Coughlin: There's no coach I believe in more than Fleck. Seen incredible change

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,566
Reaction score
15,640
Points
113
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 


Kid is just consistent in his use of social media to help make his team better. This is the same kid that basically helped recruit most of the MN 2016 kids after committing himself. Why not in a timely manner vocalize/socialize your support for the team when it might be impactful to team chemistry now and help recruiting kids that could help the team be better next year as well.
 

Here are the rest of the presser notes, will add the videos in a few...

P.J. Fleck:
• I don't mention it until you're bowl eligible - if that's going to be our only focus here, that's not why I came. I came for something way bigger. We're going to build this, and dig this the right way…OUR way. That's the way we do it, that's the only way we know how to do it.
• Not one person has whined or complained about the injuries or lack of depth.
• We develop WR's by break points, catching, release elements…
• 2nd quarter - putting in Demry? As a HC, you have to make decision. We talked as a staff on Friday night to put him in to get him some experience. It came at the right time…he came in and threw an interception, but he learned from that and came back out and did what we did. We don't have Rhoda in the 1st 3 games, we don't win those first 3 games. Demry kept taking advantage of every opportunity
• What did we learn against Buffalo? Anyone can beat you. I don't think we deserved to win that football game, we did.
• MTSU - we learned trust.
• Maryland game - when we get out played and out scraped, we're going to get beat.
• Purdue - we learned how to finish games and how people finish us. We learned about finish. They stepped on us and smeared it into the carpet.
• MSU - Belief - to come back from being down the way they were, there was a lot of believe out there.
• It's kind of like playing 2 years out there in 6 games. Teach your teams every single minute.
• I'm not going to get into too many injuries and depth chart - we need to get ready.
Carter Coughlin:
• I think we started out really slow, if we would have continued that, it would have been a really devastating defeat. We need to come out slinging right out of the gates
• 6 games - Every single game I'm able to play faster. The coaches have put me in better positions to use my skillset, I love the position, and it's getting a lot more easy to play as we go on.
• Energy has never been an issue for us. I think we come out and are energetic. A lot of different things we've been missing is focusing on the details. How is the most important thing…our how has been there.
• We just started learning about the IL offense, they can run the ball. If it was tomorrow I can give you a better answer, I'm going to watch some film.
• Coach Fleck talks about guys needing to be able to play, we need to step up. Everyone just needs to make sure they're doing their job.
• I've been able to hold my weight, just not gain weight like I'd like to. I want to be 240 now, but I'm sitting at 225lbs. I'm on a new weight program to help get my weight up, at least I haven't been dipping.
• Patience? Personally for me, it's not. There's no coach I believe in more than Coach Fleck. His track record holds up. I've seen an incredible change in myself as a man and as a player.
 

Here are the rest of the presser notes, will add the videos in a few...

P.J. Fleck:
• I don't mention it until you're bowl eligible - if that's going to be our only focus here, that's not why I came. I came for something way bigger. We're going to build this, and dig this the right way…OUR way. That's the way we do it, that's the only way we know how to do it.
• Not one person has whined or complained about the injuries or lack of depth.
• We develop WR's by break points, catching, release elements…
• 2nd quarter - putting in Demry? As a HC, you have to make decision. We talked as a staff on Friday night to put him in to get him some experience. It came at the right time…he came in and threw an interception, but he learned from that and came back out and did what we did. We don't have Rhoda in the 1st 3 games, we don't win those first 3 games. Demry kept taking advantage of every opportunity
• What did we learn against Buffalo? Anyone can beat you. I don't think we deserved to win that football game, we did.
• MTSU - we learned trust.
• Maryland game - when we get out played and out scraped, we're going to get beat.
• Purdue - we learned how to finish games and how people finish us. We learned about finish. They stepped on us and smeared it into the carpet.
• MSU - Belief - to come back from being down the way they were, there was a lot of believe out there.
• It's kind of like playing 2 years out there in 6 games. Teach your teams every single minute.
• I'm not going to get into too many injuries and depth chart - we need to get ready.
Carter Coughlin:
• I think we started out really slow, if we would have continued that, it would have been a really devastating defeat. We need to come out slinging right out of the gates
• 6 games - Every single game I'm able to play faster. The coaches have put me in better positions to use my skillset, I love the position, and it's getting a lot more easy to play as we go on.
• Energy has never been an issue for us. I think we come out and are energetic. A lot of different things we've been missing is focusing on the details. How is the most important thing…our how has been there.
• We just started learning about the IL offense, they can run the ball. If it was tomorrow I can give you a better answer, I'm going to watch some film.
• Coach Fleck talks about guys needing to be able to play, we need to step up. Everyone just needs to make sure they're doing their job.
• I've been able to hold my weight, just not gain weight like I'd like to. I want to be 240 now, but I'm sitting at 225lbs. I'm on a new weight program to help get my weight up, at least I haven't been dipping.
• Patience? Personally for me, it's not. There's no coach I believe in more than Coach Fleck. His track record holds up. I've seen an incredible change in myself as a man and as a player.

