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Gopher FB Coach PJ Fleck appeared on the WCCO Sports Huddle on Sunday.
Sid - what about game?
PJ: we didn't win. had a lot of good efforts by young players. lost key players during game, and weren't able to recover got down 28-0. we're not built to come back from that. kids continued to fight. proud of effort. give them (Nebraska) a lot of credit. they should be a 5-1, 4-2 team. very good team. could tell they were going to be good team. their QB is amazing. we didn't tackle well. they made us pay. they're so athletic at different positions. proud of Morgan's effort.
Sid: why was the defense so different from the way they played against OSU?
PJ: we have a lot of youth and inexperience. we lack consistency. we had to put a lot of different people in. it all falls on me. sometimes you know your weaknesses, and you have to rob peter to pay paul. take away one thing to try and stop another. you know what your personnel is capable of, and you design a game plan to try and protect them. then you miss a tackle. they game-planned us well. we missed tackles, and when you miss tackles, they go for big plays. it's not like the defense changed. we didn't execute well
Sid: Nebraska had lot of big plays -
PJ: had 2 long runs for TD, both due to missed tackles. on the last TD we had a blown coverage. we have some really young guys out there who really shouldn't be playing. still gaining valuable experience for the future. we're not going to take shortcuts to get there. we're the youngest team in the country. youth leads to inconsistency. we have to keep it very simple for them, but still do a better job of executing.
Mona: Annexstad had to go to hospital
PJ: on the way into locker room we noticed that (something was wrong). our doctors sprung into action. took him to hospital. they ran tests, cleared him. he met us at the airplane. Tanner did a great job. played well. we're putting people in a position they're not ready for - but they have to be, based on our depth. we stlll got close to 500 yards offense. we had plenty of opportunities to score. we make decisions based on how the game is going. when we're playing catch-up, we call the game based on that. got to be able to make plays. young guys have to learn how to make plays at crucial situations.
Sid: what about Spielman?
PJ: he's a tremendous player. give him a lot of credit.
Max: preparing for Friday night game?
PJ: like it to be 7 days for rest and health of players. when you have short weeks, we have a plan for it. I was in the MAC, where you play on Tuesday, Saturday, Monday. we have a plan for any combination you can have. need to get players healthy the best we can. we play so many young guys - they're not ready to play, but you have to play them. their bodies aren't made for that yet. haven't gone through strength program. I said all along that year 2 would get worse before it gets better, because we're playing so many young people in key roles.
Mona: are you Comfortable in how you're using the 4-game red-shirts?
PJ: sometimes it means you rest a player with experience, vs playing guy with no experience. those are the hard decisions you have to make. want to put our best players on field - but our best players are the youngest players. if you take an older guy out, hard to play with no subs, put inexperienced player in. want to do both - win now and set up for the future. have to focus on both of them. difficult to balance.
Sid: Johnson had fantastic day.
PJ: he had a good game. Douglas played well, Autman-Bell, Bateman. Ty Johnson gets more targets. he's got to be consistent. makes spectacular catches, but you'd like the routine ones to be more consistent. we get ourselves in a hole, and it's hard to dig out of. need to be more consistent on both sides of the ball, and on special teams as well.
Sid: wish for better days. Murray's.
PJ: RTB, Ski-U-Mah, Go Gophers.
Sid - what about game?
PJ: we didn't win. had a lot of good efforts by young players. lost key players during game, and weren't able to recover got down 28-0. we're not built to come back from that. kids continued to fight. proud of effort. give them (Nebraska) a lot of credit. they should be a 5-1, 4-2 team. very good team. could tell they were going to be good team. their QB is amazing. we didn't tackle well. they made us pay. they're so athletic at different positions. proud of Morgan's effort.
Sid: why was the defense so different from the way they played against OSU?
PJ: we have a lot of youth and inexperience. we lack consistency. we had to put a lot of different people in. it all falls on me. sometimes you know your weaknesses, and you have to rob peter to pay paul. take away one thing to try and stop another. you know what your personnel is capable of, and you design a game plan to try and protect them. then you miss a tackle. they game-planned us well. we missed tackles, and when you miss tackles, they go for big plays. it's not like the defense changed. we didn't execute well
Sid: Nebraska had lot of big plays -
PJ: had 2 long runs for TD, both due to missed tackles. on the last TD we had a blown coverage. we have some really young guys out there who really shouldn't be playing. still gaining valuable experience for the future. we're not going to take shortcuts to get there. we're the youngest team in the country. youth leads to inconsistency. we have to keep it very simple for them, but still do a better job of executing.
Mona: Annexstad had to go to hospital
PJ: on the way into locker room we noticed that (something was wrong). our doctors sprung into action. took him to hospital. they ran tests, cleared him. he met us at the airplane. Tanner did a great job. played well. we're putting people in a position they're not ready for - but they have to be, based on our depth. we stlll got close to 500 yards offense. we had plenty of opportunities to score. we make decisions based on how the game is going. when we're playing catch-up, we call the game based on that. got to be able to make plays. young guys have to learn how to make plays at crucial situations.
Sid: what about Spielman?
PJ: he's a tremendous player. give him a lot of credit.
Max: preparing for Friday night game?
PJ: like it to be 7 days for rest and health of players. when you have short weeks, we have a plan for it. I was in the MAC, where you play on Tuesday, Saturday, Monday. we have a plan for any combination you can have. need to get players healthy the best we can. we play so many young guys - they're not ready to play, but you have to play them. their bodies aren't made for that yet. haven't gone through strength program. I said all along that year 2 would get worse before it gets better, because we're playing so many young people in key roles.
Mona: are you Comfortable in how you're using the 4-game red-shirts?
PJ: sometimes it means you rest a player with experience, vs playing guy with no experience. those are the hard decisions you have to make. want to put our best players on field - but our best players are the youngest players. if you take an older guy out, hard to play with no subs, put inexperienced player in. want to do both - win now and set up for the future. have to focus on both of them. difficult to balance.
Sid: Johnson had fantastic day.
PJ: he had a good game. Douglas played well, Autman-Bell, Bateman. Ty Johnson gets more targets. he's got to be consistent. makes spectacular catches, but you'd like the routine ones to be more consistent. we get ourselves in a hole, and it's hard to dig out of. need to be more consistent on both sides of the ball, and on special teams as well.
Sid: wish for better days. Murray's.
PJ: RTB, Ski-U-Mah, Go Gophers.