All Things P.J. Fleck Rumor Mill Thread - Listed as Candidate for Other Jobs

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Would Wisconsin go after Fleck? I doubt it. If I’m an AD at a better football school than MN I don’t think I’d go after Fleck. He can’t find an OC and he doesn’t appear willing to take less salary so that he can pay his coordinators more.
 



I haven't done the research, but how many D1 coaches have left for another D1 school after coaching at one for close to 10 years (and I don't mean got fired, I mean left on their own accord)? What about just FBS schools?

I have to imagine if Fleck ever did leave on his own accord, he may be one of (if not the only) coach to do so after this many years at a school. Honestly at this point the only schools that I can really imagine Fleck leaving for is one of the LA schools. I don't really see USC going for Fleck if they ever decide to move on from Lincoln, but I can see UCLA trying for Fleck (and if you believe the rumors, they did 2 years ago trying to fill their last vacancy). However, unless UCLA's administration makes some massive changes, I don't think they would offer him a contract large enough to persuade him to leave.

I'm pretty confident at this point that Fleck will be head coach here until he either decides to move on from being a CFB Head Coach, his performance drops significantly enough (think Brewster levels, multiple years missing bowl games), or there is some sort of massive scandal that causes the school to need to fire him (I doubt this would happen but the chance is never 0).
 

swelna said:
I haven't done the research, but how many D1 coaches have left for another D1 school after coaching at one for close to 10 years (and I don't mean got fired, I mean left on their own accord)? What about just FBS schools?

I have to imagine if Fleck ever did leave on his own accord, he may be one of (if not the only) coach to do so after this many years at a school. Honestly at this point the only schools that I can really imagine Fleck leaving for is one of the LA schools. I don't really see USC going for Fleck if they ever decide to move on from Lincoln, but I can see UCLA trying for Fleck (and if you believe the rumors, they did 2 years ago trying to fill their last vacancy). However, unless UCLA's administration makes some massive changes, I don't think they would offer him a contract large enough to persuade him to leave.

I'm pretty confident at this point that Fleck will be head coach here until he either decides to move on from being a CFB Head Coach, his performance drops significantly enough (think Brewster levels, multiple years missing bowl games), or there is some sort of massive scandal that causes the school to need to fire him (I doubt this would happen but the chance is never 0).
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To answer my own question, two examples of coaches that did move willingly between FBS programs are Mack Brown and Brian Kelly, so it's not unheard of, but still quite rare.
 

Why are we discussing this before the fourth game of 2025?
 

Bobek said:
Why are we discussing this before the fourth game of 2025?
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Because there is a job opening and when there is a job opening these threads are guaranteed to get going whether Fleck is actually a candidate or not.
 




swelna said:
To answer my own question, two examples of coaches that did move willingly between FBS programs are Mack Brown and Brian Kelly, so it's not unheard of, but still quite rare.
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I think you're correct, there aren't many cases of this. And, it depends on how close to ten years you are talking to come up with a few guys in the neighborhood.

Some examples near PJ's nine-year tenure that I can think of off the top of my head:

Mike Price coached at Washington State for 14 seasons before leaving for Alabama (but he was fired before he ever coached a game for the Crimson Tide)

Houston Nutt left Arkansas after ten seasons for Ole Miss.

Glen Mason left Kansas after nine years to come here.

Bret Bielema left Wisconsin after seven seasons for Arkansas.

Larry Smith left Arizona after seven years to go to USC.

Jimbo Fisher left Florida State after eight seasons for Texas A&M.

Rich Rodriguez left his alma mater West Virginia after seven seasons for Michigan.

Mike Leach was at Washington State for eight years before going to Mississippi State.

Tyrone Willingham left Stanford after seven years to take Notre Dame job.

Ara Parseghian left Northwestern after eight years to go to Notre Dame.

Bear Bryant left Kentucky after eight years for Texas A&M and after four years there left for Alabama.

I'm sure others can chime in and think of more examples, if there's interest.
 
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WindyCityGopher said:
Why would Notre Dame possibly get rid of Marcus Freeman, who was a win away from a national title last year, and hire Fleck? That’s not an upgrade.
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They are 1-2 so I suppose some fans are working under the assumption that they are crazy and might fire the coach....

