SI: Three words define PJ Fleck's career at Minnesota: 'It's on me'

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MplsGopher said:
What a great deal for Bring Me The News. They get to have people thinking the things they write are actually Sports Illustrated.

Even here Bleed incorrectly labels it a “SI” article, when no one actually on the SI staff came within 1000miles of this piece.

Wonder how much they have to pay SI for the re-direct “branding”?
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Breakin' The Plane said:
Another nugget from the radio show: When discussing QB play, the subject of a transfer QB was brought up briefly...at which point Fleck said that they're not really interested in that, they like to develop quarterbacks.
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I think we would all be in favor of them developing QBs.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
on the "Fleck is going to leave for a better job" scenario:

here is a list of all the Gopher coaches in my lifetime, and their post-Gopher careers:

Murray Warmath - MN was last coaching job
Cal Stoll - after MN, coached an amateur FB team in Italy
Joe Salem - after MN, was QB coach for Augustana, SD
Lou Holtz - after MN, HC at Notre Dame and South Carolina
John Gutekunst - after MN, position coach for multiple schools.
Jim Wacker - after MN, was AD at SW Texas State
Glen Mason -MN was last coaching job
Tim Brewster - after MN, was position coach for 7 schools
Jeff Horton - after MN, position coach/assistant at San Diego State
Jerry Kill - after MN, position coach/ass't/AD until became HC at New Mexico State
Tracy Claeys -- after MN, DC at Washington State, LB coach at Virginia Tech
PJ Fleck - still at MN

Holtz and Kill are the only two former Gopher coaches to get another HC job in college FB. Holtz is the only coach who left MN for a "better" job.
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Of the rest, only Mason probably could have gotten another power 5 job if he wanted one, but it would have been an Indiana level job.
 

howeda7 said:
Of the rest, only Mason probably could have gotten another power 5 job if he wanted one, but it would have been an Indiana level job.
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Jer is having another good year with his squad.
 



howeda7 said:
Of the rest, only Mason probably could have gotten another power 5 job if he wanted one, but it would have been an Indiana level job.
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Wondering if Fleck were to leave after this year, who would be interested in picking him up. I don't see Fleck leaving for a better job - he will not be on a team such as Michigan's radar but for a rebuild job such as Virginia or Virginia Tech that would be about as good as he could get at this point. I don't see Fleck leaving after this year or anytime soon, but if he were to feel that he doesn't have much of a chance in the new and improved Big 18 this would be the time to go somewhere he could win at.

I think he is better off staying here and getting someone who can coach offense and a better special teams guy, too. He can win here if he retools a bit.
 

HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving said:
I will have to look that up. Frankly I am just glad he is alive. He could have had a nice career here but killing yourself to coach should not be taken literally.
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If he's managing his health well at his current stop, I think this is a good place for him to ride out the rest of his career. He can do well there but it doesn't quite hit the stress level that a P5 job does.
 

EG#9 said:
The bolded here is straight garbage. People want to know why Fleck keeps losing games to Illinois, Bowling Green, Purdue, Northwestern, and Iowa that have been the difference between a B1G West title and another trip to the Outback Bowl (or better) and a season where we end up in one of the bottom tier B1G bowls. This has NOTHING to do with NIL. It actually hurts the NIL argument when you lose these games. If you can't beat a Northwestern team that hasn't won a B1G game in over a season...why would you think any amount of $$$ would ever put you in a position to beat Michigan?

