What does beating Iowa mean for PJ Fleck and the Gophers?

[GopherHole Staff]

What does beating Iowa mean for PJ Fleck and the Gophers?​

By Tony Liebert

What does beating Iowa mean for PJ Fleck and the Gophers? - GopherHole.com

–> Follow @Tony Liebert on Twitter P.J. Fleck finally got the monkey off his back, taking down Iowa 12-10, winning the Floyd of Rosedale for the first time in his career and the first time in Kinnick Stadium since 1999. Like most years, everyone circled Iowa and Wisconsin preseason and said if...

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P.J. Fleck finally got the monkey off his back, taking down Iowa 12-10, winning the Floyd of Rosedale for the first time in his career and the first time in Kinnick Stadium since 1999. Like most years, everyone circled Iowa and Wisconsin preseason and said if Minnesota could beat their rivals this season would be a success. Well, it’s been a roller coaster of a season so far, but Fleck has done one thing that most Gophers fans have begged for years and he’s taken down the Hawkeyes.

First Win in Kinnick Stadium Since 1999​

Iowa was without its top two receivers Erick All, and Luke Lachey, and highlight transfer QB Cade McNamara. It was the Gophers’ opportunity to win in Kinnick Stadium, it seemed like it was now or never. Glen Mason was the last UMN head coach to win in Kinnick, 24 years later P.J. Fleck joins that exclusive group. This Iowa team is clearly not one of their best in that time frame, but these were the type of games that seemed like Minnesota would always lose. They “out-Iowa-ed” Iowa, which makes this win so much sweeter.

Paul Bunyan’s Axe + Floyd of Rosedale in Dinkytown for First Time since 1993​

Many Gophers fans just ask for P.J. Fleck to beat Wisconsin and Iowa and he’s done just that. For the first time since 1993, Minnesota has both the Floyd of Rosedale and Paul Bunyan’s Axe. The timing of this win means so much for Fleck and the Gophers. Coming off an embarrassing road loss to Northwestern, and an embarrassing 52-10 home loss to Michigan. Heading into the bye week, fans and interest were really at their lowest since the pre-2019 season.

Now, one game out of first place in the Big Ten West and having both rivalry trophies, there is some energy reinvigorated into this season. With Michigan State and Illinois at home and then Purdue at home there is a real, but optimistic chance the Gophers are 7-3 going into Columbus on November 18th, something that seemed impossible this time last week. Winning your rivalry games can solve all the problems you have as a program, and Fleck has done that right now.

Fleck’s First Ranked-Road Win in Gophers Tenure​

While many Gophers’ “first since ___” stats came from Saturday’s win, one that seriously went under the radar, was P.J. Fleck winning his first road game vs. a ranked opponent since becoming the Minnesota head coach. After taking down the Hawkeyes, Fleck moves to 4-14 all-time against ranked opponents with the Maroon & Gold. Rightfully so, this state should not be highlighted as much as the first two, but winning big games on the road is how you completely transform your season and P.J. Fleck has done just that.

I asked Gophers fans where this win ranks amongst Fleck’s best as Gophers head coach. While it certainly wasn’t pretty, I think this was his second most important. Taking down Penn State was obviously transformative for this program, and the Wisconsin game was monumental as well, but beating Iowa on the road this season after having one of your worst losses, is going to go a very long way in changing the feeling around the program.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Immediate Picture: beating Iowa keeps MN in contention for a B1G West title. another win on the way to Bowl eligibility.

Big Picture: pretty obvious. Fleck's 1st win over one of MN's two biggest rivals.

as the B1G goes to 18 teams with no divisions next year, I think that means that rivalry games will become even more important. even for the most optimistic fan, the odds of MN finishing 1st or 2nd in the conference to quality for the conference championship game or a national playoff berth will be pretty long, to say the least. So what does MN have to play for? beating IA and WI, and winning as many games as possible to get the best possible bowl game.

 

[BilldGopher]

Pulse detected...

 

[Gophergrandpa]

Huge monkey off team's back ... the Ferentz curse is over vis-a-vis the Gophers. The Ferentz curse is now trained on his own team.

 

[Replacement Gopher]

Well according to many of the emotional people on here PJ should have been fired right after the Northwestern game.

One game doesn’t change my opinion of PJ. That opinions wasn’t formed after a single game and single game isn’t going to change it.

Very glad he won, but his stubbornness and ultra conservative style almost cost us the game.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Very glad he won, but his stubbornness and ultra conservative style almost cost us the game.

