PJ Fleck addressed his future at Minnesota on Sunday: “I absolutley love it here.”

Donate To GopherHole
mjfelton15 said:
Well here’s the deal, you can use us as a stepping stone, and go become the next coach that is handed an amazing program. You get to bank on the brand name of the school for your recruiting, and hardly have to budge a finger to get 5 star recruits on a yearly basis. You basically just hold the torch and maintain the flame for 10 years until the next coach comes along to carry it where you left off. You hardly need to teach the players anything because they’re just on a whole different level of good. That’d be the easier option.

Or you could build a program that’s been mediocre/in the dumps for a long time, into a new force to be reckoned with. The second option opens you up to becoming a legend, a name that millions of people will remember nationwide for a century. You put your name in with the likes of Saban and Meyer, who will go down as coaches that helped permanently shape the image of college football. You start a dynasty team, that can recruit anyone from anywhere. You keep your best in state recruits easily. You start suffocating the neighboring states, and take all their best recruits (AKA Iowa and Wisconsin). You bring the Gopher fan base back to life, and it gets to the point where you need the 30,000 seat addition. You spend 15-20 years with the program, setting it up for 25 more years of greatness. You go on to coach the NFL, or you become the AD at the U of M. You end up with a building or the stadium named after you. You are welcomed back as a 70 year old to the thunderous applause of 80,000 fans that remember the legendary career you had as head coach at the U of M.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Very well said. How different the college sports scene at the U would have been if they hadn’t d1cked around with Bud Wilkinson and John Wooden.
 

getting the lake home is huge...living on the lake in Minnesota is tough to leave...

also, Heather seems to like it here. He seems really committed to her and what makes her happy.

Ryan Saunders was on with Barreiro. Mentioned he is good friends with Heather and PJ. Good to hear stuff like that.

Fleck seems to really enjoy being in a big time town with pro sports, big time concerts, big time events. Not sure podunk Ann Arbor or South Bend or any SEC campus would have the same appeal.

Doesnt want to get too far from the kids, so doubt USC or UCLA work.
 

swingman said:
getting the lake home is huge...living on the lake in Minnesota is tough to leave...

also, Heather seems to like it here. He seems really committed to her and what makes her happy.

Ryan Saunders was on with Barreiro. Mentioned he is good friends with Heather and PJ. Good to hear stuff like that.

Fleck seems to really enjoy being in a big time town with pro sports, big time concerts, big time events. Not sure podunk Ann Arbor or South Bend or any SEC campus would have the same appeal.

Doesnt want to get too far from the kids, so doubt USC or UCLA work.
Click to expand...

He really does seem to like it here. Pay him fairly, and he’ll probably stay.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

So, perhaps I should know this, but I've seen the kids mentioned multiple times. Do PJ and Heather each have kids that do not live with them?
 
Last edited:

swingman said:
getting the lake home is huge...living on the lake in Minnesota is tough to leave...

also, Heather seems to like it here. He seems really committed to her and what makes her happy.

Ryan Saunders was on with Barreiro. Mentioned he is good friends with Heather and PJ. Good to hear stuff like that.

Fleck seems to really enjoy being in a big time town with pro sports, big time concerts, big time events. Not sure podunk Ann Arbor or South Bend or any SEC campus would have the same appeal.

Doesnt want to get too far from the kids, so doubt USC or UCLA work.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Lake Minnetonka thing.

Who would want to waste away on the beaches of Southern California or Florida when, right here in Minnesota, there's Big Island?
 


BleedGopher said:
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

I hope you AD increases his pay to what Minnesota can afford. Your AD has to know that if PJ has a great year in 2020 there will be head hunters from other schools after him. If he sees that move the program to better heights and that the school raises his pay to what they can afford, no matter how small, it sounds like he is the type of coach will stay!
 

DEGopher said:
Bad examples. Saban left Mich St for a helmet school (LSU) to earn his first title. Then he returned to his second helmet school, Bama, to be where he is.

Meyer left Utah to go to Florida (helmet school) and then on to OhSt (helmet school).

A better example would be Bobby Bowden.
Click to expand...

What would the world do without that one guy who reads a long 2 paragraph post, and decides to pick two words out of the entire thing to criticize?....man this world would just have to get along or something.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

So, just for the sake of argument, let's say Fleck does leave after a 12-2 season. (lose CCG, win Bowl Game).

Fleck will have elevated MN's profile, and demonstrated that it is possible to win at MN, and made the place a more attractive destination for recruits. I would think that MN would have a slew of candidates wanting to take over the program.

Fleck may be unique in some of his methods, but there are other successful coaches in the country. And if MN is willing to pay a competitive salary, they can have their pick of coaching candidates.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
So, just for the sake of argument, let's say Fleck does leave after a 12-2 season. (lose CCG, win Bowl Game).

Fleck will have elevated MN's profile, and demonstrated that it is possible to win at MN, and made the place a more attractive destination for recruits. I would think that MN would have a slew of candidates wanting to take over the program.

Fleck may be unique in some of his methods, but there are other successful coaches in the country. And if MN is willing to pay a competitive salary, they can have their pick of coaching candidates.
Click to expand...

The part that sucks of course with a coaching change is the loss of recruits so to avoid a weak class, you need to steal another coach who has a class ready to follow the coach.
 



GopherSteak said:
After the season give him the raise he's worth
Click to expand...

I hope he stays here 10 years or longer. Pay him what he is worth, which is a lot more than he makes now. I love his energy, his closeness to his players, his optimism, and the discipline and effort his teams have shown all year. I maintain this even if we lose all four remaining games (which won't happen). Eight wins plus a bowl win is terrific - more than eight is a miracle.
 

Wouldn't it be nice to just have some long term stability in a program. 10-15 year run or more with just one coach, who knows where it would or could go but sure would be interesting to find out.
 

PitinoFan said:
I wonder if SMU and Baylor fans have multiple threads going on this topic, or if it’s just a Minnesota thing?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

There is actually a thread on the Penn State Rivals forum about Franklin leaving Penn State for the USC job this year.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
So, just for the sake of argument, let's say Fleck does leave after a 12-2 season. (lose CCG, win Bowl Game).

Fleck will have elevated MN's profile, and demonstrated that it is possible to win at MN, and made the place a more attractive destination for recruits. I would think that MN would have a slew of candidates wanting to take over the program.

Fleck may be unique in some of his methods, but there are other successful coaches in the country. And if MN is willing to pay a competitive salary, they can have their pick of coaching candidates.
Click to expand...

There are no guarantees that if Fleck leaves, we will hire a quality coach that is able to build on past success.

Look at what happened to WMU, Fleck elevated their profile, then they hired a mediocre coach and they regressed to what they've always been. Pelini won either 9 or 10 games every year for 6 years at Nebraska, a better job, and then they made a poor hire with Mike Reilly who won 4 games and got fired a few years later.

If we do have a 12-2 type season and lose Fleck, I think there'd be a pretty good chance we revert back to the middle of the pack and we have to start over again as opposed to being able to build on what Fleck started. Sustaining success over multiple coaches like what Wisconsin has done with Alvarez, Bielema, Andersen and Chryst is extremely rare for non helmet schools and should be viewed as the exception, not the norm.

Now if Fleck is the coach for 10 or so years and he has multiple double digit win seasons then I think there is a good chance that the future coach would be able to either sustain that level of success or build on it but if Fleck leaves after one good year, that would not be enough sustained success to the point where you'd expect future coaches to be able to build off it.
 
Last edited:



die hard gopher said:
There is actually a thread on the Penn State Rivals forum about Franklin leaving Penn State for the USC job this year.
Click to expand...

Yeah and there’s annual speculation about Saban going to the NFL, with Dabo filling his seat if he leaves. This sort of speculation isn’t just a mid-tier P5 problem.
 

die hard gopher said:
There is actually a thread on the Penn State Rivals forum about Franklin leaving Penn State for the USC job this year.
Click to expand...

That’s a little crazy to me to not think of Penn St as a end of the line career job. They don’t have a 100+ thousand stadium for nothing.

