Contract Extension for Fleck

Donate To GopherHole
Well well worth it. He's a good coach, period. And a good U of Minn football coach who wins is worth about his weight in gold.

Ties the whole alumni community together, even old timers who graduated many decades ago, were still Gophers too. And he sets an example of character and leadership.
 



Fleck is the best of he, Mason and Kill and for that reason he deserves an extension. The Bowling Green game was awful and we've had some decent wins since then but as always the season comes down to Iowa and Wisconsin.
 

The reactions of Craig, Neal, and others are hilarious. In the end, all this really did was add two years to his contract, give him & his assistants a bump up in pay, and increased his buyout. It's not that big of a deal. Contracts in college almost never expire. The contract is going to look a lot different when we get to 2027-2028. The additional two years is for show.
 


GophersInIowa said:
The reactions of Craig, Neal, and others are hilarious. In the end, all this really did was add two years to his contract, give him & his assistants a bump up in pay, and increased his buyout. It's not that big of a deal. Contracts in college almost never expire. The contract is going to look a lot different when we get to 2027-2028. The additional two years is for show.
Click to expand...
They are all assuming the Gophers will fail to impress the rest of the way. I say don't get mad just prove them wrong.
 

OldBob53 said:
Well well worth it. He's a good coach, period. And a good U of Minn football coach who wins is worth about his weight in gold.
Click to expand...
That’s about exactly what he will get each year. Gold is about $1795 per ounce right now which comes out to $28,720 per pound. If PJ weighs 180 pounds, his weight in gold is worth $5,169,600.
 

MplsGopher said:
STrib hates the U of MN. Fact
Click to expand...
I agree....I would adjust it just a bit that the STAR TRIB hates people that appear to be having individual success of success in general. There is a common thread that they like to tear people down for some reason. Its a shame, and the University Of Minnesota is lumped in as well which is unfortunate.

We should be celebrating this. Our program is on the rise....and..... We have other great teams too: Womens hoops, volleyball etc....Great time to be a Gopher Follower and Fan!
 





EG#9 said:
I don't understand why this couldn't have waited a month. We would have so much more clarity on the direction of the program. If PJ wins the West this year, then this is great...but what if he loses both rivalry games again? What if he goes 1-3 or 0-4? I view this as the classic Minnesota thing of giving out a raise/extension before something is actually accomplished. So PJ got a new deal in 2019, what has been accomplished in 2020 or 2021 to warrant another one? There have been 2 more border rivalry losses (arguably 4 more since the last extension/raise came out during the season too), a losing season in 2020 and to date (hopefully it will change) the most notable moment of 2021 is the loss to Bowling Green which was something like a top 20 biggest upset in the last 40 years of college football by point spread. Credit and praise is absolutely due for the turnaround since that point, but this feels like a bridge too far.

I like PJ, but he hasn't earned my trust that he's going to finish the deal this year. If he doesn't, we likely lose a whole lot of talent for '22: the entire OL, Morgan, Autman-Bell, Kieft, Mafe, Pinckney, Gibbens, and Durr. If this year does end poorly, I don't see how we'll have much confidence in '22 being better. As for recruiting, at the very least we are not on the upward trajectory, that we were a couple years ago.

We want to be (or be better than) Iowa/Wisconsin and yet they don't do these big contract extensions and raises all the time. Fleck will now be making the same money as Ferentz who has dominated the schools rivals (Iowa State, Minnesota, and you can add Nebraska to that list over the last part of his tenure) has 5 top 10 finishes, 2 Orange Bowls, a Rose Bowl, and only 5 losing conference seasons over 22 years. How are we at that spot with Fleck already? If I am reading the contract right, if the Gophers ever want to move on from Fleck then they have to pay him 65% of what is left on the contract. That buyout is going to be more than $10 million (the highest Fleck/another school will have to pay to get him out of his Minnesota deal) for 5 years. Is it really that hard to imagine this going really poorly? I could see public opinion changing drastically by the end of the month.

I hope this works out.
Click to expand...
You know, Fleck doesn’t have to sign a contract.


so if the U said, we are going to wait a month to see how it goes Flecj could say…okay I’m going to talk to every school that calls

And it’s also a pretty big bet against your own team. It is like an 8% bump. Win the next 3 and you might be paying for a 20-30% raise to keep him.
 

