Ex-Gophers QB Tanner Morgan taken 8th overall in USFL draft
With the eighth pick in the 2023 United States Football League College Draft, the Michigan Panthers selected former Minnesota Gophers quarterback Tanner Morgan.
The USFL is back for its second season after returning to the fields in 2022 after the original USFL went broke and out of business after three seasons from 1983-1985. Formerly a league with as many as 18 teams, the new USFL has eight teams and the 2023 season begins in April.
Morgan will presumably have a shot at the starting quarterback job for the Panthers, who in 2022 went 2-8 with Josh Love and Paxton Lynch playing quarterback. Lynch is now in the XFL and was benched in his first game last weekend.
Morgan was a sixth-year senior in 2022 with the Gophers, helping lead them to a win over Syracuse in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
Morgan and Michigan open the 2023 season April 16 in a game that will be televised on NBC. Michigan will play its home games at Ford Field in Detroit, which is home to the NFL's Lions.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.