TY
 


Here are the rest of the presser notes, will add the videos in a few...

P.J. Fleck:
• I don't mention it until you're bowl eligible - if that's going to be our only focus here, that's not why I came. I came for something way bigger. We're going to build this, and dig this the right way…OUR way. That's the way we do it, that's the only way we know how to do it.
Not one person has whined or complained about the injuries or lack of depth.
• We develop WR's by break points, catching, release elements…
• 2nd quarter - putting in Demry? As a HC, you have to make decision. We talked as a staff on Friday night to put him in to get him some experience. It came at the right time…he came in and threw an interception, but he learned from that and came back out and did what we did. We don't have Rhoda in the 1st 3 games, we don't win those first 3 games. Demry kept taking advantage of every opportunity
• What did we learn against Buffalo? Anyone can beat you. I don't think we deserved to win that football game, we did.
• MTSU - we learned trust.
• Maryland game - when we get out played and out scraped, we're going to get beat.
• Purdue - we learned how to finish games and how people finish us. We learned about finish. They stepped on us and smeared it into the carpet.
• MSU - Belief - to come back from being down the way they were, there was a lot of believe out there.
• It's kind of like playing 2 years out there in 6 games. Teach your teams every single minute.
• I'm not going to get into too many injuries and depth chart - we need to get ready.
Carter Coughlin:
• I think we started out really slow, if we would have continued that, it would have been a really devastating defeat. We need to come out slinging right out of the gates
• 6 games - Every single game I'm able to play faster. The coaches have put me in better positions to use my skillset, I love the position, and it's getting a lot more easy to play as we go on.
• Energy has never been an issue for us. I think we come out and are energetic. A lot of different things we've been missing is focusing on the details. How is the most important thing…our how has been there.
• We just started learning about the IL offense, they can run the ball. If it was tomorrow I can give you a better answer, I'm going to watch some film.
• Coach Fleck talks about guys needing to be able to play, we need to step up. Everyone just needs to make sure they're doing their job.
• I've been able to hold my weight, just not gain weight like I'd like to. I want to be 240 now, but I'm sitting at 225lbs. I'm on a new weight program to help get my weight up, at least I haven't been dipping.
• Patience? Personally for me, it's not. There's no coach I believe in more than Coach Fleck. His track record holds up. I've seen an incredible change in myself as a man and as a player.

...
 

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 


Kid is just consistent in his use of social media to help make his team better. This is the same kid that basically helped recruit most of the MN 2016 kids after committing himself. Why not in a timely manner vocalize/socialize your support for the team when it might be impactful to team chemistry now and help recruiting kids that could help the team be better next year as well.

Yup, great leader!
 



Been a big fan of Carter's ever since he called his "Pop Pop" to tell him he's coming to the U. What an awesome kid.
 

Here's the full transcript:

