NoelarBear
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HEAD COACH PJ FLECK: First of all, just want to give West Virginia a lot of credit. [Coach] Neal Brown and his football team, really tough football team. Great defense. That was a hard-fought football game. I want to thank the Guaranteed Rate. I want to thank the Fiesta Bowl and everybody involved. Did an amazing job hosting us and Mike Nealy and all his people, Patrick [Barkley]. This was an elite event. They know how to run a bowl game. I don't think anybody needs to be able to hold that but they know how to run a bowl game.
Absolutely loved our administration, Mark Coyle, President Gabel, allowing us to come here a little bit early, and we basically had our Monday day off on the day we arrived and then kind got into our bowl week. We like to get out here about two, three days ahead of time and kind of get into a normal bowl week.
I just want to thank them, our entire administration. I thought our guys played incredibly hard, played tough. First of all, start with the year -- when you look at this year, who would have thought beginning of the year, if you would have bet Ky Thomas would have been the bowl game MVP, you're probably not working anymore.
That's no disrespect to Ky, but when you look at our backfield of seven tailbacks with scholarships, scholarship tailbacks, not many people in the country have seven scholarship tailbacks, and we do, and we needed every single one of them. In fact, we needed to move a linebacker over to running back.
We put a lot of burden on our offensive line this year, and tight ends, and we were efficient in the pass game. Maybe didn't throw it as much as we do every single year, but we were efficient.
Then you look as wide receivers, we had four guys out for almost half the year at times, coming in and out. A lot of personal tragedy. A lot of fathers lost. A lot of family members lost. Very difficult to go through the year like that. Everybody has that, but who can do it and overcome it and triumph through it? Even then you look at the Bowling Green game and the Illinois game, and the ability to respond to that.
Then you look defensively, maybe one of the best defensive seasons that I can remember as a head football coach. That's goes all to Joe Rossi and his staff, Chad Wilt, Joe Harasymiak, Paul Haynes and all the GAs and QCs. We rallied around this knock all year, and we wanted to be the defense that knocks. And I thought they did that.
I couldn't be more proud of this football team. They've been through an awful lot, overcame a lot. It's a special, special group of young men. The results are results. We get judged on the numbers of wins. Nine wins is really a tremendous season for us, but when you look at how they got to nine wins and the people they are and what they overcame to get there, as Heather [Fleck] said, those are the statues.
Those are the trophies of these young men growing up.
I have been that way for the entire time being a head coach, and I will always be that way. I have to be reminded of that at times. That's why you have a lovely wife like I do, to remind you of those things. Those are the statues of what these guys have overcome and what they fought through, and the win is a cherry on top.
Again, give a lot of credit to West Virginia. Again, there's a lot of things in that game that we'll probably talk about that could have been better.
Thank you all for attending. Can't thank our fans enough, our band, everybody who made the trip here. The crowd was definitely dominated by Minnesota, which we couldn't thank our fans enough. Thank all you for being here.
Q. You said "Defense that knocks." What does that mean?
COACH FLECK: Well, again, we're not promoting anything, but there's a scene from a certain show on -- I think it's Netflix "Breaking Bad." I just saw "Breaking Bad" for the first time last year during COVID. It's been out forever, and these guys were talking about "Breaking Bad," "Breaking Bad." We finally watched it.
He talks about: I am the one who knocks. Rolling Stones, let me hear you knocking. We played that all year, and it was just kind of a theme that our guys rallied around. Coach [Joe] Rossi and his defense deserve a lot of credit for that. The guys really embraced it.
That's where it came from. Again, not promoting anything that's going on in the actual show at all. We took one specific scene, and it fit what we were doing, just to be specific on that before the articles come out (smiling).
Q. Who pitched the Daniel Faalele full-back dive? Did you have any hesitation after Neal Brown sprinted down the sidelines to call a time-out the first time you saw it?
COACH FLECK: Not at all, he's 400 pounds. Once that thing gets moving forward, it's hard to be able to stop that thing. We ran the ball with him a few years ago in the spring game. We threw it last year. And we decided to run it this time. There was no hesitation. I thought Coach [Matt] Simon did a great job calling the game. Smart game. Especially as you miss a field goal to start the game, right? Then you fumble, which we won't have to talk about.
