Rumor: Fleck to be considered for UCLA job.

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PJ leaving makes sense because:

1.) Sold his house last summer.
2.) OC and DC left jobs under PF for equal level jobs in the B1G Ten.
3.) PJ just had his worst year here since year 1.

PJ Staying makes sense:
1.) because he is building a new home or has built one - not sure what it is.
2) His 2025 B1G Ten schedule is one where they could make some noise, especially if they find a QB.
3.) His offense plays well in the MidWest - but not sure how it would play in LA.

In the end we need a much bigger staffing commitment at the U of M for PJ. I am hoping he staying and turns this into a few million extra for staffing.
 







GopherWeatherGuy said:
Besides the weather, how is UCLA a step up for Fleck?

Chip Kelly leaving for a coordinator position tells you all you really need to know about how he thinks that transition is going to go for UCLA in the B1G.
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Are you serious?
 


I doubt PJ gets the job, but this is probably the most “nervous” I’ve been about an opening. Most of the other prior openings for which he’s been rumored were an odd fit for one reason or another. This one seems more plausible if it’s what PJ wants.

We’ll see. Count me in the camp that doesn’t see UCLA football as an obvious jump up. It’s a more prestigious school (no shade at the U—it’s just that UCLA is arguably the best public college in the country) in an alpha-level city with better recruiting. Making UCLA into a contender would give him a huge spotlight.

On the other hand, UCLA football hasn’t been that good. It doesn’t have great fan support. It’s not even the most popular CFB team in the city, and probably ranks behind all the LA pro teams plus UCLA basketball too, not to mention the 1 million other entertainment options in LA. The athletic department is in big debt. Bad recruiting ranking in recent years. And moving into a grueling conference. At *best* UCLA football is a half step up from Minnesota.
 




GopherGod said:
They had consistent top 15-20 classes prior to Kelly going there and got progressively worse the longer he was there. Maybe he just doesn’t like to recruit, wanted to be back in NFL, or lost his fire. It sounds like he has been looking for an exit strategy for a while so not surprising if his heart wasn’t in for the grind of recruiting. They don’t have NIL but neither does Minnesota. Their finances should also improve with big ten TV contract versus disastrous PAC-12 contract. Below you can see their recruiting class rankings for the last 22 years. PJ could look at that and say they’ve recruited well in the past, I can do it again there.

https://247sports.com/college/ucla/Season/2019-Football/Commits/
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History is pretty close to irrelevant because the rules have changed. Especially, the last two years has been a very different landscape.

Minnesota does have NIL. They kept all their better players by paying them with NIL money.
Brosmer seems likely to have a deal forthcoming or he likely wouldn't be here.

UCLA will have some more money in the future but that doesn't help this season. They are also badly in debt,

In addition, Kelly probably looked at the schedule...they have 6 games they likely can not win.

Having said that, I doubt PJ gets the opportunity to accept the job.
Screenshot 2024-02-09 at 10.45.08 PM.png
 
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60's Guy said:
History is pretty close to irrelevant because the rules have changed. Especially, the last two years has been a very different landscape.

Minnesota does have NIL. They kept all their better players by paying them with NIL money.
Brosmer seems likely to have a deal forthcoming or he likely wouldn't be here.

UCLA will have some more money in the future but that doesn't help this season. They are also badly in debt,

In addition, Kelly probably looked at the schedule...they have 6 games they likely can not win.

Having said that, I doubt PJ gets the opportunity to accept the job.
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What 6? I see four. What would you say about the gophers chances on their schedule?
 





DelawareGopher said:
I doubt PJ gets the job, but this is probably the most “nervous” I’ve been about an opening. Most of the other prior openings for which he’s been rumored were an odd fit for one reason or another. This one seems more plausible if it’s what PJ wants.

We’ll see. Count me in the camp that doesn’t see UCLA football as an obvious jump up. It’s a more prestigious school (no shade at the U—it’s just that UCLA is arguably the best public college in the country) in an alpha-level city with better recruiting. Making UCLA into a contender would give him a huge spotlight.

On the other hand, UCLA football hasn’t been that good. It doesn’t have great fan support. It’s not even the most popular CFB team in the city, and probably ranks behind all the LA pro teams plus UCLA basketball too, not to mention the 1 million other entertainment options in LA. The athletic department is in big debt. Bad recruiting ranking in recent years. And moving into a grueling conference. At *best* UCLA football is a half step up from Minnesota.
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Yeah, it’s the first one where you reasonable people could think it’s a step up and it’s not absurd to think they’d be interested.
 


