Fleck is fired up on KFAN

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Bob_Loblaw said:
We pay him $6 million per year with extremely reasonable expectations. There are not 30 jobs better than Minnesota and there are not 10 jobs that could pay him anywhere near what we pay him that would be interested in him.
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I would disagree that there are not 30 better jobs, but I will agree there are not 30 jobs that would pay him as much as he makes here.
 


gopherbadgerman said:
Yes. Way behind Iowa. They've had one losing season since 2007. Multiple NYD bowl games. Averaged more than 60K per game every year for over 40 years. Gophers are way closer to Indiana or Rutgers than they are to Iowa as a program.
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I'm talking about where the programs are at today. The Gophers are significantly ahead of Rutgers and Indiana. And I know PJ hasn't beaten Kirk yet, but it's not like Iowa has dominated us in those games either. The opposite is more true, and it has just been a few plays that has decided 3 of the last 4 games.

Over the last 4 years PJ is 32-14 (21-13) and Kirk is 34-14 (24-11). If two of the last four Gopher/Iowa games swing the other way, that's the only difference between the two. And despite the offensive complaints here, Iowa's has been much worse.

And that's with Iowa pulling in $280 million more in donations over the last 17 years.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
After talking about Darius Taylor, Fleck basically implied he's not going to be here next year. He then said they had a guy who used to play here, that's doing well someplace else because they couldn't afford to pay him (Irving, of course).
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So to be clear, if the Gophers fail, it won’t be Fleck’s fault. Good to know.
 

Go Gophs said:
Honestly, we are lucky he hasn't left yet. There is very little support for this program across the state IMO. MUCH more since he has been here than before he was.

He has a tough row to hoe here. Minnesota, if you ask fans across the country, is looked at as a mid to poor football program.
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If any of the rumors are true he has been trying to leave for several years now but none of these programs (Oregon, Tennessee, Nebraska, etc..) have returned his interest.
 








Word said:
It all comes down to if people prioritize their fandom on college sports being amateur sports. Some people care, some people don't (I think there are some here that also believe that amateur sports should be illegal, but that's another conversation). I am in the camp of that one reason I paid more attention to college football, basketball, and hockey is the amateur side of it.

Now that it's pro/minor league I won't pay as much attention (I'll just watch the major leagues). I'm not quite at the "give up" point, but every story I get about how the only way you can be good is with more money, I lose a little more interest.
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Agree, if what PJ states is correct and we already have professional college football today with too-easy free agency and a steeper uphill climb than ever to national relevance (or quality depth) what is the incentive for casual fans to spend time on the Gophers when the Vikings have a much better chance of reaching the pinnacle or even of fielding a competitive team (hold the jokes).

At what point should fans of have-nots lobby for employee classification of college players, salary caps, unionization, revenue sharing, restricted free agency and hope their team makes the cut in the resulting shakeup and realignments. Or, maybe realignment of some P5 teams into a lower tier under current amateur rules makes sense. A new P5 regional conference or a merger with regional G5. G5 teams can anticipate a conference championship every now and then as a realistic goal. Playoffs?
 

If you want to listen to the Fleck interview, it's available under "The Common Man Program" in your podcast app on you phone. Episode is titled Gopher Football Weekly with PJ Fleck.

Fleck gives another terrible answer on his 4th and 3 decision saying "going for it is out the door when it's 4th and 4" and again brings up a FG and claims it's too far to kick a FG in to the wind. Says he picked the clock (look how many plays Northwestern was able to run with that clock). Didn't want to give Northwestern a short field (it's the 37 yard line and you are going to play charmin soft coverage until they get past midfield regardless). There are things Fleck does well, but man this doesn't inspire confidence at all that his game management will ever improve.

Fleck again talks about Taylor "not sticking it in there" on the third and 2 before the decision to punt. Then says we also players who are gone that should be here playing right now but are playing at another school (Bucky Irving) because again NIL we didn't pay him we didn't pay him enough. That is the fact of life and I know we all laugh at it but that is a fact so if we want to keep players the NIL and all these guys we have they won't be here next year just making sure everyboydy understands our fans they won't be here so we'll be a Triple A ballclub for somebody else. That is the reality and the truth of the situation. So please contact Dinkytown Athletes or your local NIL store. Then Gaard interrupts and says DinkytownAthletes.Com and if you go to the game get a Parlor Burger because all the money goes towards NIL. Then Fleck jokes that they need somebody to order like 2 million burgers.

This was the worst possible time for Fleck to bring up NIL after an absolutely inexcusable loss to Northwestern. Anyone listening to this is immediately going to react like "you can't beat Northwestern and you want my money?" Also, Fleck seemed legitimately fired up like the OP said, but Grimm and Gaard were chuckling through his NIL rant making it seem unserious and then PJ himself makes a joke afterwards about the 2 million burgers. So this leaves your audience very confused: is this serious or not?