Then we have a holding call. They're talking about three drives empty. It could have been a lot different if we were able to execute on those. That's what I love about this team, they just moved onto the next play. Their response is incredible. There's a major difference between response and reaction. These guys are trained to respond. They taught us an awful lot tonight. They are an example of the culture. We just coach. We can't play. We can't be the one out there responding. They have to do it, and they've got that down.
Q. You are now 3-0 in bowl games since you have taken over as the head coach. What is it about the process of preparing for a bowl game and the players' ability to execute when the game comes around this time of year?
COACH FLECK: We all learn how to be able to prepare for people that we're with. Greg Schiano taught me an awful lot how to prepare for bowl games. that's where I pull a lot of the bowl prep from. I know he's a fellow Big Ten coach. I pull a lot of the stuff we did from him and how we prepare.
The players have to buy into that. Our bowl prep is not easy, and they know that. We give them gifts a lot here and there. You get bowl gifts. We spread them out. After practice, they usually get a bowl gift which kind of softens, Hey, we practiced today. Woo! Everybody leaves feeling good, they got something.
We have a certain way of doing it. We have a certain belief. We stick to that belief. And just because we're 3-0 doesn't mean that -- we used the same thing when we prepared for the Cotton Bowl against Western Michigan and lost. But I've learned a lot along the way.
These guys understand that the Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate provided an elite experience, but we're here to win a football game.
I actually love where we stayed. I mean, the Sheraton over there, I mean, it's unbelievable. It's truly -- it was like a retreat. I mean, I know at times we were kind of sitting there like what are we going to do, but we came together. There wasn't anybody at the hotel really besides us. Our guys got a chance to get away. It was more of a retreat.
These guys are the ones that have to do it. We provide the blueprint and they have got to go execute it. If they don't believe in the blueprint, they go off the blueprint, then the house isn't going to look like the house and it's going to come tumbling down when the winds come and the storms come. These guys truly buy into that. It's hard but hard equals worth it. Just proud of them.
Q. This is the second consecutive bowl that you basically drained about the last eight minutes off the clock to win it. What does that say about your offensive line, the guys up front?
COACH FLECK: Whatever you write about it really. (Smiling) You get to control the narrative a little bit more than us at times. But, we're going to do what we have to do to win a football game.
Again, I go back to missing the field goal. We fumbled inside the ten. We are driving, we drop the ball, and we hold, and now we got to punt it. There's three scoring possessions that we missed which turns it into a different game.
And all those things stick with you. And the way our defense was playing, you are going to lean on your defense in the second half and that's all we did. We leaned on our defense in the second half. Flipped the field position, shortened the game, and found a way to -- with the zeros on the clock to have the most points. That's the object of the game.
I know we didn't throw the ball particularly a lot this year. I'm very aware of that. That does not mean we're not going to throw the ball last year. We're going to have incredible experience. Wide-outs are another year experienced.
We went through a lot with guys in and out, game plans being changed throughout the entire year.
The way our defense was playing, just -- you lean on them when you get a chance to. And today we leaned on them again, and we were able to score when we needed to score and find some creative ways to do it.
COACH FLECK: One thing I will say about the running backs is they are incredibly selfless. I don't know if I have ever been around a unit that is so selfless.
That's very difficult in the college football landscape right now. We have really good running backs. But this year proved you need a lot of running backs. And one thing I love about these guys is they care for each other. There's not one person that's selfish inside that running back room. That's very difficult, especially in 2021 going into 2022 where we are with the college football landscape.
Kenni Burns deserves a lot of credit. You can't imagine the things he went through to be able to prepare these guys to be able to play. And then Mohamed Ibrahim, the way he's been able to coache. And Trey Potts finally joining us for the bowl trip for the first time. That's the first time he had been around our team.
You think about all these things that happened. These guys are so close. I hope they stay that way because it's the pure form of college football. I'm not afraid to talk about that. I know we've got a lot of options out there and different things like that. But these guys are really special. We have got a special football team and a lot of guys coming back.
Q. Are there any other TV shows that youdraw from to kind of give the team a certain kind of personality? Any other form of entertainment?
COACH FLECK: Always. There's a lot of them.
There's a lot of them. Our whole theme was TGIF this week -- or this year. The whole thing:
Togetherness, gratitude, identity, and focus.
But we showed them -- we were showing these guys beginning of the year, back in January -- do you guys remember that? -- "Elf," "Full House," "Family Matters," that little video, making our team a part of that.