Nobody knows how this will turn out -- just like nobody knows whether a stock will go up and down. You have to use the information at hand to make an informed decision.
GophersInIowa said:
The reactions of Craig, Neal, and others are hilarious. In the end, all this really did was add two years to his contract, give him & his assistants a bump up in pay, and increased his buyout. It's not that big of a deal. Contracts in college almost never expire. The contract is going to look a lot different when we get to 2027-2028. The additional two years is for show.
Click to expand...
This is key -- and a big difference between college and pro sports which is where Neal and Craig are missing the mark. This isn't just about a "fear" of losing Fleck...or rewarding him...and/or even betting on his future success (although it does all those things). It's also about stability in the program and recruiting HS students, transfers, and MN's current players who might be considering a transfer. I've already heard Ryan Burns say that other schools recruiting Jacob Knuth have been whispering in his ear that Fleck and Co won't be at MN long, whereas those other staffs aren't going anywhere.
 

Identical timing to his prior extension, after the big conference win streak, but before it gets really hairy. Fleck knows how to "sell high" and cash in when the stock is high but before a "risk event" that could lower his value

Similarly, he also has to see 2022 coming up with a lot of new offensive players, and 2023's murder schedule, so he's still betting his career on the Gophers long term rather than selling high by going to another school.
 



GoForGold said:
They are all assuming the Gophers will fail to impress the rest of the way. I say don't get mad just prove them wrong.
Click to expand...
They're already wrong. It really doesn't matter what the Gophers do for the rest of the way. Their reasons for being critical aren't logical.

It's a bad look to invest into the revenue generation machine that is college football because they recently cut sports that cost money? That's a horrific take.

He also said "#20 gets you 7 years extension". Can you imagine anything dumber? If Fleck made the U the 20th best college football program in the country, he would have a LIFETIME contract.

If they wanted to argue that Fleck got an extension after beating crappy teams and we really aren't that good, I'd disagree, but then we'd be in the wait and see mode.

If they wanted to argue that Fleck shouldn't have gotten an extension because it sets a bad precedent of having to bump his salary after the slightest successful run, I'd disagree, but it would be a debate.

These buffoons want to be critical of Fleck so bad but they don't even know enough about college football to make a reasonable take.
 

matt said:
That’s about exactly what he will get each year. Gold is about $1795 per ounce right now which comes out to $28,720 per pound. If PJ weighs 180 pounds, his weight in gold is worth $5,169,600.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, but this is one of the greatest posts in the history of GH. How did you even think to do the math here? You're next level.
 

MGGopher said:
Nobody knows how this will turn out -- just like nobody knows whether a stock will go up and down. You have to use the information at hand to make an informed decision.

This is key -- and a big difference between college and pro sports which is where Neal and Craig are missing the mark. This isn't just about a "fear" of losing Fleck...or rewarding him...and/or even betting on his future success (although it does all those things). It's also about stability in the program and recruiting HS students, transfers, and MN's current players who might be considering a transfer. I've already heard Ryan Burns say that other schools recruiting Jacob Knuth have been whispering in his ear that Fleck and Co won't be at MN long, whereas those other staffs aren't going anywhere.
Click to expand...
The sports media in this market has absolutely no clue about college sports.
 

matt said:
That’s about exactly what he will get each year. Gold is about $1795 per ounce right now which comes out to $28,720 per pound. If PJ weighs 180 pounds, his weight in gold is worth $5,169,600.
Click to expand...
Matt wins the internet!
 

matt said:
That’s about exactly what he will get each year. Gold is about $1795 per ounce right now which comes out to $28,720 per pound. If PJ weighs 180 pounds, his weight in gold is worth $5,169,600.
Click to expand...
If gold weight becomes the new standard for head coach pay, Illinois is going to be even more broke than it already is.
 

EG#9 said:
1. Probably will need to beat both rivals to win the West. Beating both rivals in the same year 1 time in your first 5 years as coach is certainly a reasonable expectation. Currently 1-7.
2. Agree. My point was that is the most notable thing that has happened this year and it wasn't a positive.
3. Chryst is 55 he's certainly young enough to take another job: take a look at his salary by year: https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/football/coach/1601 He's won the West 3 times and has 3 top 10 finishes.
4. What if 2021 is only an 8-4 season with 2 more rivalry losses? Is that a season that feels like a success? I do agree 2022 is more accurately portrayed as an unknown than as a defined difficult year.
5. The raise is modest but the commitment is not. If things do go poorly the buyout language suggests that we just have to grin and bear it for a long time.
Click to expand...

