Is SKOR NORTH correct in saying that PJ is not a gameday coach? Is he not capable of reading and making adjustments?

[COS Gopherfan]

I listen to Mackey and Judd daily on SKOR NORTH. I appreciate their critical assessment of all things Minnesota sports. After assessing that Fleck is not a good gameday coach, I wanted to get the perspective of others in GH. Do think this is accurate and, if so. What do your see? I think he is horrible with clock management and wastes timeouts needlessly that cost us later and I'm not a fan of the sideline antics.

 

[goldengophers]

He is excellent at preparing a team that doesn't commit costly penalties, his clock management and ability to adjust quickly on the fly or even halftime leave a lot to be desired.

 

[Nomellini]

He is better at building a program and installing a culture than he is at game day coaching. The 4th and one fiascos at the Gopher 35 yard-line (Purdue 2020 & 2022, Bowling Green 2021) and losing Autman Bell and Mo with 4-5 touchdown leads are examples. Outside of the Nebraska game, can't think of significant halftime adjustments this season, and that was dictated by Morgan's injury.

 

[GophersWin!]

Hate to admit this is correct. You look at Iowa and Wisconsin history. After halftime adjustments they shut you down. I think frentz is one of the best.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Seems like a weakness of his. When the other team has a good plan to stop us, we very rarely seem able to counter and adjust on the fly. More often than we should we end up stuck in the mud when that happens.

 

[Word]

I listen to Mackey and Judd daily on SKOR NORTH. I appreciate their critical assessment of all things Minnesota sports. After assessing that Fleck is not a good gameday coach, I wanted to get the perspective of others in GH. Do think this is accurate and, if so. What do your see? I think he is horrible with clock management and wastes timeouts needlessly that cost us later and I'm not a fan of the sideline antics.

Judd and Mackey are still employed by someone?

 

[UpAndUnder43]

Judd and Mackey are still employed by someone?

This was my takeaway as well

 

[GopherPoke]

Aside from the end of quarter sprint he does two times per game, what are the "sideline antics" some are so upset about?

 

[mngolf]

And the "antics" are meaningless in terms of how good a coach he is. While ultimately he is responsible, the coordinators are the ones that make the adjustments and make the game plan to begin with. We've seen obvious examples of how things change once we move from a bad coord to a better one. And Fleck gets credit for that. I think he plays to the type of recruits he gets, we want something different then we need different/better recruits.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I don't doubt PJ makes critical calls on going for it and so forth.

But beyond that I've not seen anything to think PJ is making calls / adjustments very often at all. That's typically the OC's job.

I bet had the players only made 2 of 3 critical mistakes last weekend ... we wouldn't even be talking about this.

 

[mngolf]

I don't doubt PJ makes critical calls on going for it and so forth.

But beyond that I've not seen anything to think PJ is making calls / adjustments very often at all. That's typically the OC's job.

I bet had the players only made 2 of 3 critical mistakes last weekend ... we wouldn't even be talking about this.

Great minds think alike. lol

 

[BilldGopher]

As far as antics go, as best I can tell Coach spends 90% of the game off to the side of the line of scrimmage, alone engaged with whoever's connected to the headset. He has more interactions with refs than members of the team. He does however appear to go out to each injured player to see what's up. I take it as a good signal when he walks back to the sideline or those times he enters the huddle. Finally, he will offer encouragement when a good play happens.

Yep, he sprints at the quarter as does the team. Not too much otherwise that I see.

 

[Crosby]

Don't know if it is a particular strength or weakness. We seem to get in hole a lot this year and then improve somewhat offensively as the game goes on (Nebraska, Purdue, Iowa). I think having superior talent makes all the difference in how people think of you as a gameday coach. PJ was pretty good on gamedays in 2019, when you had an offense loaded with NFL talent. But yeah, his use of timeouts is frustrating. I do question some of the play calling at important times (why oh why did we put the ball in the air on the "pick drive" vs Iowa?).

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

As far as antics go, as best I can tell Coach spends 90% of the game off to the side of the line of scrimmage, alone engaged with whoever's connected to the headset. He has more interactions with refs than members of the team. He does however appear to go out to each injured player to see what's up. I take it as a good signal when he walks back to the sideline or those times he enters the huddle. Finally, he will offer encouragement when a good play happens.

Yep, he sprints at the quarter as does the team. Not too much otherwise that I see.

Yeah he seems more involved with other things, that's how a lot of coaches operate.

I want to to say PJ has outright said he makes calls when it is being debated / someone needs to make a final call sometimes... but that's it.

He even described how a deep (ultimately game winning) pass to (I think it was Bateman...maybe not) was called over the headset. PJ just heard it and went over to the WR and asked "Do you want to win a football game?"

He wasn't even making the critical call there, he just heard about it before the WR.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

Wow, Zulgad actually took some time to talk about the Gophers?
When Reusse and Shooter die we can be assured that Zulgad will carry on the role of crotchety sports writer here in Minnesota.

 

[Word]

This was my takeaway as well

It's possible they are doing it for free though.

 

[Gophers1992]

He's not flawless, but I don't think his kicker missing a 34 yarder and a 6th year RB committing a rare fumble are good evidence of him being a bad gameday coach.