They should be able to pay a coach anything he wants, to not leave, and they should be able to get players that can win a natty.

It’s not like it’s Michigan State, right?
 

die hard gopher said:
There are no guarantees that if Fleck leaves, we will hire a quality coach that is able to build on past success.

Look at what happened to WMU, Fleck elevated their profile, then they hired a mediocre coach and they regressed to what they've always been. Pelini won either 9 or 10 games every year for 6 years at Nebraska, a better job, and then they made a poor hire with Mike Reilly who won 4 games and got fired a few years later.

If we do have a 12-2 type season and lose Fleck, I think there'd be a pretty good chance we revert back to the middle of the pack and we have to start over again as opposed to being able to build on what Fleck started. Sustaining success over multiple coaches like what Wisconsin has done with Alvarez, Bielema, Andersen and Chryst is extremely rare for non helmet schools and should be viewed as the exception, not the norm.

Now if Fleck is the coach for 10 or so years and he has multiple double digit win seasons then I think there is a good chance that the future coach would be able to either sustain that level of success or build on it but if Fleck leaves after one good year, that would not be enough sustained success to the point where you'd expect future coaches to be able to build off it.
Click to expand...

Thing with Fleck is, it’s not like you can just hire one of his coordinators and tell him to do the same thing.

Fleck *is* the show. It’s him.

You’d have to start over, pretty much any way you did it.

I’d go with whoever is the best winning MAC coach, frankly. Has worked well for us the last two times.
 

This whole conversation is premature. WE NEED TO BEAT PENN ST!! Until PJ has a signature win this season, it's just beating 8 poor to decent teams in a row. Certainly awesome but not enough to make me think PJ can jump to a helmet school immediately. If we beat Penn State in a packed stadium on ABC Nov. 9th. PJ will be officially become the hottest coach in the business and we will definitely need to do whatever we can to retain him. Im giddy just thinking about the PSU game because its really the cusp of excellence for us. We've got the momentum, home field advantage, and the coaching-talent for this to become reality. If we lose to PSU and cannot beat Iowa or Wisc either then I dont think we have anything to worry about. Its been great winning consistently , but big program building wins are what the Gophs/PJF need.
 

There is no such thing as momentum[emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

TurfGopher said:
This whole conversation is premature. WE NEED TO BEAT PENN ST!! Until PJ has a signature win this season, it's just beating 8 poor to decent teams in a row. Certainly awesome but not enough to make me think PJ can jump to a helmet school immediately. If we beat Penn State in a packed stadium on ABC Nov. 9th. PJ will be officially become the hottest coach in the business and we will definitely need to do whatever we can to retain him. Im giddy just thinking about the PSU game because its really the cusp of excellence for us. We've got the momentum, home field advantage, and the coaching-talent for this to become reality. If we lose to PSU and cannot beat Iowa or Wisc either then I dont think we have anything to worry about. Its been great winning consistently , but big program building wins are what the Gophs/PJF need.
Click to expand...

And in Indiana they are referring to their 7 point win vs Nebraska as their signature win. Tom Allen needs a raise BTW.
 

MnplsGopher said:
Thing with Fleck is, it’s not like you can just hire one of his coordinators and tell him to do the same thing.

Fleck *is* the show. It’s him.

You’d have to start over, pretty much any way you did it.

I’d go with whoever is the best winning MAC coach, frankly. Has worked well for us the last two times.
Click to expand...

Yeh, going to a Rossi and trying to continue with the same wouldn't be authentic to Rossi.
You would need to find someone outside, lose your recruits, hope new coach has decent MAC level players to bring in, and then start recruiting for 2022.

You'll have a 2 year recruiting gap. Also, easier now than ever to transfer so not sure what other players would go.
 

Face The Facts said:
Yeh, going to a Rossi and trying to continue with the same wouldn't be authentic to Rossi.
You would need to find someone outside, lose your recruits, hope new coach has decent MAC level players to bring in, and then start recruiting for 2022.

You'll have a 2 year recruiting gap. Also, easier now than ever to transfer so not sure what other players would go.
Click to expand...

