F.A.M.I.L.Y
Tanner Morgan and Tom Hager
In Partnership with Athletes For God
“What does pressure bring out of you?
This was in the days leading up to the Penn State game, and here I was, staring at a lump of coal. It was a gift courtesy of our head coach, P.J. Fleck, who always knew exactly how to inspire us. We were getting ready to play the biggest game of our lives that Saturday against Penn State, and Coach Fleck knew the pressure we were facing.
Both teams were 8-0, and you could just feel the excitement that week on campus as everyone waited for kickoff. This was arguably the biggest game in the history of the Minnesota program, and in case we couldn’t tell how big of a deal this was, ABC was broadcasting the game on national television. Pressure can either make or break you, so when Coach Fleck asked us what pressure brings out of us, there was no guarantee of what answer he would get. I reflected for a moment and then inscribed my answer on the coal.
My best.
That answer wasn’t just a confident guess about how I would feel on Saturday. It was a reflection of the adversity I had faced. The weaknesses I had overcome. And the temptations I chose to ignore.
Nearly 7 million people would watch that Penn State game, many of whom were watching myself and our team play for the first time, but my story starts way before then. It really starts back in high school, when I wasn’t sure if a moment like this would be possible. My name is Tanner Morgan and this is my story.
When I was a kid I always dreamed of playing on a big stage, with millions of people watching me…I just didn’t know if I’d ever get that chance.
My high school career got off to a great start, because I was able to start for my varsity football team as a freshman. I was able to play pretty well for those first two years, but I struggled to gain a lot of attention from college coaches. I transferred schools, hoping that with a bigger school I would have a better shot at landing scholarship offers. I also started working with a former D1 quarterback named Paul Troth to try and fix any flaws in my throwing motion. I was really committed to getting better as a quarterback.
And yet the offers from Big 10 or SEC schools never materialized.
The one thing I failed to do as an upperclassmen was get much taller, and as a result I seemed like a risk to a lot of coaches. What was actually harder on me was seeing the kids who were getting offered, and having to fight the envy that can come along with seeing others achieve their dreams. As it turned out, it wouldn’t be the last time I would have to fight that battle.
I decided to commit to Western Michigan, where Coach Fleck was coaching at the time. So maybe it wasn’t a Power-5 program, and maybe it would be difficult to compete for a national championship there, but at least I would get to play for the best coach in the country.
Things looked like they might change when Coach Fleck took the head coaching job at Minnesota in January of my senior year. Minnesota had not offered me before, and just because he recruited me to play at the MAC level, that didn’t necessarily mean he thought I could play in the Big 10. And yet, on the very day he was hired at Minnesota, he decided to give me a call. He still wanted me to play for him, even though no other school in the conference had that level of confidence in me.
I committed that same day, and just like that I was following him to Minneapolis.
Coach Fleck’s endorsement of my skills meant a lot to me, and there were probably times where he had more confidence in me than I had in myself. That’s not always the best thing as a quarterback, but Coach Fleck helped me to believe in my own abilities. He’s one of the main reasons why I am so joyful to be here.
Looking back now, I truly feel God wanted me on this campus for a reason, and I honestly think coming here to a different environment allowed me to grow in my faith. But it hasn’t all been easy since that day I committed here. Before I could write “my best” on that coal last year, there was a big test I was going to have to pass
If I was going to win the starting quarterback job, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me.
I redshirted in 2017, so I waited an entire season to keep all four years of my eligibility. But even with all that time to learn the system, I still didn’t have a lock on the starting position. We had another great quarterback in Zack Annexstad, and throughout the fall camp there was little indication as to who would win the starting job.
Then 10 days before the opener I heard the news. When our offense would take its first series of the season against New Mexico State, I would be remaining on the sideline.
That’s never easy news to take. Even though I’ve been taught since childhood that jealousy is a bad thing, being the backup is still not an easy thing to accept. Fortunately, I had a lot of help in handling the situation with grace. First off, Zack is a Christian himself, and he set a great example for me on how to handle myself with class. I also didn’t want to be a hypocrite, because I knew my faith required me to not be jealous of Zack.
I also knew that since he was also younger than me, I might not ever start a game in my Minnesota career, but I had no intentions of leaving. I didn’t want to do that to Coach Fleck or my teammates, who were still counting on me if something were to ever happen to our starter. We have an acronym at Minnesota, that F.A.M.I.L.Y. stands for “forget about me, I love you” and I truly wanted to live that out.
