What the Gophers Head Coach Should Say, and How He Should Say It....

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Pete smith said:
People who are upset with year zero or year one, aren't thinking their way through the statement. When you were born, you weren't one automatically. You were zero, then 3 months, 6 months, you get the picture. I am sure PJ was thinking along those lines. Year 1 happens after experiences and growth.
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You are the one who isn't thinking. Year zero applies to a baby human because there was nothing there. First there was nothing, and then there was a baby. Fleck didn't inherit nothing. He inherited a fully formed and functional football program. If he literally built a program from scratch, like Bill Curry at Georgia St., then the year zero analogy would apply. It's just plain stupid and insulting to attempt to apply it to a Big Ten football program that has existed for 135 years.
 

I want someone who can recruit, both fans and players, to the program. The program really needs an injection of younger fans and the sustaining energy that will come from it.
Whatever his style is, if it works and it’s not hurting anyone (especially if it’s an overall positive message) it’s cool with me.
Winning must closely follow otherwise selling the program becomes hollow.
 

Be honest. That's it.

Of course, the trick is to be honest without p***ing off too many people.

I maintain that a lot of people, including myself, underestimated the difficulty of transitioning to a new system. The question is, how does the coach communicate that without sounding like he's throwing players under the bus, or making excuses.

Personally, I would rather have seen Fleck come out on day 1 and say something like, "this is going to be a transition year. the returning players will be working with a new coaching staff, and a new system. It may not go as smoothly as some fans want. I guarantee it will not go as smoothly as I want. But you have to be realistic. The coaching staff will do everything we can to help the returning players acclimate to the new system. I know the fans want a winner. I want a winner. but it may not happen as quickly as some people hope. I just want to ask the fans to have a little patience with us. We are trying to win. we will win. I just can't promise how long it will take."
 

I don't care what he says. I don't care whether he rows a boat, flies a kite or drives a convertible. He can wear a tie clasp, a scarf, painted shoes or flannel shirts. I don't care about any of that. What I care about is this: Can he coach his players so they can remain eligible, stay out of trouble and improve each week? Can he recruit an actual, honest-to-goodness Big10 quarterback who works hard, has good attitude and leadership skills, and is not afraid of the big lights. Can he get some legitimate receivers and offensive/defensive lineman to match up with Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin? Can he get his assistant coaches to impliment coherent, competent game plans? If he can do these things I will back him 100%. If he can't I will want him gone. That's it.
 

TBrew said:
I don't care what he says. I don't care whether he rows a boat, flies a kite or drives a convertible. He can wear a tie clasp, a scarf, painted shoes or flannel shirts. I don't care about any of that. What I care about is this: Can he coach his players so they can remain eligible, stay out of trouble and improve each week? Can he recruit an actual, honest-to-goodness Big10 quarterback who works hard, has good attitude and leadership skills, and is not afraid of the big lights. Can he get some legitimate receivers and offensive/defensive lineman to match up with Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin? Can he get his assistant coaches to impliment coherent, competent game plans? If he can do these things I will back him 100%. If he can't they I will want him gone. That's it.
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Common sense. Well said.
 


John Galt said:
GHers know better than anyone what a head coach should be saying at all times. This winds it's way into most threads, so I thought it would be best to have one place where PJ could learn the rules. So leave your thoughts here: how should PJ set expectations, what should and shouldn't he say about players after a loss, and what should he say publicly about culture. Since he's still learning, he will benefit greatly from the wealth of knowledgeable GHers and can then get his speeches down to a science...
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I thought this subject was exhausted before Fleck was hired, going back decades. I guess the moving target is hard to hit.

Cuteness points for the passive-agressiveness, though.
 

Let your results on the football field speak volumes over anything you can verbalize, and after you have accomplished that, you can say anything you bloody well please.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Right. They're 3-1 against teams with less talent.
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Are you going off that 247 talent composite cluster****? I don't think their talent composite looks at starters, two deep, age, etc. It appears to look at total roster including red shirts. It says we had the worst talent in the Big Ten in 2015, 3rd worst in 2016 and 2017. Basically it's a totally worthless measure -one can read about their astonishing methodology below. What really matters? Wins and losses, and performance in real games.

2017 Big-Ten College Football Team Talent Composite

IMG_0121.GIF

The Formula
Team Ranking Explanation
where c is a specific team's total number of commits and Rn is the 247Sports Composite Rating of the nth-best commit times 100.
Explanation
In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

Each recruit is weighted in the rankings according to a GAUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION FORMULA (a bell curve), where a team's best recruit is worth the most points. You can think of a team's point score as being the sum of ratings of all the team's commits where the best recruit is worth 100% of his rating value, the second best recruit is worth nearly 100% of his rating value, down to the last recruit who is worth a small fraction of his rating value. This formula ensures that all commits contribute at least some value to the team's score without heavily rewarding teams that have several more commitments than others.