TYLER NUBIN: "Full House."
COACH FLECK: Exactly. Yeah, we pull a lot from different things. You got to find ways to find cultural
ways to teach lifetime lessons and keep these guys really engaged.
Absolutely loved our administration, Mark Coyle, President Gabel, allowing us to come here a little bit early, and we basically had our Monday day off on the day we arrived and then kind got into our bowl week. We like to get out here about two, three days ahead of time and kind of get into a normal bowl week.
I just want to thank them, our entire administration. I thought our guys played incredibly hard, played tough. First of all, start with the year -- when you look at this year, who would have thought beginning of the year, if you would have bet Ky Thomas would have been the bowl game MVP, you're probably not working anymore.
That's no disrespect to Ky, but when you look at our backfield of seven tailbacks with scholarships, scholarship tailbacks, not many people in the country have seven scholarship tailbacks, and we do, and we needed every single one of them. In fact, we needed to move a linebacker over to running back.
We put a lot of burden on our offensive line this year, and tight ends, and we were efficient in the pass game. Maybe didn't throw it as much as we do every single year, but we were efficient.
Then you look as wide receivers, we had four guys out for almost half the year at times, coming in and out. A lot of personal tragedy. A lot of fathers lost. A lot of family members lost. Very difficult to go through the year like that. Everybody has that, but who can do it and overcome it and triumph through it? Even then you look at the Bowling Green game and the Illinois game, and the ability to respond to that.
Then you look defensively, maybe one of the best defensive seasons that I can remember as a head football coach. That's goes all to Joe Rossi and his staff, Chad Wilt, Joe Harasymiak, Paul Haynes and all the GAs and QCs. We rallied around this knock all year, and we wanted to be the defense that knocks. And I thought they did that.
I couldn't be more proud of this football team. They've been through an awful lot, overcame a lot. It's a special, special group of young men. The results are results. We get judged on the numbers of wins. Nine wins is really a tremendous season for us, but when you look at how they got to nine wins and the people they are and what they overcame to get there, as Heather [Fleck] said, those are the statues.
Those are the trophies of these young men growing up.
I have been that way for the entire time being a head coach, and I will always be that way. I have to be reminded of that at times. That's why you have a lovely wife like I do, to remind you of those things. Those are the statues of what these guys have overcome and what they fought through, and the win is a cherry on top.
Again, give a lot of credit to West Virginia. Again, there's a lot of things in that game that we'll probably talk about that could have been better.
Thank you all for attending. Can't thank our fans enough, our band, everybody who made the trip here. The crowd was definitely dominated by Minnesota, which we couldn't thank our fans enough. Thank all you for being here.
Q. You said "Defense that knocks." What does that mean?
COACH FLECK: Well, again, we're not promoting anything, but there's a scene from a certain show on -- I think it's Netflix "Breaking Bad." I just saw "Breaking Bad" for the first time last year during COVID. It's been out forever, and these guys were talking about "Breaking Bad," "Breaking Bad." We finally watched it.
He talks about: I am the one who knocks. Rolling Stones, let me hear you knocking. We played that all year, and it was just kind of a theme that our guys rallied around. Coach [Joe] Rossi and his defense deserve a lot of credit for that. The guys really embraced it.
That's where it came from. Again, not promoting anything that's going on in the actual show at all. We took one specific scene, and it fit what we were doing, just to be specific on that before the articles come out (smiling).
Q. Who pitched the Daniel Faalele full-back dive? Did you have any hesitation after Neal Brown sprinted down the sidelines to call a time-out the first time you saw it?
COACH FLECK: Not at all, he's 400 pounds. Once that thing gets moving forward, it's hard to be able to stop that thing. We ran the ball with him a few years ago in the spring game. We threw it last year. And we decided to run it this time. There was no hesitation. I thought Coach [Matt] Simon did a great job calling the game. Smart game. Especially as you miss a field goal to start the game, right? Then you fumble, which we won't have to talk about.
Then we have a holding call. They're talking about three drives empty. It could have been a lot different if we were able to execute on those. That's what I love about this team, they just moved onto the next play. Their response is incredible. There's a major difference between response and reaction. These guys are trained to respond. They taught us an awful lot tonight. They are an example of the culture. We just coach. We can't play. We can't be the one out there responding. They have to do it, and they've got that down.
