The Minnesota Golden Gophers enter Homecoming week ranked no. 21 in the AP Poll, their first time in the rankings since 2020.
That ranking is due to their dominant performance last Saturday over Big Ten goliath Michigan State. The Gophers beat the Spartans 34-7 and totalled 508 yards on offense.
The leader of that offensive onslaught was Tanner Morgan, who has been the Gophers starting quarterback since the second half of the 2018 season. He has had his fair share of highs, like the 2019 season, and lows, like the 2021 season, but the sixth-year veteran has seemed to have returned to a high.
Back with his original offensive coordinator, Kirk Ciarrocca, Morgan has passed for 886 yards and seven touchdowns with only one interception this season. His quarterback rating (QBR) of 88.8 is fifth nationally, and he’s completed 77.2% of his passes, which ranks second-best.
Morgan diced up the Spartans’ secondary, only missing on two of his 25 passes in week four. He finished the day providing 268 yards through the air, scoring three times and rushing three times for 27 yards.
Due to this spectacular performance, Morgan was awarded Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors. He shared the award with Michigan running back Blake Corum, who ran for 243 yards on 30 carries, reaching the end zone twice against Maryland.
“[Morgan] constantly wants to make everyone else around him better,” said Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck. “I think sometimes we take that for granted. I’m not saying we, internally, but when people look at Tanner, they don’t see all that every single day.”
Fleck continued, “they see him out there on Saturdays. They see him throw a pass here and there. They see complete or incomplete. Did he scramble? Did he get the first down or not? But we see him as the person he is, and I just keep seeing that (he’s) getting better and better. And he’s just super competitive, which is what you want in a leader.”
Pro Football Focus (PFF), which studies players and teams by using complex statistics, not only ranks Morgan as the top quarterback in the nation, but his 95.5 grade is the best of any football player in the country, regardless of position.
“He’s just a better player,” said Ciarrocca on how Morgan has improved since he last coached Minnesota in 2019. “I recognized that as soon as I got here. He’s had more experiences and everyone learns better through experience … if he fails, he embraces it as an opportunity to grow.”
The No. 21 ranked Gophers will host Purdue on Saturday at 11 a.m. televised on ESPN2. Sitting at 4-0 on the season, Minnesota cannot overlook their opponents this week.
“I think complacency is the number one killer of success,” Morgan said. “We always have that ‘change your best’ attitude of ‘we have to get better.’ We win a game and then we see a lot of clips Sunday and realize that we have to get better. I think that is just what our culture is.”
