What grade would you give PJ Fleck in his Gopher debut season?

What grade would you give PJ Fleck in his Gopher debut season?

  • A

    Votes: 12 5.7%

  • B

    Votes: 21 10.0%

  • C

    Votes: 60 28.6%

  • D

    Votes: 79 37.6%

  • F

    Votes: 38 18.1%
  • Total voters
    210
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jrock said:
There is a fine line between being over the top and subtle convincing to go with the program. I have been told by a former student athletic trainer that transitioned from Claeys/Kill to Fleck that all the trainers had to learn the new acronyms or lose their positions. He thought it was ridiculous and so did all of the trainers. So how many talented trainers did PJ lose? Trainers might be a dime a dozen, but good players are not.
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Every player Fleck lost quit football outside of Elmore.
 


jrock said:
Haha JB. Your endless love of PJ knows no bounds. Good luck.
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Do you have any response? He lost 3 contributes from last season and everyone but Elmore quit. Nice deflection though. You hated him before he was hired and hate him now.
 

I'd give the defense a "B" - they were ill served by the offense and probably will end up about 30th in the nation, not far from where they were last year. I'd give the offense an "F." With the exception of Nebraska, in conference games UM coaches didn't see to have much of a game plan, had no passing attack whatsoever, and were weirdly timid (option on 3rd and 12, when it was being stuffed all day? Kicking field goals when hopelessly behind?). The coaches didn't or couldn't make the most of what they had and the offense (running backs - especially Smith - the exception) had little energy or fight in them. Play-calling predictable much of the time - little imagination displayed. A real "F."
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
That's when I thought our QB was better then their 3rd string QB, which was obviously not the case while watching the game. Then when Winfield went down and their OL mauled our tiny DL, that changed things just a bit.
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More excuses.
 





Well, the roster had more holes in it than I expected this year. However, it is naive to think that explains away this year. PJ and staff looked overmatched at most times and the team looked unprepared, uninterested, and lost many times. Worse than that we got worse as the year went on. PJ doesn't deserve all the blame for what happened this year, but he deserves a lot of it. I truly can't understand why some are fighting against that? He shouldn't be fired, he should get his time, he can't help it if his boss is a snake, but to essentially give him a pass on the sh!tshow he put out this year? Come on.


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D. There are no honeymoons in major college football. No change in culture should result in such a significant backslide.
 

On-field play: D

Five wins in year 1 is passable in my book (we’re Minnesota, not Bama). Fleck had to work with what he has, which isn’t much. I’d give a C if not for two straight blow-outs to end the season.

Off-field: B

I feel like the program has a positive national perception again, which is quite a turn-around from where we were less than a year ago.

Overall: C-

Going forward I still have hope. Beating a championship-contender Wisconsin this year or taking out Iowa on the road is just unrealistic. Not lots of on-field things to be excited about, but that was the case after his first year at WMU, Pitino’s first couple years here, etc. I’ll be a Fleck believer as long as we improve from year-to-year going forward.
 

Didn’t Brewster leave the 55-0 Iowa disaster off his coaching record or something like that?
 

jrock said:
Phil definitely deserves an F for this job. This year makes me yearn for Tracy Claeys defense and game planning. I have an idea, maybe let Tracy coach the football team and let the "fit" person recruit the players. The Coyled Snake really fu@ked this football situation up. Good thing we have Pitino.
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I agree with your opinion on Coyle, however at least he seems committed to make football a priority. I personally miss the Sawvel/Claeys D and I'm sure we will miss it more in years to come. I do disagree on the concept with PJF. We may indeed be f'd as you stated, we may not though. It's one year and remember how awful Pitino was a few years ago, worst team in the BiG. He got the time and look at the last couple of years, also the future looks bright for the hoops program. Let's not overreact and give PJF a few more years to see what happens. The U is already tremendously committed to him, no way is there a buyout in year one, two or three for that matter given the finances involved. He seems to build men of great character, that's a good thing. Let's see if he and his staff can build great football players.
 




People keep bringing up Pitino. I will just point out again that in basketball, one or two key recruits can literally turn around a program. Football is a different game because of the size of the roster. Even if Fleck brought in a can't miss 5* QB recruit, one guy is not going to transform the program. You still need all the pieces to work together - O-Line, Backs, receivers, etc.