Ralph said:
The problem with PJ is that he hasn't been able to be better than Iowa or Wisconsin in the Big Ten west. Divisions are going away, but he was hired to beat Iowa and Wisconsin and he hasn't done that. The issue is not PJ leaving, the issue is timing. If PJ left in December then things would be different.
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But . . . he has done both of these things . . . just not all at once.

Beating Wisconsin: 2018, 2021, 2022
Beating Iowa: 2023

Being better than Wisconsin in the B1G West: 2021, 2022
Being better than Iowa in the B1G West: 2019
 

2nd Degree Gopher said:
The athletic department at UCLA ran a budget deficit of about $35M last year and has not come close to breaking even in years. They might be able to lure Fleck or some one of his standing, but it will not likely be for a lot more than he's making now, at least not initially. If he really wants the job, I'm sure they could back load a six or seven year deal with the big raises coming once they have had a few years of Big Ten money coming in, but I'd be shocked if he gets a $2-3M raise right out of the gate.
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To say the UCLA athletics dept has financial issues is an understatement. The UCLA athletic department has reported a significant deficit of $36.6 million for the fiscal year 2023, marking the fifth consecutive year of substantial financial shortfalls. The previous years saw deficits of $18.9 million in 2019, $21.7 million in 2020, a peak of $62.5 million in 2021, and $28 million in 2022.

They need the Big1G media deal just to get their program back in the black. So, if you are going there I don't see how you think they are going to be able to just open up the coffers to build this program back up. I think PJ would be lucky to get his current salary matched at this point considering the six wins last year.
 


Taji34 said:
You got any credible sources for that claim? Or just rumors that he was being considered as a candidate?
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Just a theory but Fleck's agent likely had more to do with the reports linking him to these schools than Fleck actually showing interest in leaving Minnesota to go to one of them.
 


gopherbadgerman said:
What 6? I see four. What would you say about the gophers chances on their schedule?
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What 6? Well, the four you see...at LSU, Oregon, at Penn St and at Washington.
Then traveling from LA to Rutgers makes that difficult to win, at Nebraska they will be underdogs,
vs Iowa they'll be underdogs, and vs USC they be underdogs. Certainly, winning 2 of those 8 is a difficult task.

Gophers, to me are an unknown, let's see where we are in August. Nobody is going to pick us to be any good.
 

Is UCLA a good college football job? Sure, it's in sunny Los Angeles, has a fertile local recruiting base, it's a well known school and now it's in the Big Ten.

Is it an easy job? Hell no! UCLA is so well known they don't really need to use athletics to get their brand name out there. The University of California system is fraught with anti-sports politics (more-so than the U), Los Angeles is an incredibly crowded entertainment market and nobody hitches their personal identity to the local sports team (this is where the SEC really excels). They play off campus at an aging stadium that they don't own.

We've yet to see how the Big Ten new travel schedule for these west coast schools affects their recruiting and play. Long plane trips on many weekends plus time zone jumping will take a toll. UCLA first five road games are Hawaii (-3 hours), LSU (+2 hours), Penn State (+3 hours), Rutgers (+3 hours) and Nebraska (+2 hours). No school, to my knowledge, has ever faced such a road schedule.

Is PJ the type of person who could come in and build something in this environment? Yeah, he's got methhead energy without the meth. I just don't think the ceiling at UCLA is much different than at Minnesota. UCLA is one of the few schools who probably cares even less about their football program than Minnesota. Most of Minnesota's issues exist at UCLA to an even greater degree. So it's a question of where his family wants to be for the next five years.

I still think if PJ eventually tires of Minnesota, he'll want to end up in some football breathing SEC college town.
 


NoelarBear said:
View attachment 30062From Feldman.
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The last sentence on PJ above is important. PJ has cemented his brand across the Midwest and Everyone in MN knows RTB. In LA, he would be overlooked. He can't compete with all the celebrities for attention. PJs ego couldn't deal with that . Plus his custody arrangement for his kids would be much more challenging moving to West Coast.
 




disco said:
On paper, you'd think anyone would take the UCLA job over Minnesota. Weather alone would be a factor for me. Of course there were idiots around here who thought NDSU's coach was a fool to go work for USC because Fargo is such a more desirable place to live.

But something HAS to be up with the UCLA job. Why would someone leave a B1G HC job to take a coordinator position, albeit at a much bigger name program? There has to be something else going on there to make someone want to up and leave like that.
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Chip Kelly needed to rebuild his brand. What is his endgame at UCLA? Best case is to Wallow in mediocre land and finishing middle of B10 year after year. UCLA wasn't going to pull a Washington. Or reduce stress and put his stamp on an offensive system in the CF playoffs year after year. He probably noticed other coordinators rehab at Alabama and wind up with much better jobs. Sark at Texas is most glaring example.
 

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