BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 60,973
- Reaction score
- 16,536
- Points
- 113
per Joe:
Dinkytown’s coffee shops were not yet open for business at 5:50 a.m., when Gophers football players assembled this winter for twice-a-week meetings under new coach P.J. Fleck.
Nobody needed caffeine anyway. Not with the espresso jolt that comes whenever the 36-year-old Fleck holds court.
The Gophers open spring practice Tuesday, and an inside glimpse at their preparation last month gave no hints that the turbocharged coach even sleeps.
Hired from Western Michigan two months ago to replace Tracy Claeys, Fleck won’t coach an actual game until the Aug. 31 opener against Buffalo. But Fleck views each meeting as a critical step toward connecting the players and instilling his will.
As players arrived, the 143-seat, theater-style meeting room pulsed with a hip-hop beat from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Wearing matching gray T-shirts and maroon shorts, players filled the first few rows, with the coaching staff assembled in back.
At 5:47, three minutes ahead of schedule, Fleck burst through a door, and everyone leapt to their feet, clapping and cheering — giving their “Gopher Welcome,” as they call it, for anyone who addresses the team.
“Good morning!” Fleck said. “Great to see all of you!” Players shouted back in kind.
The tone had been set, and it was loud.
“Your volume is your confidence,” Fleck later explained.
Players sat back down, with senior quarterback Conor Rhoda perched in the front row. A backup last season, Rhoda was ready to leave football and begin job hunting before Fleck convinced him to return.
Rhoda has been through three previous Gophers offseasons — two under Jerry Kill and one under Claeys.
“It’s just a 180,” Rhoda said. “Not that it went from being bad to good, but it’s just a lot different.”
The 6 a.m. offseason conditioning workouts aren’t new. The Gophers held those under Kill and Claeys. But those coaches reserved team meetings mostly for spring practice and the season. Fleck holds them year-round, unless the players are on break.
When the team meetings end, players come running — not walking — down the steps toward the indoor facility for the workout. Fleck greets them again on the field, wearing a wireless microphone to keep his buzzwords flowing over the loudspeakers.
“Change your best!”
“Trained behavior becomes instinct!”
“Leadership leads!”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...off-to-elite-start-for-spring-ball/415530494/
Go Gophers!!
Dinkytown’s coffee shops were not yet open for business at 5:50 a.m., when Gophers football players assembled this winter for twice-a-week meetings under new coach P.J. Fleck.
Nobody needed caffeine anyway. Not with the espresso jolt that comes whenever the 36-year-old Fleck holds court.
The Gophers open spring practice Tuesday, and an inside glimpse at their preparation last month gave no hints that the turbocharged coach even sleeps.
Hired from Western Michigan two months ago to replace Tracy Claeys, Fleck won’t coach an actual game until the Aug. 31 opener against Buffalo. But Fleck views each meeting as a critical step toward connecting the players and instilling his will.
As players arrived, the 143-seat, theater-style meeting room pulsed with a hip-hop beat from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Wearing matching gray T-shirts and maroon shorts, players filled the first few rows, with the coaching staff assembled in back.
At 5:47, three minutes ahead of schedule, Fleck burst through a door, and everyone leapt to their feet, clapping and cheering — giving their “Gopher Welcome,” as they call it, for anyone who addresses the team.
“Good morning!” Fleck said. “Great to see all of you!” Players shouted back in kind.
The tone had been set, and it was loud.
“Your volume is your confidence,” Fleck later explained.
Players sat back down, with senior quarterback Conor Rhoda perched in the front row. A backup last season, Rhoda was ready to leave football and begin job hunting before Fleck convinced him to return.
Rhoda has been through three previous Gophers offseasons — two under Jerry Kill and one under Claeys.
“It’s just a 180,” Rhoda said. “Not that it went from being bad to good, but it’s just a lot different.”
The 6 a.m. offseason conditioning workouts aren’t new. The Gophers held those under Kill and Claeys. But those coaches reserved team meetings mostly for spring practice and the season. Fleck holds them year-round, unless the players are on break.
When the team meetings end, players come running — not walking — down the steps toward the indoor facility for the workout. Fleck greets them again on the field, wearing a wireless microphone to keep his buzzwords flowing over the loudspeakers.
“Change your best!”
“Trained behavior becomes instinct!”
“Leadership leads!”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...off-to-elite-start-for-spring-ball/415530494/
Go Gophers!!