Is it time to admit PJ (and staff) can coach?

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Michigan is pretty mediocre. They are passing for under 100 yards a game, struggled with Fresno St for at least a half, got embarrassed by Texas at home, didn’t blow out Arkansas St., and should have lost to also-mediocre USC except for a superhuman individual effort by Mullings. They could easily lose to Illinois, Oregon, Indiana and OSU and be 7-5 and just a hair from 6-6.

What were they thinking having Orji throw a long pass on first down at midfield, up 21 points when they’re clearly terrible at it. They keep running it, the comeback probably never happens.
 
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Spoofin said:
LOL. Coming from the moral victory king. I can’t wait for more of your profound “every team we play is good” lectures. I usually skip over your posts but I’d bet my house you said it about RI and NV 🤡
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You have a house?!? 😳
 


It's times like these where I wonder if Fleck even cares....or if he only cares about doing the minimum to keep the paychecks rolling in.

"I mean, I haven't seen the last play. Nor does one play win or lose you the game. Everyone's going to focus on that. I'm not going to sit here and get fined and do all those other things," Fleck said following the loss on Saturday. "I have more respect for my boss and the University of Minnesota and the Big Ten to say that's one play. I haven't even seen it, but we got it, and it was executed really well."
 




stocker08 said:
It's times like these where I wonder if Fleck even cares....or if he only cares about doing the minimum to keep the paychecks rolling in.

"I mean, I haven't seen the last play. Nor does one play win or lose you the game. Everyone's going to focus on that. I'm not going to sit here and get fined and do all those other things," Fleck said following the loss on Saturday. "I have more respect for my boss and the University of Minnesota and the Big Ten to say that's one play. I haven't even seen it, but we got it, and it was executed really well."
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Fleck realizes that Minnesota's absolute high watermark is mediocrity. He knows that nothing can be done about it. Our administration will never allow a successful program. Plus it's all turned to sleaze now anyway. Including rigged games.

So no, he's not going to get fired early and stop those paychecks from rolling in.
 

We win the game without the fumble and blocked punt. Simply can’t do that. PJ coached a good hard nosed football game, I am encouraged
 

STPGopher said:
Is it time to admit PJ (and staff) can coach? I think so.
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Dude, that first timeout was frustrating and yet so typical of PJ. Why can’t he just make a decision without blowing a timeout?
 

Catechol said:
Michigan is pretty mediocre.

What were they thinking having Orji throw a long pass on first down at midfield, up 21 points when they’re clearly terrible at it. They keep running it, the comeback probably never happens.
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I’m guessing they thought just like all of us do. Hey your kicking the sh!t out of an opponent (they were at the time) and our passing game sucks. Let’s work on some stuff for when we face some better competition. Winning is winning sure, but everyone and their brother can see they can’t pass for a lick and unless they work on it they are going to lose those games against better competition.
 

caliGopher said:
Hence the comment Moore couldn't out PJ PJ.

When did that drive happen? Roughly 3/4 of the way through the game, right?

And that drive to go to 24-10. That drive was 14 plays 76 yards took about 5 minutes, right? We used a little tempo on this drive.

Then held them, figured out a few key players on the Oline were hurt (took awhile). Nice stop.

Big punt Return which was awesome. We should try on special teams more often.

Then played quick and scored quickly 3 plays 17 yds :47 seconds. They're a bit tired, we actually pressed it and scored quickly.

Then Michigan had a sustained drive but we held them to a field goal.

Then we used tempo and really moved down the field - 14 plays, 78 yards 3 minutes. Better. Urgency. Stick with what was working.

Then didn't get it done.

Maybe if we didn't burn time outs in the first half when we had the ball on the one we could have called a timeout and tush pushed a yard for the TD. But we did burn time outs.

Could have used another one in the 2nd half at the end as well.

But in the end, I just want to make sure I have this right since you responded to let me know you don't think I had it right:

By playing one quarter and 2 minutes of competent football wasn't enough to beat a not very good Michigan team, Right?

We pissed the opportunity to grab a win 10 years, almost to the day, the last time we went to the BiG house and came up with a win with inferior players and incompetent coaches - am I correct on that? Or am I mistaken and we won?

If we'd showed up at the kick-off, we might have won. That first half made the Iowa game look like we were defending national champions in comparison to our effort in the first half of this game. Failure on all three phases of the game.

That does not show that PJ Fleck is a great coach.

PJ is not the worst coach out there, but he a rehashed, less interesting, more bombastic version of the coaches we've had for decades (excluding the Wacker and Brewster fiascos). He has more slogans, and fewer big wins than any other coach during that time.

In 2019 he was able to coach around the failures and find wins with the help of playing 5 backup QBs, but when presented he took advantage.

In 2019 he still failed to beat Iowa. Failed to beat Wisconsin and failed to make the conf title game.

He then failed to win the west in 21, 22, and 23 - the weakest division in the then P5, even though we controlled our own destiny at some meaningful point all three years, in all three losing badly to bad football teams based primarily on shooting himself in the foot.

This is not the mark of a great coach.

I'm not going to change your mind. I won't be on the board again this week. Your confused and pedantic demands that we need to recognize "greatness" in mediocre performances is exhausting.

If your take away from this game is that PJ is a great coach, so be it.

He may be, but I saw two football teams playing mostly bad, boring football that at times bordered on absurdity in it's ineptness (mostly us), and even rarer bordered on competent. And I won't celebrate a moral victory or believe the hype when I continue to see more of the same that I've seen regardless of who the coach is.
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I've never said Fleck was a great coach.

I completely, utterly, emphatically disagree with your comments about the quality of the play in this game, by both teams.

I saw a team that never quit, and yes, that means something to me.

It baffles me that there are folks who post here every single week about how the Gophers — and pretty much every team they play — are "boring", "unprepared", "bad", etc.

I can't wrap my head around the idea that someone would choose to spend so much of their own time watching, and then posting about, something they continually disparage.
 
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I think PJ’s tryout for the MI head coaching job went pretty well. Let’s not fool ourselves. Our bald bold leader would break for the blue job.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
I think PJ’s tryout for the MI head coaching job went pretty well. Let’s not fool ourselves. Our bald bold leader would break for the blue job.
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So would you. Think of all the KFAN references you could make in your press conferences.
 




STPGopher and his “if only true first half hadn’t been played” tied my Badger fan neighbor fan’s “if only the 2nd half have been played.”

For both it sucks that that the game has absolutely never been played that way.
 

WoodburyTim said:
STPGopher and his “if only true first half hadn’t been played” tied my Badger fan neighbor fan’s “if only the 2nd half have been played.”

For both it sucks that that the game has absolutely never been played that way.
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Just need the horse race to end a 16th earlier
 


STPGopher said:
If we didn't get jobbed by the poor onsides kick call we may have had a legit shot to beat the defending national champions.
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If Fleck had the stones to score a touchdown at the end of the first half, the onside kick wouldn’t even have been necessary.
 



2nd Degree Gopher said:
How do you see that happening?
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If they had time to get the field goal unit on the field, they had time to set up for a shot at the end zone. They'd been effectively moving the ball in the final minute (+) leading up to that field goal. No guarantee they score the TD. As we've seen this year, no guarantee we hit the FG. Fleck has a history of settling for the FG at the end of the half.
If you can say "we'd have had a chance if we hadn't been jobbed by the refs" or "we'd have won if only Kesich hadn't missed that FG", it's also reasonable to play the "if only" game with coaching decisions. I happen to think the refs screwed the Goph's on the onside kick call. But that single call didn't decide the outcome of the game. Decision points and performance failures all along the way impacted the outcome.
 

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