1) Reasonable? Yes, but it has been 31 years since the Gophers beat Wisconsin and Iowa in the same season. That was a terrible Wisconsin team in Alvarez's 1st year. Mason, Brew, or Kill didn't do it either.

As for the rest, this is basically a two year extension with a modest raise and protection from other schools potentially going after him, especially if he wins the west.

Even if they don't win the west and finish with 8 or 9 wins, is that a terrible season considering the injuries we've had? Would you have taken 8 or 9 wins prior to the season knowing CAB would miss several games, Mo would only play 3 quarters, and we were using our 5th and 6th string RBs most of the season?

Wins and losses matter the most, but at a place like Minnesota, stability and trajectory matter just as much. We've been a step below Iowa and Wisconsin for 30 years because they built solid programs with stability.

I don't know how anyone can look at how deep and well constructed this roster is and say that Fleck is not doing the same thing. We're in 1st place currently with wining the division a real possibility. I do not see the Gophers taking a big step back next season, they have multi year depth as replacements and the transfer portal to supplement.

As long as Fleck is here, I think the Gophers will contend for the west every year. Coyle sees that as well, and that's why the extension is well deserved.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
1) Reasonable? Yes, but it has been 31 years since the Gophers beat Wisconsin and Iowa in the same season. That was a terrible Wisconsin team in Alvarez's 1st year. Mason, Brew, or Kill didn't do it either.

As for the rest, this is basically a two year extension with a modest raise and protection from other schools potentially going after him, especially if he wins the west.

Even if they don't win the west and finish with 8 or 9 wins, is that a terrible season considering the injuries we've had? Would you have taken 8 or 9 wins prior to the season knowing CAB would miss several games, Mo would only play 3 quarters, and we were using our 5th and 6th string RBs most of the season?

Wins and losses matter the most, but at a place like Minnesota, stability and trajectory matter just as much. We've been a step below Iowa and Wisconsin for 30 years because they built solid programs with stability.

I don't know how anyone can look at how deep and well constructed this roster is and say that Fleck is not doing the same thing. We're in 1st place currently with wining the division a real possibility. I do not see the Gophers taking a big step back next season, they have multi year depth as replacements and the transfer portal to supplement.

As long as Fleck is here, I think the Gophers will contend for the west every year. Coyle sees that as well, and that's why the extension is well deserved.
Click to expand...
Excellent post, especially the highlighted. The thing people don't get that frustrates me is we are paying and extending PJ because of the long-term outlook of the program, and what he can offer there, not just beating Iowa and or Wisconsin here in 2021. Anything can happen in one or two games - fluky bounces, bad calls, injuries, etc. The idea is that PJ is the guy to build around for years to come to make us competitive for a long time, not just in these last 4 games.
 

GophersInIowa said:
The reactions of Craig, Neal, and others are hilarious. In the end, all this really did was add two years to his contract, give him & his assistants a bump up in pay, and increased his buyout. It's not that big of a deal. Contracts in college almost never expire. The contract is going to look a lot different when we get to 2027-2028. The additional two years is for show.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with anything you said but I think anyone looking at the terms of the contract or getting lost in the details of it is missing the big picture and I would implore them to watch the press conference video again.

This is Fleck's way of trying to prove to people that he is in this for the long haul. He knows that what he has at Minnesota is not the norm in coaching, it just isn't. The talk about building a life, the cultural sustainability so that when guys come back it is the same program they left.

Love him or hate him, Fleck truly sees the big picture in a way a lot of coaches don't. I know we are all conditioned to not really pay attention to what coaches say because a lot of what they put out there is "coach speak", but that 15 minute press conference he did about the contract signing was different.

Maybe I will look like an idiot and he will go job hoping after the next opportunity but I truly don't believe he will and as long as Minnesota treats him fairly he is going to give everything he has to the University of Minnesota and be here for a long time.

-Big Ten School
-Winnable Division
-Great Relationship with the AD
-School that has shown a willingness to support football
-State that has embraced "Row the Boat"
-Job without insane expectations and offers a ton of security (not common)
-Competitive Salary

Fleck has a dream situation here for any coach who can see more than just the CFP and the quest to win a National Championship. Not saying he doesn't want those things as well but there is so much more to coaching than chasing that brass ring that only a few teams have a legit shot at winning most years. Will say it again because it needs to be emphasized. Fleck sees the big picture in a way that most don't.

He is going to be our head coach for a long time and I could totally see him becoming an AD at some point way down the line as well. Yesterday was a huge day for Gopher football!
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
1) Reasonable? Yes, but it has been 31 years since the Gophers beat Wisconsin and Iowa in the same season. That was a terrible Wisconsin team in Alvarez's 1st year. Mason, Brew, or Kill didn't do it either.

