Brian Murphy: P.J. Fleck's tone-deafness is ear-splitting

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Per Murphy:

These days, Fleck is airing his own grievances in Dinkytown in a ham-fisted sleight of hand to avoid accountability for the regression of a program he supposedly was rowing upstream.

New Year’s Day victories, top-25 rankings and Big Ten upsets will make oily sloganeering shine. But it is much harder to tackle the straw men Fleck is hiding behind to rationalize Minnesota’s bottoming out in a lame-duck West Division that was theirs for the taking – again.

Fleck has thinner skin than an onion when it comes to justified scrutiny of a team that was outscored 141-73 in losing four November games to tumble to 5-7.


Go Gophers!!
 

I don't understand why everyone gets their panties in a bunch over the 5-6 freshman on defense comment. That's definitely an issue and is telling. Prove me wrong, but I'm guessing there's not a team with a winning BG10 record that's comprised with half freshman. Yes, the roster is the coach's responsibility and it would interesting to find out why that many freshman are playing, but faux outrage over that comment is downright stupid.
 


this seems to be the general tenor the TC media types are taking. Barreiro, Reusse, Zulgad, even Chip Scoggins, who is normally one of the more even-handed media members.

the Honeymoon is over, and any goodwill from 2019 seems to be fading. Fleck is facing his biggest challenge since he took the Gophers' job.

He deserves the opportunity to show how he can meet that challenge - but he's not operating with a long leash as far as the media and some of the fanbase is concerned.
 

Panthadad2 said:
I don't understand why everyone gets their panties in a bunch over the 5-6 freshman on defense comment. That's definitely an issue and is telling. Prove me wrong, but I'm guessing there's not a team with a winning BG10 record that's comprised with half freshman. Yes, the roster is the coach's responsibility and it would interesting to find out why that many freshman are playing, but faux outrage over that comment is downright stupid.
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Yeah....these fan rants that get promoted as being from sports illustrated are tiring. The writing is so weak. The look legitimate but they are nothing more than a longer form of anything posted in fan forums like this one.
 


Man, Mr.Nelson is one hell of a huckster. He made his name as a writer for Muck Rack. Betting the views here quadruple his readership. ;)

As for the story itself? It's pretty damn "ripe"

"punch up a low-level college bowl game is leveraging outsized coaching egos and grievances."

"They’re conveniently packaged and easily sold to football junkies who need something to watch trimming the tree or avoiding snow blowing."

"Jerry Kill vs. P.J. Fleck II in the Martyr Bowl"

"coaches grilled about their flaccid feud"

"bemoaning how good buddy Tracy Claeys was dissed in Minnesota in favor of a self-absorbed huckster."

"Fleck is airing his own grievances in Dinkytown in a ham-fisted sleight of hand to avoid accountability for the regression of a program he supposedly was rowing upstream."

" oily sloganeering shine. But it is much harder to tackle the straw men Fleck "

"Fleck has thinner skin than an onion "

"Make Fleck work to avoid the program’s first five-game losing streak since Tim Brewster was hawking maroon-and-gold used cars in 2008."
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
this seems to be the general tenor the TC media types are taking. Barreiro, Reusse, Zulgad, even Chip Scoggins, who is normally one of the more even-handed media members.

the Honeymoon is over, and any goodwill from 2019 seems to be fading. Fleck is facing his biggest challenge since he took the Gophers' job.
Click to expand...
I’ll bet if you ask them, they all probably understand that the defense isn’t good and playing that many freshmen is why. Chip has said as much. But I think what has them, and others like myself frankly, so rankled is the offense and Fleck’s ultra conservatism. The end of the first half Saturday was another example. We were 3rd and 5 on our own 45 with 1:26 to play. Fleck runs up the middle and punts. We needed 20 yards to be in field goal range and Fleck turtles. My son was home from school for break and asked me why did they do that? I said it’s all PJ. What did Wisconsin do after getting the punt? Pushed the ball down the field and tried to score, almost getting into field goal range. At least Wisconsin tried to score.

People are sick and tired of that shit. It makes them angry and makes them, and these sports writers probably, complain about EVERY aspect of the program.
 


Panthadad2 said:
I don't understand why everyone gets their panties in a bunch over the 5-6 freshman on defense comment. That's definitely an issue and is telling. Prove me wrong, but I'm guessing there's not a team with a winning BG10 record that's comprised with half freshman. Yes, the roster is the coach's responsibility and it would interesting to find out why that many freshman are playing, but faux outrage over that comment is downright stupid.
Click to expand...

The stupid part of Fleck's comment is “There’s a lot of reasons for that...And none of you really care about those reasons. So I’m not going to talk about them.”