Readers familiar with the Gaussian distribution formula will note that we use a varying value for σ based on the standard deviation for the total number of commits between schools for the given sport. This STANDARD DEVIATION creates a bell curve with an inflection point near the average number of players recruited per team.

Below is a graphical representation of how our formula works. You can see that the area under the curve gets smaller both as the rating for a commit decreases and as the number of total commits for a school increases. The y-axis in this graph represents the percentage weight of the score that gets applied to an overall team ranking.

IMG_0122.jpg


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LjHORRHXtyI" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Are you going off that 247 talent composite cluster****? I don't think their talent composite looks at starters, two deep, age, etc. It appears to look at total roster including red shirts. It says we had the worst talent in the Big Ten in 2015, 3rd worst in 2016 and 2017. Basically it's a totally worthless measure -one can read about their astonishing methodology below. What really matters? Wins and losses, and performance in real games.

2017 Big-Ten College Football Team Talent Composite

View attachment 5175

The Formula
Team Ranking Explanation
where c is a specific team's total number of commits and Rn is the 247Sports Composite Rating of the nth-best commit times 100.
Explanation
In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

Each recruit is weighted in the rankings according to a GAUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION FORMULA (a bell curve), where a team's best recruit is worth the most points. You can think of a team's point score as being the sum of ratings of all the team's commits where the best recruit is worth 100% of his rating value, the second best recruit is worth nearly 100% of his rating value, down to the last recruit who is worth a small fraction of his rating value. This formula ensures that all commits contribute at least some value to the team's score without heavily rewarding teams that have several more commitments than others.

Readers familiar with the Gaussian distribution formula will note that we use a varying value for σ based on the standard deviation for the total number of commits between schools for the given sport. This STANDARD DEVIATION creates a bell curve with an inflection point near the average number of players recruited per team.

Below is a graphical representation of how our formula works. You can see that the area under the curve gets smaller both as the rating for a commit decreases and as the number of total commits for a school increases. The y-axis in this graph represents the percentage weight of the score that gets applied to an overall team ranking.
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Yes you don't understand math, you've proven that time and again.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Yes you don't understand math, you've proven that time and again.
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Yes, yes...it's me that doesn't understand. Don't get upset your allegiance to recruiting rankings and ratings are questioned. Even you had to eventually admit Dantonio overachieved on the actual field. Do wins/losses or advanced stats metrics agree with the 247 composite? Nope. In 2016 we the 6th best Big Ten team per S&P+, and surprisingly 4th in 2015.

It always circles back around to the fact that while in aggregate recruiting is the number 1 factor, some coaches and programs overachieve and underachieve by various degrees. There is more than one component to success. Are we underachieving or overachieving this year? Depends how one looks at it I suppose.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Yes, yes...it's me that doesn't understand. Don't get upset your allegiance to recruiting rankings and ratings are questioned. Even you had to eventually admit Dantonio overachieved on the actual field. Do wins/losses or advanced stats metrics agree with the 247 composite? Nope. In 2016 we the 6th best Big Ten team per S&P+, and surprisingly 4th in 2015.

It always circles back around to the fact that while in aggregate recruiting is the number 1 factor, some coaches and programs overachieve and underachieve by various degrees. There is more than one component to success. Are we underachieving or overachieving this year? Depends how one looks at it I suppose.
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Yet in the other thread wins and losses absolutely correlate with these rankings, which I proved, and many other sources have proved, so again I don't know what you're trying to argue about in this thread.
 

Anyone who interacts with, agrees with, or pays attention to PE is as big a moron as she is. Stop quoting her in post, ignore list her, and life becomes so...happy.
 

I think the key is that coaches should say what the kids like. Sayings, Slogans, and Acronyms mainly. I'd go with Drake references, king of the toos, and very meaningful words like Culture when possible. Next, set the stage for the future at all times. 3, maybe even 4 years from now should be the focus at all times. That's what the kids that will only be around 2-3 years really want to hear. The Kids also like hearing they suck so coach should mention lack of talent and depth as often as possible - maybe even reference needing years to fix the disaster the team is. It's what the kids want to hear. Above all, make the kids confident in you by mentioning as many times as possible what you have done in the past. Don't let them forget. My $0.02.


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Spoofin said:
I think the key is that coaches should say what the kids like. Sayings, Slogans, and Acronyms mainly. I'd go with Drake references, king of the toos, and very meaningful words like Culture when possible. Next, set the stage for the future at all times. 3, maybe even 4 years from now should be the focus at all times. That's what the kids that will only be around 2-3 years really want to hear. The Kids also like hearing they suck so coach should mention lack of talent and depth as often as possible - maybe even reference needing years to fix the disaster the team is. It's what the kids want to hear. Above all, make the kids confident in you by mentioning as many times as possible what you have done in the past. Don't let them forget. My $0.02.


