Pioneer Press: P.J. Fleck has tie that binds him to coaching influences

[BleedGopher]

per Greder:

P.J. Fleck won’t be concerned with style when he knots and aligns his necktie before making his Gophers head coaching debut Thursday. His formal look on the TCF Bank Stadium sideline will be replete with symbolism.

His tie, likely to be tucked under a maroon-and-gold windbreaker, is an homage to two influential coaches in his trek to Dinkytown: former San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Nolan and former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. After being a part of Nolan’s 49ers for two seasons, Fleck was a low-level graduate assistant for Tressel at Ohio State in 2006.

“I wouldn’t be here without them,” Fleck said, “and my job is to represent the people that got me here.”

Fleck also has adopted Tressel’s stance that when a man affixes a necktie, he is preparing for a special occasion. When Fleck leads his team against Buffalo on Thursday night, he will embark on the first of 12 games this season and initiate the five-year contract he signed in January.

“Obviously, it’s flattering,” Tressel said of Fleck’s gesture. “What would be most important to me is that it has a meaning to him about how fortunate he is to be in this game…. If he puts that tie on with a tug of gratitude that he gets to coach a great university in an unbelievable conference, which is a great responsibility, then it’s a good thing.”

http://www.twincities.com/2017/08/2...as-tie-that-binds-him-to-coaching-influences/

Go Gophers!!

 

[Iceland12]

At 5-foot-9, Fleck didn’t have other scholarship opportunities, and the chance Novak provided has remained ingrained in him.

“Joe Novak taught me how to take a shot on people, how to look at the inside of a person in this game, forget the measureables at times,” Fleck said.

“You can’t have a full team built on that,” Novak replied. But Novak looked at Fleck production in setting high school receiving records in Illinois. “I didn’t know how good he would be, but I knew he would play for us, and we certainly didn’t want to let a kid that close to us get away.”

Novak saw Fleck’s gravitational pull and charisma around teammates, his intelligence and ability to articulate.

“I had no doubt he would be a head coach,” said Novak, who retired in 2007. “I knew people would follow him and they’d like him and he’d be a great speaker, but he had to show he could coach. I think he has done a great job of getting a staff together and being organized, and obviously he did a tremendous job at Western Michigan. I assume he will do the same at Minnesota.”..

Fleck was only a year behind his goal of becoming a head coach at a Power Five conference — and that’s because he turned down Mark Coyle two years ago. When Coyle was athletics director at Syracuse, he tried to lure Fleck from Western Michigan.

But in January, when Coyle, now AD at Minnesota, came calling again, Fleck was all in — and a head coach in the Big Ten at age 36.

“He knows the Big Ten is tough,” Tressel said. “There is nothing easy about being successful in the Big Ten. I think he has a plan and the type of culture that he wants to create, so he can be the best he can be.”