PJ Fleck is recruiting like he plans on being here a long time

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Gold Rush

Gold Rush

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One of the ongoing debates on gopherhole has been on how long PJ Fleck will remain at Minnesota. Many on here including myself have noted you have to do everything possible to keep him happy here and give him the support to be successful. Last season was no fluke and in a very short time he has built this team into a top ten team, which is unprecedented territory for all Gopher fans except for those who are senior citizens. God bless them!

The big question of course is this sustainable? Can this program continue to compete with the big boys or is 2019 going to be a once in a lifetime season and we go right back to the land of mediocrity or worse. There are many fans who always think something eventually bad will happen and that is something Fleck has had to endure and is hoping to change. If he were to leave there would be many who would immediately say -- "Aha -- I knew that would happen!"

So is Fleck going to leave? I would say if you look at this recruiting class it sure looks like he is trying to build the foundation for something that will last a long time. The fact that he has been successful at it is telling him (and us!) he CAN take this to the next level. These are the "next level" recruits that other Gopher coaches would not have been able to get. He is putting everything he has into this. He is in a great spot here and he knows it.

Sure, one of the big time schools will be calling him very soon if he can continue this success - that is a guarantee. We have to hope we have a guy who like Fry and Ferentz at Iowa and Alvarez at Wisconsin says no to the other schools and chooses to stay for a long time. I may be biased, but I feel Minnesota has a lot more to offer than most schools and CAN do this if we get the right guy behind the wheel. We have to do all we can to keep him here because he gives us a chance to have a great deal of success and whole lot of fun - and right now that chance is better than we have seen in these parts. But the bottom line is I think he is fully committed to sticking around here and the recruiting that we are seeing is just the start. I think more good things are just around the corner for Gopher fans!

Right now I think our biggest opponent is Covid-19. If we can just get past that we have a chance to be very successful for a long time!!
 


Dean S said:
I pledge to help keep PJ Fleck in Minnesota by self isolating to rid us of Covid; to be elite, by supporting the team by getting rid of Covid; and, to being a Gopher fan in its most elite form, by being alive to be that fan.
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+11
 

Dean S said:
I pledge to help keep PJ Fleck in Minnesota by self isolating to rid us of Covid; to be elite, by supporting the team by getting rid of Covid; and, to being a Gopher fan in its most elite form, by being alive to be that fan.
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Haha -- you got it!!
 

Dean S said:
I pledge to help keep PJ Fleck in Minnesota by self isolating to rid us of Covid; to be elite, by supporting the team by getting rid of Covid; and, to being a Gopher fan in its most elite form, by being alive to be that fan.
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Dean, you should have self isolated a long time ago
 


Dean S said:
I pledge to help keep PJ Fleck in Minnesota by self isolating to rid us of Covid; to be elite, by supporting the team by getting rid of Covid; and, to being a Gopher fan in its most elite form, by being alive to be that fan.
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Have you run out of toilet paper yet?
 


I hold him to his vision of bringing the national title to Minnesota. From Day 1, I was sold.

He is no Carpetbagger Joe. Whether he decides to stay and build his legacy here or go elsewhere, I am grateful for last season.

He is born to recruit.

 

hungan1 said:
I hold him to his vision of bringing the national title to Minnesota. From Day 1, I was sold.

He is no Carpetbagger Joe. Whether he decides to stay and build his legacy here or go elsewhere, I am grateful for last season.

He is born to recruit.

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Agreed on both points. I was NOT totally sold on day 1. On day 1 he sounded like another Tim Brewster, or perhaps another version of Jim Wacker and both those experiments failed miserably. I did have high hopes though because I saw what he did at Western Michigan. When he was hired, he was the hottest available coach. I was astonished at Coyle's firing Claeys then announcing the hottest young coach as his replacement only a few days later.

Usually, there is no plan when the AD fires a Gopher football coach. Usually there is a long search by a search committee which takes up the entire recruiting period but Coyle had a plan and it worked. He deserves high praise for this (which he has received) because without him, last year never would have happened. No way.

My theory is had he kept Claeys, Winfield and others would be gone. The team was aggregiously short on the offensive line, WR, the defensive backfield was gone and the QB situation was possibly the worst we have ever seen. Most likely, the team drops to a 4-5 win season at best and a coach already on thin ice gets fired. I am not sure we get Fleck a year later, although it is possible. Even if we had gotten Fleck a year later, we do not get guys like Morgan or Bateman that first year.

