P.J. Fleck heard Gophers fans’ boos Saturday and wanted to respond

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BleedGopher

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Per Greder:

“We still had a timeout,” Fleck said Saturday. “I want to bring it down under 30 seconds. That is plenty of time in football with a timeout. That’s like 20 minutes. You could go get a soda and come back and we are probably still there.”

www.twincities.com

P.J. Fleck heard Gophers fans’ boos Saturday and wanted to respond

The U head coach explained his clock-management choice just before halftime of the 27-12 win over Michigan State.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!
 


Maybe it no longer surprises or bothers me, but I guess I don't really have an issue with his timeout usage. We've had coaches who have "properly" used timeouts (and let's be real, "properly" is completely subjective) who also never accomplished jack while here. I'm fine with it.
 

If you listened to the press conference, you could tell the boos really annoyed PJ. His explanation for the sequence at the end of the half didn't make much sense. They were on the 20 yard line with 35 seconds left and ran the ball. He was essentially playing for a fg despite already being well inside Dragan's range. PJ's response was like he thought fans were mad he would run out of time, when most (all?) were upset with the lack of urgency to attempt to score our first touchdown in 8 quarters. The fact that this worked out (sort of like our last TD before this one against Michigan) is probably not a good thing for Minnesota football long term. It's like the one 3rd and 10 run that garnered a first down against Wisconsin in '19.
 



My concern started at about 50 seconds or so remaining. Players on the field were just standing around as the clock was ticking down. It did not look controlled at all. Most playbooks would have had a sense of urgency with the next play already dialed in to get the play off. At least go to the line and look like a play is going off and then call the TO.

Of course the Gophers scored and any post hoc criticism is labeled sour grapes. Sorry, our track record this year actually getting the TD under any circumstances has just not been very good. Glad it worked out but this would be a very different conversation had we settled for 3 or heaven forbid had gotten zero points.

Just being schooled in how Coach thinks (again). On to the Illini...
 


Sports are a results based endeavor, so if it works out like it did Saturday, no complaint for me. We started the drive with more than three minutes and at least one timeout, so that's enough time that running out of time and having to kick a field goal before fourth down would have been a pretty inexcusable mistake. Fortunately, that isn't what happened.
 

mngg11 said:
Maybe it no longer surprises or bothers me, but I guess I don't really have an issue with his timeout usage. We've had coaches who have "properly" used timeouts (and let's be real, "properly" is completely subjective) who also never accomplished jack while here. I'm fine with it.
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I don't understand why some people have a tantrum if we use a timeout in the first quarter. I'd rather take the "bird in the hand" approach with timeouts - I can't think of many times where we've been burned by PJ's supposedly reckless timeout usage.
 



PMWinSTP said:
I mean, he has to know his track record with time management and use of timeouts is not good, right?
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He also explains/excuses it. He doesn't care about 1st half TO's as he wants to make sure they don't get in a terrible play call on offense or defense. He'd rather take the TO and adjust.

If you have the ball last in the 1st half, you are really trying to make the last play of the half, so when people boo a run play at the 45 with over a 1 minute left, I don't really understand. There is plenty of time to do something.

It's clunky, but not a terrible strategy that PJ takes.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I don't understand why some people have a tantrum if we use a timeout in the first quarter. I'd rather take the "bird in the hand" approach with timeouts - I can't think of many times where we've been burned by PJ's supposedly reckless timeout usage.
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Agreed, if coaches feel they need to take the timeout, take it. You can’t cash in timeouts for points if you save them.
 

I didn't boo, but was puzzled why they let so much time run off like they were gonna run a play, then called time-out. The context is they just came out of an injury time-out and ran a play, then 30 to 35 seconds ticked off. Coming out of a time-out you would think a sequence of plays and tempo, hurry up was ready. Fan's just wanted a touchdown to pay off the drive. It's what happened the TD. Just hope for future situations they look like they have a sequence ready based on the look. End of half ended well.
 




A TD should be prioritized no question. You shouldn't be worrying about giving the ball back to Michigan St with how pathetic their offense was and how well our defense was playing. You need 7 points.

We ended up getting it, but to think that we will be able to convert 3rd and 11s for TDs consistently is not true long-term.
 

