PJ Fleck on Sports Huddle 8-6-17

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Gopher FB coach PJ Fleck appeared on the Sports Huddle with Sid, Dave Mona - and Dave Lee filling in for Mike Max. (don't know if he brought his own Country Hearth Bread.....)

Sid: won 9 games last year. how many holes do you have to fill?
PJF: last year has nothing to do with this year. have 56 kids who are (true) FR or RS FR - 70% underclassmen - 43 returning lettermen. one of least experienced teams in country. lost a lot of SR's. lot of guys haven't played yet. have to get better every single day. get as much experience as we can in fall practice.

Sid: how are your top two 2 QB's doing?
PJF: still a battle. impressed with how they've grown. really don't know how they'll handle game situations until we get in games.

Sid: will you wait till opening of season to pick QB?
PJF: when we know, everyone else will know. I really want someone to run away with it, but if that doesn't happen, we'll do what we have to. I really don't want to play multiple QB's - but we will if we have to

Sid: what about injured players?
PJF: 1 or 2 left still not in contact.

Sid: how about WR's
PJF: little thin. Still leading receiver coming back. TJ doing tremendous job. some FR playing well - Autman-Bell, Douglas really impressed. Howard, Holland playing well. long way to go. making progress. got to have guys be play-makers. take 5-yard slant and take it 60.

Sid: how many FR will play in B1G? (translated from Sid into english)
PJF: going to have to fill gaps in depth. going to have to play a lot of them- possibly. '18 and '19 classes are important. get younger before we get older. (future recruiting classes will) provide balanced team.

Sid: Durr going to play?
PJF: looks that way. keeping a slow pace. he's doing individual (work) right now - not full live contact. give knee a little longer. still have 3-1/2 weeks till first game.

Mona: impressed with depth at RB?
PJF: Glen Mason used to say you need a pair and a spare. can't count on one guy getting 40 snaps every game and staying healthy. got to be able to rotate. happy with progress for Rodney and Shannon - becoming more complete players in pass protection, route-running. Mc Crary wonderful in pass protection - gaining more confidence as a RB- running more with pads down. other backs - really coming on. rookies, FR. got to continue to bring in RB's (in future recruiting classes)

Lee: importance of early signing period?
PJF: wish it meant a lot more. (give kids chance to) sign faster, that's a positive. advantage - sign on dotted line in Dec. what will really help us is being able to have official visits in April in future. benefit to use in the North. kids get to experience Spring in MN. have to be creative in timing - place that in time with signing.

Sid: how has practice gone?
PJF: pleased with energy kids are bringing. different level of intensity and speed. kids did tremendous job in off-season learning how to practice at our tempo. now, able to practice faster. long way to go. goal is to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday.

Sid: depth at O-linemen?
PJF: only had 4 in spring - wasn't good. now, I told Coach Warriner we have way too many linemen (kidding). we do have some guys with some experience - then a drop-off to guys with no experience. excited about future. have to get by this year with FR playing - possibly guys in starting roles or in the rotation who haven't played for us before. proud of progress.

Sid: getting people excited about Gopher FB. Murray's certificate.
PJF: RTB, Ski-U-Mah.
 


Fleck is very smart. Very Lou Holtz-like in the lines he feeds to media. Always stressing the negatives, maybe even stretching the truth a little, knowing guys guys like Sid and Dave Mona and Dave Lee won't fact- check.
 

Thanks SON, appreciate you taking time out of your day to transcribe this to us slackers!
 

Thanks SON.

Is 56 tr and rs Freshmen odd? Seems like a couple recruiting classes to me.


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Gracias! Sid got in TWO starting QB questions? Now that's journalism at its best...

Agree with swingman...just based on Fleck's RB question response alone.
 

Thanks SON.

Is 56 tr and rs Freshmen odd? Seems like a couple recruiting classes to me.


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Yep- Isn't math great! This seems to happen often. I wonder why?:rolleyes::banghead: There is a grain of truth in what Fleck is saying but he must have studied under Holtz when it comes to using numbers. Your combined true freshman and red shirt freshman classes are always going to be large for several reasons.
 

Interesting that Coach mentioned Melvin Holland... Anyone with personal observations?
 

Thanks for the report.

Fleck is pushing "one of the least experienced teams in the country" lately. That seems to be replacing his "22 injured" mantra.
 



Might we see McCrary as a third down back (with Shannon and/or Rodney split out wide)? Would be great to have a consistent pass protector in the backfield and still have the option of getting the ball in one of our RBs hands.
 

Thanks Son for the report. Interesting read.
 

Thanks for the report.

Fleck is pushing "one of the least experienced teams in the country" lately. That seems to be replacing his "22 injured" mantra.
Indeed. Fleck sounds much like Kill in his first season.
1) We're young and inexperienced
2) We have to teach the kids to practice at a faster tempo
3) We need a few years to fix the previous regimes problems

These sports huddle reports could just be copied and pasted from earlier shows. Rinse and repeat ad naseum.

That being said, I still appreciate you putting these notes out for us, SON.
 

Thanks SON.

Is 56 tr and rs Freshmen odd? Seems like a couple recruiting classes to me.

That would average out to 28 per class, which is definitely high when the max is usually 25 per class.

I would also say that I believe Kill/Claeys played fewer young guys than an average FBS coach (no I don't have numbers to back this up). So while someone may be a junior or senior, he doesn't necessarily have the experience of a guy who played right away. For example, you can't say Conor Rhoda is as experienced as JT Barrett because they're both seniors.
 



