I’m a fleck guy but

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Just a quick opinion here that I hope will start discussion. I believe the Gophers are bottom 3rd in total athletic department revenue and spend on football (~16th if I remember correctly) yet our results with Fleck are regularly mid-tier (4-5 or 5-4) in the Big Ten. Shouldn't most of the heat be on the Regents (lack of support for football) and Athletic Department (lack of courting and securing big money donors)?

Seems to me that Fleck is taking what he has (limited resources compared to Big Ten peers) and punching above his weight. Thinking Fleck is doing fine and should be provided more resources to see if he can bring the program to higher heights.

However, if all the heat remains on Fleck, it seems to be misplaced when he is working at such a deficit. Need more heat on the Regents to really make some headway and also a little heat on the AD to funnel more resources to football (maybe work on some (better/more?) gift officers who can push for more donations?). Just wondering if I am crazy here, would appreciate everyone's' thoughts.
 
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DinkytownDelight said:
we wouldn't get absolutely demolished every time we played a blue blood.
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2025 was awful from that perspective. But it's hard to agree this is true over Fleck's tenure:
  • 2024 - beat USC, narrow losses to Michigan and Penn State
  • 2023 - awful against blue bloods in a bad season
  • 2022 - only played @ Penn State in AK's first career start
  • 2021 - very competitive against tOSU and had a chance until Mo's injury
  • 2019 - beat PSU, beat Auburn
  • 2018 - tOSU pulls away in the second half
For me, the greatest legitimate criticism in PJ's tenure is his performance against Iowa. Winning 2-3 more times would have greatly elevated the program in some years and been a salve for disappointment in others. If he were performing similarly against Wisconsin, I don't think he'd still be the coach.
 


rugger14 said:
Lack of commitment to football. The rich get richer. Recruiting disparities. Bad luck. Pro town. Apathetic fans. Name it.
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Also, there was plenty of illegal payments. So money going to players has been going on my entire lifetime. It's only recently been legalized. It's probably the biggest reason for the downfall of the SEC.
 


Scottsdale Gopher said:
2025 was awful from that perspective. But it's hard to agree this is true over Fleck's tenure:
  • 2024 - beat USC, narrow losses to Michigan and Penn State
  • 2023 - awful against blue bloods in a bad season
  • 2022 - only played @ Penn State in AK's first career start
  • 2021 - very competitive against tOSU and had a chance until Mo's injury
  • 2019 - beat PSU, beat Auburn
  • 2018 - tOSU pulls away in the second half
For me, the greatest legitimate criticism in PJ's tenure is his performance against Iowa. Winning 2-3 more times would have greatly elevated the program in some years and been a salve for disappointment in others. If he were performing similarly against Wisconsin, I don't think he'd still be the coach.
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If you include the teams:
Ohio state, Michigan, Penn state, USC, Oregon, and the best non conference opponent in the time frame for each team

Minnesota is 3-9 since 2019
Iowa is 4-11 (I included TN instead of Vanderbilt as best non conference opponent but it’s debatable)
Wisconsin 2-14
Penn state 3-12



It’s hard to beat teams that don’t lose very much.
 


Scottsdale Gopher said:
2025 was awful from that perspective. But it's hard to agree this is true over Fleck's tenure:
  • 2024 - beat USC, narrow losses to Michigan and Penn State
  • 2023 - awful against blue bloods in a bad season
  • 2022 - only played @ Penn State in AK's first career start
  • 2021 - very competitive against tOSU and had a chance until Mo's injury
  • 2019 - beat PSU, beat Auburn
  • 2018 - tOSU pulls away in the second half
For me, the greatest legitimate criticism in PJ's tenure is his performance against Iowa. Winning 2-3 more times would have greatly elevated the program in some years and been a salve for disappointment in others. If he were performing similarly against Wisconsin, I don't think he'd still be the coach.
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I also think the two UNC and Cal losses have really hurt the perception of those seasons in the moment. early season loss to roughly equivalent non-con programs has capped my excitement for the ceiling of the teams.
 

boozer said:
I also think the two UNC and Cal losses have really hurt the perception of those seasons in the moment. early season loss to roughly equivalent non-con programs has capped my excitement for the ceiling of the teams.
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I agree

I also think you’d forgive those losses if the gophers won an extra one in conference

The gophers are like 6 wins over the last 8 years away from being a program nobody would really complain about
 



GopherGrit said:
Let's try it this way, trying to aim it back at the OP:

does anyone here feel that great that Fleck has averaged 7 regular season wins over 2021-2025 seasons?
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Great, probably not. Maybe "pretty good" is a better description. They did finish above .500 in the Big Ten in 4 of those 5 seasons. And if we want to take out the weird covid year, that would be 5 of the last 6 above .500 in conference. That's not something this program has done much of for a long time.

The missing piece is having a few top 25 finishes sprinkled in there. 2021 was a missed opportunity for sure.
 

Some guy said:
I agree

I also think you’d forgive those losses if the gophers won an extra one in conference

The gophers are like 6 wins over the last 8 years away from being a program nobody would really complain about
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You've been here too long to actually believe that funny business
 


I've said it a million times but the fact that PJ's program hasn't imploded or at least declined due to the level of coaching attrition he has dealt with is quite amazing. Most head coaches can't endure that.
 



GophersInIowa said:
Great, probably not. Maybe "pretty good" is a better description. They did finish above .500 in the Big Ten in 4 of those 5 seasons. And if we want to take out the weird covid year, that would be 5 of the last 6 above .500 in conference. That's not something this program has done much of for a long time.

The missing piece is having a few top 25 finishes sprinkled in there. 2021 was a missed opportunity for sure.
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I think 2021-23 were all missed opportunities in the weak West. Each year we lost games that we should have won, which cost us a chance at something better and/or the division title.

Now that's gone and a marginally to signifiantly more difficult schedule is likely in place each year.

For 2026, we either have to win both @ Purdue and @ Wisc, then beat one of Mich or Iowa at home, or win one of those road games and both home games, then in either case sweep the rest of the home games (two easy non-conf, Miss St, UCLA, NW) just to get up to 8-4 instead of another 7-5 regular season.

A 7-5 (4-5) regular season will make me feel like "when are we ever getting back to a 2019 season??" and that in the new NIL regime Fleck has hit a ceiling.
 


Some guy said:
I agree

I also think you’d forgive those losses if the gophers won an extra one in conference

The gophers are like 6 wins over the last 8 years away from being a program nobody would really complain about
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I'd totally agree with this.

If over the past 8 years they had beaten Bowling Green, UNC (once), Iowa 3 times, and Illinois no one would be complaining, and I believe that nationally they would be held in a different light.

I also firmly believe that if in 2021 MN had beaten the two teams (BG and Illinois) they probably should have that PJ would have been lured away here with a big offer. Would have been 2 full seasons in a row of top production at MN, and I think either Nebraska, Wisconsin, Auburn, or another school may have tried to poach him.
 

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