Coach P.J. Fleck Press Conference, Oct. 17, 2017
COACH FLECK: Hi everybody. Thank you very much for
being here. As always, appreciate all the coverage. I know
you've got a lot of sports to cover right now. So
appreciate that very much. And thanks for covering our
players and our team.
So with that, I'll open it up for questions.
Q: Coach, you talk a lot about connecting with people.
What does homecoming do in that kind of environment to try and do that?
COACH FLECK: I think homecoming is about connecting, right? The past, present and future.
And I think it's a very special time on anybody's campus, especially here at the University of
Minnesota where it's the only major Division 1 football program in the entire state, right? So I
think it's very important to get our past back here and mix with our present and then obviously
set the tone for the future as well. Very important.
Q: P.J., you're with the kids obviously in winter conditioning, spring ball all through this. When
and what do you say as far as bowl games? When -- does that come up? What do you say?
When do you talk to them about it?
COACH FLECK: I don't mention it until you're bowl-eligible. And then you probably mention it
for about ten seconds, then you move on. It's really -- if that's going to be our only focus here,
that's not why I came, you know. I came for something way bigger. And sometimes you've got
to sacrifice things to be able to get to those. Sometimes you don't have to sacrifice a lot. It just
depends on what presents itself in the first year. It's been 50 years since we've won a Big Ten
championship. And that's why I came here. And there's different avenues of that happening.
There's a process and progress to that. And every day that's all I know how to do is get better
than the day we were before. And whatever challenges and whatever opportunities come their
way on a daily basis, you attack them and you attack them head-on. And that's what I love
about this football team. They've never shied away from what we haven't done. They've just
continued to put their head down and get better. Not one person in here has whined or
complained about the injuries. Not everybody in that -- one person here has whined or
complained about the lack of depth. We've just gone. And when it's been your chance, you've
taken advantage of it. A guy like Mark Williams is a perfect example, right, a guy that wasn't
even here for the first four months of the tenure, didn't even practice in training camp and now
he's our starting F. Played quarterback in high school. So it's that transition and that
progression as you continue to go. But I've never talked about bowl games until you are
bowl-eligible, but that's not going to be our main focus here. We're going to do what we have
to do to build this and dig this, dig it the right way -- our way I should say. That's not saying
other people's weren't the right way. The right way. I've got to be careful with that. I'm saying
our way is the way we do it, that I only know how to do it our way.
Q: When you -- refresh me. When you moved Mark to wide receiver, did you see something
that you thought might transfer or what was the process there?
COACH FLECK: Yeah, it was either keep him at quarterback, put him at defensive back or make
him a wideout. And where I kind of saw a lot of lack of depth was either DB or wideout. And
then when I started watching his characteristics of what he'd be able to do, I thought he'd be
suited more for wide receiver in terms of his physical development and his twitch, his
explosion. He caught the ball really well. And I thought that he brought some size to our unit in
terms of our wide receiver unit. But that's why I put him there. And I'm glad we did. And we
haven't had a lot of time to work with him, but you watch the speed route he runs, I mean, he's
open by seven yards, that's a tough route to get open on and he runs it perfectly. And Matt
Simon deserves a lot of credit for our wide receivers. I mean, Demetrius Douglas, true
freshman, is out, hasn't played since the game, third game, right? And then you have Phillip
Howard who's a freshman, who is out. And then the next one is Mark Williams and he goes in
there and plays like he's been here a while. So it's a credit to Matt Simon how he develops
those wide receivers very quickly.
Q: What's it like for a guy just to learn how to run routes? I mean, it --
COACH FLECK: It's a progression. Remember what we do is -- you know, one thing that I take a
lot of pride in is how we develop wide receivers. You know, we develop them by breakpoints,
there's blocking elements, there's breakpoint elements, there's catching elements, there's
release elements. There's all these things that you have to learn and it takes a while. So -- hey
buddy. My man. Yep.
Q: How good are his hands?
COACH FLECK: They're good. I think he continues to develop them. You know, hands are
something that I think you can develop. We have a very strategic way of developing hands. It's
really hand-eye coordination. Catching the football is not just catching the ball. You ever hear
coaches around the country say: Hey, catch the darn ball. That's not called coaching, right?
That's called identifying, right? But the big thing for us is it's where your hands are going to
meet the ball at a certain point, right? So the hand-eye coordination is everything, developing
that hand-eye coordination. You know, we have a lot of hockey goalie drills that we do for
