Saying 'we have to get better,' Fleck tackles struggling football program

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,566
Reaction score
15,639
Points
113
per Sepic:

Gopher football coach P.J. Fleck has a lot of work ahead of him as he tries to turn around a program that hasn't won a conference championship in 50 years.

Fleck took over as head coach in January after the firing of Tracy Claeys, who'd voiced support for a team-led boycott when the U suspended 10 football players amid a sexual assault investigation.

Fleck, 36, was last at Western Michigan University, where his team finished the 2016 season 13-1 and secured a Mid-American Conference title. That was a major turnaround from Fleck's first year — 2013 — when his team lost 11 games.

The Gophers are not in as dire of straits. But Fleck said last Thursday's season-opening performance — a 17-7 win against Buffalo — was sub-par. The victory made Fleck the first Gopher football head coach since 1986 to win his debut game.

"Whether that's a W or an L, how you played is how you played. That's what we have to fix. So a result will not dictate how we practice, how we coach. We have to get better," he said.

Filling that stadium is another challenge Fleck faces. Last year average home game attendance hit a low not seen since 2002, when the Gophers played off campus in the Metrodome. Last week just over 43,000 fans turned out to see the coach's debut, a number below last season's seven-game average. However, Fleck says Gopher football was competing with the Twins, a Vikings preseason game and the State Fair that day.

Despite middling attendance at the home opener, the new coach appears to be generating excitement among fans on campus. Senior Danielle Abushanab was at Thursday's game and plans to go to more.

"Based on what I've seen so far and what I'm hearing, it sounds like he actually has plans for how things are going to go and his expectations laid out for players," she said. "I think that's a big thing that we needed."

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/09/06/fleck-tackles-struggling-football-program

Go Gophers!!
 



If he's the guy that shows up on the radio here and there... he is better than most locals.

I was expecting more of a Souhan like hack job. Got a jab in about the "middling attendance" for the Buffalo game, but other than that it was a pretty positive piece. It didn't offer much insight, but then again 99% of the people who visit the site couldn't care less about sports in general.
 




Are you telling me that all the jabs by Reusse, Souhan, Zulgad, etc. were not true statements regarding the football program?

Matt Sepic is a newscaster and general assignment reporter for MPR News. (from his directory page at npr.org)

Of the roughly 20 articles he has posted on the NPR site, going back to early June, this is the only sports related piece. It seems like a reasonable observation that attendance for the opener was less than the average attendance last year from someone who likely did not attend the game, nor someone whose reporting duties are rarely sports related.
 

"Based on what I've seen so far and what I'm hearing, it sounds like he actually has plans for how things are going to go and his expectations laid out for players," she said. "I think that's a big thing that we needed."

Brilliant observation. Yup, neither Kill nor Claeys had plans or expectations for players laid out. This is revolutionary to University of Minnesota football - if not the sport of football as a whole.
 

Are you telling me that all the jabs by Reusse, Souhan, Zulgad, etc. were not true statements regarding the football program?

Well ... not always.

But I think we all know we're talking about context regarding the actual news person. The dude who did the above story has been pretty even handed IMO.

I gave up on reading pat years ago when he quit trying to even write.
 



Where did this "struggling program" narrative come from this year?

Just won 8+ games 3 out 4 years. 5 straight bowl appearances, 7 in 9 years. Two straight bowl victories. A January 1 appearance. Coming off of one of the most impressive defensive performances I've ever seen in the Holiday Bowl.

This has been a darn good program lately. What's the purpose of saying otherwise? Is Coyle/Kaler pulling the strings behind this propaganda campaign so they don't have to deal with an angry mob if PJ wins 4 games with a light schedule?
 

Where did this "struggling program" narrative come from this year?

Just won 8+ games 3 out 4 years. 5 straight bowl appearances, 7 in 9 years. Two straight bowl victories. A January 1 appearance. Coming off of one of the most impressive defensive performances I've ever seen in the Holiday Bowl.

This has been a darn good program lately. What's the purpose of saying otherwise? Is Coyle/Kaler pulling the strings behind this propaganda campaign so they don't have to deal with an angry mob if PJ wins 4 games with a light schedule?

Struggling is the wrong word but we get his point. We've had an ok run recently but nothing special
 

Brilliant observation. Yup, neither Kill nor Claeys had plans or expectations for players laid out. This is revolutionary to University of Minnesota football - if not the sport of football as a whole.

What were Claeys' expectations for the program? I'm sure he had them but Fleck has done a great job of laying out his plan. He wins the communication competition.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

What were Claeys' expectations for the program? I'm sure he had them but Fleck has done a great job of laying out his plan. He wins the communication competition.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The current plan is no different than the last one. Get players who love football, play hard and can execute. Pretty simple.
 



What were Claeys' expectations for the program? I'm sure he had them but Fleck has done a great job of laying out his plan. He wins the communication competition.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To not go to the Rose Bowl according to a local recruit.
 

