Athlon: Ranking All 130 College Football Head Coaches for 2018 (47. P.J. Fleck, MN)

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,728
Reaction score
16,023
Points
113
per Athlon:

47. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota

Minnesota just missed out on a bowl in Fleck's first season in 2017, finishing 5-7 with three losses by seven points or less. There's no shortage of optimism in Minneapolis with Fleck guiding the program, as Minnesota inked the No. 36 signing class for 2018 -- the program's highest mark over the last five years. Additionally, Fleck seems to be following a similar track to what he accomplished at Western Michigan. After a 1-11 debut in 2013, the Broncos showed steady improvement with back-to-back 8-5 seasons and bowl trips, followed by a breakout 13-1 mark and an appearance in the Cotton Bowl in '16. Fleck has Minnesota trending in the right direction, with six victories and a bowl trip within reach this fall.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/ranking-all-130-college-football-head-coaches-2018

Go Gophers!!
 


except Fleck out recruited his MAC brethren and his chances of doing the same in the Big Ten in a 3-4 year span is seemingly impossible. 2018 season hope - a football is an odd shaped ball and can do crazy things.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Athlon:

47. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota

Minnesota just missed out on a bowl in Fleck's first season in 2017, finishing 5-7 with three losses by seven points or less. There's no shortage of optimism in Minneapolis with Fleck guiding the program, as Minnesota inked the No. 36 signing class for 2018 -- the program's highest mark over the last five years. Additionally, Fleck seems to be following a similar track to what he accomplished at Western Michigan. After a 1-11 debut in 2013, the Broncos showed steady improvement with back-to-back 8-5 seasons and bowl trips, followed by a breakout 13-1 mark and an appearance in the Cotton Bowl in '16. Fleck has Minnesota trending in the right direction, with six victories and a bowl trip within reach this fall.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/ranking-all-130-college-football-head-coaches-2018

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

the full list:

2 - Urban Meyer
7 - Mark Dantonio
8 - James Franklin
9 - Jim Harbaugh
18 - Pat Fitzgerald
22 - Paul Chryst
23 - Scott Frost
27 - Kirk Ferentz
33 - Jeff Brohm
47 - PJ Fleck
61 - DJ Durkin
99 - Chris Ash
100 - Tom Allen
102 - Lovie Smith

So, yeah. There you have it. 10th in the Big ten, 6th in the west. Of course you have to consider the source, and realize that this list and $3.50 will get you a small cup of coffee at Starbucks:

For those who care, their "methodology"(if you can call it that) is overly broad and even more broadly vague. Essentially this feels more like a popularity contest.

"Everything is considered. This is not simply a list of coaches ranked by accomplishment or wins. While those aspects are important, it doesn’t provide a complete picture of how successful coaches are. Winning 10 games at Alabama is different than winning 10 games at Kentucky. Also, every program has a different amount of resources available. Hierarchy in college football also plays a vital role in how successful programs are. It's always easier for programs with more built-in advantages to contend for a national title on a more consistent basis.

Success with any college football team starts with coaching. Even if a program doesn't have the resources of the nation's elite jobs, a good coach can elevate a program into national title contention. However, similar to any position on the field, statistics may not tell the full story when judging a coaching tenure.

Every team has different built-in resources available, and hierarchy in college football also plays a vital role in how successful programs are. Those factors, along with career biography/resume, success in developing talent and landing prospects on the recruiting trail factored into the ranking. Additionally, how well programs value staff (is the head coach better as a CEO or hands-on approach) and the facilities or program resources matter into forming an outlook of how coaches have performed at different stops throughout their career.

Again, wins and the overall body of work to this point are important. But our rankings also take into account a blank slate. If you start a program from scratch, which coach would you hire knowing what they have accomplished so far and their career trajectory? Remember, you don't get the assistants -- only the head coach. And head-to-head wins or last year's position in the 130 coach list do not matter for this ranking."
 

What has Harbaugh done at Michigan?

I can only agree that PJ FLeck at the moment is firmly entrenched in 6th place. I rank the current coaches this way without a game played in 2018. The top five is a tossup.

