Gophers' QB Tanner Morgan excited for upcoming season
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When the Big Ten Conference announced the postponement of its 2020 football season on Aug. 11 due to concerns stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic, it had an immediate effect on the league’s member schools.
No football season? That’s not easy news for coaches, players, fans and all those involved with the sport in the Big Ten to digest. Just like Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said during a press conference a couple months ago, every team wanted to play this fall. It was as simple as that.
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That Aug. 11th announcement was heartbreaking, but the conference’s news just over a month later on Sept. 16th announcing that it was reinstating its football campaign and playing a nine-game season beginning Oct. 24th immediately changed those moods from heartbreaking to exhilarating.
There will be a Big Ten football season, and Minnesota redshirt junior quarterback Tanner Morgan is fired up.
“Our team’s really excited to play football this fall,” Morgan said during a press conference on Sept. 22nd. “We trust the doctors and professionals to do their jobs and put us in safer environments. With being able to play football, our team’s been very excited to be able to realize that we’ve got five weeks to get ready for Oct. 24th. We have to treat each practice like it’s a game to get ready and get prepared.
“It’s definitely a blessing, and it helps us to be able to understand that nothings not given; this is a privilege. Being able to play collegiate football in the Big Ten is a privilege. We’re just very blessed to get the opportunity to compete this fall.”
Morgan, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound offensive pilot from Union, Ky., is coming off a standout sophomore season in 2019.
Starting all 13 games for the Gophers a year ago, Morgan set program single-season records for passing yards (3,253) and passing touchdowns (30). He also set single-season records in completion percentage (66%), passing yards per game (250.2), pass efficiency rating (178.7) and touchdown-interception ratio (4.28) while being named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week twice and a member of the All-Big Ten Second Team.
While Morgan had a successful year from an individual standpoint, he has still been looking for ways to improve and said he spent quite a bit of time in the offseason just learning more about how he can be the best he can be as a quarterback.
“One huge thing we did as quarterbacks was going to football school. Learning different defensive fronts, coverages -- things like that,” Morgan said. “Coach (Mike) Sanford did a great job of leading us in that. Just understanding more football ins and outs was awesome. Another thing that was huge was footwork and pocket movement, being able to stay more firm in the pocket and having better feet -- the little minor details. Those go a long way in the course of a football season; it could be the difference in a touchdown and an incompletion. We’ve really been getting after the tiniest of things.”
With the Big Ten just announcing the news that the season was happening last Wednesday, Minnesota had to quickly get back to work in prepping for its Oct. 24th opener vs. Michigan at TCF Bank Stadium.
While everything has happened so fast, Morgan said that the Gophers’ day-to-day operations have been running smoothly and the team has really been focused on the upcoming season.
“It’s obviously been a bit different than training camp with class and things like that, but Coach (Fleck) has done a great job and it’s been just right for us,” Morgan said. “It’s been absolutely just right with the amount of load of practice, walkthroughs, all kinds of different stuff. We’ve been mentally locked-in and able to take the next step as an offense. We’ve been really locked-in on our details every single day, whether it’s a practice, a walkthrough or live stuff.”
As COVID-19 is still ongoing across the world and continuing to make adjustments to everyday life, Morgan said Minnesota is doing a great job of keeping its campus -- and football team -- as safe as possible from the virus.
“The University of Minnesota is doing everything that they can to make us be in a safe environment -- and I’m blessed that they’re doing that,” Morgan said. “Our team’s very excited. We’re really grateful that they’re taking it seriously through our President and AD’s leadership.”
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