With good quarterback play this team has a very good chance. With "Mitch like" quarterback play we end up with the Phil Steele range. With poor quarterback play wait until next year.

Defensive line and secondary will need to overachieve to be as good as last year. Linebackers and running backs are the strength of the team. Offensive line and wide outs, who knows?

Thanks for the report SON.
 

That would average out to 28 per class, which is definitely high when the max is usually 25 per class.

Not always limited to 25. Anyways, I guess we are including walk-ons with this number then, which to me makes 56 seem even less concerning.

I would also say that I believe Kill/Claeys played fewer young guys than an average FBS coach (no I don't have numbers to back this up). So while someone may be a junior or senior, he doesn't necessarily have the experience of a guy who played right away. For example, you can't say Conor Rhoda is as experienced as JT Barrett because they're both seniors.

Not sure what any of this has to do with my question. It was simply trying to understand if this 56 # PJF is now pimping is unusual or not. However you slice it, it doesn't seem that unusual to me - but asked to see if someone had stats to the contrary.


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I was curious, so I checked out his rosters at WMU.

2016: 42 freshmen/redshirt freshmen
2015: 45 freshmen/redshirt freshmen
2014: 49 freshmen/redshirt freshmen
2013: 44 freshmen/redshirt freshmen
 

Not always limited to 25. Anyways, I guess we are including walk-ons with this number then, which to me makes 56 seem even less concerning.



Not sure what any of this has to do with my question. It was simply trying to understand if this 56 # PJF is now pimping is unusual or not. However you slice it, it doesn't seem that unusual to me - but asked to see if someone had stats to the contrary.


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How is it "pimping'???? There are 16 seniors, 21 juniors, 26 sophomores and 51 freshmen (my count). There are so many people who are eager to jump on anything PJ says or does. Who cares if he says we are young and will get younger? He has his reasons for whatever he says. It may be to protect himself if the team falters or it may be motivational for his players.

Barriero got all over PJ for the Wrigley Field comment which was a total throw away line meant as a joke. It wasn't a well thought out statement. Go to a practice and see the incredible way this man coaches. Let's enjoy this team as it moves into the limelight.

Barriero, meanwhile, can continue to devote a lot of his program to complaining about not being able to buy a toasted bagel (he was at it again this morning). All the negativity in this town sucks.
 

How is it "pimping'???? There are 16 seniors, 21 juniors, 26 sophomores and 51 freshmen (my count). There are so many people who are so eager to jump on anything PJ says or does. Who carfes if he says we are young and will get younger? he has his reasons for whatever he says. Barriero got all over PJ for the Wrigley Field comment which was a total throw away line meant as a joke. It wasn't a well thought out statement. Go to a practice and see the incredible way this man coaches. Let's enjoy this team as it moves into the limelight.

Barriero, meanwhile, can continue to devote a lot of his program to complaining about not being able to buy a toasted bagel (he was at it again this morning). All the negativity in this town sucks.

Slow down. I wasn't jumping on him. As I said, the number didn't strike me as odd as 56 ~ 2 classes and I asked if anyone knew if this was really uncommon. You might be reading just a tad too much into the term pimping. Would you be happier if I said the 56 # PJ is now talking about? Potato potato.


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The distribution of scholarship players is not that unusual. There are 15 Sr, 18 Jr, 19 So, 8 RS Fr and 23 true Fr under scholarship. In some peoples minds all Fr would be redshirted and using that bent the distribution of players in any year would be 17 in each of the 5 categories, if on the other hand you played all Fr you'd have 21 in each class. (none in RS Fr).

PJ is helping his assertion that we are a really young team by taking a slight liberty via including the number of PWO and WO in the total number of freshmen (21 of the 51 that both HH and I counted off the official roster). I'm not sure what to make of the number of lettermen as an indication of our youth as there is no universal definition of a letterman between schools. Many schools give them to almost everyone while other schools have much more stringent criteria for receiving a letter.
 

Son, thank you. With this "Dave Lee filling in for Mike Max" i realize why I cannot listen to the broadcast.
 

Son, thank you. With this "Dave Lee filling in for Mike Max" i realize why I cannot listen to the broadcast.

Sid continues to slip. He could hardly get the words out. What a trooper
 

Sid continues to slip. He could hardly get the words out. What a trooper

Gawd, Sid was bad today. Later in the show, Dave Mona brought up the death of Ara Parseghian. Sid launched into some story, and it made no sense. you literally could not understand what Sid was trying to say. He was also talking to Scott Studwell about the Vikings, and started talking about "Maroney." eventually, Dave Mona figured out he was talking about Latavius Murray.

I know the guy is a legend, but at some point, 'CCO is going to have to do something. It's just painful to listen to.
 


Gawd, Sid was bad today. Later in the show, Dave Mona brought up the death of Ara Parseghian. Sid launched into some story, and it made no sense. you literally could not understand what Sid was trying to say. He was also talking to Scott Studwell about the Vikings, and started talking about "Maroney." eventually, Dave Mona figured out he was talking about Latavius Murray.

I know the guy is a legend, but at some point, 'CCO is going to have to do something. It's just painful to listen to.

Everyone knows he won't retire. So either he dies on the job/is physically incapable of reporting to work, or they lay him off.

My theory is they have been betting on him dying for the last 10+ years, and it just hasn't happened.
 





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