Rossi has proven to be a great DC, I think. But no idea how he is as a front-man and a recruiter. Not sure if we'd be willing to risk that on him, unproven as a HC. I personally, for what little it's worth, would not. I'd want someone who has a proven record, even if at a lower level, as a front-man.

I know chairs will be thrown at me, I understand. But one guy I'd at least look at, is Bohl, now at Wyoming the last few years. *ducks*

And if Bohl is too old or you don't like him or whatever, then look at Chris Kliemann. I'd like to think we could pay more than K-State, but maybe not.
 
Last edited:

die hard gopher said:
Look at what happened to WMU, Fleck elevated their profile, then they hired a mediocre coach and they regressed to what they've always been.
Click to expand...

I think part of that is just life in the MAC. No one seems to have long term success in that conference lately. There's been 7 different programs to make it to the MAC championship the past 4 years.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I think part of that is just life in the MAC. No one seems to have long term success in that conference lately. There's been 7 different programs to make it to the MAC championship the past 4 years.
Click to expand...

Ohio's coaching staff has been there a long time. They are an anomaly. Maybe they all said going in "we're tired of moving around, let's just stay here no matter what". Obviously it's Solich, so he has some stigma from his time at Nebraska, and he's pretty old now.

EDIT: the DC (Burrow) did retire after last season. But the OC (Albin) is still there, 15 years going strong with Solich.
 
Last edited:

there is one thing that a lot of people are missing about people who are driven at the core the way pj is. to these kind of people, the drive to be the best and to work hard is not just in the hopes that he will get the call from then helmet school and the he can relax, sit back on his laurels and let things come to him. the drive is the normal.

with that said, if pj is for real, imagine what he could do at a helmet school with his drive. i dont know if pj is catholic, but i think his schtick could be adapted to thrive at notre dame.
 

PA did a segment this morning, asking listeners to call in and give their thoughts on PJ. To PA’s credit, he’s trying to rally listeners to be excited about this Gopher team. There were some positive, and some negative, with the negative complaining about the “easy” non-conference schedule, and other typical complaints. Overall, most callers were tepid, at best. I suppose they all have this feeling like they’re about to get burned, so they’re guarded in their excitement. Anyway, if PJ leaves for another job, I think this attitude toward the program from the local media and Minnesota sports fan will be a big reason why. Like I said earlier, it will take a National Championship to satisfy these people, and even if we accomplish that, they’ll jump off the bandwagon next year, if things don’t go as well. It’s tough sledding here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

PitinoFan said:
PA did a segment this morning, asking listeners to call in and give their thoughts on PJ. To PA’s credit, he’s trying to rally listeners to be excited about this Gopher team. There were some positive, and some negative, with the negative complaining about the “easy” non-conference schedule, and other typical complaints. Overall, most callers were tepid, at best. I suppose they all have this feeling like they’re about to get burned, so they’re guarded in their excitement. Anyway, if PJ leaves for another job, I think this attitude toward the program from the local media and Minnesota sports fan will be a big reason why. Like I said earlier, it will take a National Championship to satisfy these people, and even if we accomplish that, they’ll jump off the bandwagon next year, if things don’t go as well. It’s tough sledding here.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

This game may not be as big as the Wisconsin game a few years ago when the west was on the line but it certainly is the biggest one in terms of getting the average fans fully on board.
 

PJ is not going anywhere soon. The only reasons why he may leave will be either he does not get the support he wants or he is no longer welcomed here. His rah rah style doesn't really fit well with many elite programs. He is/was an underdog. So are the Gophers. He is exactly what Minnesota needed. Just look at how the players carry themselves in interviews. PJ has them believing and going in the right direction in life. He is relentless. C'mon everyone, please support PJ! When we reach the day he does leave, I think the program will be fine. After the "change your best", "...athletically, academically, socially, spiritually" how can the next coach abandon this culture?
 

If PJ leaves I think we will rehire Claeys.
Thoughts?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Spoofin said:
If PJ leaves I think we will rehire Claeys.
Thoughts?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

By my calendar, Jerry Kill will be unretiring for the 5th time right around then too...
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom