FLECK HAS ACCEPTED THE GOPHERS JOB!! UPDATED: WE GOT FLECK!!!!

Wally said:

Hope he listened to Claeys and has at least a $5 million buyout.
I for one don't see much excitement building around this program for awhile. Kills resume impressed me and exited me a lot more than flicks

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Gopher2017 said:

I was excited during the entire Kill years, yes, which is why I wrote what I did. My excitement faded when TC became the coach.

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scools12 said:

Hate to break it to you but there was no excitement around this program before this hire.

What exactly on Kill's resume when he came to Minnesota was more impressive than undefeated regular season, MAC title and getting a G5 team into a New Year's Day bowl? All of which weren't on Kill's resume.

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dpodoll68 said:

Thanks for asking. First, though they are two separate decisions, Claeys was rawdogged by Coyle. His performance had virtually nothing to do with his firing. It's become evident that his fate was sealed short of anything that made it impossible to terminate him (e.g., Big Ten title or CFP appearance). Coyle was put in place to make these decisions and, while he's fully within his rights to do so, it is still an affront to my sense of equity and fairness.

That being said, it would be difficult to envision us coming out of this debacle in a better position. I am and have been a big P.J. Fleck fan for a long time. Coyle clearly keyed in on him as his #1 target long ago and stuck to his plan to make it happen. The interest was also clearly mutual, which explains why he either rebuffed or half-heartedly pursued other opportunities. We've made a commitment in facilities, and now we're making a personnel investment that is completely unprecedented and totally out of character for the U. Brewster brought a lot of enthusiasm back to Gopher football, Kill took it to another level, and Fleck will take it to heights perhaps never seen before. We'll see if the on-field performance can match that, but he inherits a good squad and has proven it at the lower levels. I expect transfers to be minimal if not non-existent, and we're going to give him every opportunity to succeed on his terms. It's a pretty exciting day.

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dpodoll68 said:

Thanks for asking. First, though they are two separate decisions, Claeys was rawdogged by Coyle. His performance had virtually nothing to do with his firing. It's become evident that his fate was sealed short of anything that made it impossible to terminate him (e.g., Big Ten title or CFP appearance). Coyle was put in place to make these decisions and, while he's fully within his rights to do so, it is still an affront to my sense of equity and fairness.

That being said, it would be difficult to envision us coming out of this debacle in a better position. I am and have been a big P.J. Fleck fan for a long time. Coyle clearly keyed in on him as his #1 target long ago and stuck to his plan to make it happen. The interest was also clearly mutual, which explains why he either rebuffed or half-heartedly pursued other opportunities. We've made a commitment in facilities, and now we're making a personnel investment that is completely unprecedented and totally out of character for the U. Brewster brought a lot of enthusiasm back to Gopher football, Kill took it to another level, and Fleck will take it to heights perhaps never seen before. We'll see if the on-field performance can match that, but he inherits a good squad and has proven it at the lower levels. I expect transfers to be minimal if not non-existent, and we're going to give him every opportunity to succeed on his terms. It's a pretty exciting day.

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CoMn said:

Dpodoll I agree with this...with the exception that transfers will be minimal...10 guys potentially not being here next year will push those transfer numbers up even if he keeps the rest of the team.

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dannygopher9100 said:

I kinda hope we get some gimmicky gear for whatever catchphrase Fleck uses.

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scools12 said:

Hate to break it to you but there was no excitement around this program before this hire.

What exactly on Kill's resume when he came to Minnesota was more impressive than undefeated regular season, MAC title and getting a G5 team into a New Year's Day bowl? All of which weren't on Kill's resume.

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discochris said:

Kill would have been a hotter prospect coming out of NIU if not for the health questions that dogged him (and ultimately led to his stepping down.) His resume was top notch.

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Bob_Loblaw said:

He had done it at three places.

I think Fleck is the brighter prospect (Fleck now compared to Kill when we hired him), but I think that has more to do with age and PR stuff. Kill built three programs. Fleck did it with one.

The good thing is that we don't have to compare these two.


As far as excitement around the program. . . who cares? It won't last at all without winning. The only way to build sustainable excitement around a program is by winning. I hope Fleck is the guy to WIN a lot of games, I don't really care about the excitement level at the time of hiring.

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Gopher07 said:

You're letting us down man.

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Winasota Gopher said:

Good read.

Thanks for sharing.

I know nothing about PJ other than he put together a nice run at Western Michigan (if you can call undefeated and Cotton Bowl appearance "Nice"). My question is can he recruit at a top teir Big 10 level to Minnesota, or is he going to be a Kill type that "coaches em up"?

I've often thought you can motivate 2 stars to beat 3 stars. But thats a different game when its 3 stars vs 4 and 5 stars over a representative sample size of games. (not saying I buy into the recruiting sites, just the concept of size and talent differential) And that's essentially what he will have to do UNLESS the facilities, plus his sales pitch = another significant uptick in recruiting.

Kill/TC had our best class in a while last year and it still was middle of the pack in the b1g was it not?

I'm a huge Pitino fan, and I see this guy being of the similar ilk with regards to relating to players (Pitino isn't as full of rah rah as PJ apears to be), so my hopes are high, but I'm cautiously optimistic as any true Gopher fan should be.

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dpodoll68 said:

Scratch the previous. I rescheduled to this afternoon and I'm currently en route to KFCM.

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PMWinSTP said:

OK, so basically one year. Where Gophs went 9-4. With pretty much the same players. It's all about the coach for you, I guess.

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dpodoll68 said:

Scratch the previous. I rescheduled to this afternoon and I'm currently en route to KFCM.

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CoMn said:

I wouldn't call the last year's class the best class in awhile...it's the class that caused this mess. While they may be good at football...it was not a class filled with men of character.

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CoMn said:

Winasota...sure but not recruiting character nearly destroyed the program and it was only saved by Coyle who managed to bring in an A-rated coach...making those like me, who were angry as can be about 9/2 and those who were on the other side of that issue, both happy. I give Kill all the credit in the world for building this program, getting a great team GPA etc so we could have a great program someday...he took over a dumpster fire and Fleck is not taking over a dumpster fire on every front...the football and academics are sound it's the culture that's lacking. But pursuing great football players who lack good character obviously didn't work...especially for a coach who couldn't control his players.

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Gopher07 said:

I think Kill would've been a hotter prospect than he was at the time if not for his health issues, but I doubt he would've been more highly sought-after than Fleck. I mean, it's apples to oranges, but Kill had three years head coaching experience in FBS, no conference titles or bowl wins. He did have big success in FCS taking SIU deep into the playoffs. Fleck has four years head coaching experience in FBS, one conference title, one bowl win, and a NY6 appearance. The FBS resume is stronger for Fleck for sure.

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