Since coaches use or lose their first half TOs, they take them. I support a rule change to allow five TOs per game rather than three per half. Of course TV wouldn't support this.
 

Except at UNC when he should have used one that was desperately needed and made sense.. somehow he was not close enough to call it or loud enough because of his voice….
 

As others mentioned, there was zero fear of Michigan State marching down and scoring a TD or FG with less than a minute left. We weren't playing OSU. So you have to give yourself the best chance to score a touchdown, so wasting 15 seconds could have been really critical.

Fortunately they did score a touchdown even with poor clock management. This just reinforces to PJ that he managed the clock well. Just like winning in Iowa this year playing ULTRA ULTRA conservative and kicking 4 FGs somehow worked out. All it took was the defense playing incredible, 3 turnovers vs 0 on the Gophers, and the worst chubby backup QB in Big10 history. So PJ assumes he coached the hell out of that game.

I am very appreciative of coach Fleck overall and he's raised the level of the program, but we almost all recognize he has a lot to improve on with clock management and in-game coaching strategy. I just don't think he recognizes that...
 

TD against Northwestern before half was a miracle clock management was pathetic.. Ak great throw and Jackson great catch saved his ass… temporarily I should say.
 

PJ should be annoyed by the boos. It’s highly-embarrassing football ignorance on display. It’s impossible to watch a lot football and not understand exactly what they were doing by running clock.
 

restovich said:
P.J. really has some blind spots. His clock management is atrocious, and he is very defensive about it.
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Sometimes I think that coaches get defensive because they don't think that fans realize how hard it is to win a D1 game. Every team has a pretty accomplished head coach and scholarship athletes. I'm guessing that he is thinking, we won the freaking game, let's celebrate for a few hours, what could the fans unhappy about??!!
 


The prez sez said:
Why boo your team? Grumble, fume, be exasperated, and throw your arms up in despair, even offer an incredulous cry of "what!?!!?!", but never ever boo your team. Go U Phars, now and forever.
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They weren't booing the players. They were booing the coaches decision. To let all that time run off and then go for it is quite the coaching.
 

Goldmember said:
PJ should be annoyed by the boos. It’s highly-embarrassing football ignorance on display. It’s impossible to watch a lot football and not understand exactly what they were doing by running clock.
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The guy behind me was screaming on the Tyler overturned call that he wasn't touched so wasn't down.

Also didn't understand the clock rules and was screaming.

Screamed for the players to stop looking at the sideline and just play (not in the 2 min drill...the whole game).

Like, do you follow CFB or watched the Gophers at all over the last 7 years 😂 Fun afternoon.
 

I just wanted to make sure what we had enough time to run all the plays we might need. It's great that we scored a TD, but I would have hated to settle for a FG just because there wasn't enough time left.
 

The prez sez said:
Why boo your team? Grumble, fume, be exasperated, and throw your arms up in despair, even offer an incredulous cry of "what!?!!?!", but never ever boo your team. Go U Phars, now and forever.
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I don't think people were booing the team, they were the head coach because of the amount of time that ran off. Team was in FG range, and 3rd 11 out of an injury timeout with a lot of time running out concerned people at the game. I was just hoping there would be enough time to score a TD, so it was confusing why they let that amount of time run out. It worked out. Needed a TD in that spot to have a good feeling going into the second half of play. It's a tough enough game, the time out usage does seem frivolous at times. Fleck has been a head coach long enough so he has the sense to use his time-outs when he feels they are needed.
 

Did not boo but have new permanent wrinkles from furrowed brow for those seconds clicking off the game clock.

The joy from the touchdown unfortunately did not take them off.
 

I think we all know what happens if he calls a play and the ball gets turned over meaning we get zero points...

(here is a hint, everyone whines that we took an unneeded chance against a bad team when 3 points was a lock)
 



Gophers1992 said:
I don't understand why some people have a tantrum if we use a timeout in the first quarter. I'd rather take the "bird in the hand" approach with timeouts - I can't think of many times where we've been burned by PJ's supposedly reckless timeout usage.
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I think they are mostly NFL fans. You don’t need time outs to run a 2 minute offense in college.
 

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