By Bill Sorrell
When Tanner Morgan turns the corner in the University of Minnesota athletic building he sometimes gets mistaken for head football coach P.J. Fleck.
Both are bald.
A redshirt senior quarterback, Morgan turned the corner spiritually when he got to Minnesota.
“I grew up going to church. When I got to college my faith became my own after my first year in college. I truly decided to follow Jesus,” said Morgan.
During the Ultimate Training Camp, sponsored by Athletes in Action for college and pro athletes about how to blend faith and sports, between his freshman and sophomore year Morgan’s eyes were opened how he looked at God.
“My relationship with God was like a genie in a bottle.” He said. “My relationship used to be about things He could do for me. My life changed completely when I realized that my view with God was totally off. I was really able to find God and seek that relationship fully. My life changed forever. It’s been filled with purpose and love and I know where I am going. I know who the most important relationship is in my life.
“I want to develop a deeper relationship with God each day and walk more in tune with the (Holy) Spirit and honor God with my actions.”
Every game on his wrist tape he writes AO1 (Audience of One) and his wrist band a capital W and small w, Worship and win.
“The first point is using the tool of football as an opportunity to worship God and how I play and how I treat people on the field. I play the game to win. Just because you area Christian doesn’t mean you can’t be a competitor. God encourages us to run the race to win,” said Morgan. “The Bible talks about running the race in our walk with Christ.”
1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that those who run a race all run, but only one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may win.”
Morgan has a wanting-to-win spirit for the people on his team and those around him.
At Minnesota, Morgan has been a winner. He led the Golden Gophers to an 11-2 record in 2019, the first time they had won 11 games since 1904. They were ranked No. 10 in the final Associated Press poll and had victories over Top 10 teams Penn State and Auburn, which came in the Outback Bowl.
Morgan has set 11 school records including season passing yards (3, 253), season touchdown passes (30), season completion percentage (66 percent, 210 of 318) season passing yards per game (250.2), passing yards in a bowl game (218 in the Outback Bowl) and season pass efficiency rating (178.7). In a 2019 victory over Purdue, he had the highest completion percentage in Big Ten Conference history (95.45 percent, 21 of 22).
Fleck, the Big 10 Coach of the Year in 2019, said, “We talk about how on elite teams that players lead. On great teams coaches lead and on bad teams nobody leads. Tanner is an elite leader, both by his words and his actions. I have full trust in him to always do the right thing and to lead this team.”
Holder Casey O’Brien, Morgan’s teammate 2017-2020, said, “Everything that goes on in our football program runs through Tanner. He has the most respect of any player in this building and his work ethic and performance have earned that. He will stand in the pocket and take a hit to get a ball off and our guys love him for that. He’s a tough kid.”
Morgan is committed to help his team win in every way he can and on Saturdays it was attention to “little details” that helped him achieve success along with “the help of a lot of really good coaches and teammates around me and everybody coming together for one great cause.
“I want to get better each day and do my best in every area. That comes with changing your best every day. We do everything we can to be successful.”
Fleck stresses for his team to work to be better than the day before.
“We talk about changing our best around here and if we improve every day and strive to be elite, then we will end up exactly where we are supposed to be,” he said.
Morgan wants to inspire his team as a leader. He wants to be accurate, push the ball down the field, make solid decisions. His leadership enables him to command a spread offense with run-pass options that has pro-style qualities.
After playing his freshman and sophomore years at Hazard (Ky.) High School, Morgan played his junior and senior years at Ryle High School in Union, Ky. He passed for 2,747 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2016 as a senior and rushed for 320 yards and five touchdowns. He led the Raiders to a 12-1 record and state quarterfinals. He was a finalist for Mr. Kentucky Football.
In high school he passed for more than 10,000 yards, a feat only a handful of quarterbacks in Kentucky have accomplished. Rivals.com ranked him as the No. 5 player in Kentucky.
However, he was overlooked by most colleges. He committed to Western Michigan, but when Fleck was hired at Minnesota, he de-committed and went there.
His cousin, Tim Couch, University of Kentucky quarterback 1996-98 and Cleveland Browns quarterback from 1999-2003, has told him doing things the right way will pay off. Morgan wore jersey No. 2 in high school in honor of Couch.
Morgan knows he is being watched as a college quarterback.
