Tanner

One Last Ride for Tanner Morgan

Football Gophers NCAA
Rob10k

A fitting ending for Tanner

Tanner Morgan’s career ended fittingly in the same way it started. An injury to the starting QB ultimately led to him stepping in and winning the game for the Gophers. With flashes of the 2019 season, Tanner stepped in and delivered 2 touchdown passes that led Minnesota to a 28-20 victory and a perfect 5-0 bowl season record. Despite what you feel about Tanner and the Gopher QB situation, all you can do is thank him and tip your cap to the work he put in. He provided stability to a position that has been in question for as long as the Gophers have had a football program. A Community Giver, a School record holder, a PJ fleck look-alike, and lastly a “Gopher Great”.

What’s meant to be vs what happens.

If we rewind 6 years ago to the day PJ Fleck was hired by the U of M. It not only changed PJ’s life and career, but also Tanners. For him, if PJ waits a year and stays at Western Michigan. Tanner enrolls and probably remains a non-power 5 quarterback for his career. But on that day, PJ chose the Gophers and brought Tanner with him. This led to a magical 2019 season and Tanner Morgan maxed out his potential as a Power 5 QB.

Although he was never able to continue the magic of 2019 into the last three seasons, he played as heavy of a part as anyone in the rebuild and maintained the consistency of the Gophers under PJ Fleck. Since I’ve been watching the Gophers, one 9-win season every couple of years was about as high as it gets. Now it’s our normal and many Gopher fans take that for granted. It’s not that we can’t want more, but we also need to realize where we came from. From my eyes, he leaves the Golden Gophers in a far better place than when he arrived.

A Final Thank you

From breaking School records to mentoring the QB of the future in Athan Kalikamanis, we say thank you to Tanner for all of the effort and work he has put into the U. I hope tanner gets an invite to the combine and gets a shot at the NFL. When he’s paired with the right coordinator and has good protection he can dial it up just like anyone else. If he doesn’t have a chance to play at the next level, I would bet any amount of money he is back as a coach at the U of M. I already know he will be a future college coach if not further.

The 2019 season along with the Penn State win will be remembered as highly as any season in the last 30-40 years. A true leader and as good of a guy as any, thank you Tanner Morgan for helping bring Minnesota’s love for Gopher football back.