. You crowd the box, crowd the receivers and defend a a small, tight section of the field.

It is much more difficult to prepare against Kaliakmanis because now the receivers have time to use a much bigger field. This in turn opens better running lanes for Mo as linebackers are unsure of dropping or playing run.

To compound the defensive challenge you can also end up with Dbacks and LBs back in coverage and the QB tucks and runs.

With AK the Gophers go from easy to defense to complicated and difficult to defend against.
Just to add to this, when you get the ball there quicker, the DBs have less time to react. So the receivers don't even need to get as much separation from the defender to be open, assuming the the passes are still delivered accurately.
 

Are about participation trophies now?

PJ is making men, men can handle being beat out.
Everyone loves the backup qb and the next coach. Gophers have underperformed and I guess Morgan is the scapegoat. New kid looks promising but a loss and beat a really bad Nebraska team. He hasn’t beat out anybody. Go look at the posts through the first 4 games. Morgan was a god and so wow kc. It’s all just noise, the fact is they haven’t beat a good team just like the whole big ten west. It was there year to win it with the normal powers down and they could t do that so far. Let the blame game begin.
 


Everyone loves the backup qb and the next coach. Gophers have underperformed and I guess Morgan is the scapegoat. New kid looks promising but a loss and beat a really bad Nebraska team. He hasn’t beat out anybody. Go look at the posts through the first 4 games. Morgan was a god and so wow kc. It’s all just noise, the fact is they haven’t beat a good team just like the whole big ten west. It was there year to win it with the normal powers down and they could t do that so far. Let the blame game begin.
Not sure of your point here other than to squeeze off another tiresome cliche "everyone loves the backup".

He played his first real against the best team we've faced all year and lost. The starter would have lost in that game (judging by his performance the week before and the week after PSU) as well. Perhaps by more. The backup had a nice game and then* led a come-from behind win in his second major action.

No need to make it personal with the players. If you've been watching the games, you should see the difference plainly.

*edited for clarification
 
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Not sure of your point here other than to squeeze off another tiresome cliche "everyone loves the backup".

He played his first real against the best team we've faced all year and lost. The starter would have lost in that game (judging by his performance the week before and the week after PSU) as well. Perhaps by more. The backup had a nice game and led a come-from behind win in his second major action.

No need to make it personal with the players. If you've been watching the games, you should see the difference plainly.
Wait till they get some tape on him. Maybe your right but time will tell. Did I miss something or didn’t they get crushed by Penn state and they had a nice comeback against Nebraska. Not a big enough sample size for me. Looked like mo did most of the work also.
 

Not sure of your point here other than to squeeze off another tiresome cliche "everyone loves the backup".

He played his first real against the best team we've faced all year and lost. The starter would have lost in that game (judging by his performance the week before and the week after PSU) as well. Perhaps by more. The backup had a nice game and led a come-from behind win in his second major action.

No need to make it personal with the players. If you've been watching the games, you should see the difference plainly.

And that difference should surely make itself even more plain going forward.

Beat Northwestern (1-8). Beat Iowa (5-4). Beat Wisconsin (5-4). Total Opponent Won-Loss: 11-16.

Otherwise... is there a difference?
 

I would think that we could call Conor Rhoda out of retirement and have him play QB... and still beat 1-8 Northwestern.

Right?
 

And that difference should surely make itself even more plain going forward.

Beat Northwestern (1-8). Beat Iowa (5-4). Beat Wisconsin (5-4). Total Opponent Won-Loss: 11-16.

Otherwise... is there a difference?
I think there will be. We'll see.
 




All the KFAN "mediocre, mediocre, mediocre" talk... that gets really, really interesting about now.

Are Northwestern, Iowa and Wisconsin "mediocre"? Or are they (Meat Sauce) "hideous"?

Rubber meets the road... right about now.
 






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