hand-eye coordination. We have over 120 different ball drills that our players can choose from
to use in different aspects of where they're at in their development. But I think they can get a
lot better to be honest with you. I think he's shown he can catch it. But again, being in a game
and catching them, you know, being your first time playing the position, he's got good hands
but now as he continues to fail, he'll grow, when he succeeds, he'll grow. He'll continue to take
all these lessons that he's learning from every game and build on them.
Q: Coach, in the second quarter, can you run through your decision-making again on the
decision to put in Demry in the second quarter?
COACH FLECK: Yeah, you know, as a head football coach you've got to make decisions as you
kind of go forward. We talked as a staff on Friday night about possibly playing Demry at some
point to get him some experience. When that would come, we didn't know. And it wasn't going
to come necessarily at a bad situation or a bad time in the game. It just came at the right time
where I feel like I had to be able to give him an opportunity to show what he could do and he
comes in and throws an interception. Why does he throw an interception? He doesn't step up
in the pocket, hand gets hit, ball floats in the air and they pick it off. But he learned from that,
came back out and did what he did, right? But again, it was the opportunity. There were so
many things that went on. You know, if we don't have Conor Rhoda the first three games, we
don't win the first three games. We're so close too. And when you have a quarterback who's
learning from his failing and growing but everybody doesn't want him to fail to grow, they just
want him to succeed and grow, that's not realistic. Demry's going to be the same way, you
know, if he has the opportunity to play, that he's not going to have -- you know, everybody's
going to want him to be perfect, right? He's not going to be perfect ever, right? He's going to
have to continue to fail and grow. And that's part of playing quarterbacks who haven't played
before. And you have to understand that as a head football coach. You know, we fumble a snap
right off the bat. We go from first and four. And then I think it's second and goal from the nine.
Well, next thing you know, now you've got to pass it, you know, and takes you out of kind of
what you want to do inside the five. Then we hand the ball off. We're not supposed to hand the
ball off on that particular play to the speed-sweep guy. We do. We fumble. He's not ready for it.
We drop a snap, you know. And we go from second and five to third and 12. And then we don't
bring a guy across in motion in a three-by-one. It's a two-by-two. And so I just felt like I had to
make a decision in terms of: Okay, I need to settle Conor down. And then while I'm doing that
give Demry an opportunity. And then he went in there and did really well, so I give him another
opportunity, then he took advantage of that. Then give him another opportunity and he
brought us back. So we got a lot of work to do, though. And one thing, I'm proud of this team.
They continue to get better. They went out there and got better today as a team. And that's all
you can ask of them.
Q: What did you see from Demry and Conor this week at practice?
COACH FLECK: Well, the same thing I've seen them from, competition always with each other,
not against. They're continually making each other better. And I expect them to do that. As
leaders of the football team, especially Conor, he's got a ton of reps today and he was very
positive and opportunistic about what his skill set is. Demry was the same way. This is a
competition with each other. This is an ability to make each other better. They know that we
could possibly need to continue to keep playing both of them at some point throughout the
year, so we both have to -- we have to get them both ready. And they know that. And they are
handling it in a very mature way because I haven't necessarily told them what we're doing.
Q: P.J., as far as holding off on declaring your starter, is it more to keep Illinois guessing or that
you really want to see more how they do during this coming week?
COACH FLECK: Yeah, I want to continue to watch them perform, you know. And hopefully by
tomorrow I'm narrowing it down closer so we can get the reps more for somebody else. But
they did a good job of splitting reps today. And so that's kind of where we're at right now.
Q: With your injury situation on the line, you're shuffling guys, does it help to have a
quarterback that can make something out of nothing if you have a bunch of plays there?
COACH FLECK: I think it helps. It helps. I think you got to look at you like to have it all, right? You
would love to have a quarterback that can chuck it down the field, you would love to have a
quarterback that can run, that's had four years of experience, smart, knows the offense,
mastered the offense, we've already been here four years. You like to have all those things,
Chip. But it does give an element that's different, that you can be able to create a second play.
This is not by any means a comparison. So please do not sit there and say: P.J., compared them
to this. This is an example of what I mean. Johnny Manziel, when you watched him play at
Texas A&M, it was the ability to -- half of his plays, maybe more than half of his plays were the
second play. He got out of the pocket, he created something, right? And those are things that