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Underlined part from Kill or Fleck?

I don't remember reading Fleck saying that. (and I listen to him a quite a bit).
 

Spoofin said:
I think the key is that coaches should say what the kids like. Sayings, Slogans, and Acronyms mainly. I'd go with Drake references, king of the toos, and very meaningful words like Culture when possible. Next, set the stage for the future at all times. 3, maybe even 4 years from now should be the focus at all times. That's what the kids that will only be around 2-3 years really want to hear. The Kids also like hearing they suck so coach should mention lack of talent and depth as often as possible - maybe even reference needing years to fix the disaster the team is. It's what the kids want to hear. Above all, make the kids confident in you by mentioning as many times as possible what you have done in the past. Don't let them forget. My $0.02.


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Imagine being this much of a snowflake.
 

grumps said:
Underlined part from Kill or Fleck?

I don't remember reading Fleck saying that. (and I listen to him a quite a bit).
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"By ’19, I will be able to fix the issues, but we will be young,” Fleck said Monday.

Close enough for us snowflakes.
#RTB


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Unless he can come up with a standup routine, I can't think of anything funnier than what he says now.

The quick little Row the Boat, Ski-U-Mah! he says at the end of every interview (every public appearance?) is priceless.
 

I'm not a fan of scripted PJ, but I like unscripted PJ. Scripted PJ comes off as a used car salesman, unscripted PJ comes off as a genuine human being.

I love that he says Ski-U-Mah all the time. Not as big of a fan of the Row the Boat (I'll never love it, but will get used to it).
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Yet in the other thread wins and losses absolutely correlate with these rankings, which I proved, and many other sources have proved, so again I don't know what you're trying to argue about in this thread.
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And round and round you go. You're literally incapable of understanding the nuances.
 

highwayman said:
Anyone who interacts with, agrees with, or pays attention to PE is as big a moron as she is. Stop quoting her in post, ignore list her, and life becomes so...happy.
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Oof, that hurts. I don't know if I'll ever recover. She!
 

Word said:
I'm not a fan of scripted PJ, but I like unscripted PJ. Scripted PJ comes off as a used car salesman, unscripted PJ comes off as a genuine human being.

I love that he says Ski-U-Mah all the time. Not as big of a fan of the Row the Boat (I'll never love it, but will get used to it).
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I think he's a pretty genuine guy who pushes a lot of marketing / branding.

Minnesotan's hate the in your face marketing, but it's probably exactly what our football program needs.
 

highwayman said:
Anyone who interacts with, agrees with, or pays attention to PE is as big a moron as she is. Stop quoting her in post, ignore list her, and life becomes so...happy.
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Attempting to insult PE by calling him a woman! Look at you go! Being referred to as a woman is like the worst insult you can give to anyone, so good job with that, you little misogynist you!
 


Face The Facts said:
I think that's fine.
I get tired of PJ's repetition on certain things, but I only see that because I listen / watch almost every show / press conference he does.
Part of that is a marketing message.
To get a message out you need to repeat it over and over again.

I hate marketing myself. But at the same time, it's necessary.

When it gets too much, I fast forward and look for the new content. Having heard him enough, when he starts talking about something I've heard before, I can almost guess how long that stories goes and just fast forward past it.
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Same here. I watch or listen to pretty much everything Gopher football related throughout the week: podcasts, press conferences, interviews, shows, etc. I think any coach would start to sound like a broken record after that much coverage. I do think that there are times when he should stick to his message, because when he gets off track he sometimes begins to contradict himself. Push the mantra, be as honest and informational as you can be, and try to stay away from the stuff that most folks probably think is getting too cute, like “year zero”. Just don’t say it anymore PJ. Don’t start saying year one either because they’ll blast you for that too. Just say THIS year.




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GopherWeatherGuy said:
No I’m very capable of understanding the nuances, we’ve discussed them about 20 times and you still don’t get it.
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Can you attempt to elucidate your position once more so us bumpkins can understand? Please go slowly.
 


Goldmember said:
Anyone who has been hurt or offended by anything PJ has said since he's been in Minnesota is being a gigantic whiney bitch.

Truth. ;)
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Huh?

I've never heard anyone who was offended by PJ. I've heard of people saying it's scripted, dumb and illogical at times. That's quite a bit different from being offended.
 

Tell the truth, but only when it coincides with what I think. Otherwise you're being too blunt and might force some babies to quit the team.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Yes, read post #1 in the thread I started that talks about this.
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Hey, you're the one that keeps bringing up a "talent composite" that counts redshirts, injured players, and others that may have never made it on the field or into the two deep as somehow relevant to what should happen on the gridiron on game day.
 

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