What were Claeys' expectations for the program? I'm sure he had them but Fleck has done a great job of laying out his plan. He wins the communication competition.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If clearly communicating expectations is good enough to get students to show up in full force, that's good enough for me.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
 

To not go to the Rose Bowl according to a local recruit.

That whole story is such BS. Of course, you'll gladly take the word of an 18-year-old HS kid over a professional with decades in his field - because you want so badly to believe that he is a total moron who would say something so incredibly stupid.
 

Are you telling me that all the jabs by Reusse, Souhan, Zulgad, etc. were not true statements regarding the football program?
I don't consider everything those guys say as a "jab" if it's based on fact and uses sound reasoning. The media gives the Gophers the coverage they have earned over the last 50+ years.
 

Where did this "struggling program" narrative come from this year?

Just won 8+ games 3 out 4 years. 5 straight bowl appearances, 7 in 9 years. Two straight bowl victories. A January 1 appearance. Coming off of one of the most impressive defensive performances I've ever seen in the Holiday Bowl.

This has been a darn good program lately. What's the purpose of saying otherwise? Is Coyle/Kaler pulling the strings behind this propaganda campaign so they don't have to deal with an angry mob if PJ wins 4 games with a light schedule?

That's the difference between Fleck's vision and the vision of many others.

It's great that you're satisfied with five bowl games or eight win seasons in three of four seasons. He's probably not going to be happy if that's the high point of where the program is in 5 years.

50 years without a conference championship. That's not success to me, and it isn't to coach Fleck either.
 

That whole story is such BS. Of course, you'll gladly take the word of an 18-year-old HS kid over a professional with decades in his field - because you want so badly to believe that he is a total moron who would say something so incredibly stupid.

He never commented on the situation. Why would Bursch make something up about him?
 

That's the difference between Fleck's vision and the vision of many others.

It's great that you're satisfied with five bowl games or eight win seasons in three of four seasons. He's probably not going to be happy if that's the high point of where the program is in 5 years.

50 years without a conference championship. That's not success to me, and it isn't to coach Fleck either.

:rolleyes:
 

The current plan is no different than the last one. Get players who love football, play hard and can execute. Pretty simple.

While I think the jingo is cringy, there is a method behind the HYPRR madness. He's laid out his plans for establishing culture in some detail - this is not your typical lip service.; he's actually looking for new converts daily and Is using the media as a tool to increase understanding about his program. Thats what people are responding to.

I'm sure TC had expectations but I sure don't remember him talking about them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

While I think the jingo is cringy, there is a method behind the HYPRR madness. He's laid out his plans for establishing culture in some detail - this is not your typical lip service.; he's actually looking for new converts daily and Is using the media as a tool to increase understanding about his program. Thats what people are responding to.

I'm sure TC had expectations but I sure don't remember him talking about them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The difference between a loud leader and a quiet leader.
 

That's the difference between Fleck's vision and the vision of many others.

It's great that you're satisfied with five bowl games or eight win seasons in three of four seasons. He's probably not going to be happy if that's the high point of where the program is in 5 years.

50 years without a conference championship. That's not success to me, and it isn't to coach Fleck either.

He never said he was satisfied. He wondered where the "struggling program" narrative came from. We were not struggling the past few seasons. Struggling would be winning a few games a year and not making bowl games at all. We were in contention to win a couple BIG west titles in those years. Yes we didn't win any, but we were not a struggling program.
 



Where did this "struggling program" narrative come from this year?

Just won 8+ games 3 out 4 years. 5 straight bowl appearances, 7 in 9 years. Two straight bowl victories. A January 1 appearance. Coming off of one of the most impressive defensive performances I've ever seen in the Holiday Bowl.

This has been a darn good program lately. What's the purpose of saying otherwise? Is Coyle/Kaler pulling the strings behind this propaganda campaign so they don't have to deal with an angry mob if PJ wins 4 games with a light schedule?

I like the two straight bowl victories but we all know what came before that....
 

I like the two straight bowl victories but we all know what came before that....

Three other bowl appearances.

Just in a bad mood tonight then? Twins scored 3 in the 9th to go ahead of KC if that helps.
 

I guess about 75% of the FBS football programs are struggling.
 

To not go to the Rose Bowl according to a local recruit.

I sat in a room with Coach Claeys and a recruit. He had clear expectations for the program, and more importantly, for the recruit. He promised the kid nothing, told him what he needed to do to get a scholarship offer from the U, that he hadn't earned it yet, and then helped him review his planner for his classes. That may not fit your narrative, but he really was very good with recruits and families, and very well liked.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

That's the difference between Fleck's vision and the vision of many others.

It's great that you're satisfied with five bowl games or eight win seasons in three of four seasons. He's probably not going to be happy if that's the high point of where the program is in 5 years.

50 years without a conference championship. That's not success to me, and it isn't to coach Fleck either.

Coach Claeys was very clear in saying they wanted to be position to be playing for the Big Ten championship going into the final two weeks. I love the expectations Fleck has, but it's not unique.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 




Top Bottom