Legit curious....what should we have done differently from a gameplay standpoint against Iowa?

Multiple dropped passes kept us from extending drives. BSF dropped a perfectly thrown ball that would have led to a first and goal from like the 3 late in the game. The one TD Iowa got was gift wrapped by penalties on our Defense including a boneheaded play by Nubin which gave them a first and goal when it would have been 4th down. Our top 2 RB were not available late in the game due to injury.

Iowa makes you play conservative, if you get over aggressive their defense makes you pay for it, it is what they do to teams all the time.

So again.....what should we have done differently against Iowa?

 

[fmlizard]

Immediate Picture: beating Iowa keeps MN in contention for a B1G West title. another win on the way to Bowl eligibility.

Big Picture: pretty obvious. Fleck's 1st win over one of MN's two biggest rivals.

as the B1G goes to 18 teams with no divisions next year, I think that means that rivalry games will become even more important. even for the most optimistic fan, the odds of MN finishing 1st or 2nd in the conference to quality for the conference championship game or a national playoff berth will be pretty long, to say the least. So what does MN have to play for? beating IA and WI, and winning as many games as possible to get the best possible bowl game.

Well said. Gopher football fandom has mostly been about running our own race since the 1970s. I agree that the end of the West will make this even more true.

Gophers are fortunate to retain their tradition through all of this. Minnesota is one of the 5 universities who founded the oldest conference and have never left. No university has enjoyed more conference stability through over a century of realignment than Minnesota. When the music stopped, we're still in the richest and most widely supported league in the USA.

We have the most played rivalry, the best trophy games. We're in with traditional, natural rivals going back over 100 years. That makes not often playing for championships more interesting.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Addressing the question of the thread.....as others have said the win gets a massive monkey off our back in regards to games against Iowa. We have been right there with them the past few years but found ways to lose games we should have won. The losing streak painted a picture that there was far more separation between us and Iowa than there actually was.

The win is proof that we have essentially drawn even with our top 2 rivals in terms of talent and on the field results.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Legit curious....what should we have done differently from a gameplay standpoint against Iowa?

Multiple dropped passes kept us from extending drives. BSF dropped a perfectly thrown ball that would have led to a first and goal from like the 3 late in the game. The one TD Iowa got was gift wrapped by penalties on our Defense including a boneheaded play by Nubin which gave them a first and goal when it would have been 4th down. Our top 2 RB were not available late in the game due to injury.

Iowa makes you play conservative, if you get over aggressive their defense makes you pay for it, it is what they do to teams all the time.

So again.....what should we have done differently against Iowa?

Playing Devil's Advocate a bit here.....but from our drives in the 2nd half we were successfully moving the chains.
13 plays, 64 yards
6 plays, 16 yards
4 plays, 1 yard (this was due to turnover on 11 yard line so not really an option to move the chains)
9 plays, 31 yards
7 plays, 60 yards
....so far, so good and much credit goes to the coaching for that. We erased a 7 point deficit and now lead by 2 points. We also have the ball on Iowa's 47 with just under 7 minutes left. Safe to say, if we continue to move the chains the game should be ours. Instead we call run/run/run.

When we get the ball back for the final time, again, we just need 1 first down to ice the game. Although we did run a pass play on 2nd and it was incomplete, the route was along the line of scrimmage and would not have had a chance to really get the first down.

So again, devils advocate.....Fleck seemed to go ultra conservative at the very end when if we keep doing what we're doing the game is over. He tended to treat a 2 point lead as if it was 10.

 

[MNfootballfan]

Well according to many of the emotional people on here PJ should have been fired right after the Northwestern game.

That is because the loss was not an outlier but was/is a trend of PJ refusing to change his best and his ultra-conservative approach has lost games against opponents that we should beat and beat easily.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Playing Devil's Advocate a bit here.....but from our drives in the 2nd half we were successfully moving the chains.
13 plays, 64 yards
6 plays, 16 yards
4 plays, 1 yard (this was due to turnover on 11 yard line so not really an option to move the chains)
9 plays, 31 yards
7 plays, 60 yards
....so far, so good and much credit goes to the coaching for that. We erased a 7 point deficit and now lead by 2 points. We also have the ball on Iowa's 47 with just under 7 minutes left. Safe to say, if we continue to move the chains the game should be ours. Instead we call run/run/run.