you don't necessarily teach. I mean, that play Demry makes on the sideline where he looks like
he's going out of bounds and tippy-toes, that's balance, that's creativeness or creativity and
those are hidden yardage that you don't sit there and say: Okay, well, we have to call the exact
right play on the exact right down on the exact right circumstance of the exact right situation
and make it work perfectly to move the ball. And that kind of gives the ability for that to
happen. So I was really proud of the progress he made that way. But again, we've got to
constantly continue to move forward to get better.
Q: Coach, when you talked about the six messages from the first six games, did you get any
feedback from the players about what they thought of those and kind of what their
messages or --
COACH FLECK: Yeah, they said them.
Q: They did?
COACH FLECK: Yeah, we had a team meeting on Sunday. And what we did was we talked about
embracing our pasts to create our future. After the game, I told them in the locker room: We're
drawing a line the sand. First half of the season is over, the second half of the season is here. I
mean, this is kind of sarcastic and joking a little bit, but really half the people that played in the
first half aren't even playing in the second half of the season, right? So when you start to look at
this is a whole new season. And what I asked them to do was: Let's talk about all the things we
learned in the first half of the season from every game, specifically. Give me one thing, and
we'll all agree on it as a team, one thing from every game that we learned that we can sit there
and say: We are weathered, right, we're experienced. We gained as much experience and
squeezed all the juice from that orange we possibly can instead of ignoring it and moving on.
The Buffalo game, we learned that anybody can beat us. I didn't think we deserved to win that
football game. We did, but anybody can beat us when we're not at our best. And we found that
came all the way down to the wire against a Mid-American Conference school whose turned
out to be a pretty good football team in that conference.
Oregon State, we learned that emotion, right, and focus is critical. That was the most emotion
I've ever seen this team play with, practice, scrimmage, game. Oregon State game, that team
was emotional, right? Every play everybody was in it for each other. The offense inspired the
defense, the defense inspired the offense, special teams connected them. That was a complete
game, right? And it was based on the emotion of that football team, that you need that in this
game. There is some -- like there is some sports you don't need that emotion. It's actually
frowned upon if you have that emotion in certain sports. Football is one you have to have that.
Middle Tennessee, we learned adversity and trust. We had some things happen in our program
where I had to make decisions in terms of not having people here that didn't do the right thing.
If I can't trust you, then you're going to have to pay a price. And if you can't do the things the
program demands you to do in the right way, then we're going to have some adversity that
we're going to have to be able to face. A lot of guys started getting hurt and being done for the
year at that point, so we had a lot of adversity thrown our way, and we ended up beating a
team 34 to 3. So we can even overcome that, right?
The Maryland game, when we get outplayed and out-scrapped and somebody does that to us,
we're going to get beat. What makes us special and what makes this team going to be really
good is how hard we play. And we don't have a ton of depth, we don't have a ton of
experience, but we can control how hard we play. And if we lose that, we're going to get beat.
And that's how Maryland beat us.
Purdue, we learned how to finish games, and we learned how people finish us. We learned
about finish, all right. So we were up 17-16 with two minutes to go: We finished. No, we didn't.
We got finished. And then they just smeared it on, smeared it, like stepped on it and just
rubbed it into the carpet, right? And that we got finished. So we knew what that was like; to be
that close to finishing a game but then also be finished. That's an experience.
And then the Michigan State game; belief. The way those players were able to come back from
being down the way they were and just continue to fight, and scrap and claw and not let the
circumstance dictate their behavior. There was a lot of belief out there with a lot of people that
I can't say shouldn't believe in themselves yet. But with the youth and inexperience they have,
they probably don't, but they did, and they showed what they can do. So I made this example
with the team. It's kind of like playing two years already with six games. With all of that
experience and this roller coaster ride, right, it was a tale of two of cities, the best of times and
the worst of times, right? What have we learned and how can we apply it? That's as an
educator and teacher what you have to do as a head football coach; teach your teams lessons
every single minute, every single day, coach everything. And there is a lot of moments to coach
them. So long answer to your question, Andy, but we definitely covered that. But the players
came up with those.
Q: How do you harness and recreate that energy that you've showed at times?
COACH FLECK: Well, I think it's just consistency. You know, sometimes we made huge strides