“People look up to you. You are in the spotlight. That gives you a platform to talk about the Good News of Jesus. All the terrible things that go on in the world allows the opportunity to share what is good and about God,” he said. “God’s purpose for me is to spread the gospel to be able to bring people to the kingdom of God.”
Morgan leads a Bible study for players on the team,
During a meeting the told them, “When I invited Jesus into my heart, when I followed Christ with everything to be on that path, that was a turning a point. I had Christ in my life fully. The greatest decision anyone can make is accepting Christ in your life.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 is vital to Morgan.
“For by grace you have been saved by faith, that not of yourselves, a gift of God not by works lest any man should boast.”
“That is so powerful because it is not about what we do,” he said. “It’s grace, an unearned gift that Jesus gave through the cross. We can have eternity with Him because it is not about what we do, but what He did.
“Jesus was fully man, fully God. Coming down to earth to break the weight of my sins, of everyone’s sin so that I may have eternal life through Him. The sacrifice that Jesus gave His life, the honor and grace that I receive as a follower of Jesus the savior.”
Morgan wants others to know that he is a Christian by how he lives, how he treats and interacts with others, sharing the gospel, developing relationships, being a disciple.
He is active in Currynt, a partnership of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Athletes in Action, that is unique to the Twin Cities.
“To be able to serve in those two ministries is really cool,” he said.
He is being discipled by team chaplain and head of Athletes in Action, Luke Middendorf. The group studies the Bible and does things campuswide.
Former Minnesota punter Ryan Santoso, now a punter for the New York Giants, and former Gophers receiver Matthew Morse, who is now in seminary in Denver, discipled Morgan when they were in school.
“They showed me what it was like to love and follow Jesus through the way they lived their lives,” Morgan said.
His “really awesome” family, parents Ted and Pat Morgan and grandparents Robert and Bertha Napier and Margaret Bowling, had a great spiritual impact.
In Spring, 2020, Ted Morgan was diagnosed with brain cancer.
“I was broken. I was scared, in fear of losing my dad. It was real. Fear is one of the things that comes with cancer. Cancer is a really scary thing. It was an aggressive brain tumor,” he said.
Ted Morgan had surgery after his diagnosis and is now taking chemotherapy orally.
“We had to come together with God’s help. He met my dad’s needs. It’s something that God did, not a medical thing. He is so passionate about the Lord Jesus. His faith was so comforting as well as God giving us strength,” Tanner said.
O’Brien, a five-time cancer survivor, said of Morgan, “He has always been there for me and supported me through every one of my battles with cancer. He is a very positive spiritual influence in my life and a great friend. I truly look at him as my brother and we have a special relationship that everyone can see.
“He has encouraged me to strengthen my faith because I see how much confidence he lives with trusting God. He has influenced me to read the Bible daily and I strive to be a light for others in the faith like he is.
“He has given me verses when I have been battling cancer that have inspired me to put my faith completely in God’s hands. I am very thankful for him. He trusts in God in everything he does. Whether that is a game on Saturday or in his struggles as he watched his dad battle cancer. He has so much faith and trust in God’s plan for him.”
Reading the Bible is a priority for Morgan.
“In college athletics your schedule is very packed,” he said. “There are excuses not to get into the Word. I have experienced that when you find time to spend your time with God it’s amazing what will happen in your day,” said Morgan.
He has found answers to every question that he is looking for through the Bible.
Throughout his day Morgan tries not to do things on his own, but to walk in the Spirit.
“How I use my faith in everyday life is having trust and belief and I am called to a greater purpose. It allows you to know whose you are instead of what you do,” said Morgan. “Our first identity is being a Christian, not in being a football player.”
A life verse for Morgan is Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for man.”
“I have matured in my faith,” he said. “The road isn’t always an easy one. We are not promised an easy life being a Christian. But in our hardships that we endure in life we are able to glorify God. Paul is an awesome example of that,” he said.
Morgan has “honest conversations” about God and the gospel and a “passion” for people.
“I love having deep and meaningful relationships,” he said. “You have a lot of similarities with a lot of different people. You have 100 guys in the locker room and you build relationships really fast with those 100 guys.”
Being vocal about his faith inspires many teammates O’Brien said.
Morgan has taken extra time to meet with O’Brien when he wants to get into the Word.
“He has so much knowledge and loves to share it with others,” said O’Brien.