The failure to take advantage of an extremely weak B1G West in '20, '21, '22, and it looks like '23 to finish the job that should have been done in '19 is brutal for this program. Want NIL? beat f'ing Purdue and Iowa at home last year. Go to the B1G West title game and have that exposure on Fox with Gopher fans getting to travel to Indy for the biggest game of many of our lives to date. Then you play in your second big bowl game and end the season in the top 25. Similar things could be said about '21: beat Illinois and Bowling Green at home. None of this would have even required PJ's first road win over a top 25 team during his tenure and would have vastly increased the perception of this program both locally and nationally.

You know who else lost a player to Oregon? Iowa lost LB Jestin Jacobs to NIL just this offseason. The prior offseason they lost Charlie Jones to Purdue. The time to sound the alarm on NIL is while you are having success. Beat Louisiana, then beat Michigan in 2 weeks. Then go on a rant in your postgame on field interview on how "This is the last time we will ever hold this jug unless we get a competitive NIL program...I am doing all I can but Minnesotans I need your help". THAT resonates.
 


I've read so much of this on forums today with a lot of negatives who are out to rip Fleck any chances they get and wait to pounce on any chance to say "Fleck's not taking accountability" where that's all he's done after every single loss, so I understand people here tend to lack any objectivity based on actually things that are said or done....

but with that said, Fleck used today to point out there is a reason we aren't Ohio State of Michigan where you can have a random uncle be a head coach, roll the team out on the field and win 30-7.

He said it today that if we can't keep the players they will leave. He's done a good job identifying talent as we've seen with Bucky, but if we are just giving them their first year of experience so they can flee elsewhere, I don't know who you want to blame for that.

Fleck has proven to get well over his share of players developed and identified under the radar. He's top ten in both my publications that measure this.

I can't help any of you who want to feast on the negative. If the best 5 years of Gopher football in your lifetime isn't good enough for you, you'll never be too happy.
 



I’m sure PJ knows the pitchfork nation wants his head on a stick after the horrific 4th quarter meltdown. He is getting savaged all over social media and the Red Star Tribune. Can’t blame him for being a little surly in the interview if that was the case. He’s not wrong, this NIL BS is a serious issue if we are going to compete with the big boys
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
Kinda interesting (or pathetic) for Fleck to bring up NIL this week of all weeks.

Galling after that abomination of a 4th quarter in Evanston, which has absolutely zero to do with NIL.
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Exactly, PJ has not mentioned NIL prior to losing to NW. Seems solely self preservation. Change the subject. Please, feel sorry for me.
Forget the Gopher coaching performances at North Carolina and Northwestern ... we'll change the subject....it ain't my fault.
Same argument as if we only had a new practice facility we'd never lose. PJ changed that to some convoluted story it wasn't available to him when he wanted it before No Carolina. All words to say it's not my fault.
 


Nothing has changed. The top teams in college football have bought players for many, many years. Now, people talk about it because it is NIL "legal".
Minnesota will never outspend the top teams.
Players are always going to leave Minnesota to go somewhere else for a variety of reasons.
If somebody is elite we'll pay him a half million...the other guys will pay him millions.
Throwing money at it is not the secret to winning.
 

Word said:
Whatever was going on before in terms of payment is at minimum 10x worse now in terms of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer (a fair playing field is important in sports). I'd rather they actually enforce the rules they had instead of making it the wild west. But hey, if people want college ball to be minor league ball, that's fine. I'm just saying I'm not interested in it.

I will add, if it is going the route of turning into a full-fledged pro league, they should follow the model of other pro sports. Contracts, salary cap, medical coverage, maybe even a draft?
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This is honestly why I've been an advocate of just making a CFB league with revenue sharing that actually pays players. Without being a league the have nots are farm clubs.
 

60's Guy said:
Nothing has changed. The top teams in college football have bought players for many, many years. Now, people talk about it because it is NIL "legal".
Minnesota will never outspend the top teams.
Players are always going to leave Minnesota to go somewhere else for a variety of reasons.
If somebody is elite we'll pay him a half million...the other guys will pay him millions.
Throwing money at it is not the secret to winning.
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Incorrect.

#1 - NIL has absolutely changed the face of amateur sports, particularly CFB. All high school recruits are well aware that they can get money and benefits today. While there were bag men and deals under the table, the face of CFB was all about amateurism before NIL. I'd argue that the internet was what caused this change, as it became more difficult to hide all the trucks of cash.

#2 - Because of #1, big programs don't have to hide the trucks. Instead their sneak operations have moved to poaching other programs' players.
 

