Souhan: It's a losing play for P.J. Fleck to tout his Gophers "culture" over talent

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PMWinSTP said:
I get it, Fleck wanted to make his point but it wasn't "10 seconds". Fleck talks culture throughout his presser.
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He stated the word "culture" 18 or 19 times per Ryan Burns on the KFAN Gophers podcast. I also listened to the whole presser on youtube, that tally seems about right.
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Souhan:


Fleck is, objectively, a good coach. He's winning again this year, and despite a historically bad loss to Bowling Green, could build another impressive season.

If Fleck did nothing at the podium but answer questions and compliment his players, plenty of other people in Minnesota would be happy to praise him, and he might even get points for humility.

The Minnesota fan base and media are filled with people who love kissing up to the Gophers head coach. They don't even need to be asked.

Instead of concealing his ego and accepting the always-plentiful bouquets, Fleck begs for praise and insults everyone - his opponents, his players and the intelligence of the listener.

It's a self-serving strategy that doesn't serve anyone all that well. Not even Fleck himself.

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His job is to generate clicks. Doesn't matter if it is accurate or not. Figurative language and nuance is completely lost on a guy like Jim.

I don't believe there has been a coach he has liked. Ever.

Souhan was probably one of those kids that wanted to be really athletic, but genetics just did not gift him with size, skill and coordination. Armed with a pen, he could live vicariously through the sports he so desperately wanted to be good at and write articles that would bring him the attention he so desperately craved.

My guess is PJ did not kiss his ass, and this feels like more of a personal pissing match than anything else. Don't whiz on the electric fence, Jim.
 

Ope3 said:
He stated the word "culture" 18 or 19 times per Ryan Burns on the KFAN Gophers podcast. I also listened to the whole presser on youtube, that tally seems about right.
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And......Fleck uses the word Culture ALL the time....pretty much everytime a microphone is in front of his face. Not sure why this time would get any more attention than any other time.
 


MNVCGUY said:
And......Fleck uses the word Culture ALL the time....pretty much everytime a microphone is in front of his face. Not sure why this time would get any more attention than any other time.
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Agreed.

And again, who cares if Fleck says culture 100 times in a presser?


The entire point of the OP article, and Souhan's troll misframing, was the claim that Fleck was explicitly saying his players don't have enough talent to beat Neb without the culture factor.
 


UM is ranked very highly for “Culture of the football program” nationally.
Souhan can suck it.
 

MplsGopher said:
But the basis for Souhan's article, even the headline of it, was entirely about "culture over talent".

That was one line, which was just a joke and not at all serious.


Do you really think that Fleck thinks Nebraska has superior talent to Minnesota?
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PJ doesn't think that is true but the "experts" who continually rate the recruiting classes always have the great 4 star talent ahead of Minnesota. That is how PJ was defending his players.
 

MplsGopher said:
Agreed.

And again, who cares if Fleck says culture 100 times in a presser?


The entire point of the OP article, and Souhan's troll misframing, was the claim that Fleck was explicitly saying his players don't have enough talent to beat Neb without the culture factor.
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Fleck does say Nebraska is bigger, stronger, faster during the after game talk with Gaard. He’s really jacked up, talking a mile a minute. Seems like his framing the “us against the world”, “chip on our shoulder” for the rest of the year. He has a chance to make this a good year and probably doing all he can to insure it. Personally I don’t care. Glad the Gophers won.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Fleck does say Nebraska is bigger, stronger, faster during the after game talk with Gaard. He’s really jacked up, talking a mile a minute. Seems like his framing the “us against the world”, “chip on our shoulder” for the rest of the year. He has a chance to make this a good year and probably doing all he can to insure it. Personally I don’t care. Glad the Gophers won.
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Fair enough. But Souhan doesn't reference the JG post-game interview, which he's probably not going to plug a competitor.
 



Not worth a response, but it is telling that the Strib comments are absolutely skewering him, moreso than this thread. No love lost in MN for this dweeb.
 

MplsGopher said:
Agreed.

And again, who cares if Fleck says culture 100 times in a presser?


The entire point of the OP article, and Souhan's troll misframing, was the claim that Fleck was explicitly saying his players don't have enough talent to beat Neb without the culture factor.
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Personally, I don't care. It was pointed out because there were other comments that Souhan was only referencing a 10 second sound bite. It was more than that, just setting the record straight.

If the players are buying in and the staff feels this is what leads to victories, hey whatever floats their boat, or in this case rows it.
 


Ope3 said:
Personally, I don't care. It was pointed out because there were other comments that Souhan was only referencing a 10 second sound bite. It was more than that, just setting the record straight.

If the players are buying in and the staff feels this is what leads to victories, hey whatever floats their boat, or in this case rows it.
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Fleck mentioning Culture throughout his remarks is not the same as Fleck saying Culture beat Skill. The Culture beat skill line was right at the beginning. The other references to Culture are just what Fleck does and has always done since he has been here.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Fleck mentioning Culture throughout his remarks is not the same as Fleck saying Culture beat Skill. The Culture beat skill line was right at the beginning. The other references to Culture are just what Fleck does and has always done since he has been here.
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Ad nauseam. So be it.
 
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Jim is a hack when it comes to college sports. He once opined that the Gophers as an 11 seed should, should beat Xavier, a 6 seed in the NCAA tournament because it's Xavier. Then insulted their coach as Baldy McBalderson in a strange ranty blog post after they won. Maybe he just hates bald coaches...
 

howeda7 said:
Jim is a hack when it comes to college sports. He once opined that the Gophers as an 11 seed should, should beat Xavier, a 6 seed in the NCAA tournament because it's Xavier. Then insulted their coach as Baldy McBalderson in a strange ranty blog post after they won. Maybe he just hates bald coaches...
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I honestly think he was drunk that day. It was one of the most bizarre sports articles that I've ever read. It reminded me of the game where like McShay was battling something (medication, drugs, alcohol?) and just seemed off. It was weird.