Q. You are now 3-0 in bowl games since you have taken over as the head coach. What is it about the process of preparing for a bowl game and the players' ability to execute when the game comes around this time of year?
COACH FLECK: We all learn how to be able to prepare for people that we're with. Greg Schiano taught me an awful lot how to prepare for bowl games. that's where I pull a lot of the bowl prep from. I know he's a fellow Big Ten coach. I pull a lot of the stuff we did from him and how we prepare.
The players have to buy into that. Our bowl prep is not easy, and they know that. We give them gifts a lot here and there. You get bowl gifts. We spread them out. After practice, they usually get a bowl gift which kind of softens, Hey, we practiced today. Woo! Everybody leaves feeling good, they got something.
We have a certain way of doing it. We have a certain belief. We stick to that belief. And just because we're 3-0 doesn't mean that -- we used the same thing when we prepared for the Cotton Bowl against Western Michigan and lost. But I've learned a lot along the way.
These guys understand that the Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate provided an elite experience, but we're here to win a football game.
I actually love where we stayed. I mean, the Sheraton over there, I mean, it's unbelievable. It's truly -- it was like a retreat. I mean, I know at times we were kind of sitting there like what are we going to do, but we came together. There wasn't anybody at the hotel really besides us. Our guys got a chance to get away. It was more of a retreat.
These guys are the ones that have to do it. We provide the blueprint and they have got to go execute it. If they don't believe in the blueprint, they go off the blueprint, then the house isn't going to look like the house and it's going to come tumbling down when the winds come and the storms come. These guys truly buy into that. It's hard but hard equals worth it. Just proud of them.
Q. This is the second consecutive bowl that you basically drained about the last eight minutes off the clock to win it. What does that say about your offensive line, the guys up front?
COACH FLECK: Whatever you write about it really. (Smiling) You get to control the narrative a little bit more than us at times. But, we're going to do what we have to do to win a football game.
Again, I go back to missing the field goal. We fumbled inside the ten. We are driving, we drop the ball, and we hold, and now we got to punt it. There's three scoring possessions that we missed which turns it into a different game.
And all those things stick with you. And the way our defense was playing, you are going to lean on your defense in the second half and that's all we did. We leaned on our defense in the second half. Flipped the field position, shortened the game, and found a way to -- with the zeros on the clock to have the most points. That's the object of the game.
I know we didn't throw the ball particularly a lot this year. I'm very aware of that. That does not mean we're not going to throw the ball last year. We're going to have incredible experience. Wide-outs are another year experienced.
We went through a lot with guys in and out, game plans being changed throughout the entire year.
The way our defense was playing, just -- you lean on them when you get a chance to. And today we leaned on them again, and we were able to score when we needed to score and find some creative ways to do it.
COACH FLECK: One thing I will say about the running backs is they are incredibly selfless. I don't know if I have ever been around a unit that is so selfless.
That's very difficult in the college football landscape right now. We have really good running backs. But this year proved you need a lot of running backs. And one thing I love about these guys is they care for each other. There's not one person that's selfish inside that running back room. That's very difficult, especially in 2021 going into 2022 where we are with the college football landscape.
Kenni Burns deserves a lot of credit. You can't imagine the things he went through to be able to prepare these guys to be able to play. And then Mohamed Ibrahim, the way he's been able to coache. And Trey Potts finally joining us for the bowl trip for the first time. That's the first time he had been around our team.
You think about all these things that happened. These guys are so close. I hope they stay that way because it's the pure form of college football. I'm not afraid to talk about that. I know we've got a lot of options out there and different things like that. But these guys are really special. We have got a special football team and a lot of guys coming back.
Q. Are there any other TV shows that youdraw from to kind of give the team a certain kind of personality? Any other form of entertainment?
COACH FLECK: Always. There's a lot of them.
There's a lot of them. Our whole theme was TGIF this week -- or this year. The whole thing:
Togetherness, gratitude, identity, and focus.
But we showed them -- we were showing these guys beginning of the year, back in January -- do you guys remember that? -- "Elf," "Full House," "Family Matters," that little video, making our team a part of that.
TYLER NUBIN: "Full House."
COACH FLECK: Exactly. Yeah, we pull a lot from different things. You got to find ways to find cultural
ways to teach lifetime lessons and keep these guys really engaged.