60's Guy said:
Nothing has changed. The top teams in college football have bought players for many, many years. Now, people talk about it because it is NIL "legal".
Minnesota will never outspend the top teams.
Players are always going to leave Minnesota to go somewhere else for a variety of reasons.
If somebody is elite we'll pay him a half million...the other guys will pay him millions.
Throwing money at it is not the secret to winning.
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Hard to argue that it isn’t a huge help.
 

I went back and listened to that segment of the interview. Fleck was talking about Darius Taylor.

Then he said (paraphrasing) "there should be another one here, but we couldn't pay him." (clearly referring to Bucky Irving). that's when Fleck said that without NIL, (again paraphrasing) "all of the players you see out there, none of them will be here. We'll be a Triple-A team" talked about the need for people to donate to NIL. Gaard jumped in to promote Dinkytown Athletes.

it was a little striking to hear him address it that bluntly. as I heard it, he did not say or suggest specifically that Taylor would be gone - it was a little more general that the top players would be gone without more NIL.

I will say this - (warning - speculation). Fleck is usually very careful about what he says and how he says it. so I have to think that that was something that was on his mind - for whatever reason. I don't believe that he just blurted it out. that's not his M.O. He was trying to send someone a message.
 

kisarazu said:
Incorrect.

#1 - NIL has absolutely changed the face of amateur sports, particularly CFB. All high school recruits are well aware that they can get money and benefits today. While there were bag men and deals under the table, the face of CFB was all about amateurism before NIL. I'd argue that the internet was what caused this change, as it became more difficult to hide all the trucks of cash.

#2 - Because of #1, big programs don't have to hide the trucks. Instead their sneak operations have moved to poaching other programs' players.
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The bottom line has not changed. The top 10-20 programs have more money.
HOWEVER, the transfer portal makes it seamless for them to poach players. Makes it easier for them to utilize more resources, bigger network, more money.

When I said nothing has changed I was referring to the idea more money in NIL will put us on a level playing field with top teams. That's a fantasy. We are not going to have SMU or Michigan St money anytime soon let alone catching or matching the perennial teams at the top of college football.
 

60's Guy said:
Nothing has changed. The top teams in college football have bought players for many, many years. Now, people talk about it because it is NIL "legal".
Minnesota will never outspend the top teams.
Players are always going to leave Minnesota to go somewhere else for a variety of reasons.
If somebody is elite we'll pay him a half million...the other guys will pay him millions.
Throwing money at it is not the secret to winning.
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I so much want to agree with this, but I'm afraid I cannot.

If there are any Twins fans on this board, how many of them have wanted the Pohlads to open their checkbook? When the payrolls are the same, you get parity, when the payrolls are different, you get the Yankees.

Edit: I'm not saying that the Gophers need to become the Yankees. I'm saying if fans want yearly top 25 finishes and winning the conference, then outside of parity, the program will need top 25 $.
 
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EG#9 said:
If you want to listen to the Fleck interview, it's available under "The Common Man Program" in your podcast app on you phone. Episode is titled Gopher Football Weekly with PJ Fleck.

Fleck gives another terrible answer on his 4th and 3 decision saying "going for it is out the door when it's 4th and 4" and again brings up a FG and claims it's too far to kick a FG in to the wind. Says he picked the clock (look how many plays Northwestern was able to run with that clock). Didn't want to give Northwestern a short field (it's the 37 yard line and you are going to play charmin soft coverage until they get past midfield regardless). There are things Fleck does well, but man this doesn't inspire confidence at all that his game management will ever improve.

Fleck again talks about Taylor "not sticking it in there" on the third and 2 before the decision to punt. Then says we also players who are gone that should be here playing right now but are playing at another school (Bucky Irving) because again NIL we didn't pay him we didn't pay him enough. That is the fact of life and I know we all laugh at it but that is a fact so if we want to keep players the NIL and all these guys we have they won't be here next year just making sure everyboydy understands our fans they won't be here so we'll be a Triple A ballclub for somebody else. That is the reality and the truth of the situation. So please contact Dinkytown Athletes or your local NIL store. Then Gaard interrupts and says DinkytownAthletes.Com and if you go to the game get a Parlor Burger because all the money goes towards NIL. Then Fleck jokes that they need somebody to order like 2 million burgers.

This was the worst possible time for Fleck to bring up NIL after an absolutely inexcusable loss to Northwestern. Anyone listening to this is immediately going to react like "you can't beat Northwestern and you want my money?" Also, Fleck seemed legitimately fired up like the OP said, but Grimm and Gaard were chuckling through his NIL rant making it seem unserious and then PJ himself makes a joke afterwards about the 2 million burgers. So this leaves your audience very confused: is this serious or not?

The failure to take advantage of an extremely weak B1G West in '20, '21, '22, and it looks like '23 to finish the job that should have been done in '19 is brutal for this program. Want NIL? beat f'ing Purdue and Iowa at home last year. Go to the B1G West title game and have that exposure on Fox with Gopher fans getting to travel to Indy for the biggest game of many of our lives to date. Then you play in your second big bowl game and end the season in the top 25. Similar things could be said about '21: beat Illinois and Bowling Green at home. None of this would have even required PJ's first road win over a top 25 team during his tenure and would have vastly increased the perception of this program both locally and nationally.

You know who else lost a player to Oregon? Iowa lost LB Jestin Jacobs to NIL just this offseason. The prior offseason they lost Charlie Jones to Purdue. The time to sound the alarm on NIL is while you are having success. Beat Louisiana, then beat Michigan in 2 weeks. Then go on a rant in your postgame on field interview on how "This is the last time we will ever hold this jug unless we get a competitive NIL program...I am doing all I can but Minnesotans I need your help". THAT resonates.
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Yes…why help the program win until they can prove they can be winners while at a disadvantage.
 

I said it on Sunday and I’ll said it again here

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They try to get $250K in donations in their upcoming fundraising event at that golf course, who the F will donate when you don’t win?

We get it and accept if you don’t win versus MI or tOSU, but my god, to be up by 3 TDs and then allow it to go into OT and lose? Cmon! Even if we did win that game last night, we’d still be pissed and irritated to allow NW to come back like they did, but with a LOSS? Man, I’m still fuming!

I can see it now, all previous committed 4⭐️ and even some 3⭐️ recruits will drop MN because we are irrelevant and we don’t have NIL money to provide them. We don’t have NIL money because we don’t win games that we’re supposed to win.

PJ does not have any “Prime effect”, we as a program don’t have competitive NIL sponsors or money, we don’t win games, we don’t really have much to attract talents. It’s a broken wheel.

MN will forever be stuck with most 2-3⭐️ recruits and a 2nd to bottom tier B1G team, especially now with 4 amazing PAC 12 teams rolling into B1G next year.

Imagine the recruiting power those 4 PAC12 teams will have once their in the B1G conference?! They’re already winning programs, they already have top recruiting classes without being in the B1G conference, and now they’ll get even more media money from being in the B1G! C’mon, it’s like adding more gas into a huge bonfire!

Formula to turn our program around?

1) New HC who’s will get us more 4⭐️ and our first 5⭐️ recruits

2) we start winning

3) more NIL donations due to the fact that we’re winning all sort of games (games that we should AND games that we were dogs in)

4) now with more NIL money, more 4⭐️ and 5⭐️ recruits

Reinvent the wheel!

All starts with a new HC that will have some sort of “effect”

Not this RTB culture. RTB is a great philosophy to better a person, not to winning games.
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Bottom line is when you don’t win, no one will give you money.

Not sure how much any of you donated but I’ve donated a lot on money to football program since 2019.

Why, because we were winning and it made me happy. When I’m happy, I’d be happy to give them my money! You lost to NC, OK, I wasn’t happy but I can swallow the loss, you lost to NW, F that! I’m done.

I stopped all of my donations to the football program and cancelled my DTA commitment, all because of their shitty performances.

Don’t win the games that you’re supposed to win, you ain’t getting my money.

I’m off to join team TRAYLOR
 

btowngopher said:
Hard to argue that it isn’t a huge help.
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Until you realize the other teams still have more money. We heard the practice facility was the answer to Big Ten Championships in basketball. How's that working?
Now you are saying NIL money will win us championships. The starting line is no where near the same place...we need to hike for a month just to get to the starting line. The top teams have everything all decked out, systems in place are miles and miles down the highway in first class transportation.
Meanwhile, we are selling T-shirts.
 

Yah-E said:
...

Formula to turn our program around?

1) New HC who’s will get us more 4⭐️ and our first 5⭐️ recruits

2) we start winning

3) more NIL donations due to the fact that we’re winning all sort of games (games that we should AND games that we were dogs in)

4) now with more NIL money, more 4⭐️ and 5⭐️ recruits

...
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Good luck having a coach get those 4s & 5s without NIL$.
 


60's Guy said:
Until you realize the other teams still have more money. We heard the practice facility was the answer to Big Ten Championships in basketball. How's that working?
Now you are saying NIL money will win us championships. The starting line is no where near the same place...we need to hike for a month just to get to the starting line. The top teams have everything all decked out, systems in place are miles and miles down the highway in first class transportation.
Meanwhile, we are selling T-shirts.
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Yup. Thus, why I'm for parity.
 


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