Ranking the Top 25 Current College Football Coaches (Tier 5: The Recent Risers: 23. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota)

[BleedGopher]

per David:

Tier 5: The Recent Risers​

1. 23. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota
   In his first year at Western Michigan, the Broncos trudged to a 1-11 record. Three seasons later, WMU went 13-0 and appeared in a New Year's Six Bowl. Fleck parlayed the success into a Big Ten job at Minnesota in 2017. Two years later, the Golden Gophers won 11 games for the first time in 115 years.

Go Gophers!!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Seems reasonable.

 

[HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving]

I am circling the stadium getting ready for Ohio State.

 

[gophernut1]

I know people want to say 2019 is a fluke or give credit to the previous coaches, but PJ shows he is a legit coach who has staying power. This 2021 team has as much talent as any MN team has had in my lifetime (40+ years). Not sure what it will mean in terms of wins and losses as there is still some serious areas of growth, but the talent is there. Plus, it seems we are building a base of talent. PJ deserves credit and glad to see he is getting on list like these that recognize he is more than a flash in the pan one year coach.

 

[Some guy]

I know people want to say 2019 is a fluke or give credit to the previous coaches, but PJ shows he is a legit coach who has staying power. This 2021 team has as much talent as any MN team has had in my lifetime (40+ years). Not sure what it will mean in terms of wins and losses as there is still some serious areas of growth, but the talent is there. Plus, it seems we are building a base of talent. PJ deserves credit and glad to see he is getting on list like these that recognize he is more than a flash in the pan one year coach.

Even if 2019 is a fluke at Minnesota and he can’t replicate here (nobody has finished higher than 4th in the big ten since the 70s),
2019 combined with western Michigan cotton bowl shows he is at a minimum an above average coach.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I know people want to say 2019 is a fluke or give credit to the previous coaches, but PJ shows he is a legit coach who has staying power. This 2021 team has as much talent as any MN team has had in my lifetime (40+ years). Not sure what it will mean in terms of wins and losses as there is still some serious areas of growth, but the talent is there. Plus, it seems we are building a base of talent. PJ deserves credit and glad to see he is getting on list like these that recognize he is more than a flash in the pan one year coach.

I think that would be kinda borderline insane.

Like as a baseline 'not pure garbage team' yeah other coaches made sure they weren't that... but I duno if that's credit worthy as much as 'yeah good job not sucking'.

But everything that made 2019 special was how unlike previous years it was.

 

[Boomtime]

I think that would be kinda borderline insane.

Like as a baseline 'not pure garbage team' yeah other coaches made sure they weren't that... but I duno if that's credit worthy as much as 'yeah good job not sucking'.

But everything that made 2019 special was how unlike previous years it was.

Maybe the narrow OOC victories in 2019 against a pretty weak slate caused the early conference opponents to underestimate the Gophers while the team built chemistry and confidence?