Chryst
Ferentz
Fitzgerald
Brohm
Frost
Fleck
Smith
 


Where does his pay rank....28th.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
 

Some of the local sports guys in Columbus, OH (where I live) were recently discussing this very topic. They had Fleck at #9. I do not recall the entirety of their rankings, but here's my recap: OSU, MSU, PSU, NU, MI, WI, _, _, MINN, _, _,.....
 

Fair enough. MN and any coach there has to prove it first to get a ranking.
 

Scott Frost 23rd. He is bringing in lots of JC transfers and bagging some 4* recruits. he should be in the race for the West by '19 and be winning it fairly regularly thereafter.
 



Great Plains Gopher said:
Scott Frost 23rd. He is bringing in lots of JC transfers and bagging some 4* recruits. he should be in the race for the West by '19 and be winning it fairly regularly thereafter.
Click to expand...

Generally said every Neb fan about every coach since Osborne ....
 

Looking at B1G West cadre of coaches with the addition of Brohm, Fleck, and Frost, you have some interesting possibilities of a shakeup.

Will Wisconsin still dominate or have a misstep? NW & Fitzgerald just had a brand new spanking facility built, and will probably ratchet up their level of recruiting. Frost is bringing his NE legacy and UCF momentum. Ferentz is rock solid down in Iowa for years always at the cusp.

It will be a challenging jail break out of 6th place for the Gophers. In spite of PJ Fleck's success at WMU, he is facing the coaching gig of his life. Patience is virtue. But, the clock is a ticking. Recruiting has been phenomenal for what Gopher fans have seen relative to history. However, he has not been able to close the deal yet on true elite players like Quinn Carroll to get to the next tier of competition.

If anybody can do it, it will be PJ Fleck. The margin of error is rather small though. The other teams aren't going to take it lying down. For the foreseeable future, will the recruiting wars get nasty? We have to be patient and see where this new set of coaching staff take us.
 


hungan1 said:
Looking at B1G West cadre of coaches with the addition of Brohm, Fleck, and Frost, you have some interesting possibilities of a shakeup.

Will Wisconsin still dominate or have a misstep? NW & Fitzgerald just had a brand new spanking facility built, and will probably ratchet up their level of recruiting. Frost is bringing his NE legacy and UCF momentum. Ferentz is rock solid down in Iowa for years always at the cusp.

It will be a challenging jail break out of 6th place for the Gophers. In spite of PJ Fleck's success at WMU, he is facing the coaching gig of his life. Patience is virtue. But, the clock is a ticking. Recruiting has been phenomenal for what Gopher fans have seen relative to history. However, he has not been able to close the deal yet on true elite players like Quinn Carroll to get to the next tier of competition.

If anybody can do it, it will be PJ Fleck. The margin of error is rather small though. The other teams aren't going to take it lying down. For the foreseeable future, will the recruiting wars get nasty? We have to be patient and see where this new set of coaching staff take us.
Click to expand...

Everything changes once Pay to Play is installed in the next 5 years. The last sea change was the scholarship change of 1992 that cuffed the Mich and OSUs and produced parity that lifted WI, PUR and Appalachian St. Essentially everyone except MN and IN.
 



Hockeytown said:
Everything changes once Pay to Play is installed in the next 5 years. The last sea change was the scholarship change of 1992 that cuffed the Mich and OSUs and produced parity that lifted WI, PUR and Appalachian St. Essentially everyone except MN and IN.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, care to share your source on this? I don’t see it happening particularly with the sea change happening at the top of the judiciary. There are many ways college sports could be less onerous on the athletes (less practice/workout time) and still maintain amateur status. I’d also like to see better medical coverage and disability long term. That, certainly, is a travesty the U should be ashamed of.

Professionalism is a double-edged sword...look no further than to the CFL athletes with minimum wage scale around 55-60k (Canadian) and topping out around around 500k for top QBs and one can see college athletes by and large aren’t being exploited any more than the typical student with absurd tuition and interest rates. The top tier of amateurs go on to the professional ranks and the rest move on with their lives.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom