Courrier: Cousins, Fleck seem to be good, not great, at their jobs

[BleedGopher]

per Chad:

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and University of Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck both have recently cashed in on big deals, and the returns on those investments will likely never be realized.

Fleck signed a seven-year, $35 million contract extension last week. Fleck signed a five-year, $18 million contract when he was hired in 2017, then signed a seven-year extension worth $28 million in 2019.

At $5 million per season, Fleck ranks fifth among Big Ten coaches, which equals Kirk Ferentz of Iowa and Scott Frost of Nebraska. It’s the going rate for a veteran coach in the league.

Fleck is 32-22 in his five seasons in Minnesota. His big season was 2019, when the Gophers won 11 games, including seven Big Ten games, for the first time in program history. The Gophers ended up ranked No. 10 after winning the Outback Bowl, a rare Jan. 1 appearance for the Gophers.

However, the Gophers dropped to 3-4 in the COVID season, and even though they are 6-3 this season, each meaningful victory has been followed by a stunning defeat. An impressive 30-0 win at Colorado preceded the 14-10 home loss to lowly Bowling Green. A four-game winning streak, which pushed Minnesota into the top 20 of the College Football Playoff rankings, was offset by an ugly 14-6 home loss to Illinois.

But like nearly all Division I coaches, every time there’s a big win — or another high-profile job comes open — Fleck seems to look for a new contract.

Cousins and Fleck are both above average in what they do, but neither seems capable of winning at a high level. Their teams are going to be good enough that you don’t want to risk change, but you’re unlikely to ever see the pinnacle of success.

Courrier: Cousins, Fleck seem to be good, not great, at their jobs

Had a lot of time to think about stuff last weekend while staring at the same trees in the north woods, wishing one of them would turn into a whitetail

www.mankatofreepress.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[Boomtime]

Fair assessment.

In Fleck's favor, there's been so much scandal at the U over the decades that running a clean program is also something that gains favor with administrators. And the academic side of things certainly seems to be a positive.

 

[MNVCGUY]

What a lazy piece of "journalism". But it is the Mankato Free Press so I guess the standards probably aren't real high.

 

[Boomtime]

What a lazy piece of "journalism". But it is the Mankato Free Press so I guess the standards probably aren't real high.

What did he say that was wrong? It's an opinion piece!

 

[cjbfbp]

What a lazy piece of "journalism". But it is the Mankato Free Press so I guess the standards probably aren't real high.

Well, this certainly isn't true:

"each meaningful victory has been followed by a stunning defeat."

We had a four game winning steak after the BGSU loss and all four of those wins were meaningful.

The author corrected himself afterwards but he shouldn't make claims that are patently false.

 

[Some guy]

per Chad:

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and University of Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck both have recently cashed in on big deals, and the returns on those investments will likely never be realized.

Fleck signed a seven-year, $35 million contract extension last week. Fleck signed a five-year, $18 million contract when he was hired in 2017, then signed a seven-year extension worth $28 million in 2019.

At $5 million per season, Fleck ranks fifth among Big Ten coaches, which equals Kirk Ferentz of Iowa and Scott Frost of Nebraska. It’s the going rate for a veteran coach in the league.

Fleck is 32-22 in his five seasons in Minnesota. His big season was 2019, when the Gophers won 11 games, including seven Big Ten games, for the first time in program history. The Gophers ended up ranked No. 10 after winning the Outback Bowl, a rare Jan. 1 appearance for the Gophers.

However, the Gophers dropped to 3-4 in the COVID season, and even though they are 6-3 this season, each meaningful victory has been followed by a stunning defeat. An impressive 30-0 win at Colorado preceded the 14-10 home loss to lowly Bowling Green. A four-game winning streak, which pushed Minnesota into the top 20 of the College Football Playoff rankings, was offset by an ugly 14-6 home loss to Illinois.

But like nearly all Division I coaches, every time there’s a big win — or another high-profile job comes open — Fleck seems to look for a new contract.

Cousins and Fleck are both above average in what they do, but neither seems capable of winning at a high level. Their teams are going to be good enough that you don’t want to risk change, but you’re unlikely to ever see the pinnacle of success.

Courrier: Cousins, Fleck seem to be good, not great, at their jobs

Had a lot of time to think about stuff last weekend while staring at the same trees in the north woods, wishing one of them would turn into a whitetail

www.mankatofreepress.com

Go Gophers!!

So he is upset fleck got a two year extension with a 6% raise?

 

[Boomtime]

The only thing he needs to do is update the B1G coaches salaries.

Frost just got knocked down from $5M a year to $4M per year.

 

[MNVCGUY]

What did he say that was wrong? It's an opinion piece!

Didn't say he was wrong in his opinions....just a lazy piece of puff writing with no real substance to it of any kind. Must be auditioning for a role with the strib.....their standards are pretty low so he would fit right in.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

What did he say that was wrong? It's an opinion piece!

It's an exceptionally weird comparison to make.

Kirk being good at his job for his salary negatively impacts the entire team. He isn't THE problem but he is a problem. If Kirk was being paid $15 million/year, he'd be fantastic.

Fleck's salary does not negatively impact the team. It helps with stability/recruiting.

There is also the gigantic issue that you're comparing the NFL with college football. Making the Gophers average is actually a really difficult task that takes time. It's not like the NFL. We don't get 1/30 of the talent every single year. Look at the difficulties that helmet schools like Texas and Nebraska are having? Turning around a struggling college football program is one of the most difficult jobs in all of sports. So if you're doing OK, you're actually extremely hard to replace. If you're doing OK as a QB in the NFL, you're much easier (but not easy) to replace.

