Will it be Tanner Morgan or Athan Kaliakmanis under center when the Minnesota Gophers face Rutgers at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday?
Morgan, the sixth-year senior quarterback, missed Saturday’s 45-17 loss at Penn State because he was in the concussion protocol, having suffered the brain injury in Minnesota’s loss at Illinois the week before. Asked Wednesday about Morgan’s status, head coach P.J. Fleck said Morgan’s fate is up to the medical staff.
“Again, the medical team is making all of the decisions. I’m not making the decisions. That’s where we are right now,” Fleck said on KFAN radio.
Last week, the Morgan mystery wasn’t solved until about an hour before kickoff. That could be the way it goes this week with the Gophers set to face Rutgers at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. If Morgan doesn’t play, it’ll likely be Kaliakmanis making his second straight start.
“He’s freaky-talented,” Fleck said of the redshirt freshman QB. “His play showed the future of Gopher football with him at quarterback, the talent that he has. Once that continues to get developed within the system he’s going to be really, really good.”
Kaliakmanis attempted just 22 passes in the blowout loss at Penn State. He completed nine of them for 175 yards and a touchdown and was picked off once.
Minnesota’s offense has been out of sorts the past three weeks, having scored just 10, 14 and 17 points, respectively, after averaging nearly 44 points per game when they began the season 4-0.