and then we'd lose five or six guys that have made those strides and then we've got to now
catch the other people up. So instead of you're just catching people up, you're not necessarily
mastering that position yet, and developing in that position, you're just getting them caught up
because you have a scout team. There's a lot of people that are playing scout team that are
now starters for us. So they have missed all of those training camp reps, they have missed all of
those first half of the season reps because they have been on scout team. We have a scout
team issue in terms of numbers right now. But that's college football. That's the fun of it. If
there's no problems, there's no jobs.
Q: P.J., in a Big Ten giving up about 215 years a game rushing, are teams attacking you where
you're vulnerable where they're commenting there?
COACH FLECK: Well, I think if you look at last game, most of their run was where our perimeter
runs, right? We're pretty low and depleted in the secondary in terms of numbers and
experience. So they game-planned us exactly the way I would have game-planned us for that
particular game. And then we made adjustments to be able to stop that. Then you're softer in
the middle, right, and then you expose yourself to a play action passing game at times. So
you've got to be able to continue to mix it up, keep them guessing. But again, coaches are really
smart. Everybody game-plans each other. But a top-20 opponent, there are no moral victories,
but, you know, you're an onside kick away from getting the ball back and tying or winning,
right? So we're really close with all the challenges and opportunities we've had this year where
the kids continue to fight. I'm so proud of their efforts. I'm so proud of how hard they work. I'm
so proud of how they come to practice, the engagement they have and the connection that
they're having with each other and the next-man-up mentality.
Q: P.J., the team wins three in a row, does that impact some recruits, I mean, in the recruiting
process when you lose three in a row, does that impact some recruits in the recruiting process?
COACH FLECK: I've always had this philosophy. Even when we were 13-0 at Western Michigan,
this year has nothing to do with next year; nothing. Last year had nothing to do with this year,
completely different team. And I think recruits see that. And that's the way that I always looked
at it as a recruit, that I can't handle, I can't control anything that's going on there. But I can
control what happens in the future. And I think that excites people.
Q: You constantly talk about changing your best and feel like Thomas Barber is somebody's
who's kind of exemplified that. It seems like every single game he continues to get better.
COACH FLECK: Yeah, I would agree.
Q: What have you kind of seen out of him? Has he grown in not coming out on the field or in his
leadership qualities, or what have you been seeing out of Thomas?
COACH FLECK: Yeah, the challenge we've had is we've kind of force-fed leadership down
people's throats this year. Like: Listen, I know you haven't played much, let alone have you not
played much, you haven't led much, well, here it comes, all of it's going to be jammed right at
you, like: Here we go. And that's one thing we've done with Thomas. I think he's handled that
really well. I think he's matured very quickly; maybe faster than he's supposed to mature or
wanted to mature. He's had to mature because the demands of this team need him to be that
way. And I think he's learning as he goes. But I think as he grows, you're going to see a really,
really special player and a special person and a special leader into the feature.
Q: Is he on the council?
COACH FLECK: He is.
Q: You have the third fewest sacks in the Big Ten, how do you manufacture more pressure?
COACH FLECK: Well, one things affects another thing, right? Everybody wants one thing but
then you've got a consequence on the back end. So if we bring in more pressure, the secondary
that we have, now we're in man coverage. And they're like: Well, you already know you have
the secondary you have and your injuries, why would you go man coverage that much? So
you've got to mix it up. You've got to kind of go back and forth. We've got to be able to get
pressure with our front four. I think a lot of people have done a great job in quick game, get the
ball out. If you see the first four games, our quarterback pressures were higher than they have
ever been, right, and quarterback hurries getting the ball out. That's why so many people were
doing quick game earlier in the year. And now people are doing more play action, running the
ball a little bit more, on the perimeter. So we've got to go back and we've got to make sure we
do get pressure on the quarterback but mix it up. Can't just say we're going to do this the whole
game and leave our secondary with no help, especially as we continue to play better and better
receivers as we continue to go through the league play. So that's the challenge. It's the balance
of having both, being able to mix up five-man, six-man pressures and still being able to get
there with three or four.
Q: What's the potential of Justus Harris…
COACH FLECK: Justus' playing for sure. Rey asked this -- I'm not doing anything yet. It's his
birthday today. Happy birthday, Rey Rey. You're not -- you're still a redshirt.
Q: Is there any chance of getting the guys who are out, any of those guys that are out back this
week?