If you took the resources we have dumped into PJ Fleck right now, and replaced him with someone else, what are the odds you'd find someone better or just as good?

If you took the resources we dumped into Kirk Cousins right now and either replaced that with a QB or an assortment of players and a cheaper QB, what are the odds we'd have done better than 28-26-1?

 

[Dakota2]

per Chad:

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and University of Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck both have recently cashed in on big deals, and the returns on those investments will likely never be realized.

Fleck signed a seven-year, $35 million contract extension last week. Fleck signed a five-year, $18 million contract when he was hired in 2017, then signed a seven-year extension worth $28 million in 2019.

At $5 million per season, Fleck ranks fifth among Big Ten coaches, which equals Kirk Ferentz of Iowa and Scott Frost of Nebraska. It’s the going rate for a veteran coach in the league.

Fleck is 32-22 in his five seasons in Minnesota. His big season was 2019, when the Gophers won 11 games, including seven Big Ten games, for the first time in program history. The Gophers ended up ranked No. 10 after winning the Outback Bowl, a rare Jan. 1 appearance for the Gophers.

However, the Gophers dropped to 3-4 in the COVID season, and even though they are 6-3 this season, each meaningful victory has been followed by a stunning defeat. An impressive 30-0 win at Colorado preceded the 14-10 home loss to lowly Bowling Green. A four-game winning streak, which pushed Minnesota into the top 20 of the College Football Playoff rankings, was offset by an ugly 14-6 home loss to Illinois.

But like nearly all Division I coaches, every time there’s a big win — or another high-profile job comes open — Fleck seems to look for a new contract.

Cousins and Fleck are both above average in what they do, but neither seems capable of winning at a high level. Their teams are going to be good enough that you don’t want to risk change, but you’re unlikely to ever see the pinnacle of success.

Courrier: Cousins, Fleck seem to be good, not great, at their jobs

Had a lot of time to think about stuff last weekend while staring at the same trees in the north woods, wishing one of them would turn into a whitetail

www.mankatofreepress.com

Go Gophers!!

The difference is Cousins has no power to fix a bad offensive line but Fleck does have the power to fix bad OC.

 

[MNVCGUY]

The difference is Cousins has no power to fix a bad offensive line but Fleck does have the power to fix bad OC.

Kirk might not have the power but the Vikings can fill holes by signing free agents during the season. Fleck can only work with the personnel on the roster at the start of the year, so he can change coaches but it is still the same players and most of the time that isn't going to lead to immediate results the way it did with Rossi. That was the exception, not the rule.

 

[Stan]

It's an exceptionally weird comparison to make.

Kirk being good at his job for his salary negatively impacts the entire team. He isn't THE problem but he is a problem. If Kirk was being paid $15 million/year, he'd be fantastic.

Fleck's salary does not negatively impact the team. It helps with stability/recruiting.

There is also the gigantic issue that you're comparing the NFL with college football. Making the Gophers average is actually a really difficult task that takes time. It's not like the NFL. We don't get 1/30 of the talent every single year. Look at the difficulties that helmet schools like Texas and Nebraska are having? Turning around a struggling college football program is one of the most difficult jobs in all of sports. So if you're doing OK, you're actually extremely hard to replace. If you're doing OK as a QB in the NFL, you're much easier (but not easy) to replace.

If you took the resources we have dumped into PJ Fleck right now, and replaced him with someone else, what are the odds you'd find someone better or just as good?

If you took the resources we dumped into Kirk Cousins right now and either replaced that with a QB or an assortment of players and a cheaper QB, what are the odds we'd have done better than 28-26-1?

This, so much this.

 

[Dakota2]

Kirk might not have the power but the Vikings can fill holes by signing free agents during the season. Fleck can only work with the personnel on the roster at the start of the year, so he can change coaches but it is still the same players and most of the time that isn't going to lead to immediate results the way it did with Rossi. That was the exception, not the rule.

Just to be accurate the successful change is the rule, not exception, for Fleck. Will agree that maynot be the case across college football. But here, he has a guy to promote within who did an amazing job with a short audition.

 

[SanDiegoGopherFan]

It's an exceptionally weird comparison to make.

Kirk being good at his job for his salary negatively impacts the entire team. He isn't THE problem but he is a problem. If Kirk was being paid $15 million/year, he'd be fantastic.

Fleck's salary does not negatively impact the team. It helps with stability/recruiting.

There is also the gigantic issue that you're comparing the NFL with college football. Making the Gophers average is actually a really difficult task that takes time. It's not like the NFL. We don't get 1/30 of the talent every single year. Look at the difficulties that helmet schools like Texas and Nebraska are having? Turning around a struggling college football program is one of the most difficult jobs in all of sports. So if you're doing OK, you're actually extremely hard to replace. If you're doing OK as a QB in the NFL, you're much easier (but not easy) to replace.

If you took the resources we have dumped into PJ Fleck right now, and replaced him with someone else, what are the odds you'd find someone better or just as good?

If you took the resources we dumped into Kirk Cousins right now and either replaced that with a QB or an assortment of players and a cheaper QB, what are the odds we'd have done better than 28-26-1?

You should send this to him.
One only hopes he has the brain power to actually processes it