For once, our AD made the right call and things turned out the very best for the team.
 





Word said:
Recruiting well will also look good on a resume for a bigger job. Hard to know what his intentions are.
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No it isn't.

His intention is to build a championship team at Minnesota. If he keeps winning, some other jobs may come calling (some already have) and we will find out if he is being totally genuine in what he says. But for now, EVERY single indication he has ever given is that he wants to be here for a long long time and turn this program into a National Title contender.
 

MNVCGUY said:
No it isn't.

His intention is to build a championship team at Minnesota. If he keeps winning, some other jobs may come calling (some already have) and we will find out if he is being totally genuine in what he says. But for now, EVERY single indication he has ever given is that he wants to be here for a long long time and turn this program into a National Title contender.
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I think there's a decent chance he stays a while but the bottom line is only he and Heather know for sure.
 



To me, the reasons for P.J. to stay are pretty obvious:

— It's a B1G job. You can't move up much beyond the B1G. Maybe the SEC; but I think Fleck's a Midwestern boy.

— It's a perfect situation from the point of view of someone who, like Fleck, wants to truly put his own stamp on a Power 5 program, and build it in his own way. He's certainly doing that.

— It's a great area to raise a family. I know that gets said often, but it's true.

— He will get a statue. By the way, Warmath should have a statue, and so should Bierman.

— Name me another job that would be a step up, that would meet all the above criteria, and would have an opening in the near future. Go on; I dare ya!

The only way I see him leaving is if a school like Notre Dame calls, and even then I doubt it would tempt him all that much; he'd be just another coach in a long line of coaches who have had success there. At Minnesota, he can be our Alvarez... and more. That opportunity doesn't exist at Notre Dame, at least not in the same way.

The only worry I have is our own Minnesota Scandinavian stoicism, which almost becomes ritualistic. Some Minnesotans have a weird need to forecast only gloom, and then when faced with real success to minimize it rather than go all-in on celebrating. It's like they have a hard time allowing themselves to feel really happy. I'm talking about the whole, "Ya, not too bad, could be worse" Minnesota thing. I could see that sort of mentality becoming a little bit irritating to a guy like Fleck, over the long haul.
 

Word said:
I think there's a decent chance he stays a while but the bottom line is only he and Heather know for sure.
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This is actually true. I think he has every intention RIGHT NOW of staying for the long haul but things can change in a hurry and you never know what will happen in the future. Someone could step up with a boatload of money (and probably will) or a hundred things could happen that could change things. I think things are golden right now though - just don't you be swearing at him or something word and get him all mad....lol.
 

RememberMurray said:
To me, the reasons for P.J. to stay are pretty obvious:

— It's a B1G job. You can't move up much beyond the B1G. Maybe the SEC; but I think Fleck's a Midwestern boy.

— It's a perfect situation from the point of view of someone who, like Fleck, wants to truly put his own stamp on a Power 5 program, and build it in his own way. He's certainly doing that.

— It's a great area to raise a family. I know that gets said often, but it's true.

— He will get a statue. By the way, Warmath should have a statue, and so should Bierman.

— Name me another job that would be a step up, that would meet all the above criteria, and would have an opening in the near future. Go on; I dare ya!

The only way I see him leaving is if a school like Notre Dame calls, and even then I doubt it would tempt him all that much; he'd be just another coach in a long line of coaches who have had success there. At Minnesota, he can be our Alvarez... and more. That opportunity doesn't exist at Notre Dame, at least not in the same way.

The only worry I have is our own Minnesota Scandinavian stoicism, which almost becomes ritualistic. Some Minnesotans have a weird need to forecast only gloom, and then when faced with real success to minimize it rather than go all-in on celebrating. It's like they have a hard time allowing themselves to feel really happy. I'm talking about the whole, "Ya, not too bad, could be worse" Minnesota thing. I could see that sort of mentality becoming a little bit irritating to a guy like Fleck, over the long haul.
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I agree with this. Why do we feel like Minnesota is bottom barrel team? Minnesota has a very rich history, just not recently. We have a coach who I think the school fully supports, let’s him run his team, and compete!

he has said he wants to bring back that tradition, and to bring back Minnesota to a powerhouse program. Dabo did for Clemson, Saban for Bama, Meyer for FL and tOSU!

fleck is showing he can compete and I think he will bring Minnesota to that level, and I think PJ is here a looooong time!
 

