BleedGopher
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per Greder:
Now as Minnesota’s AD, Coyle maintained that proactive approach last week when he awarded football coach P.J. Fleck a one-year contract extension through the 2022 season. The extension, which maintains the $50,000 annual raises and will be $3.75 million that year, still needs Board of Regents approval at its Dec. 14-15 meetings.
“I felt like it was important to send P.J. a message, and it was important to send our recruits a message and send a message to our fans that we are committed to this person,” Coyle told the Pioneer Press in an interview Wednesday.
Coyle was looking ahead to this week as athletic departments across the country are firing and hiring head coaches, with domino effects expected to hit other programs now comfortable with their coach.
“His name pops up,” Coyle said of Fleck being mentioned in the rumor mill. “There is a reason.”
Coyle rattled off numbers what drew him to Fleck in the first place. At Western Michigan, Fleck went from 1-11 in 2013 to 13-1 and the Cotton Bowl in 2016, while improving the team’s grade-point average a couple of decimal points to above 3.0. “He did it the right way,” Coyle said.
“A year ago he was one of the hottest names in college athletics,” Coyle continued. “… There is a ripple effect in how those things change, and I just felt it was incredibly important that we show a commitment as an institution to our football program, a commitment to him. He’s returned that commitment back to us, which is awesome.”
While taking responsibility, Fleck also has been outspoken in sharing some of the limitations he’s seen in the ability and abundance of a few players he inherited. The Gophers’ incoming 2018 recruiting class, which Coyle mentioned in Fleck’s contract extension announcement, is now ranked 34th in the nation and tops in the seven-team Big Ten West.
During the job interview last January, Fleck warned Coyle that his eccentric style could produce some funky things on his expense reports. Fleck told his prospective new boss that there could be, say, a pirate costume on the spreadsheet at some point.
“I remember (being) like ‘What?’ ” Coyle recalled Wednesday. “He’s like, ‘Just to be creative and do things.’ ”
While Fleck’s unique tactics have included a hospital patient/friend of the program shooting a scholarship offer to walk-on kicker Justin Juenemann out of an air gun as well decorating the football complex with ornamental geese, these haven’t been surprises for Coyle.
“He always worked with us,” Coyle said. “He always kept us in the loop. He talked (during the interview) about, ‘Hey, when you bring me to Minnesota, I’m unique, I’m different.’
“We’ve … embraced that.”
http://www.twincities.com/2017/11/29...eck-extension/
Go Gophers!!
Now as Minnesota’s AD, Coyle maintained that proactive approach last week when he awarded football coach P.J. Fleck a one-year contract extension through the 2022 season. The extension, which maintains the $50,000 annual raises and will be $3.75 million that year, still needs Board of Regents approval at its Dec. 14-15 meetings.
“I felt like it was important to send P.J. a message, and it was important to send our recruits a message and send a message to our fans that we are committed to this person,” Coyle told the Pioneer Press in an interview Wednesday.
Coyle was looking ahead to this week as athletic departments across the country are firing and hiring head coaches, with domino effects expected to hit other programs now comfortable with their coach.
“His name pops up,” Coyle said of Fleck being mentioned in the rumor mill. “There is a reason.”
Coyle rattled off numbers what drew him to Fleck in the first place. At Western Michigan, Fleck went from 1-11 in 2013 to 13-1 and the Cotton Bowl in 2016, while improving the team’s grade-point average a couple of decimal points to above 3.0. “He did it the right way,” Coyle said.
“A year ago he was one of the hottest names in college athletics,” Coyle continued. “… There is a ripple effect in how those things change, and I just felt it was incredibly important that we show a commitment as an institution to our football program, a commitment to him. He’s returned that commitment back to us, which is awesome.”
While taking responsibility, Fleck also has been outspoken in sharing some of the limitations he’s seen in the ability and abundance of a few players he inherited. The Gophers’ incoming 2018 recruiting class, which Coyle mentioned in Fleck’s contract extension announcement, is now ranked 34th in the nation and tops in the seven-team Big Ten West.
During the job interview last January, Fleck warned Coyle that his eccentric style could produce some funky things on his expense reports. Fleck told his prospective new boss that there could be, say, a pirate costume on the spreadsheet at some point.
“I remember (being) like ‘What?’ ” Coyle recalled Wednesday. “He’s like, ‘Just to be creative and do things.’ ”
While Fleck’s unique tactics have included a hospital patient/friend of the program shooting a scholarship offer to walk-on kicker Justin Juenemann out of an air gun as well decorating the football complex with ornamental geese, these haven’t been surprises for Coyle.
“He always worked with us,” Coyle said. “He always kept us in the loop. He talked (during the interview) about, ‘Hey, when you bring me to Minnesota, I’m unique, I’m different.’
“We’ve … embraced that.”
http://www.twincities.com/2017/11/29...eck-extension/
Go Gophers!!