PJ says it's on him, but he doesn't say ANYTHING that inspires any belief that he will ever change. He actually has thrown players under the bus (to a degree). After the Northwestern debacle he mentioned several times that the final 3rd down before his decision to punt that Darius Taylor should have cut the run inside instead of going outside. After Illinois he made comments about Athan doing the same thing and not cutting the run inside and also how the pass on 3rd down was open. He was right in all 3 instances, and I don't mind him saying it (except given all that happened in the Northwestern game talking about one minor mistake by Darius seemed ridiculous to me). When questioned about his decisions before halftime to run the ball before setting up the FG. He again mentioned this fear of getting sacked and being taken out of FG range...just like his explanation for his calls against MSU. That last drive of the first half took 7:23 off the clock and only covered 53 yards. When you purposefully shorten the game, EVERY mistake is magnified. When you are playing an opponent with 1 B1G win that is 4-9 in its last 13 games...why are you trying to increase variance by limiting possessions? Another example: After the turnover to start the 2nd half, Athan finds Crooms for a should be score...and he drops it. Big mistake. Ok, why is the 2nd and 10 play from the 12 yard line a run play? Why would you ever play for 3rd down in that down and distance when up 3 and the difference between being up 6 and up 10 is enormous? We end up gaining a whopping 3 yards to have the advantage of facing a 3rd and 7 instead of a 3rd and 10...and then we don't even get a pass off on 3rd down. If you look at our history this year, we've run the ball a ridiculous amount on 2nd and long and it has rarely resulted in getting close enough to run the ball again on 3rd down much less actually garnering a 1st.

If we're going to continue to play this white knuckle it/scared/conservative style of football, we need to be "Elite" in areas that we're terrible at. A kick returner can't decide to return a kick that he's not positive will get him out past the 25 yard line (much less fumble the ball). Our last two punts, Crawford punted from our 48 and our 45. We didn't even pin Illinois inside the 10 on either of these. Illinois starts on their 19 and then on their 16. If we're going to play this style, we have to have an offense that can execute in short clock situations just as much as we need a defense that can shut the door when it has the opportunity. In Fleck's entire tenure we've shown zero ability to score in a scenario like Saturday where we had 50 seconds and 2 timeouts and needed a FG to win a game. That's an eternity in college football and we couldn't even complete a single pass to get the drive started.

On Saturday, Illinois had three turnovers and a missed fg. The Gophers had one turnover. That's like Fleck's entire "ball is the program" mantra. That should be the perfect recipe for an easy blowout win at home over a 1 win B1G team. Instead it was another loss and people are justifiably wondering what it takes for Fleck to "change his best" and realize that this style of football doesn't get it done in the weak B1G West and certainly won't get it done against the much tougher schedules to come.
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Well said. The whole it’s “on me” thing I completely get saying, as it’s what a coach should say, but that should come with introspection on what exactly was on you. Did you put the players in a position to win and they blew it? If so, how can I change that variance to minimize that risk as much as possible? If it’s that they missed one pass or one cut, how could I have made that margin greater against an inferior team? Did they need more prep or more reps on that “gotta have it play” like KOC talked about for the play from Dobbs on the final drive or was it a gameplan flaw (like wtf was that 2pt conversion play that fooled no one and looked like there was no “look” they were trying to exploit)? That is my issue with him saying it again and again is that we then come out and employ the exact same strategy and end up with, again, 1-2 plays we miss and we lose. At some point you have to either decide the players are not good enough (then we should be in the market for a new qb) or that the system does not provide your team with an optimal chance to win.

I hope pj will continue to improve. I do think he’sa better coach now than when he started, but he’s still got some warts. Time will tell if he can see them and change his best, just like he expects his players to do. This off-season will need some real soul searching as it gets harder next year just to be bowl eligible.
 

Geez - New Mexico State is 7-3. They're going bowling. and Casa De Autos is doing land-rush business.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
Geez - New Mexico State is 7-3. They're going bowling. and Casa De Autos is doing land-rush business.
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it's too bad we don't have any CUSA bowl tie ins or we could get ready to book our game against them already.

Did this just for fun, but combined records of teams they've beat:
19-56 (.322)
(they've lost to 9-0 Liberty and 3-7 Hawaii)
 

I’m guessing this Purdue disaster will be on PJ too.
 

I was asked by friends why I’m not tuning in TV to watch Gopher football most Saturdays…

“It’s on me” I said. “I’m busy on Saturdays, other things are higher priority”

Sorry PJ 🤷‍♂️
 

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