To be clear - there were people on this board who had big questions about Pitino, and that seems to be working out well. It is certainly possible that Fleck could do something similar. But, the challenge to transform a football team is very different than the challenge to transform a basketball team.
 


Solid D...whatever that means. Still glad we got him, but he did not impress at all with the handling of the team/games.
 

I've seen F season's. This was a D. The last two games were ridiculous head banging.
 

Probably should have been 7-5 instead of 5-7, but I thought Scoggins summed up things best in the Strib this morning. This is a thin, inexperienced team with next to no experience at QB and weak line play on both sides of the ball. Add that to a clear lack of talent at the WR position (which didn't show up as much as it was because the QB play was so spotty), and the offensive issues should be no surprise. The loss of Winfield to injury and the departure of experienced D-backs really changed the nature of the defense beyond scheme change. I gave a C, but I am basically in the same camp as Mennosota in that this is an audit year. Fleck has his work cut out for him on the recruiting trail and in the task of player development. Number one item is to find a QB who can play consistently at the B1G level.
 

50PoundHead said:
Probably should have been 7-5 instead of 5-7, but I thought Scoggins summed up things best in the Strib this morning. This is a thin, inexperienced team with next to no experience at QB and weak line play on both sides of the ball. Add that to a clear lack of talent at the WR position (which didn't show up as much as it was because the QB play was so spotty), and the offensive issues should be no surprise. The loss of Winfield to injury and the departure of experienced D-backs really changed the nature of the defense beyond scheme change. I gave a C, but I am basically in the same camp as Mennosota in that this is an audit year. Fleck has his work cut out for him on the recruiting trail and in the task of player development. Number one item is to find a QB who can play consistently at the B1G level.
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Agreed. Wisconsin loses ONE offensive starter (Fumgali/TE). I think they lose 5 on defense, but likely have Cichy (their best LB) returning from injury. This makes me more depressed!!
 


Oregon Gopher said:
Didn't they predict us at 6 wins last year?


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I don't even know what they predicted this year. They came here and said they lacked physicality and talent at the skill positions this year though.
 

50PoundHead said:
Probably should have been 7-5 instead of 5-7, but I thought Scoggins summed up things best in the Strib this morning. This is a thin, inexperienced team with next to no experience at QB and weak line play on both sides of the ball. Add that to a clear lack of talent at the WR position (which didn't show up as much as it was because the QB play was so spotty), and the offensive issues should be no surprise. The loss of Winfield to injury and the departure of experienced D-backs really changed the nature of the defense beyond scheme change. I gave a C, but I am basically in the same camp as Mennosota in that this is an audit year. Fleck has his work cut out for him on the recruiting trail and in the task of player development. Number one item is to find a QB who can play consistently at the B1G level.
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Well said. Some are acting like this was a championship level team. Best case was most likely 7-5 (which would obviously be preferable to 5-7) but it is not like Fleck took some loaded roster and turned it into a 1 win team. On the field results were disappointing, off the field exposure for the program was off the charts. If incomplete was an option that is what I would have taken because it is silly to grade a coach on their first year. If the issues that were evident this year are still there in year 3-4 then there is a major problem.
 

Fleck took a 9 - 4 team that beat a good Washington State team in a bowl last season to a disaster this year.
For example, first back to back shutouts since 1950. Gophers lead the Western Division in scoring last season.

However, it is not Fleck's fault.

This mess is owned by Coyle and Kaler.
 



gopherveteran said:
Fleck took a 9 - 4 team that beat a good Washington State team in a bowl last season to a disaster this year.
For example, first back to back shutouts since 1950. Gophers lead the Western Division in scoring last season.

However, it is not Fleck's fault.

This mess is owned by Coyle and Kaler.
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Is 5 wins really a disaster? Sure, it was bad at times, but enough with the hyperbole.
 

Face The Facts said:
B

Anyone who knew this team nationally knew the mess he was coming into.
Off the field we went from the worst possible off-the-field season to an exceptional one.
On the field performance was similar to last years. Beat to teams we should beat, lost teams we never beat.
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How can you say that? We still had suspensions.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Right, 7 of last year's players were on training camp rosters. Won't be the case this year. I think we'll make a bowl game next year.
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I will bet you a beer we don't make a bowl game next year.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
I don't even know what they predicted this year. They came here and said they lacked physicality and talent at the skill positions this year though.
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I think they say that every year.
 

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