As for the rest, this is basically a two year extension with a modest raise and protection from other schools potentially going after him, especially if he wins the west.

Even if they don't win the west and finish with 8 or 9 wins, is that a terrible season considering the injuries we've had? Would you have taken 8 or 9 wins prior to the season knowing CAB would miss several games, Mo would only play 3 quarters, and we were using our 5th and 6th string RBs most of the season?

Wins and losses matter the most, but at a place like Minnesota, stability and trajectory matter just as much. We've been a step below Iowa and Wisconsin for 30 years because they built solid programs with stability.

I don't know how anyone can look at how deep and well constructed this roster is and say that Fleck is not doing the same thing. We're in 1st place currently with wining the division a real possibility. I do not see the Gophers taking a big step back next season, they have multi year depth as replacements and the transfer portal to supplement.

As long as Fleck is here, I think the Gophers will contend for the west every year. Coyle sees that as well, and that's why the extension is well deserved.
Click to expand...

It is a good season for the U even without the injuries. The fact that debate can even be had as to whether or not 8/9 wins is a successful season is an indication of the job Fleck has done. We only won 8+ games in 3 of Mason's 10 seasons. We only finished above .500 in the Big 10 twice during Mason's 10 seasons.

I use Mason as the standard because he gets credit (rightfully) for saving a really bad program and did a nice job here.

It's a tough place to win and PJ is winning.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
1) Reasonable? Yes, but it has been 31 years since the Gophers beat Wisconsin and Iowa in the same season. That was a terrible Wisconsin team in Alvarez's 1st year. Mason, Brew, or Kill didn't do it either.

As for the rest, this is basically a two year extension with a modest raise and protection from other schools potentially going after him, especially if he wins the west.

Even if they don't win the west and finish with 8 or 9 wins, is that a terrible season considering the injuries we've had? Would you have taken 8 or 9 wins prior to the season knowing CAB would miss several games, Mo would only play 3 quarters, and we were using our 5th and 6th string RBs most of the season?

Wins and losses matter the most, but at a place like Minnesota, stability and trajectory matter just as much. We've been a step below Iowa and Wisconsin for 30 years because they built solid programs with stability.

I don't know how anyone can look at how deep and well constructed this roster is and say that Fleck is not doing the same thing. We're in 1st place currently with wining the division a real possibility. I do not see the Gophers taking a big step back next season, they have multi year depth as replacements and the transfer portal to supplement.

As long as Fleck is here, I think the Gophers will contend for the west every year. Coyle sees that as well, and that's why the extension is well deserved.
Click to expand...
75 Freshmen/Sophomores on the roster, hitting on the transfer portal, recruiting well, and still don't know who might come back next year. I agree we are in a very good place for the present and future. Need to break through and win the West.
 
Last edited:

GoForGold said:
Fake Gopher fans who want to do as much damage as they can or they just like complaining.
Click to expand...
They may actually be Minnesota sports fans, but simply horrible, miserable human beings.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
They're already wrong. It really doesn't matter what the Gophers do for the rest of the way. Their reasons for being critical aren't logical.

It's a bad look to invest into the revenue generation machine that is college football because they recently cut sports that cost money? That's a horrific take.

He also said "#20 gets you 7 years extension". Can you imagine anything dumber? If Fleck made the U the 20th best college football program in the country, he would have a LIFETIME contract.

If they wanted to argue that Fleck got an extension after beating crappy teams and we really aren't that good, I'd disagree, but then we'd be in the wait and see mode.

If they wanted to argue that Fleck shouldn't have gotten an extension because it sets a bad precedent of having to bump his salary after the slightest successful run, I'd disagree, but it would be a debate.

These buffoons want to be critical of Fleck so bad but they don't even know enough about college football to make a reasonable take.
Click to expand...
They also like to say things like this to stir things up, Negative news sells newspapers, etc. PATHEDIC.
 



WriterGoph said:
I actually like Chip Scoggins quite a bit, but that's about it. Chris Hine does well on Timberwolves coverage as well.

Honestly, if the Athletic would dedicate a full time writer to Gopher sports, I'd likely stop reading the Strib completely.
Click to expand...
I stopped reading the Strib many years ago. If you want info on the Gophers, the internet sources work just fine. There is absolutely no worthwhile information that is unique to the Strib. Most people simply read it out of habit.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom