PJ Fleck on Sports Huddle 10-8-17

short ornery norwegian

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Gopher Football Coach PJ Fleck appeared on the Sports Huddle with Sid, Dave and Max on Sunday.

Sid: lost two games in a row.
PJF: it all falls on me. have to coach them up better. trying to develop young players. got to be able to finish game - weren't able to do that. need to sustain drives, manage the game. got to continue to get better.

Mona: couldn't take advantage of turnovers
PJF: we got (points off of) 2, gave one back with fumble Connor had. we have to put points on board when we get takeaways

Sid: the QB fumbled. made difference in game.
PJF: don't know if 1 play made difference. thought we played well at times. RB's had explosive plays. passing game was deficient. were planning to feature Howard, he gets knocked out of game. lack of experience to go out there and know what to do in terms of making plays. got to get young players caught up. only scored 17 points off 4 takeaways. defense did good job in getting us the ball.

Max: what did you do during weather delay?
PJF: use as meeting with offense, defense, special teams. put whole next drive together - best plays to run when we got the ball. like a staff meeting. talk about what we need to be able to do to counter what they were doing. kicker falls down on wet surface, they get a big return. they match up with a corner who's not 100% - but that's what we have left. went man (on defense), we were in zone on the prior play and they had big play, so we went back to zone. we were a foot away from having a sack.

Sid: (something about) youth of team?
PJF: it all falls on me. we are at the U of MN in the B1G. 2 FR playing on O-line - that should never happen in the B1G. those are my challenges, my issues. I knew the issues (when I took the job) - the DB situation. this is the type of job I love. running into the fire, not away from the fire. O-Line - those guys are in there and they have to play at a high level. future is bright, but future doesn't matter right now. 2 FR on O-line. lot of people in B1G don't have that.

Sid: you seemed confident with 2:26 left. pass defense not effective.
PJF: we lack a lot of depth and experience. we will continue to get better. falls on me 100%

Sid: impact of weather on game
PJF: that's part of FB - have to play outside. they did a great job getting people out of stadium. we brought our own air conditioner for locker room. everybody was safe and OK. staff did great job coming back out. biggest play was on 3rd and 4 - if we get 1st down, we can run clock out. have to kick it earlier than we wanted to.

Max: did you think about throwing it on 3rd down?
PJF: the biggest thing - make sure we take time off clock. passing game is what it is right now. we need to put players in position to be successful. using running game forces clock to continue to run, force them to use time outs. put ball in our best players' hands to get first downs, keep clock running.

Sid: you moved ball better in the 1st half. did the injuries hurt you?
PJF: there are no excuses. 0-2 in B1G. that's my responsibility to get players ready to play. the future is really bright. keep rowing the boat - (rowing the boat is) not for when times are easy - it's for when times are difficult. young players are getting experience. don't forget - last two weeks, with all the things going on, with 2 min to go, we were tied or ahead. this is part of the process.

Mona: status of howard, thomas, winfield?
PJF: too early. know more this afternoon or tomorrow. player safety is my 1st thought and priority. make sure they're OK before we put them back on field. we might have to switch positions. I will re-evaluate entire roster in terms of who can play another position. this is my FB team - how we play is my reponsibility.

Sid: you won't be able to redshirt as many players as you wanted.
PJF: sometimes you don't get what you want. have to evaluate who we can redshirt. knew it wasn't going to be easy. we're trying to re-do the entire culture, very difficult. lack of depth, experience at multiple positions. future really bright. honored to be FB coach here - do something that hasn't been done in 50 years. worried about making team better on a daily basis.

Mona: do you know if you'll get any of the injured players back for MSU?
PJF: we'll re-evaluate in the next few days. I'm going to do what I can to make sure they're healthy and back on field. if they're not, how can we get through a game to execute offense, defense. o-line, if one more person gets hurt, we could have 3 FR on line - not where you want to be in B1G. try to give players best chance to win game, and prepare for future- it's a balancing act. don't want to put a player in there who's not ready to play. but we may already have done that. have to look at (switching players to) other positions.

Sid: hope you have better luck next week. Murray's certificate.
PJF: RTB, Ski-U-Mah.
 

Thanks Short for the recap. Very much appreciated!
 


Looking forward to hearing how "it all falls on me" means PJ is throwing players under the bus.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk
 

SON, thanks!
Gotta love how PJ is owning it and staying the course. Yes, this season sucks...but I'm not jumping ship and I'm going to watch every game like I always do but I'm going to be looking for some improvement as the season wears on and the effort to play hard. If they do that I will be satisfied regardless of record because then I know things have a shot to be better the next year. If I don't then I'm going to be seriously worried about the future.
 


Looking forward to hearing how "it all falls on me" means PJ is throwing players under the bus.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk

Sid: you seemed confident with 2:26 left. pass defense not effective.
PJF: we lack a lot of depth and experience. we will continue to get better. falls on me 100%

A little backhanded acceptance of blame, don't you think?
 

Sid: you seemed confident with 2:26 left. pass defense not effective.
PJF: we lack a lot of depth and experience. we will continue to get better. falls on me 100%

A little backhanded acceptance of blame, don't you think?

Not really. Kinda suggesting they didn't develop or address the need enough to have success. I think we are realizing what the staff probably realized in the spring that this is going to be a build. This is going to take a year or two so we may as well get ready for it.
 

Sid: you seemed confident with 2:26 left. pass defense not effective.
PJF: we lack a lot of depth and experience. we will continue to get better. falls on me 100%

A little backhanded acceptance of blame, don't you think?

Have no problem with what he said this week. Last weeks referencing lack of talent was unnecessary as it essentially was saying "several of my players suck".


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PJ is making excuses. Making claims about culture that are lame. He has talent here. He's just not coaching at an elite level.
 



PJ is making excuses. Making claims about culture that are lame. He has talent here. He's just not coaching at an elite level.

Thanks son
Someone should remind PJ that Illinois started 4 freshman on the offensive line.
 


Thanks son
Someone should remind PJ that Illinois started 4 freshman on the offensive line.

MSU started two freshman on Oline vs Michigan. And two sophs. Purdue, Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin all are playing frosh on the Oline. WMU is playing a freshman on the Oline.
 








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