I don’t necessarily think PJ leaves, but if he does, he will bring our highly-rated recruits with him. Just like when he brought most of his top-of-the-MAC class here from WMU. Gotta enjoy the ride while it lasts.
 


SPEGOPHER said:
I don’t necessarily think PJ leaves, but if he does, he will bring our highly-rated recruits with him. Just like when he brought most of his top-of-the-MAC class here from WMU. Gotta enjoy the ride while it lasts.
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Agreed. These kids are committing to the U of M and they have not even been here before. They are coming here primarily due to Coach Fleck. The more good kids you get in this class, the easier it is to get other good players, too. I imagine you could put out quite the highlight film for last year. A lot of kids can see there is something special going on here!
 
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With all due respect, trying to recruit the best athletes possible does not necessarily mean that a coach is planning to stay at the same school for a long time.

I would say that Fleck is recruiting like a Coach who wants to win. And by the nature of the job, you are always recruiting for 3 or 4 years in advance. (unless you load up on transfers....)

Lou Holtz had a heck of a recruiting class lined up for MN - and then he got the Notre Dame job and he took most of those recruits to ND, including QB Tony Rice.

Fleck could be the exception. Maybe MN is his "lifetime" job. It's possible.

We'll never know until some helmet school comes along and offers him a deal. And then we'll see what happens.
 

Assuming Fleck can have a top 10 to top 15 team here most years (I think he can), there are only a few jobs that are significantly better....LSU, Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, and I’ll add Notre Dame because it’s Notre Dame. A few other jobs are only marginally better, and could be surpassed by the Minnesota job within a few years. Assuming he and Heather really enjoy living here, it would probably have to be one of those 5 schools for him to even consider it.
 

PJ recruiting like he wants to stay here because he does. Only reason he leaves is if the Admin or Board mess this up. For 40 years we had a culture where people believed if you spent 1 million on sports it meant taking that away from academics. They never understood putting money into sports to build a winning program can make more money for the university and undercutting it hurts revenue. Will see when the time comes if our admin and board answer the call. That will be the moment that determines if this is a long term thing or just a flash in the pan.
 

I'm just really glad PJ Fleck is here, and excited about his vision for this team. I've been waiting for this rise/return to prominence for three decades (and some of you - twice that), i refuse to spoil it with trivial doubt.
 

The OP is on to something. Everyone knows that coaches that don’t want to stay for a long time blow off recruiting. It only makes sense.
 

He was known for recruiting when he came here, so I'm bit miffed with this thread.
 

Spoofin said:
The OP is on to something. Everyone knows that coaches that don’t want to stay for a long time blow off recruiting. It only makes sense.
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The point is that you have to be impressed by how hard that Fleck and staff are working even through extremely adverse conditions to land an excellent class. Years ago, Glen Mason had that 10-3 year in 2003 and like a lot of fans, I was hoping this would springboard him into that next level of recruiting. Surely this would be able to open doors that he would not be able to in previous years? This did not happen and in fact I thought the recruiting was downright lazy. I remember stating that if the recruiting did not improve after a 10-3 season, this would be the best year that Mason would ever achieve and this was as far as he was going to be able to take us. Not that the 2003 season was a bad year mind you, but it turns out that I was right.

THIS was the type of class that I had hoped for in 2004. I would say that this type of hard work that Fleck and staff have been putting in to land this class is remarkable as most of the recruits haven't even been able to visit the campus!! Sure, he was known for recruiting when he came here, but this class is the next step up and one that we have not been able to get to in years past.

These are very exciting times for Gopher fans indeed. The foundation is being laid for this to last for a long time!!
 


Gold Rush said:
The point is that you have to be impressed by how hard that Fleck and staff are working even through extremely adverse conditions to land an excellent class.
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My bad. I somehow got the impression the point was that he was recruiting “like he wants to be here a long time.”
 


Bottom line is if Fleck wanted to go to a blue blood he could go there even with a 35 - 45 ranked recruiting class and a 9+ higher finish this year. If he was after a blue blood offer he would be putting all of his time into studying film for the upcoming year to get whatever edge he could to unsure a 9+ win season. The fact that he is giving himself completely to recruiting lets you know that his priorities are to build a title competing team here in MN. I do think if things go well the WI vs MN battle will become the OSU vs MI battle of old. In the next 5 years we could build something that becomes worthy of national attention and after that becomes a must watch affair (meaning our season and the rivalry).
 

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