Hole Poll: 5 years to the day, what grade would you give the PJ Fleck hire?

Hole Poll: 5 years to the day, what grade would you give the PJ Fleck hire?

  • A

    Votes: 123 61.8%

  • B

    Votes: 73 36.7%

  • C

    Votes: 3 1.5%

  • D

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • F

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    199
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A for Ahead Looking. đź‘€

I like the direction that the program is going.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Still hired and is part of his assessment. Probably added 4-6 losses.
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Never said he didn’t hire them, did I?
My grade is my grade and yours is yours. My mark isn’t an outlier either as ~ 2/3 of the respondents guava an A.
When you do you job perfectly then holler back to me kiddo; I for one am grateful to have a good, improving and positive coach, whose has the program moving forward in such a positive fashion and what we don’t have importantly is players getting into trouble or struggling academically which is important to me as well and also affects my grade.
RTB or not, do with your oar what you wish.
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
I went with a "B."

1st - I don't think you can grade based on what you think might happen in the future. You can only grade on what has happened.

Under Fleck, the Gophers have gone:
5-7
7-6
11-2
3-4
9-4

That's two seasons below .500, one season just above .500, a 9-win season and an 11-win season.
But - no division titles or conference titles.

bottom line - Fleck was hired - as I understand it - with the goal of taking the program to a different level.

So the question is not whether the program is improved, but how much has it improved. And I would say as of right now that there is still a lot of room for improvement - IF the goal is to win a division or win a conference title.
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That's where I am also. Time to put it all together and get to Indy! Do that and I can give him a higher grade!
 

Went with A but very, very pleased the general debate is "A vs B."

Not a bad spot af Year 4 or 5 depending on how you count.
 

His mouth gets an A
His recruiting get a C
Player development gets a B

As a whole he is slightly better than Kill or Mason but get pushed up because people get hyped up and social media being more prevalent. He’s still getting mostly 3* recruits and a occasional 4*, no different than Mason or Kill or even Brewster. Development has been on par, maybe a little better. Only real difference that is significant is he is a cheerleader type coach instead of a boring old ball coach like Mason or Kill. People get overly excited about every prospect now because social media posts a pic of a guy in a uniform where we previously only heard minimal about recruiting 10-20 years ago. As a team that has been top 25 to fringe top 25 beating teams like Wisconsin, Auburn, Nebraska in the recent years, we should be starting to turn the corner on recruiting and getting Carson Hintzman of the world but we are getting the tier lower guys like Tony Nelson or Spencer Alvarez who didn’t have any other big offers. You have a ceiling getting those project type guys
 


Took over a 9-win team, initially went backwards, then posted an 11-2 record several seasons in to his tenure, but last year was a disappointment and this year we "accomplished" 8-4. If they Gophers could have beaten Bowling Green (?!) we would be celebrating a 10-win season...but we didn't get it done against BG.

Overall I'd say that Fleck has been treading water. I gave him a B because we had one very good season. Would have made it a B- if that had been an option.
 

everybody knows my name said:
Took over a 9-win team, initially went backwards, then posted an 11-2 record several seasons in to his tenure, but last year was a disappointment and this year we "accomplished" 8-4. If they Gophers could have beaten Bowling Green (?!) we would be celebrating a 10-win season...but we didn't get it done against BG.

Overall I'd say that Fleck has been treading water. I gave him a B because we had one very good season. Would have made it a B- if that had been an option.
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So you give Claeys credit for the bowl win in 2016 and call it a 9-win team, but you call this year's record "8-4"? Yeah, definitely seems like you don't have an agenda.
 

Went with "A"

I don't believe any other coach that was available at the time would have been able to do as good a job as Fleck has. Both on and off the field he has made major positive differences in the program, the perception of the program and in young men's lives!
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I went with a "B."

1st - I don't think you can grade based on what you think might happen in the future. You can only grade on what has happened.

Under Fleck, the Gophers have gone:
5-7
7-6
11-2
3-4
9-4

That's two seasons below .500, one season just above .500, a 9-win season and an 11-win season.
But - no division titles or conference titles.

bottom line - Fleck was hired - as I understand it - with the goal of taking the program to a different level.

So the question is not whether the program is improved, but how much has it improved. And I would say as of right now that there is still a lot of room for improvement - IF the goal is to win a division or win a conference title.
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He finished 11-2 with a top ten final ranking. I'd rather have that than a division title and that is taking the program to another level.

It should be an A due to that season alone. I think if you told us that's what the record would be before we hired him, I think we'd all be ecstatic.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
I went with a "B."

1st - I don't think you can grade based on what you think might happen in the future. You can only grade on what has happened.

Under Fleck, the Gophers have gone:
5-7
7-6
11-2
3-4
9-4

That's two seasons below .500, one season just above .500, a 9-win season and an 11-win season.
But - no division titles or conference titles.

bottom line - Fleck was hired - as I understand it - with the goal of taking the program to a different level.

