Strack: It’s Time for Tanner Morgan to Sink or Swim

[BleedGopher]

per Strack:

Sink or Swim vs Purdue​

So it’s time to take the training wheels off of Tanner Morgan, whether he’s ready or not. The coaching staff needs to show their confidence in him by putting more weight of the outcome on his shoulders. At this point, if you can’t trust Morgan then it’s time to turn to the next guy in line. Since losing OC Kirk Ciarrocca and wide receivers, Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman, the Kentucky kid’s failed to produce results worthy of a power 5 QB.

With your star running back, Mohamed Ibrahim, out and defenses keying to stop the run, trusting Tanner’s arm is a very logical offensive game plan. So PJ Fleck and Mike Sanford should scheme and call a game that is much more balanced vs what we witnessed last weekend.

Both guys have talked this week about doing exactly that, while still staying true to themselves. We’ll see if that actually happens. And if it does, we’ll indeed see whether or not Tanner Morgan is the right guy to lead the Minnesota Gophers going forward. I’ll be in the press box at West Lafayette when we find out. My first road game as a big j. Hopefully it’s a W.

It's Time for Tanner Morgan to Sink or Swim

After a terrible loss last weekend vs BGSU that exposed the Minnesota Gophers lack of pass game, it's sink or swim time for Tanner Morgan vs Purdue.

www.minnesotasportsfan.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Time for the OL to do it's job too...

Swimming when you're running for your life on every play is a big ask.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Time for the OL to do it's job too...

Swimming when you're running for your life on every play is a big ask.

Yeah, he needs a lot better play out of the O-Line this week. They struggled big time last week but they aren't fully to blame for the lack of any real attempt to establish any sort of passing game.

The writer has a point, they need to trust Morgan or need to put in someone else. Less than 10 pass attempts late in a game you are trailing isn't good. Tanner has a ton of experience and back in 2019 one of the things that really stood out about him was that he seemed to make good decisions about where to go with the ball and rarely made those dangerous throws.

Everyone associated with the program knows what happened against Bowling Green can't happen again. Will be very interesting to see how they come out against Purdue.

 

[Gold Rush]

A couple years ago, Purdue stuffed the box and dared Minnesota to throw. Morgan had a phenomenal game - he hit like 20-22 passing and just trashed the Boilermakers. He CAN do it - he needs to get a decent gameplan and perhaps his confidence back.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

A couple years ago, Purdue stuffed the box and dared Minnesota to throw. Morgan had a phenomenal game - he hit like 20-22 passing and just trashed the Boilermakers. He CAN do it - he needs to get a decent gameplan and perhaps his confidence back.

From what we've seen so far.

I suspect we can expect that from every team now. There's no reason for them to NOT do that every play.

 

[SamSquatch]

For so long, the identity of the program has tried to be running the football, and we called plays accordingly. It is completely intuitive then that defenses would start to bet on the run, and play heavy in the box.

The response to that HAS to be passing the football, though our QBs, OL, and WRs were not capable of that until more recently. You just have to be able to hit timing routes and you have to have (or at least try) some long-shot explosive plays that end in TDs. This middle school football game plan just can't work week in, week out at the CFB level.

Since Mason left (not a Mason-stan, just calling out), the Gopher offense has been absolutely brutal to watch (2019 aside). I am rooting for Tanner so hard, and fully believe he can execute. But regardless of whether it is Tanner or another QB, I want to see the Gophers throw the football more, and especially when the run game is not working well enough to win the game.

 

[stocker08]

Hooray. A writer gets it. Unleash a passing attack and let's see how it does. As I've brought up multiple times since last Saturday.....Morgan was 5/7 on first down passes up until the last two drives.....when the game should have been all but put away. Putting him in obvious third and long passing downs and judging him based on that is unfair. BG was blitzing heavily on those third and longs and the combo of a lazy o-line and no quick strike routes hurt.

The offensive playcalling was basically exactly what they were hoping for. And adjustments weren't made.