When we get the ball back for the final time, again, we just need 1 first down to ice the game. Although we did run a pass play on 2nd and it was incomplete, the route was along the line of scrimmage and would not have had a chance to really get the first down.

So again, devils advocate.....Fleck seemed to go ultra conservative at the very end when if we keep doing what we're doing the game is over. He tended to treat a 2 point lead as if it was 10.

D had completely shut down Iowa in the second half. Playing conservative with ball deep in our own territory was the right call. If anything we probably shouldn’t have tried a pass on second down to make them use their final timeout.

The BSF drop was a true killer. He makes that catch we probably score a TD and Iowa isn’t in position to just need a field goal to win.

 

[MNfootballfan]

So lets just fire him?? The overreaction that Saturday after the NW game was asinine. My point was we had plenty of time to recover and we did.

I mean coaches get fired for less. You can't honestly say that the loss to Northwestern wasn't detrimental to all aspects of the program and made Iowa an even more important game that it already was.

How they lost to Northwestern really killed interest from the casual fan and all you would hear is "same old Gophers." If I am correct it was the second time in Fleck's career that he has lost to a team that the odds makers had us at a 20 point favorite... that's concerning. Also, it is clear his in-game coaching/play calling leaves some to be desired.

The win against Iowa took some heat off him but other than holding Floyd and beating Iowa I am not sure many fans feel great about the team/offense. We had four field goals - two were given to us on short fields. I get it a wins a win, especially over a rival, but...

 

[Gophergrandpa]

If your receivers are having a hard time catching balls that hit them in the hands, you might tend to get conservative. The old saw: only three things can happen on forward pass, and two of them are bad. If we had a really dependable possession receiver, I think we’d probably go to him during key drives, to keep the defense honest and move the chains. But BSF has dropsy this year … and the coaches have him running shallow, lateral routes that don’t advance our cause even if he catches the ball. I guess we live or die by the run again; maybe the pass comes alive against MSU. Go Gophers.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I mean coaches get fired for less. You can't honestly say that the loss to Northwestern wasn't detrimental to all aspects of the program and made Iowa an even more important game that it already was.

How they lost to Northwestern really killed interest from the casual fan and all you would hear is "same old Gophers." If I am correct it was the second time in Fleck's career that he has lost to a team that the odds makers had us at a 20 point favorite... that's concerning. Also, it is clear his in-game coaching/play calling leaves some to be desired.

The win against Iowa took some heat off him but other than holding Floyd and beating Iowa I am not sure many fans feel great about the team/offense. We had four field goals - two were given to us on short fields. I get it a wins a win, especially over a rival, but...

Give me a break.....having frustrations/concerns about the program is 100% justified when the team struggles or loses to a team they shouldn't on paper.

But anyone calling for Fleck to be fired is just foolish and way overreacting to a bad game and potentially a slightly worse year than the ones before it. Teams are going to have ups and downs.

Fleck's seat shouldn't even be warm at this point, and I feel confident that with the people who matter it isn't.

 

[GopherJack]

Immediate Picture: beating Iowa keeps MN in contention for a B1G West title. another win on the way to Bowl eligibility.

Big Picture: pretty obvious. Fleck's 1st win over one of MN's two biggest rivals.

as the B1G goes to 18 teams with no divisions next year, I think that means that rivalry games will become even more important. even for the most optimistic fan, the odds of MN finishing 1st or 2nd in the conference to quality for the conference championship game or a national playoff berth will be pretty long, to say the least. So what does MN have to play for? beating IA and WI, and winning as many games as possible to get the best possible bowl game.

Well said. Gopher football fandom has mostly been about running our own race since the 1970s. I agree that the end of the West will make this even more true.

Gophers are fortunate to retain their tradition through all of this. Minnesota is one of the 5 universities who founded the oldest conference and have never left. No university has enjoyed more conference stability through over a century of realignment than Minnesota. When the music stopped, we're still in the richest and most widely supported league in the USA.

We have the most played rivalry, the best trophy games. We're in with traditional, natural rivals going back over 100 years. That makes not often playing for championships more interesting.

+100% to both comments. My expectations and enjoyment of Gopher football are summed up nicely.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

I just wish he'd fire Rob Wenger, and find an offensive coordinator.

 

[Dakota2]

If your receivers are having a hard time catching balls that hit them in the hands, you might tend to get conservative. The old saw: only three things can happen on forward pass, and two of them are bad. If we had a really dependable possession receiver, I think we’d probably go to him during key drives, to keep the defense honest and move the chains. But BSF has dropsy this year … and the coaches have him running shallow, lateral routes that don’t advance our cause even if he catches the ball. I guess we live or die by the run again; maybe the pass comes alive against MSU. Go Gophers.