So the question is not whether the program is improved, but how much has it improved. And I would say as of right now that there is still a lot of room for improvement - IF the goal is to win a division or win a conference title.
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He has taken the program one step foward. The next step will be when we win the West.
 


If you’re not picking A you haven’t been watching Gopher Football long (or you forgot… possibly for your own mental health, understandable)…
 

I'm grading on a curve, so an A. But if he wants to make the dean's list he needs to beat Iowa.
 




everybody knows my name said:
Took over a 9-win team, initially went backwards, then posted an 11-2 record several seasons in to his tenure, but last year was a disappointment and this year we "accomplished" 8-4. If they Gophers could have beaten Bowling Green (?!) we would be celebrating a 10-win season...but we didn't get it done against BG.

Overall I'd say that Fleck has been treading water. I gave him a B because we had one very good season. Would have made it a B- if that had been an option.
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If Fleck is barely treading water and deserves a B- what grade would. you have given the coaches that came before him? Honestly curious.
 

everybody knows my name said:
Even if it was intentional, it doesn't follow that it's proof of an agenda. I said explicitly what I thought and you found it necessary to assume bad faith. I'm tired of this forum being a battlefield for keyboard warriors who would rather pick fights than discuss football, and you're just the latest example.
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I questioned what I thought was a very strange discrepancy in your post. If that's picking a fight, I guess maybe I don't understand the concept of message boards?

If it WAS intentional though, you'd have to admit that would have been completely devoid of logic.

PS. Pretty sure discussing the Gophers record in certain seasons IS, in fact, discussing football.
 

11 and 2 is A level but 0 and 5 versus Iowa is not. My wife has too many relatives in Iowa for this to be ignored by me.
I'd like to believe we'll never have less than 8 wins again under PJ. Somehow we have to beat Iowa at more than a 16% clip ...anotherwords, more than once.
Row the boat!
 

MNVCGUY said:
If Fleck is barely treading water and deserves a B- what grade would. you have given the coaches that came before him? Honestly curious.
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I didn't say "barely;" that's your word.

I would give Kill a B+ because he took over a bad team and made it better, but not great.

And I'd give Claeys a B+ as well, because in his one season he improved on Kill's best record.

I gave Fleck a B, and would have made it a B- if that had been an option. My reasoning is that he first made the team substantially worse, then had one really good season, which he followed witha bad season. Now he's got the team back to where it was the season before he took over. That's treading water by any measure. It's also relevant that he has never beaten the Ioways.

If we win 11 games again next year, of course he won't be a B- anymore.
 

everybody knows my name said:
I didn't say "barely;" that's your word.

I would give Kill a B+ because he took over a bad team and made it better, but not great.

And I'd give Claeys a B+ as well, because in his one season he improved on Kill's best record.

I gave Fleck a B, and would have made it a B- if that had been an option. My reasoning is that he first made the team substantially worse, then had one really good season, which he followed witha bad season. Now he's got the team back to where it was the season before he took over. That's treading water by any measure. It's also relevant that he has never beaten the Ioways.

If we win 11 games again next year, of course he won't be a B- anymore.
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Part of me feels that Claeys gets too much credit for his one year as head coach. Hired in-house, he took over a roster that he'd recruited and developed over the previous 5 years. He's able to maintain similar, if not identical, schemes from Kill's tenure. 9-4 is a great record, don't get me wrong, but the best team we beat in the 2016 regular season was 6-6 Northwestern. His actions off the field at the end of the season also left a sour taste in my mouth.

Fleck took over what had just been a 9-4 team, but we did lose a plethora on defense and were essentially forced to start either Rhoda or Croft as our best options. I'm not sure either should have started even at the FCS level. Since that first season I think Fleck's been remarkable (he would have had a fourth winning season in 2020 if not for covid) and put together at least one team that was better than anything Kill or Claeys mustered.
 

everybody knows my name said:
I didn't say "barely;" that's your word.

I would give Kill a B+ because he took over a bad team and made it better, but not great.

And I'd give Claeys a B+ as well, because in his one season he improved on Kill's best record.

I gave Fleck a B, and would have made it a B- if that had been an option. My reasoning is that he first made the team substantially worse, then had one really good season, which he followed witha bad season. Now he's got the team back to where it was the season before he took over. That's treading water by any measure. It's also relevant that he has never beaten the Ioways.

If we win 11 games again next year, of course he won't be a B- anymore.
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Your logic is seriously flawed. Fleck already has TWO seasons with more Big Ten wins (and better conference winning percentage) than any coach going back 50+ years.
 

Went with B. Need the trip to Indy to be an A grade.
 

WriterGoph said:
Your logic is seriously flawed. Fleck already has TWO seasons with more Big Ten wins (and better conference winning percentage) than any coach going back 50+ years.
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Yeah, giving Kill and Claeys a better grade than Fleck makes no sense. 13 Big Ten wins in the last two full conference seasons is not something that has happened around here often.
 

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