Said Fleck, “Tanner’s faith is very important to him and he shares that with his teammates in a very welcoming way. When you have 115 people on a football team, you are going to have many people believe in different things. He’s incredibly respectful and appreciative of all beliefs.”
Faith has helped enable Morgan to meet and exceed expectations and guide him, said Fleck.
“Tanner makes a difference every day in our team athletically, academically, socially and spiritually,” said Fleck. “The hard part about being the standard is that you are the standard. Tanner has accepted and welcomed the role of being the standard and does not shy away from the responsibility.
“College is a time when young people are supposed to learn about themselves and transition from high school to adulthood. When you are a college athlete, you are making that transition under bright lights. When you are a quarterback in the Big Ten, you are making the transition under the brightest of lights. There is no moment too big for Tanner. He understands that his position as a leader of our team and as an ambassador for the University of Minnesota and the state comes with responsibility.”
Morgan’s calm demeanor and presence are among his strengths.
“We can be in front of 100,000 people on a Saturday or in his apartment reading the Word and he is the exact same,” O’Brien said. “He does not get too high or too low emotionally and a lot of guys look to him to calm them down on the field. He is a great leader for our team that way,” said O’Brien.
“He is such a great competitor. You will not find another quarterback in the country that studies the game as much as he does.”
“People don’t see the work I put in behind the scenes all year long, the commitment aspect and hard work mentality,” Morgan said.
“The best leaders are tremendous listeners and Tanner is an elite listener. No matter what meeting we are in, team offense, quarterbacks or an off-the-field presentation, Tanner is in the front row taking notes. It might be the first time or the 100th time he has been in the meeting. He is always working to pick up something that he can use to better himself and the team.”
“He prepares for each situation at an extremely high level and believes that our team is capable of anything. I think that was evident in 2019 when our team posted Top 10 wins against Penn State and Auburn. He believed and our entire team believed that we would win those football games.”
To see Minnesota fans storm the field after the 2019 upset win over Penn State showed Morgan how much the victory meant.
Fleck has seen the Gophers put themselves into a position to win games through their belief. A third and 30 against Georgia Southern (a 35-32 win) and a fourth and game against Fresno State (a 38-35 win) proved their capability.
Morgan was named All-Big 10 honorable mrention in 2020 and All-Big 10 Second Team in 2019. He was a Davey O’Brien Award and Manning Award semifinalist in 2019 and Big 10 Offensive Player of the Week twice in 2019. He was Big 10 Freshman of the Week in 2018. He was Academic All-Big 10 in 2019 and 2018.
Now earning a Master’s degree in sports management, Morgan has a 4.0 GPA and had a 3.5 GPA as an undergraduate. He wants to work in a front office but “wherever God takes me and puts on my heart is what I want to do,” he said.
“In terms of my career, football is what I love to do. I can’t see myself doing anything else right now. I love football. That inspiration to be the best I can be really does drive me,” he said.
The connections he has made with Minnesota players and coaches and the bonding and memories made during the 2019 season and the team success have provided fulfillment.
Morgan grew up going to his grandparent Napier’s church, Victory Assembly of God in Hazard.
“The Holy Spirit was very present in those services. It is a tight community. They have each other to lean on for prayer,” said Morgan, who was baptized when he was 10. He attended Seven Hills Church, a non-denominational church in Florence, Ky., after his move to Union. He attends Eden Prairie (Minn.) Assembly of God church and a campus Thursday night service called Salt.
Because of his Christian beliefs he knows there are experiences where people are looking for Christians to “mess up. I have not experienced that, but I think that is a lot of people’s view toward Christians and people who live their lives differently,” he said.
During the Fall of 2020, Morgan went every Monday to play dodge ball at Nokomis Montessori School in Saint Paul. He and other teammates visit patients in Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. They served at Christmas by packing bags of gifts for patients.
“That is something we do at Minnesota, we serve and give,” Morgan said.
Morgan and the team bought into Fleck’s “Row the Boat” mantra of energy, sacrifice and direction buoyed by a never give up attitude.
O’Brien said that he can’t wait to watch the work Morgan has put in leading up to the 2021 season pay off.
“He will be fun to watch.”
Morgan said that he wants “to do my best to be my best every day.”
Fleck said, “When you have faith as strong as Tanner, you believe you can accomplish anything.”