He sounds infantile when he says that. Anyone would sound infantile.
 



This year is done, yes a disappointment for W/Ls. Hopefully the disappointment lights a fire under Fleck to correct. He needs at least a 7 win season next year. To do that he needs better coaching and more consistency from players - both are on him.
 


Murphy (never heard of him) characterizes Fleck's "tone-deafness" as "ear-splitting".

That's interesting, coming from someone who has a writing style that might be categorized as, shall we say, a little over-the-top.

Murphy is definitely not a slave to subtlety. Yellow 'journalism' in the internet age. Bring on the clicks and get paid, Murph.
 

I see people are catching on about “Fan Nation”.

At least it wasn’t advertised as an SI article
 



everybody knows my name said:
The stupid part of Fleck's comment is “There’s a lot of reasons for that...And none of you really care about those reasons. So I’m not going to talk about them.”

He sounds infantile when he says that. Anyone would sound infantile.
Click to expand...

It would do zero good for Fleck to go over the player detail. If he did, he'd just get blasted for throwing players under the bus by the same people crying over the lack of additional detail. These are the same people that also blast him for giving no detail and saying "it's all on me".

In summary, it doesn't matter what Fleck says, the same people will blast him. Therefore, don't give any individual player analysis to the media.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
this seems to be the general tenor the TC media types are taking. Barreiro, Reusse, Zulgad, even Chip Scoggins, who is normally one of the more even-handed media members.

the Honeymoon is over, and any goodwill from 2019 seems to be fading. Fleck is facing his biggest challenge since he took the Gophers' job.

He deserves the opportunity to show how he can meet that challenge - but he's not operating with a long leash as far as the media and some of the fanbase is concerned.
Click to expand...
The honeymoon isn’t over. He never really got a honeymoon.

People not calling for his job after 11-2, 3-4, 9-4, 9-4 wasn’t a honeymoon. It was obvious.
 

I guess I would like to know why, assuming the recruiting of balanced classes, where are the sophs and juniors in the defensive secondary? If they got beat out by true freshman or redshirt freshman or if the portaled out? I’m not enough of a student of the roster to know myself, I guess. Maybe with transfer rules it’s harder to keep depth because everyone goes to where they can play? Just speculating.
 

I don't think PJ Fleck is tone-deaf at all.

I think he's heard the tone and is now dancing to it.

The one that says Gopher Football has a ceiling. The one that says you can't top the 30s in recruiting rankings here. The one that says "developmental program" and "running team" and "ball possession team". "We have no money" is a new one for modern times, though it used to refer to stadiums and lunchrooms.

The same tone of resigned acceptance that got Glen Mason and got Jerry Kill, based on a ton of post-mortems from those tenures.

He's not off key with everyone else. He long ago stopped trying to sell us hype. Rather, he's bought into the narrative of what this program is and what it isn't and no longer seems ready to run through walls to "change his best"
 

Panthadad2 said:
It would do zero good for Fleck to go over the player detail. If he did, he'd just get blasted for throwing players under the bus by the same people crying over the lack of additional detail. These are the same people that also blast him for giving no detail and saying "it's all on me".

In summary, it doesn't matter what Fleck says, the same people will blast him. Therefore, don't give any individual player analysis to the media.
Click to expand...
Of course it matters what Fleck says.

He could have said "There's a lot of reasons for that, but I won't go into the details."

Instead he said “There’s a lot of reasons for that...And none of you really care about those reasons. So I’m not going to talk about them.” And that makes him sound like a pouting brat instead of a man.

And to be clear, I'm not calling for Fleck to be fired. I don't like him at all, but his performance at Minnesota merits our patience with a down year here or there.
 

Panthadad2 said:
It would do zero good for Fleck to go over the player detail. If he did, he'd just get blasted for throwing players under the bus by the same people crying over the lack of additional detail. These are the same people that also blast him for giving no detail and saying "it's all on me".

In summary, it doesn't matter what Fleck says, the same people will blast him. Therefore, don't give any individual player analysis to the media.
Click to expand...
Yep....basically anyone who refers to him on here as PJ is going to find fault with anything and everything he does or says.....
 

Tech Machine said:
I guess I would like to know why, assuming the recruiting of balanced classes, where are the sophs and juniors in the defensive secondary? If they got beat out by true freshman or redshirt freshman or if the portaled out? I’m not enough of a student of the roster to know myself, I guess. Maybe with transfer rules it’s harder to keep depth because everyone goes to where they can play? Just speculating.
Click to expand...
There is some of that with the Portal affecting depth. We lost two linebackers that would have ended up playing important roles for us. One was a 6th year senior who transferred back to his homestate to play his final year there. The other was another LB that transferred down to Western Michigan and play there.