And perhaps most of all, I was mature enough to know my priorities in life at this point.
My identity wasn’t in being the starting quarterback at the University of Minnesota. My identity was that I would believe in Jesus even if I wasn’t.
In the summer going into my freshman year, I had the opportunity to attend the Ultimate Training Camp, a week-long retreat that was hosted by Athletes In Action. Our football program has had a long affiliation with AIA, and Coach Fleck was gracious enough to let me go. We had a lot of athletes attend, like Wisconsin’s Brad Davison and Noah Fant, who is now with the Broncos.
It was at the retreat that I realized I had been using God like a genie in a bottle…almost like He was a wish-granter. God, please let me get a scholarship to a big school. God, please let me get the starting job after my redshirt season. God, let my team win. In reality, that’s not how God works at all. If we knew that we could get anything we wanted, simply by being obedient or saying a prayer, everyone would go to church and buy a lottery ticket on the way home.
Looking back on it now, I realized that I was literally worshiping football, and using God as a means to achieve my dreams on the field.
That’s when I heard about the two W’s: Worship and win. If you’ve been to my Twitter page you’ve seen the pin at the top of my feed about the two W’s. I’ve been putting both of them on my wrist band these days, with a cross in the middle, and I was always hoping one of my fans would tweet me back asking what they meant. When one of the fans finally did, I was able to tell him and tweet about it:
The big W means Worship, and that worshiping God doesn’t just happen for an hour on Sunday mornings…It should happen every day of your life, in everything that you do. The little w means win, and it’s a reminder that even though I’m a Christian, it’s okay to be competitive and want to win. I think there’s a perception that maybe people of faith don’t like to compete, but as long we’re doing it in the right way, I think it’s a good thing.
I just had no idea that when I posted that photo, how much attention that tweet – or our whole program – was about to get.
“Men, do not be afraid to be legends.
It was our last game of the 2018 regular season, and as we listened to Coach Fleck’s pre-game speech, we knew what we were up against. We hadn’t beaten Wisconsin since 2003, and as we sat inside the locker room of Camp Randall Stadium, most people on the outside expected this game to be no different.
Our trophy case for Paul Bunyan’s Axe sat empty year after year at our facilities, and we were determined that this was the year things were going to change.
We had switched quarterbacks midway through the season, so I was going to be under center when the game started. But really, it didn’t matter who was playing in that game…the back of my jersey that season didn’t say “Morgan.” It said “Minnesota.” Whoever was going to help us win that game was the person who should start.
I didn’t even have my best game that night, but I didn’t need to. Even though I only threw 16 passes in that game, we ran for over 200 yards and got a 69-yard punt return for a touchdown by Demetrius Douglas. We won that game 37-15, and soon as the final seconds ticked off, we ran down to the end zone to grab the Axe.
When I reflect on what was the moment that changed our program around, that was it.
Between that night and the Penn State game nearly a year later, we didn’t lose a single game. But what people might not remember is just how close we came to losing in our second game of the season against Fresno State. We were down 35-28 with less than a minute to go, and with a 3rd and 8 from the FSU 15-yard line, I dropped the snap. We took a loss of 5 yards on the play, and as we called a timeout, we knew that we’d have to convert this next play just to have a chance.
With a 4th and 13 from the 20-yard line, we ran a double move on the outside, and just before I took a hit from one of their linemen, I lofted the ball in the corner of the endzone for Chris Autman-Bell. I couldn’t see what happened next, but I knew that if Chris caught the ball, he was going to find a way to keep one of his feet in bounds.
Sure enough, with about an inch to spare, he hauled it in and stomped his left foot in the end zone.
Fresno State started overtime with a touchdown, and we responded with a touchdown of our own. We ran an option play, and when everybody bit on the fake handoff, I went into the end zone untouched. Now we had double overtime. We started off with a field goal on offense, meaning that Fresno State had a chance to win the game with a touchdown on their series. And on their very first play, they decided to go for the win right then and there.
FSU quarterback Jorge Reyna faked the handoff on an RPO, and when he sailed the ball toward the end zone, his receiver looked wide open. At first glance there was nobody near him. But just before the ball landed in the hands of their receiver, our safety Antoine Winfield Jr. came out of nowhere. It wasn’t even his assignment to be over there, but I had seen him pick me off enough times in practice to know that he was going to make a play. Antoine snatched the ball and ran it out of the end zone to win the game for us.