COACH FLECK: You know, what I'm going to do, I'll give you this. We had some more injuries
this past week that will affect us this week. But I'm not going to get into a lot of injuries in
probably depth chart probably much longer throughout the entire year because I've got to
make some decisions. I've got to be able to be creative, if that's the right word for it. But
whoever goes out there has got to do the job. And we'll get them as ready as we possibly can to
be able to make sure they do that.
Q: Coach, now you've had a chance to watch the film of the last game. What specifically did you
like about Demry's game the fourth quarter?
COACH FLECK: Well, I thought he executed the offense really well. And then I thought he was in
really good rhythm. You know, he knew when to get out of the pocket and go -- because that's
one thing, when you have a running quarterback or a guy can run, I should say, sometimes you
worry he's just going to run, right? Just get back there and take off. That's not what he did. He
got back there, went through his progressions. He did a great job of pocket awareness. I
thought he slid in the pocket really well except for the first interception he threw. And we were
able to coach him back up on that. Listen, all you got to do is step up in the pocket. And that
guy's not an issue anymore. And so, again, he's learning. But I liked his pocket awareness, his
accuracy of the balls he delivered I thought were really, really accurate and catchable footballs.
And I thought he did a really good job with the tempo and running the offense in a very
manageable time. All those other things, if I got through everything else, maybe you wouldn't
understand it. But that's what I thought he did really well. And that's not anything to you. That's
just -- those are the things I think he did really well. In terms of specific plays within the play, I
thought he did really great things in between there. That might sound like a different language
if I talk to you that way, but those are the things I thought he did really well. And really keeping
the next play alive, the second play.
Q: What do you see from Illinois?
COACH FLECK: First of all, Lovie Smith, I think he's one of the best football coaches that have
coached in the game, you know, Super Bowl coach. He's well respected in our coaching
community. He's doing all the right things at Illinois. He's playing 14, 15 freshmen. And if you
see us even next year, that's what we'll look like. I told you we're going to get younger before
we get more experience. That's what next year will look like for us in terms of what they have
on the roster and how young they really are. But I will say this, they play incredibly hard. He's
doing it with high school players. He's doing it with freshmen. He's letting them fail. He's letting
them grow. He's letting them be able to have all of those experiences right away. And they are
maybe not getting the win results they want up to this point, but those kids are getting better
and better every single week. They are very athletic on defense. They play a lot of people on
defense. On offense, Jeff George, Jr., he's like his dad, but he's got a heck of an arm now. He
can chuck it around the yard. They have got young receivers who are very athletic. Number 4
had I think five catches, 120 yards against Rutgers who went up and over people, made huge
plays, a young guy for them, very young offensive line, but very good, very big. So they are on
their way. It's just those are the growing pains that you kind of just say: Okay, well, we're going
to kind of rebuild this our way. And that's the choice he's made, and they're very, very -- they're
a tough football team that is learning how to play the game every single week better and
better.
Q: Nate Umlor, what do you see from him throughout practice with the -- kind of throw him in
that?
COACH FLECK: We play a five technique, right? So a lot of times he's matched up in between
the tight end and the tackle. And there's times he can be double-teamed. There are times
where there is a single block with a tight end against him. Winston is our other five technique.
Winston is 240 pounds. Nate Umlor is close to 280 pounds. And there is a difference when
people start running power and gap schemes with you of washing a 240-pound double-team
with tackle and tight end washing a 240-pound man in and down rather than a 280-pound
longer guy. And we saw that he could play early. We saw that he has the how, he's got the
strength, he's big enough to be able to do that up front. So that's why we're playing him as a
true freshman, to rotate him in there with Winston and get the most out of him. But he's a kid
we got committed to us at Western Michigan. I've known him for close to two years now. His
future's incredibly bright here at Minnesota, I mean, incredibly bright. He was one that I wish
we could have hold on to, at redshirt, but we had to be able to play him.
Q: As he gets older and bigger, is he a guy you can move around?
COACH FLECK: See, it depends, right? He's only 18 years old, right? And he's 280 pounds. I
could see him being 290 pounds moving inside with the athleticism and twitch andlength he
has. But again, right now that's where he fits in terms of with what we have and the depth we
have.
COACH FLECK: Appreciate it. Row the Boat. Ski U Mah. Go Gophers. Thank you.
 

Wow kid is playing at 225. Just so small to be out there but he is playing pretty well. If he ever gets to 250-255 he's going to be a beast!
 




Top Bottom