But yeah, I don't think Freeman's seat should even be warm at this point. Their 2 loses so far were by 3 to the current #2 team Miami and by 1 to the current #9 team Texas A&M.

Now if things keep going sideways all bets are off at that point but right now a coaching change should not be something anyone sane in South Bend should be thinking about.
 

MNVCGUY said:
They are 1-2 so I suppose some fans are working under the assumption that they are crazy and might fire the coach....

But yeah, I don't think Freeman's seat should even be warm at this point. Their 2 loses so far were by 3 to the current #2 team Miami and by 1 to the current #9 team Texas A&M.

Now if things keep going sideways all bets are off at that point but right now a coaching change should not be something anyone sane in South Bend should be thinking about.
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It would be absolutely foolish if they did. Freeman's only 39 and is in Year 5 as a head coach, with a 34-12 record and a runner-up finish in the national championship game. Notre Dame fans are batshit and delusional, but they'd get what they deserve if they chase that guy away.
 


Virginia Tech Coaching Candidate Profile: P.J. Fleck​


This is the sixth installment of a series of articles that profile potential candidates for Virginia Tech football’s open head coaching position. With an open Saturday, we’re tackling two profiles this week. I’ll begin by putting in my usual qualifier at the start of the article.

First, I plan to run one of these articles per week from now until the end of the season. They will generally appear on Wednesdays in place of my usual Inside The Numbers article, because who really wants to read about the numbers that this team will most likely put up this year? During the bye weeks, I’ll probably do two articles per week, so we should be able to profile a large number of candidates by the end of the year.

Second, the order will be totally random. Third, I think most of the articles will be structured similarly, though that partially depends on how much information I can dig up. I’ll go over their career so far, put in a few videos of how they handle themselves in front of the media, go over some random facts (if I can find any) and then give you my basic thoughts. Then I’ll close each article by letting you vote on the suitability of each candidate.

Here are the articles I’ve run so far:

...

virginiatech.sportswar.com

Virginia Tech Coaching Candidate Profile: P.J. Fleck

In our latest coaching profile article, we're going to row that boat and take a closer look at Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck.
virginiatech.sportswar.com virginiatech.sportswar.com

Go Gophers!!
 






Arkansas is like the 12th best program in the SEC. And you if you go 7-5 every year, they'll still fire you in about 4 years.
 




If he is looking to move, I think Arkansas could make sense for him.

The program has a lot of donors and PJ might see that as what he needs to get to the next level. They'll likely be a little unrealistic, but people act like Bielema was canned for going .500, he won under 30% of his SEC games, he was given 5 years and it was trending in the wrong direction.
Luke Fickell has a considerably higher conference winning percentage at WI than Brett Bielema had at Arkansas. It wasn't going well. Meanwhile, Houston Nutt was revered and he was .500.

My point is that the fanbase is not as unrealistic as other fanbases (in comparison to fan bases with similar amounts of $$). He might see it as MN with better funding for assistants and NIL.

Fayetteville is 3 hours from Kansas City and the area isn't really culturally southern (IMO). Fayetteville feels very Midwest.

Do I think he'd be successful there? I doubt it. It's a brutal schedule
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
If he is looking to move, I think Arkansas could make sense for him.

The program has a lot of donors and PJ might see that as what he needs to get to the next level. They'll likely be a little unrealistic, but people act like Bielema was canned for going .500, he won under 30% of his SEC games, he was given 5 years and it was trending in the wrong direction.
Luke Fickell has a considerably higher conference winning percentage at WI than Brett Bielema had at Arkansas. It wasn't going well. Meanwhile, Houston Nutt was revered and he was .500.

My point is that the fanbase is not as unrealistic as other fanbases (in comparison to fan bases with similar amounts of $$). He might see it as MN with better funding for assistants and NIL.

Fayetteville is 3 hours from Kansas City and the area isn't really culturally southern (IMO). Fayetteville feels very Midwest.

Do I think he'd be successful there? I doubt it. It's a brutal schedule
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Also, it’s been reported in the past that PJ’s kids live in the St. Louis area. Fayetteville isn’t all that far.
 

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