Why didn't Fleck bring any defensive assts to MN?

Some Day...Maybe

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Just realizing this. Fleck brought 4 offensive asst coaches but not 1 defensive asst.? Anyone hear why? Seems odd. Obvious guess is he thought he could do better on that side but not the O side.


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Pretty sure the DC from Western was still trying to be WMU head coach when Fleck was finalizing his staff. Not sure about the others.
 


If he brought the OC following his same system stands to reason the staff would follow. Grabs the DC from Arkansas so that guy was not part of Flecks WMU staff so he will want his own guys. Pretty much always that same story where ever coaches come from.
 

Most of the deefensive assistants were only at WMU for one year. He lost several defensive assistants the year before who left WMU for better paying jobs.
 


Think because he is an offense focused HC, he saw the opportunity to bring in a high quality DC who he knew well, probably could not get to a place like WMU, and one who could maintain the recent level of play on that side of the ball. He has put together a great staff and Gophs will surprise some folks this year.
 

It is an interesting question. I'll trust Fleck on these decisions - the staff he has is very impressive.


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During Fleck's first spring at WMU he was quoted as saying "We have the best DC in the country!" (Ed Pinkham)

Probably more to promote himself and what he was bringing to the program.

Pinkham is a very good coach, did an outstanding job at Western - especially since Fleck took majority of the best recruits for offense.

Why Fleck didn't bring any of the defensive coaches to the U speaks to his ego and lack of loyalty.
 

It is an interesting question. I'll trust Fleck on these decisions - the staff he has is very impressive.


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I trust him as well, but my take is that the WMU D coaches, coached well, but my guess is Fleck did not expect them to recruit at the level he needed here. He especially needed someone to recruit the South (Coach Mo), and Paup gives him someone who knows WS, IA and the area west of Chicago.
IF I am right, the one thing I believe Fleck adds that no other coach here has done is insist all assistants be at least decent recruiters. (Actually Stolls staff had several good recruiters and Stoll was excellent, a real people guy. Mase had about 2, maybe 3 when Gibbs was here. JK one great recruiter, with Sherels on the way to being really good, maybe 3 decent recruiters in Poore, Reeves and maybe Anderson and a couple not good at all.
 



During Fleck's first spring at WMU he was quoted as saying "We have the best DC in the country!" (Ed Pinkham)

Probably more to promote himself and what he was bringing to the program.

Pinkham is a very good coach, did an outstanding job at Western - especially since Fleck took majority of the best recruits for offense.

Why Fleck didn't bring any of the defensive coaches to the U speaks to his ego and lack of loyalty.

:rolleyes:

Pretty sure every coach besides Linquist, Paup, and Warriner he coached with for multiple years.
 

During Fleck's first spring at WMU he was quoted as saying "We have the best DC in the country!" (Ed Pinkham)

Probably more to promote himself and what he was bringing to the program.

Pinkham is a very good coach, did an outstanding job at Western - especially since Fleck took majority of the best recruits for offense.

Why Fleck didn't bring any of the defensive coaches to the U speaks to his ego and lack of loyalty.

Ahh, Bronco's usual bitter post. Here, I've saved your default signature before you run away sobbing.

--Gopher fans: "If you're so happy he's gone, why did you follow him here?"

--Broncos181973: "I answered that on another thread. If you'd really like to know, go find it."
 

During Fleck's first spring at WMU he was quoted as saying "We have the best DC in the country!" (Ed Pinkham)

Probably more to promote himself and what he was bringing to the program.

Pinkham is a very good coach, did an outstanding job at Western - especially since Fleck took majority of the best recruits for offense.

Why Fleck didn't bring any of the defensive coaches to the U speaks to his ego and lack of loyalty.

If he lacks loyalty, why did he bring all the offensive coaches with him? Most head coaches don't bring along their entire staff when they change jobs.

Sometimes coaches just don't see eye to eye with everything and decide it's best to go their separate ways. I don't know if that is the case here or not but it could be.
 

During Fleck's first spring at WMU he was quoted as saying "We have the best DC in the country!" (Ed Pinkham)

Probably more to promote himself and what he was bringing to the program.

Pinkham is a very good coach, did an outstanding job at Western - especially since Fleck took majority of the best recruits for offense.

Why Fleck didn't bring any of the defensive coaches to the U speaks to his ego and lack of loyalty.

That is such a cliche and such B.S. There is no salary cap in college football - you recruit based on need. There may be 1 or 2 guys in a given recruiting class that could go either way - and maybe Fleck did tend to encourage those guys to play offense. If your defense didn't have the quality of athlete that your offense had, it was probably based on the lack of recruiting prowess from the coaches on that side of the ball. Or - maybe you are right and Pinkham had a top notch linebacker ready to commit, and Fleck told him to stop because he only wanted highly talented players on offense.

In reality, as was said before, Pinkham probably wanted a shot at the WMU head coaching job and Fleck respected that and stayed away.
 



The bigger the school, the bigger the recruiting circles. Now I know that PJF has mentioned that his major recruiting areas are in a circle 6 to 8 hours from the TC. But we need Georgia, Florida, and other southern states for the skill and speed players. So maybe the reason he didn't bring some defensive personnel with him is that he needed new recruiting blood into those areas. Remember before Auburn won their NC, Gus Malzone hired the recruiting coordinators from 7 different colleges and universities in the south to win the recruiting wars. I could see PJF going that route providing the new assistants can coach their position, fit the PJF culture mold, and be willing to accept less dollars than other P6 football assistants.
 

During Fleck's first spring at WMU he was quoted as saying "We have the best DC in the country!" (Ed Pinkham)

Probably more to promote himself and what he was bringing to the program.

Pinkham is a very good coach, did an outstanding job at Western - especially since Fleck took majority of the best recruits for offense.

Why Fleck didn't bring any of the defensive coaches to the U speaks to his ego and lack of loyalty.

He's such a good coach he ended up at everyone's favorite helmet school UMass.
 

The bigger the school, the bigger the recruiting circles. Now I know that PJF has mentioned that his major recruiting areas are in a circle 6 to 8 hours from the TC. But we need Georgia, Florida, and other southern states for the skill and speed players. So maybe the reason he didn't bring some defensive personnel with him is that he needed new recruiting blood into those areas. Remember before Auburn won their NC, Gus Malzone hired the recruiting coordinators from 7 different colleges and universities in the south to win the recruiting wars. I could see PJF going that route providing the new assistants can coach their position, fit the PJF culture mold, and be willing to accept less dollars than other P6 football assistants.

This is a good point, especially with the recruiting results we've already seen with Smith, Paup and Linguist.

Paup is the only one of those three who does not have Power 5 coaching experience, but he's got some decent pedigree of his own. Linguist has been in the Power 5 for the last three years and Smith has been since 2009 (minus one year coaching in the NFL.

Meanwhile, though he started coaching in 1975, Pinkham only has a total of 6 seasons at the Power 5 level and only two of those were as a DC. As someone else mentioned, no one else from WMU coached there under Fleck for more than 1 season.
 

Thanks for all of the insight fellas. Makes sense. I hope Robb Smith turns out to be Golden!


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All I know is, I wish Sawvel would've stayed.....
 

All I know is, I wish Sawvel would've stayed.....

I'm not sure how we know if it twas TC or Swavel who made the defense what it was, not sure you get the same thing with one or the other.
 

He's such a good coach he ended up at everyone's favorite helmet school UMass.
I was impressed with how WMU played Wisconsin. At the end of the first quarter, I thought they'd get beat 49-0. Wisconsin was gaining yards running like they did against us in the first half of the game in 2015 when we were playing a DE and a 250 lb freshman walk-on at DT. Basically 6 yds or more per carry. They changed something in the second quarter and competed well for the rest of the game.
That was the first time I thought maybe there was a real coach at WMU.
 




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