Actually the old saw is incorrect. There are four things that can happen on a pass play and two are good, especially on medium and deep throws. Complete, incomplete, interception, or pass interference on defense. Penalty happens more frequently than interception.

 

[MNfootballfan]

Give me a break.....having frustrations/concerns about the program is 100% justified when the team struggles or loses to a team they shouldn't on paper.

But anyone calling for Fleck to be fired is just foolish and way overreacting to a bad game and potentially a slightly worse year than the ones before it. Teams are going to have ups and downs.

Fleck's seat shouldn't even be warm at this point, and I feel confident that with the people who matter it isn't.

I am not calling for him to be fired, but I do think Northwestern was more than "one bad game" - he has an inexcusable loss every year. Even if we would have lost to Iowa this year - that wouldn't have been a bad loss. Iowa would have been 7-1 and most likely moved up to a top 20 team.

For the record, I still like Fleck but even I have cooled on him. This is what I tell my casual fan friends who take pot shots at Fleck and the program. They can say whatever they want about him but at the end of the day, this is the best era of Gopher football since my Grandpa was a young man.

 

[Gophergrandpa]

Actually the old saw is incorrect. There are four things that can happen on a pass play and two are good, especially on medium and deep throws. Complete, incomplete, interception, or pass interference on defense. Penalty happens more frequently than interception.

Please let PJ and Harbaugh know this! Might help orient them toward 21st Century.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

Almost but didnt. Some are just way too emotional after a loss. Calling for his head before looking at the big picture…such as the season being far from over.

There were all kinds of vile things uttered before the punt return was reversed as well.

 

[Indiana Gopher]

One game doesn’t change my opinion of PJ. That opinions wasn’t formed after a single game and single game isn’t going to change it.

Very glad he won, but his stubbornness and ultra conservative style almost cost us the game.

I LOVE PJ and am happy and grateful that we beat Iowa (who hates Iowa?). The Iowa win doesn't change much of my point of view...we are a close-to-the-middle-of-the-road P5 program and have precious little chance at being better than that in the foreseeable future. Our recruiting, 'portalling', NIL-ing, and coaching are not where they need to be for us to move above that. Making a change at Head Coach would more likely have 'downside' rather than 'upside'. Row The Boat!

 

[MNfootballfan]

And interest is rekindled again after this win. You don't fire PJ after the NW loss. Suggesting that was just dramatic and shows which people cant control their emotions.

I am not sure if the win over Iowa rekindled people's interest, especially the casual fan. Unless you are big fans like I am guessing you and I are that watch every game, this was a boring, bad football game.

To contradict myself and my number one thing I get discouraged with is when Fleck says "More games are lost than are won" this game was exactly that. The team that made fewer errors won. To Fleck's adage Iowa lost the game more than we won the game. Turnovers and a costly invalid fair catch. To back up Fleck's point more, the only reason Iowa was in the game was because of our mistake(s) of a penalty filled drive that basically gave them a touchdown.

At the end of the day, I am glad Fleck is our coach and I am glad we beat Iowa.

My only thought on if Fleck was fired after the NW loss. It wouldn't have been that loss, but the culmination of Bowling Green, Maryland a few years ago, Purdue last year, plus the Northwestern loss that caused it. That is not being dramatic or emotional.

 

[Dakota2]

I am not sure if the win over Iowa rekindled people's interest, especially the casual fan. Unless you are big fans like I am guessing you and I are that watch every game, this was a boring, bad football game.

To contradict myself and my number one thing I get discouraged with is when Fleck says "More games are lost than are won" this game was exactly that. The team that made fewer errors won. To Fleck's adage Iowa lost the game more than we won the game. Turnovers and a costly invalid fair catch. To back up Fleck's point more, the only reason Iowa was in the game was because of our mistake(s) of a penalty filled drive that basically gave them a touchdown.

At the end of the day, I am glad Fleck is our coach and I am glad we beat Iowa.

My only thought on if Fleck was fired after the NW loss. It wouldn't have been that loss, but the culmination of Bowling Green, Maryland a few years ago, Purdue last year, plus the Northwestern loss that caused it. That is not being dramatic or emotional.

