Fleck has lost his hunger/edge

Funny you mentioned the Mac. Went to a dinner this summer when visiting nephew in Ohio. The speaker was his high school coach who has won a couple of state championships in Ohio D1. Big schools and big boy football. He regularly has 4-6 players go on scholarship to D1 schools. He claimed that the Mac schools no longer try recruit his players unless they are 4 stars which they don’t get often.. They actually recruit the 2nd and third string players from power 5 colleges who want to start. Such is the world we live in. Fleck would be better off recruiting like D Antonio did at MSU. He built a team around 3 stars from the big school hs programs in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Recruiting is an ever changing playing field.
 

This is like saying Oxygen is overrated!!! How pathetically uneducated can someone be to post the greatest coach in all Minnesota sports has lost his Hunger for Wins........Absolutely Disgusting !!!
 

Jumping ahead in the thread - so I apologize if this has already been brought up.

Fleck is admittedly not an "X's & O's" coach. He has never been a coordinator in college or the pros.

which means that he is more dependent on his assistant coaches and coordinators. and there has been a lot of turnover on his staff. In 7 years there have been 3 OC's and 2 DC's.

in addition: 2 OL coaches - 2 RB coaches - 4 TE coaches - 5 DL coaches - 2 LB coaches - 4 CB coaches - 3 S coaches. Matt Simon at WR appears to be the only coach in the same position for all 7 seasons (and he added co-OC this season).

only 2 of 7 seasons where they started a season with the same coaches as the previous year -
no changes from '18 to '19 - and no changes from '20 to '21.
 


He’s become comfortable and protective. He’s lost his edge in a big way. It seemed to happen in 2020. Without Ciarocca he’s nothing special. Ya wonder if he’ll ever get it back? You can blame the players all you want, it’s not the players, it’s the head coach and coaching staff.
I blame the capri 👖
 



Funny you mentioned the Mac. Went to a dinner this summer when visiting nephew in Ohio. The speaker was his high school coach who has won a couple of state championships in Ohio D1. Big schools and big boy football. He regularly has 4-6 players go on scholarship to D1 schools. He claimed that the Mac schools no longer try recruit his players unless they are 4 stars which they don’t get often.. They actually recruit the 2nd and third string players from power 5 colleges who want to start. Such is the world we live in. Fleck would be better off recruiting like D Antonio did at MSU. He built a team around 3 stars from the big school hs programs in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Recruiting is an ever changing playing field.
Dantonio was landing top 25 classes by year 3 and taking advantage of Michigan being down. Unless there is something extra special about Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois in particular I think most programs of Minnesotas ilk already target a lot of three stars from big HS programs.
 

As someone who listens to close to every Fleck press conference and follows him pretty closely, it just seems that covid and the George Floyd situation changed him. Like winning became less important. Like he lost the edge and intensity he had. Like he became softer.
As someone who never listens to any press conferences from anyone in any sport, it's fair to say I have no idea if you're right or wrong.
 




Dantonio was landing top 25 classes by year 3 and taking advantage of Michigan being down. Unless there is something extra special about Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois in particular I think most programs of Minnesotas ilk already target a lot of three stars from big HS programs.
The level of competition in Ohio and Pennsylvania hs football is higher than places like Minnesota and Wisconsin. Michigan’s last two Heisman winners were from Ohio. The big Catholic all boys high schools put out a lot of D1 players. St Edward in Cleveland has 3 of lineman signed with Ohio state and Michigan. The other 2 linemen are underclassmen and have offers for D1. Penn States QBs Allair and Clifford, both Ohio guys. DiAntonio coached at UC and later Fickell. Both used a lot of Cincinnati 3 stars. The coaching tends to be better in these are because of the competition. Heck, even Urban Meyer got his first job as an assistant at Cincinnati St X. My point is that there is a lot of talent in those areas. Fleck has a compelling story to sell with Minnesota. His recruiting staff should be practically living in Pennsylvania and Ohio and picking off some of the rising 3 stars.
 

I think Fleck thought he could overcome coaching at a school like Minnesota and take us to the next level. I don't think he is recruiting the type of player he thought he could get on this roster. I think it's been an eye opener for him and somewhat of a downer for him.
 




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