It also exposed him as someone who doesn't even watch college basketball, which you think would slow someone down from having really strong opinions on things.
 

bsce97 said:
His job is to generate clicks. Doesn't matter if it is accurate or not. Figurative language and nuance is completely lost on a guy like Jim.

I don't believe there has been a coach he has liked. Ever.

Souhan was probably one of those kids that wanted to be really athletic, but genetics just did not gift him with size, skill and coordination. Armed with a pen, he could live vicariously through the sports he so desperately wanted to be good at and write articles that would bring him the attention he so desperately craved.

My guess is PJ did not kiss his ass, and this feels like more of a personal pissing match than anything else. Don't whiz on the electric fence, Jim.
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Yeah, I think the newspaper types really were short sighted when they went all in with the click obsession. It's just uncomfortable coming from them. The "internet" is better at trolling than Fat Pat and Jim Souhan. They'd have been better served putting out good content and finding a place for it. You see people like Britt Robson that found a home at the Athletic and does a really nice job.

Meanwhile, people like Pat McAfee who are generally positive, talk sports, etc. are cleaning up.

For me, it's like if Quentin Tarantino tried to go after the Tik Tok crowd.
 

Souhan failed to mentioned that Frost is still under NCAA investigation. Culture vs illegal use of skill. PJ for the win.
 


Wasn't there another thread on this already? did that get taken down?

Look - I understand what Fleck was trying to say, and yes, he was taking a shot at Frost.

but - by framing the game as "culture vs skill," he did make it possible for people to draw that inference - that Nebraska is a more skilled team but the Gophers won because of their superior culture.

Personally, I think the Gophers won because they made more plays than the other team. whether that is a product of talent, coaching or culture, I can't say. I don't think anyone would question the idea that Martinez is a more talented 'athlete' than Morgan - but Morgan (except for the INT's) was much more efficient and effective. is that "culture vs skill" - or is Morgan just smarter than Martinez?

if Fleck had come out and said, "our players had a great game and they deserve all the credit," we are not having this thread. But Fleck chose to make it about 'culture.' That is why people like Reusse and Souhan take shots at him.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Wasn't there another thread on this already? did that get taken down?

Look - I understand what Fleck was trying to say, and yes, he was taking a shot at Frost.

but - by framing the game as "culture vs skill," he did make it possible for people to draw that inference - that Nebraska is a more skilled team but the Gophers won because of their superior culture.

Personally, I think the Gophers won because they made more plays than the other team. whether that is a product of talent, coaching or culture, I can't say. I don't think anyone would question the idea that Martinez is a more talented 'athlete' than Morgan - but Morgan (except for the INT's) was much more efficient and effective. is that "culture vs skill" - or is Morgan just smarter than Martinez?

if Fleck had come out and said, "our players had a great game and they deserve all the credit," we are not having this thread. But Fleck chose to make it about 'culture.' That is why people like Reusse and Souhan take shots at him.
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Fleck's got an ego, alert the media. Oh wait, Souhan just figured it out. What B1G coach doesn't have a massive ego? Lazy piece.
 


I've given up reading soupcan and ruesse!
 

bsce97 said:
His job is to generate clicks. Doesn't matter if it is accurate or not. Figurative language and nuance is completely lost on a guy like Jim.

I don't believe there has been a coach he has liked. Ever.

Souhan was probably one of those kids that wanted to be really athletic, but genetics just did not gift him with size, skill and coordination. Armed with a pen, he could live vicariously through the sports he so desperately wanted to be good at and write articles that would bring him the attention he so desperately craved.

My guess is PJ did not kiss his ass, and this feels like more of a personal pissing match than anything else. Don't whiz on the electric fence, Jim.
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I hope he hits the fence.
 

Lazy analysis from Souhan. But that is what we have come to expect.

I wonder if Coach Frost will be around next BigTen Openings Meetings to take a shot at Fleck. That meeting is the time when Nebraksa always seems to peak.....
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Wasn't there another thread on this already? did that get taken down?

Look - I understand what Fleck was trying to say, and yes, he was taking a shot at Frost.

but - by framing the game as "culture vs skill," he did make it possible for people to draw that inference - that Nebraska is a more skilled team but the Gophers won because of their superior culture.

Personally, I think the Gophers won because they made more plays than the other team. whether that is a product of talent, coaching or culture, I can't say. I don't think anyone would question the idea that Martinez is a more talented 'athlete' than Morgan - but Morgan (except for the INT's) was much more efficient and effective. is that "culture vs skill" - or is Morgan just smarter than Martinez?

if Fleck had come out and said, "our players had a great game and they deserve all the credit," we are not having this thread. But Fleck chose to make it about 'culture.' That is why people like Reusse and Souhan take shots at him.
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BS on the last paragraph. Souhan and Reusse take shots at him because that is all they do with everyone. They are ahole opinion writers whose job is to tear people down and be pricks in order to try and piss people off enough to click on their worthless stories.

It didn't matter what Fleck said, Souhan is trying to make something out of nothing because it is harder to be a negative prick when the team plays well. So you grasp at straws and hope it works. Why people give the time of day to anything those morons say is beyond me at this point. They aren't journalists, they are just hacks cashing checks by being mean to people since negativity is way more appealing to a lot of people than positivity.

They are good for a chuckle sometimes but most of their stuff is just tired recycled BS because their whole careers revolve around being jerks now.
 

I would be more interested in what the players think about what PJF said. The only thing I saw was a tweet from MDT forwarding the article with a bunch of the :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: emojis. If anyone has seen an other player reactions, it would be interesting.
 

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