BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 62,316
- Reaction score
- 19,010
- Points
- 113
per Dan Wolken of USA Today:
Before he hangs up the phone, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck wants to make sure I understand something going into the most highly anticipated game of his coaching career.
“Row The Boat is alive and well,” he says, pushing back one last time on the compliment I had spent the past few minutes trying to pay him.
Here’s the thing you have to understand about the 38-year-old Fleck, who rose to national prominence three years ago on a raft of slogans and buzzwords while leading Western Michigan to a 13-0 regular season: He is exactly who he is and doesn't want to be portrayed any other way.
So when I suggested to Fleck that, from afar, it felt a little different this time around and that the story with 8-0 and 13th-ranked Minnesota was more about the good football his team is playing before its showdown this Saturday against No. 5 Penn State and less about Fleck’s personality quirks and catchphrases, he politely set me straight. In the end, it's all part of the package.
Regardless, there will be more eyeballs on Fleck this weekend than ever before as only the hardest of hardcore fans have spent much time watching his teams to this point at Western Michigan and Minnesota. And even then, most of the coverage of Fleck up until now has fed into the caricature rather than the quality of football his team has played.
But it gets a lot more real when you’re playing undefeated Penn State at noon ET on ABC where a win can vault you up the College Football Playoff standings and put you in position to win the Big Ten West.
And nobody embraces that more than Fleck. In fact, he said, part of his philosophy is to embrace what a big game it is and address the hype head-on while “letting our culture spit it back out.” It’s something he’s planned for all offseason, and now it's here.
“We talk about this word pressure, and pressure’s earned,” Fleck said. “Our players have earned the right to play in huge games in November. There’s a lot of people who play in November for nothing. We're playing for something really big and also bigger than ourselves. We've been talking about this word pressure for so long with this group. I’m not saying pressure doesn't affect them, because it really makes it worthwhile. But at the end of the day, November is about championship football, and they’ve earned the right for these next games to really matter.”
Whether you like Fleck's presentation or not, he has indeed earned that pressure. And every step of the way, the players on his team seem to respond to it with wins. There's nothing gimmicky about that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...bracing-pressure-ahead-penn-state/2520932001/
Go Gophers!!
Before he hangs up the phone, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck wants to make sure I understand something going into the most highly anticipated game of his coaching career.
“Row The Boat is alive and well,” he says, pushing back one last time on the compliment I had spent the past few minutes trying to pay him.
Here’s the thing you have to understand about the 38-year-old Fleck, who rose to national prominence three years ago on a raft of slogans and buzzwords while leading Western Michigan to a 13-0 regular season: He is exactly who he is and doesn't want to be portrayed any other way.
So when I suggested to Fleck that, from afar, it felt a little different this time around and that the story with 8-0 and 13th-ranked Minnesota was more about the good football his team is playing before its showdown this Saturday against No. 5 Penn State and less about Fleck’s personality quirks and catchphrases, he politely set me straight. In the end, it's all part of the package.
Regardless, there will be more eyeballs on Fleck this weekend than ever before as only the hardest of hardcore fans have spent much time watching his teams to this point at Western Michigan and Minnesota. And even then, most of the coverage of Fleck up until now has fed into the caricature rather than the quality of football his team has played.
But it gets a lot more real when you’re playing undefeated Penn State at noon ET on ABC where a win can vault you up the College Football Playoff standings and put you in position to win the Big Ten West.
And nobody embraces that more than Fleck. In fact, he said, part of his philosophy is to embrace what a big game it is and address the hype head-on while “letting our culture spit it back out.” It’s something he’s planned for all offseason, and now it's here.
“We talk about this word pressure, and pressure’s earned,” Fleck said. “Our players have earned the right to play in huge games in November. There’s a lot of people who play in November for nothing. We're playing for something really big and also bigger than ourselves. We've been talking about this word pressure for so long with this group. I’m not saying pressure doesn't affect them, because it really makes it worthwhile. But at the end of the day, November is about championship football, and they’ve earned the right for these next games to really matter.”
Whether you like Fleck's presentation or not, he has indeed earned that pressure. And every step of the way, the players on his team seem to respond to it with wins. There's nothing gimmicky about that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...bracing-pressure-ahead-penn-state/2520932001/
Go Gophers!!