To me, both are valid reasons to transfer but at the end of the day, it hurts our depth. Kids today get the choice... do I want to be a backup at the U of M and hope the starter gets hurt or transfer to a lower program and have a much better shot at playing?
 

MNVCGUY said:
Yeah....these fan rants that get promoted as being from sports illustrated are tiring. The writing is so weak. The look legitimate but they are nothing more than a longer form of anything posted in fan forums like this one.
Click to expand...
"fan rants" from someone who was a sports writer for the pioneer press for 20 years 😅
 

Tech Machine said:
I guess I would like to know why, assuming the recruiting of balanced classes, where are the sophs and juniors in the defensive secondary? If they got beat out by true freshman or redshirt freshman or if the portaled out? I’m not enough of a student of the roster to know myself, I guess. Maybe with transfer rules it’s harder to keep depth because everyone goes to where they can play? Just speculating.
Click to expand...
The portaled out kind of en mass.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Yeah....these fan rants that get promoted as being from sports illustrated are tiring. The writing is so weak. The look legitimate but they are nothing more than a longer form of anything posted in fan forums like this one.
Click to expand...
Better or worse than the AI Sports Illustrated writers?
futurism.com

Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers

Sports Illustrated was publishing articles under seemingly fake bylines. We asked their owner about it — and they deleted everything.
futurism.com futurism.com
 

It’s “all on PJ” except when it’s all on playing too many Freshmen (which is somehow not on PJ?). 🙄
 

Spoofin said:
It’s “all on PJ” except when it’s all on playing too many Freshmen (which is somehow not on PJ?). 🙄
Click to expand...

If it doesn't work, he gets fired. So it's all on him, without a doubt.

If he simply pointed that out, and said nothing else, they'd all complain that he's not giving details and/or reasons. When he gives reasons (as he sees them), they call it excuses. Every word, every quote, every phrase is scrutinized and picked apart.

Of course, it's not just Fleck. It's how this thing works everywhere, at every football school. If you're winning you can do no wrong. If you have a down year, they're all smelling blood in the water, and they close in very quickly.

All of that comes with a ton of prestige and a very nice paycheck, though, and that has to balance it out. The savvy coaches learn to live with the fans and the media and the scrutiny and the second-guessing. Hey, without the fans and the media, there would be no big-bucks college football scene and Fleck wouldn't have a house on Lake Minnetonka.
 


Panthadad2 said:
It would do zero good for Fleck to go over the player detail. If he did, he'd just get blasted for throwing players under the bus by the same people crying over the lack of additional detail. These are the same people that also blast him for giving no detail and saying "it's all on me".

In summary, it doesn't matter what Fleck says, the same people will blast him. Therefore, don't give any individual player analysis to the media.
Click to expand...
Except the way Fleck projects himself like he is smarter than everyone else by doing things differently in his program. He should own up to the LB depth problem and.voq to fix it. He shouldn't be surprised when writers ask tough questions. He should be glad that the writers care. That didn't happen 20yrs ago.
 


Some people here just want to celebrate was has been a mediocre run. 9 wins? Yes, with no wins against good teams. He has been in probably the worst division in P5 and he has not done anything with it. The last regular season win against a good team was 2019 against PSU. The play has gone downhill, and it’s not hard to see.

He shouldn’t be fired, and needs an opportunity to turn things around, but to celebrate all that he has done in the last couple of years like it is a great accomplishment is ridiculous. It’s the easiest run for a schedule a Gopher coach has had in 50 years. Oh well, the Hole will be full of those who love all things PJ for awhile now.
 
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Iceland12 said:
Man, Mr.Nelson is one hell of a huckster. He made his name as a writer for Muck Rack. Betting the views here quadruple his readership. ;)

As for the story itself? It's pretty damn "ripe"

"punch up a low-level college bowl game is leveraging outsized coaching egos and grievances."

"They’re conveniently packaged and easily sold to football junkies who need something to watch trimming the tree or avoiding snow blowing."

"Jerry Kill vs. P.J. Fleck II in the Martyr Bowl"

"coaches grilled about their flaccid feud"

"bemoaning how good buddy Tracy Claeys was dissed in Minnesota in favor of a self-absorbed huckster."

"Fleck is airing his own grievances in Dinkytown in a ham-fisted sleight of hand to avoid accountability for the regression of a program he supposedly was rowing upstream."

" oily sloganeering shine. But it is much harder to tackle the straw men Fleck "

"Fleck has thinner skin than an onion "

"Make Fleck work to avoid the program’s first five-game losing streak since Tim Brewster was hawking maroon-and-gold used cars in 2008."
Click to expand...

All of this was in that one poorly written article?
 

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