We would then win our next six games after that, setting the stage for Coach Fleck’s epic pre-game speech against Penn State.
When Coach Fleck asked me to write down my thoughts on that piece of coal, I had a feeling where this was going.
Coal is made out of carbon, and when enough pressure is applied to carbon it turns into a diamond. And yet, even though I had an idea of what Coach Fleck might do, his speech still blew us away. And rather than me trying to do it justice, I’ll let Coach Fleck speak for himself.
As we ran out of the tunnel, we could tell that this was a special atmosphere. TCF Bank Stadium was sold out, and the crowd of more than 52,000 people included my parents, my brother, his best friend, his girlfriend and my girlfriend.
The game couldn’t have started much better, as our defense intercepted PSU quarterback Sean Clifford, and moments later Rashod Bateman caught a 66-yard touchdown. We eventually pushed that lead to 24-10, but Penn State had way too much talent to go down that easily. We led 31-19 when we punted midway through the fourth quarter. That’s when things got a little crazy.
They came down and scored a touchdown to get within 31-26, and after a 3-and-out, they got the ball back with less than three minutes to go. They drove all the way to our 10-yard line before an offensive pass interference sent them back 15 yards. And then on 3rd and 24, with our stadium as loud as I’ve ever heard it, Jordan Howden came up with the huge interception to win the game. We had done it. We were suddenly 9-0, the best start to a season in modern school history, and the moment the game ended our fans came pouring on the field.
I remember shaking hands with Sean Clifford, and then it was just mayhem on the field. Ryan Tibbitts, one of our media guys, pushed me through the crowd to get me to the post-game interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, and then the fans lifted me up in the air. It was overwhelming and surreal at the same time. You could just see the joy in their faces and how much it meant to them. I still have a picture of it in my room to this day.
One of the coolest parts of that game actually happened in the weeks to follow. I don’t check my Twitter much during the season, but thanks to the play of our team, that tweet with the Ww had about twice as many notifications as before. My message of keeping your priorities straight was starting to resonate with fans.
I got my own reminder about priorities a few weeks later. Cancer has a way of doing that to people.
Even if Casey O’Brien had never overcome cancer, he still would have been an inspiration.
Anytime somebody walks on the football team and makes the roster, it’s an inspiring story. But his story is so much more than about football. He had already beaten cancer three times before he had made the team, and by his redshirt freshman season he had beaten it a fourth time. He had spent more than 200 nights in the hospital, but he was cancer free.
Casey’s story didn’t end there, however…He kept working hard and continued to practice with us. There was no guarantee he would ever get to see the field, but he lifted weights and finished his drills just like the rest of us. And in our seventh game of the season, when our team scored to go up 27-0, Casey took the field as the place holder.
It wasn’t the easiest snap to hold, because as soon as Casey caught the ball he needed to spin the laces around. And yet by the time our kicker Michael Lantz had arrived at the ball, it was in perfect position, and he drilled it through the uprights.
I wish I could say that was the end of the story, but unfortunately it wasn’t. Less than two weeks after that win over Penn State, Casey told us that the cancer had returned.
Life gets put in perspective real quick when you receive news like that. Just a few days earlier we had lost our first game of the season at Iowa, and yet when you hear that news about Casey, you remember that football is just a game.
Casey ended up beating cancer for a fifth time, which came as no surprise to any of us. Doctors told him he couldn’t make it to the Wisconsin game, but he was there. They said there’s no way you can go to the ESPN award show, but he was there. Before our bowl game, just after Christmas, it was announced that Casey had once again been cleared of cancer.
I know that someday I’ll have a legacy too, but I’m just hoping people remember the teams I was on. I want that Row The Boat message to spread, and that people remember the work our program did with the Children’s Hospital. Rowing The Boat is a perfect message for the kids there, because as Coach Fleck says, when you row, your back is to the future. You don’t know what’s out there, but you just keep your oar in the present, because it’s the only thing you can control.
I know that Ephesians 2: 8-9 says that we are saved through our faith and not by our works, but I still want to spend my time making this world a better place. And if that means spending time at the hospital, then I’ll do that. And if it means sharing my faith like this, then I’m happy to do that too.
I know our time on Earth is short, and my platform through football is even shorter, so I want to do everything I can to glorify God. After all, He’s the reason why I’m here.