BleedGopher
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per O'Donnell:
If Fleck's flock flashes to victory -- even with Penn State a 6½-point favorite -- his stock on a Minnesota scale rises up somewhere toward Prince, Dairy Queen and Babe the Blue Ox.
Now, if only the 38-year-old rocket man would make one conciliatory phone call.
That would be to Joe Novak, the NIU head coach who gave the small and slow son of an exterminator from west exurban Sugar Grove a chance as a wide receiver not all that many years ago.
"We haven't communicated in a couple of years," Novak, 74, told The Daily Herald.
"It's unfortunate.
"The Big Ten Network did a four-part series on him when he took the (Minnesota) job and sent a crew down to interview me about him. "They filmed for about 90 minutes and used one 30-second sound byte from me in the whole thing.
"And in that byte I said, 'I wish he'd tone down the rhetoric.'
"That was it. None of the good things I said made the final cut. And what was left in wasn't all that negative.
"I meant what I said and what I meant was that all the gimmickry and flashiness that he used after he left my staff to get the head job at Western Michigan and then Minnesota could be put away now.
"Now the fact that he can coach and that he can recruit at a very high level can be the main focus.
"But P.J. sent a pretty direct response voicing his unhappiness with me and I, knowing me, declined to respond.
"You get to that level and you've got new people in your ear.
"So, that's been it."
And that is extremely unfortunate.
https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/...pier-by-reconciling-with-niu-mentor-joe-novak
Go Gophers!!
If Fleck's flock flashes to victory -- even with Penn State a 6½-point favorite -- his stock on a Minnesota scale rises up somewhere toward Prince, Dairy Queen and Babe the Blue Ox.
Now, if only the 38-year-old rocket man would make one conciliatory phone call.
That would be to Joe Novak, the NIU head coach who gave the small and slow son of an exterminator from west exurban Sugar Grove a chance as a wide receiver not all that many years ago.
"We haven't communicated in a couple of years," Novak, 74, told The Daily Herald.
"It's unfortunate.
"The Big Ten Network did a four-part series on him when he took the (Minnesota) job and sent a crew down to interview me about him. "They filmed for about 90 minutes and used one 30-second sound byte from me in the whole thing.
"And in that byte I said, 'I wish he'd tone down the rhetoric.'
"That was it. None of the good things I said made the final cut. And what was left in wasn't all that negative.
"I meant what I said and what I meant was that all the gimmickry and flashiness that he used after he left my staff to get the head job at Western Michigan and then Minnesota could be put away now.
"Now the fact that he can coach and that he can recruit at a very high level can be the main focus.
"But P.J. sent a pretty direct response voicing his unhappiness with me and I, knowing me, declined to respond.
"You get to that level and you've got new people in your ear.
"So, that's been it."
And that is extremely unfortunate.
https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/...pier-by-reconciling-with-niu-mentor-joe-novak
Go Gophers!!