Good post. I would only point out the invalid fair catch had nothing to do with Iowa losing more than we won. It was a dead play the instant he touched the ball. Had no bearing on the outcome.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

And interest is rekindled again after this win. You don't fire PJ after the NW loss. Suggesting that was just dramatic and shows which people cant control their emotions.

Of course not, so why are people wasting time talking about the silly overreactions of some?

 

[Some guy]

Immediate Picture: beating Iowa keeps MN in contention for a B1G West title. another win on the way to Bowl eligibility.

Big Picture: pretty obvious. Fleck's 1st win over one of MN's two biggest rivals.

as the B1G goes to 18 teams with no divisions next year, I think that means that rivalry games will become even more important. even for the most optimistic fan, the odds of MN finishing 1st or 2nd in the conference to quality for the conference championship game or a national playoff berth will be pretty long, to say the least. So what does MN have to play for? beating IA and WI, and winning as many games as possible to get the best possible bowl game.

I agree with this third paragraph a ton.

Levels of success in new big ten:
6+ wins
Beating rivals
Make a playoff

Much harder to have a medium level of success now. So beating rivals is probably it.

 

[MNfootballfan]

Good post. I would only point out the invalid fair catch had nothing to do with Iowa losing more than we won. It was a dead play the instant he touched the ball. Had no bearing on the outcome.

Correct, I meant by that a mistake/error by an Iowa player prevented a potential big play.

 

[mngg11]

That is because the loss was not an outlier but was/is a trend of PJ refusing to change his best and his ultra-conservative approach has lost games against opponents that we should beat and beat easily.

The NW loss was absolutely an outlier. Since late 2018 we've been able to rely on our stout defense to either keep us in games or keep offenses from coming back. We haven't had a comeback loss of that magnitude in PJs entire time here. It's typically been the offense being dogshit and the defense treading water as long as they can to give the offense a chance to score and make it a game. Exact opposite against NW, that one wasn't on PJ. To my knowledge PJ has no reins on Rossi and lets him run the defense as he sees fit.

 

[MNfootballfan]

The NW loss was absolutely an outlier. Since late 2018 we've been able to rely on our stout defense to either keep us in games or keep offenses from coming back. We haven't had a comeback loss of that magnitude in PJs entire time here. It's typically been the offense being dogshit and the defense treading water as long as they can to give the offense a chance to score and make it a game. Exact opposite against NW, that one wasn't on PJ. To my knowledge PJ has no reins on Rossi and lets him run the defense as he sees fit.

I think there are two layers to the NW loss.

1) the first is allowing a comeback of that magnitude. It happens and like you said, first time in Fleck’s tenure we’ve had that type of loss. It sucks, but it is what it is.

2) The NW game is not an outlier. It seems yearly we lose to an opponent that we are heavy favorites against. I don’t remember the point spreads of the games, but Bowling Green, Maryland a few years ago, Purdue last year. I know we were 20 point favorites in the NW and BG games - my memory sucks but I want to say we were close to 30 point favorites vs BG. To me it isn’t the loss to NW. it is the trend of losing to teams you in theory are far superior to.

I’m not saying fire him, but I can at least understand the people that are saying it. It not an emotional or dramatic reaction to one loss. It’s a culmination of Flecks style. It wins a lot of games but at the same time, it keeps a lot of games close and in close games anything can happen.

 

[Dakota2]

Correct, I meant by that a mistake/error by an Iowa player prevented a potential big play.

I understand your point. My feeling is if he had not made the invalid signal and simply picked it up with the intent of returning it, our guys would have played it the same way and made the tackle. No big play involved.

The illegal and meaningless return happened because of confusion on our side. That is the precise reason the rule is in place.

 

[Dakota2]

The NW loss was absolutely an outlier. Since late 2018 we've been able to rely on our stout defense to either keep us in games or keep offenses from coming back. We haven't had a comeback loss of that magnitude in PJs entire time here. It's typically been the offense being dogshit and the defense treading water as long as they can to give the offense a chance to score and make it a game. Exact opposite against NW, that one wasn't on PJ. To my knowledge PJ has no reins on Rossi and lets him run the defense as he sees fit.

True regarding Rossi but PJ is responsible for not running an offense in the 4th quarter that would have gotten first downs and kept the ball away from NW.

The passing game was 13-16 at the end of three quarters. A strong and healthy running back was on the sideline waiting to beat up a tired NW line. PJ refused to put him in and kept running an injured back and his fourth best back. No first downs.