 

[Gophers1992]

He is better at building a program and installing a culture than he is at game day coaching. The 4th and one fiascos at the Gopher 35 yard-line (Purdue 2020 & 2022, Bowling Green 2021) and losing Autman Bell and Mo with 4-5 touchdown leads are examples. Outside of the Nebraska game, can't think of significant halftime adjustments this season, and that was dictated by Morgan's injury.

Thoughts on the 4th and 1 against Ohio State last year that got us back in that game?

 

[STPGopher]

Wow, Zulgad actually took some time to talk about the Gophers?
When Reusse and Shooter die we can be assured that Zulgad will carry on the role of crotchety sports writer here in Minnesota.

Discuss 3 to 40 or take the opportunity to pick on a hard fought 10-13 loss?

 

[PMWinSTP]

And the "antics" are meaningless in terms of how good a coach he is. While ultimately he is responsible, the coordinators are the ones that make the adjustments and make the game plan to begin with. We've seen obvious examples of how things change once we move from a bad coord to a better one. And Fleck gets credit for that. I think he plays to the type of recruits he gets, we want something different then we need different/better recruits.

Interesting take. I don't think it is how other programs do it, they are pretty much the opposite.

 

[COS Gopherfan]

Judd and Mackey are still employed by someone?

They run their own program with great sponsorship of Surly brewery and TCL to name just a couple. SKOR NORTH is highly successful and outpacing KFAN which would rather talk about anything but sports. They are critical but fair and don't make
excuses/enable MN teams to just be bmediocre

 

[Word]

They run their own program with great sponsorship of Surly brewery and TCL to name just a couple. SKOR NORTH is highly successful and outpacing KFAN which would rather talk about anything but sports. They are critical but fair and don't make
excuses/enable MN teams to just be bmediocre

By what metric is skor north outpacing kfan? Link?

 

[Nomellini]

Thoughts on the 4th and 1 against Ohio State last year that got us back in that game?

Against a great team, sometimes you have to be more venturesome. Against those Purdue teams and Bowling Green he needlessly risked giving an edge to a comparable /inferior opponent.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

They run their own program with great sponsorship of Surly brewery and TCL to name just a couple. SKOR NORTH is highly successful and outpacing KFAN which would rather talk about anything but sports. They are critical but fair and don't make
excuses/enable MN teams to just be bmediocre

I find “don’t make excuses” is many people’s phrase for what actually is “ not really thinking about things” and boiling things down to absurdly simple ideas.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Aside from the end of quarter sprint he does two times per game, what are the "sideline antics" some are so upset about?

I have never understood why the between quarters jog to the new LOS bothers some people so much.

Outside of that one thing I don't see Fleck doing anything on the sideline that is any different than the vast majority of coaches out there.

 

[hello-world]

I don't doubt PJ makes critical calls on going for it and so forth.

But beyond that I've not seen anything to think PJ is making calls / adjustments very often at all. That's typically the OC's job.

I bet had the players only made 2 of 3 critical mistakes last weekend ... we wouldn't even be talking about this.

Right, and I don't believe it's ever the player's 'fault', but I don't know how PJ could do any more than he does to limit turnovers. He literally took a play out of the book this year (the QB sneak) because he thought the RBs were reaching for the goalline and risking fumbles. Last year he wouldn't catch punts because he didn't trust the team not to muff them

PJ is a control freak and special teams / possession something he cares a lot about so it's hard to blame coaching for those mistakes.

 

[Some guy]

I have never understood why the between quarters jog to the new LOS bothers some people so much.

Outside of that one thing I don't see Fleck doing anything on the sideline that is any different than the vast majority of coaches out there.

The running to the other side of the field actually legitimately gains you meeting time by running instead of walking.
Not saying they use that extra 10-15 seconds but if anything people should be mad at their coach if the team doesn’t get in the huddle as fast as possible at the end of quarters

 

[#2Gopher]

The running to the other side of the field actually legitimately gains you meeting time by running instead of walking.
Not saying they use that extra 10-15 seconds but if anything people should be mad at their coach if the team doesn’t get in the huddle as fast as possible at the end of quarters

I'm ok with jogging to the other side for reasons mentioned above. But not sprinting. That makes no sense. You're catching your breath after a sprint, and you'll lose quality time to listen to your coach. You need to rest up particularity if you've been on the field for a while.

 

[Word]

I'm ok with jogging to the other side for reasons mentioned above. But not sprinting. That makes no sense. You're catching your breath after a sprint, and you'll lose quality time to listen to your coach. You need to rest up particularity if you've been on the field for a while.

I hope they aren't in such bad shape that they would be catching their breath after that kind of run. A run like that won't phase a good athlete

 

[GopherPoke]

I'm ok with jogging to the other side for reasons mentioned above. But not sprinting. That makes no sense. You're catching your breath after a sprint, and you'll lose quality time to listen to your coach. You need to rest up particularity if you've been on the field for a while.

I'm sorry, but you're just searching for a problem here. PJ runs/sprints, his players jog. Now, what are the other antics on the sideline that bother you?