 

[hungan1]

Yeah, he needs a lot better play out of the O-Line this week. They struggled big time last week but they aren't fully to blame for the lack of any real attempt to establish any sort of passing game.

The writer has a point, they need to trust Morgan or need to put in someone else. Less than 10 pass attempts late in a game you are trailing isn't good. Tanner has a ton of experience and back in 2019 one of the things that really stood out about him was that he seemed to make good decisions about where to go with the ball and rarely made those dangerous throws.

Everyone associated with the program knows what happened against Bowling Green can't happen again. Will be very interesting to see how they come out against Purdue.

Yup. There are trust issues everywhere in the Offense. Mo was such a huge loss.

They're like a well-oiled Offense with Mo and CAB in there.

Now, TM is a different QB with CAB hurt. Trust is not there yet between the other receivers and him.

So, yea I could see why the BGSU disaster occurred. It didn't help when the coach went for it on 4th and 1 on the 29th.

The Purdue game will define who the Gophers truly are.

It is what it is. Kumbaya time is over. This is where the rubber meets the road.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Yup. There are trust issues everywhere in the Offense. Mo was such a huge loss.

They're like a well-oiled Offense with Mo and CAB in there.

Now, TM is a different QB with CAB hurt. Trust is not there yet between the other receivers and him.

So, yea I could see why the BGSU disaster occurred. It didn't help when the coach went for it on 4th and 1 on the 29th.

The Purdue game will define who the Gophers truly are.

It is what it is. Kumbaya time is over. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Or where the rudder meets the water.

To a quote in the original article, if the training wheels are still on with a four year starter RS Senior, that is its own problem. Next year, no matter who we go with, they are going to be less experienced than Tanner. And I still don't want them in training wheels if they are starting QB for a B1G football team.

 

[MGGopher]

Hooray. A writer gets it. Unleash a passing attack and let's see how it does. As I've brought up multiple times since last Saturday.....Morgan was 5/7 on first down passes up until the last two drives.....when the game should have been all but put away. Putting him in obvious third and long passing downs and judging him based on that is unfair. BG was blitzing heavily on those third and longs and the combo of a lazy o-line and no quick strike routes hurt.

The offensive playcalling was basically exactly what they were hoping for. And adjustments weren't made.

This is absolutely spot on. Tanner Morgan has proven himself to be a capable B1G QB. The failures in the passing game are many this year, and IMO Tanner Morgan is only directly responsible for a small percentage of that. He can absolutely play better, but the staff needs to put him and the rest of the offense in position to succeed. Throwing in obvious passing situations only is a recipte for disaster.

 

[Taji34]

Sanford says he scripts the first 12 plays right? Why not script 12 passing plays, get Morgan a TON of chances to figure it out.

 

[stocker08]

Sanford says he scripts the first 12 plays right? Why not script 12 passing plays, get Morgan a TON of chances to figure it out.

Any script I get from Sanford is going directly in the trash can.

 

[LakevilleBro]

If Morgan struggles again, you really need to give another QB a chance to perform.

 

[Dakota2]

For so long, the identity of the program has tried to be running the football, and we called plays accordingly. It is completely intuitive then that defenses would start to bet on the run, and play heavy in the box.

The response to that HAS to be passing the football, though our QBs, OL, and WRs were not capable of that until more recently. You just have to be able to hit timing routes and you have to have (or at least try) some long-shot explosive plays that end in TDs. This middle school football game plan just can't work week in, week out at the CFB level.

Since Mason left (not a Mason-stan, just calling out), the Gopher offense has been absolutely brutal to watch (2019 aside). I am rooting for Tanner so hard, and fully believe he can execute. But regardless of whether it is Tanner or another QB, I want to see the Gophers throw the football more, and especially when the run game is not working well enough to win the game.

The run game always works best when defense has to cover whole field or at least gamble/guess whether to load box or play pass. Sanford's main talent is ability to take all risk/gamble out of defenses play calling.

BG might beat Bama if the Tide had Sanford running their offense.