Detroit Free Press Q&A: Fleck’s goal: Elevate Gophers to ‘Minnesota elite’

BleedGopher

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per the Free Press:

Since signing a five-year, $18 million contract with the University of Minnesota in early January, it’s been a whirlwind six weeks for P.J. Fleck.

Fleck has hit the ground running after leaving Western Michigan and the Mid-American Conference and heading west to take over the Golden Gophers in the Big Ten.

Sitting in his spacious corner office on the second floor of the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex, Fleck talked about how his life has changed, taking over a program during a time of tension and recruiting, among other topics, in a one-on-one interview with The Detroit News.

■ Q: Is there a certain “Minnesota nice” moment that stands out?

■ A: “I would say that going to Timberwolves games, going to the Wild game and meeting (Wild owner) Craig (Leipold) and getting to be up in his box and be around those people. I’m just a huge hockey fan, so to be able to do that is really special. I think those types of events really stand out to you because people bend over backwards to provide an opportunity for you to have an elite experience when you don’t expect. It’s been really neat just to show everybody, from people in St. Paul, people in Minneapolis, the entire state of Minnesota, being the only Division 1 football program in the state, everybody is a fan of you and everybody wants you to do well. They want to provide resources to help. Everybody always says, ‘If we can ever help you, let us know.’ You found out at Western Michigan that’s the worst thing you can tell me if you don’t mean it. I’d say probably the Wild game was a pretty elite experience being able to say ‘Let’s play hockey’ (at puck drop) ... It’s like singing in the seventh-inning stretch at a (Chicago) Cubs game. It’s kind of like that. It was really neat. Those types of things I’ve been able to do a lot in the community and that’s been a lot of fun.”

■ Q: Have any students or people shouting “Row the Boat” at you yet when they see you?

■ A: “Every single person on campus that I see says ‘Row the Boat’ and then Ski-U-Mah (a Minnesota slogan). We’ve attached it to Ski-U-Mah, we’ve encompassed it. We’ve basically meshed those two together but everybody is rowing the boat here already, and we haven’t had it for more than five days already. ... They have oars. We got to know the difference between paddles and oars so we got to work on that. Everybody is getting oars. We have a ton of oars on order through our marketing department. Our whole ‘Row the Boat’ campaign will probably start in about a week or two in terms of getting those oars out to every business here in Dinkytown, in Minneapolis, in St. Paul, getting them out to the capitol for the Democrats, Republicans, getting them out to the children’s hospital, getting them painted and making sure our culture is felt in the community, not just the football community.”

■ Q: You arrived at a time of tension after former coach Tracy Claeys was fired two weeks after football team held a boycott after 10 players were suspended for alleged sexual assault (none faced any criminal charges). How’d you stem that tide coming in?

■ A: “I was just me. I came here to change a culture, meaning I define culture as connecting people. That doesn’t mean this place needs to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. It just needs — what I’ve said is I’m a different head coach so that would be change. I have a unique way of connecting people so that’s what culture change means and that’s what we’re doing. We’re just changing the culture, connecting people and that’s the biggest at the beginning was to be able to bring all these people together that for a period of time where kind of split apart and continue to educate as we move forward.”

■ Q: Has changing that culture been your priority since you got here?

■ A: “Changing the culture in terms of what it means to me, yes. Being able to bring in a new head coach with new theories, new philosophies both football and off the field but also connecting as many people as I possibly can. That’s what great cultural leaders do. They find a way to bring everybody together and like I said, I just wanted to be part of a solution, that’s all.”

■ Q: How have players been responding to you?

■ A: “I met with them right when I got here. The problem was when I got here they weren’t back from break yet, so we had to do Facebook Live. Then once we actually got the guys together we had a big team meetings and I’ve been meeting with individual players. We’ve been meeting as positions with our players, non-football related just life things. You can already tell how connected this football team is becoming in five weeks. It’s pretty awesome to see. We didn’t really see the personality of a team until we played a whiffle ball game, and it’s amazing what even that little change of a culture, that little break once in a while to be able to bring comraderie and to watch them have success outside the football realm or work outside the football realm collectively and cohesively. I think that was a big step forward as we move forward in terms of connecting everybody.”

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...oal-elevate-gophers-minnesota-elite/98155832/

Go Gophers!!
 


"That doesn’t mean this place needs to be completely rebuilt from the ground up."

PJF recognized that many of the pieces were here to build on and improve. Without the new training facility and reasonably new stadium he would have waited for another opportunity in my opinion.
 

"That doesn’t mean this place needs to be completely rebuilt from the ground up."

PJF recognized that many of the pieces were here to build on and improve. Without the new training facility and reasonably new stadium he would have waited for another opportunity in my opinion.

I don't think there's much question about it.

If PJ turns out to be the guy and the program really takes off, he'll get a lot of credit, so will Coyle, but this has been a longer term project than that.
 

When are the tickets available for their next wiffle ball game?
 


They have oars. We got to know the difference between paddles and oars so we got to work on that.

How am I supposed to row?
 

Ski-U-Mah!!
Another positive article about the U of M football program. Can only help in recruiting the Detroit area.
 

How does one go about getting an oar for their business?
 

Ski-U-Mah!!
Another positive article about the U of M football program. Can only help in recruiting the Detroit area.

Had a radio interview in St. Louis too which is an area the staff seem to be recruiting hard. Don't think Fleck's ever going to turn down an interview. He's been everywhere.
 



Had a radio interview in St. Louis too which is an area the staff seem to be recruiting hard. Don't think Fleck's ever going to turn down an interview. He's been everywhere.
Didn't result in a win on the football field, so it's meaningless....
 


This is the most I have ever heard him define "culture change". Not what some folks on here have been preaching or very extreme at all. I buy what PJF is saying here, but it isn't a culture change it is getting folks to do some things differently. Maybe he is trying to unite GH?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Didn't result in a win on the football field, so it's meaningless....

But it tremendous for creating a brand for our university. One of his objectives is to raise the image of our football program.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 



I would guess that saying every person he sees on campus has yelled Row the Boat and Ski-U-Mah may be a bit of a stretch.
 

They have oars. We got to know the difference between paddles and oars so we got to work on that.

How am I supposed to row?

Oar = attached to boat
Paddle = simple held by the person paddling
 

This is the most I have ever heard him define "culture change". Not what some folks on here have been preaching or very extreme at all. I buy what PJF is saying here, but it isn't a culture change it is getting folks to do some things differently. Maybe he is trying to unite GH?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Culture change = make things I don't like that I made up in my head go away.
 


Yeah, looking at the WMU pics he had paddles. You can be up sh*t creek without an oar...just don't try it without a paddle.
 




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