WindyCityGopher
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Look out below, Big Ten West.
This was not your ordinary Big Ten football hire; this was Minnesota's most inspired move since they introduced a smallish, bespectacled coach named Lou Holtz 33 years ago. This was a local guy from Kaneland High School and NIU with the potential to make a national impact on his sport, substance accompanying style, a contemporary communicator unlikely to get in a player's face as much as in his blood.
"I eat difficult conversations for breakfast,'' Fleck said at his introductory news conference. "For every reason not to take a job, that's why I took it. That's the story of my life. I have a crack on my shoulder, not a chip. We are going to find a way to out-care, out-give and out-how everybody else. … I am more than football (and) our kids will be more than football.''
Minnesota's audience got a glimpse when Fleck, the youngest Power 5 head coach at 36, elaborated on his authenticity. Fleck exuded so much energy nobody would be surprised if he visited each of the state's 10,000 lakes by the 2017 season-opener.
With self-deprecation, Fleck declared himself the King of the Toos — "Too slow, too small, too young, too dumb,'' he said. He sounded hip promising to teach Gopher players about rivalry by referring to hip-hop artists Kanye and Drake rather than NBA legends Michael Jordan and Larry Bird — "They think Jordan makes the sneakers,'' he cracked. He confessed that 95 percent of his team meetings have nothing to do with football and established the Gophers' goal of winning the national championship.
Most memorably, Fleck gave a nod to Minnesota tradition by reciting the school's 133-year-old slogan "Ski-U-Mah!" while also incorporating the "Row the Boat" mantra so special to him at Western Michigan, which owns the phrase's trademark. The phrase "Row the boat,'' originally helped Fleck and his former wife, Tracie, cope with the loss of their second son, Colton, who, in 2010, died minutes after birth because of a heart condition.
"I plan on bringing it,'' said Fleck, remarried to wife Heather and a father of four. "It's something we have to handle. It has a personal meaning.''
Fleck 49, News Conference 0.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...minnesota-haugh-spt-0108-20170107-column.html
This was not your ordinary Big Ten football hire; this was Minnesota's most inspired move since they introduced a smallish, bespectacled coach named Lou Holtz 33 years ago. This was a local guy from Kaneland High School and NIU with the potential to make a national impact on his sport, substance accompanying style, a contemporary communicator unlikely to get in a player's face as much as in his blood.
"I eat difficult conversations for breakfast,'' Fleck said at his introductory news conference. "For every reason not to take a job, that's why I took it. That's the story of my life. I have a crack on my shoulder, not a chip. We are going to find a way to out-care, out-give and out-how everybody else. … I am more than football (and) our kids will be more than football.''
Minnesota's audience got a glimpse when Fleck, the youngest Power 5 head coach at 36, elaborated on his authenticity. Fleck exuded so much energy nobody would be surprised if he visited each of the state's 10,000 lakes by the 2017 season-opener.
With self-deprecation, Fleck declared himself the King of the Toos — "Too slow, too small, too young, too dumb,'' he said. He sounded hip promising to teach Gopher players about rivalry by referring to hip-hop artists Kanye and Drake rather than NBA legends Michael Jordan and Larry Bird — "They think Jordan makes the sneakers,'' he cracked. He confessed that 95 percent of his team meetings have nothing to do with football and established the Gophers' goal of winning the national championship.
Most memorably, Fleck gave a nod to Minnesota tradition by reciting the school's 133-year-old slogan "Ski-U-Mah!" while also incorporating the "Row the Boat" mantra so special to him at Western Michigan, which owns the phrase's trademark. The phrase "Row the boat,'' originally helped Fleck and his former wife, Tracie, cope with the loss of their second son, Colton, who, in 2010, died minutes after birth because of a heart condition.
"I plan on bringing it,'' said Fleck, remarried to wife Heather and a father of four. "It's something we have to handle. It has a personal meaning.''
Fleck 49, News Conference 0.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...minnesota-haugh-spt-0108-20170107-column.html
