Souhan: The time to judge P.J. Fleck the football coach begins now

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Souhan:

The 2017 Gophers football team won its three nonconference games by a combined 75 points. The 2018 Gophers won their three nonconference games by a combined 78 points.

The 2017 Gophers began their Big Ten schedule with a loss at home to Maryland, the first negative indicator of what would become an embarrassing season: a 2-7 conference record with many of the players who had gone 5-4 in the conference and won a bowl game the year before.

The 2018 Gophers begin their Big Ten schedule at Maryland, in what coach P.J. Fleck is calling Year 1 of his program. That’s because he decided his false-start first season should be renamed Year 0.

Using Fleck’s time-space continuum, today’s game at Maryland should be considered Game 1 of his program. This is where Fleck should begin proving himself.

People close to the program said Fleck’s problem last year was that his message was bound to offend his veteran players. He is selling what he calls a new “culture.” The 22-year-olds who had just won a bowl game and felt loyal to Tracy Claeys were not going to be appreciative of the sentiment, but Fleck’s message seems to be working on younger Gophers.

This is a good time to begin judging Fleck’s ability to compete in the Big Ten, because he will not be able to use conference quality as an excuse if this year’s team regresses.

Whether this is Year 0, 1, 2 or Pi, Fleck appears to be winning friends and influencing people within an important demographic: Athletic, football-loving 18-year-olds.

http://www.startribune.com/the-time...-gophers-football-coach-begins-now/493965431/

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per Souhan:

The 2017 Gophers football team won its three nonconference games by a combined 75 points. The 2018 Gophers won their three nonconference games by a combined 78 points.

The 2017 Gophers began their Big Ten schedule with a loss at home to Maryland, the first negative indicator of what would become an embarrassing season: a 2-7 conference record with many of the players who had gone 5-4 in the conference and won a bowl game the year before.

The 2018 Gophers begin their Big Ten schedule at Maryland, in what coach P.J. Fleck is calling Year 1 of his program. That’s because he decided his false-start first season should be renamed Year 0.

Using Fleck’s time-space continuum, today’s game at Maryland should be considered Game 1 of his program. This is where Fleck should begin proving himself.

People close to the program said Fleck’s problem last year was that his message was bound to offend his veteran players. He is selling what he calls a new “culture.” The 22-year-olds who had just won a bowl game and felt loyal to Tracy Claeys were not going to be appreciative of the sentiment, but Fleck’s message seems to be working on younger Gophers.

This is a good time to begin judging Fleck’s ability to compete in the Big Ten, because he will not be able to use conference quality as an excuse if this year’s team regresses.

Whether this is Year 0, 1, 2 or Pi, Fleck appears to be winning friends and influencing people within an important demographic: Athletic, football-loving 18-year-olds.

http://www.startribune.com/the-time...-gophers-football-coach-begins-now/493965431/

Go Gophers!!
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This guy sucks. He doesnt understand anything.

Players/employees will leave with any regime change. We are playing tons of freshman because thats what we have

This isnt the pros souhan...go away
 

Does Souhan realize that we've judge him and he is long over due to leave the country?
 

Seems pretty balanced to me. I wouldn’t disagree with much of it. PJ is a lightning rod. PJ has brought in some talent, but he hasn’t proven himself vs the big boys just yet. He’ll get the next several years to do that. Year 2.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Seems pretty balanced to me. I wouldn’t disagree with much of it. PJ is a lightning rod. PJ has brought in some talent, but he hasn’t proven himself vs the big boys just yet. He’ll get the next several years to do that. Year 2.
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Agreed.
 


Pompous Elitist said:
Seems pretty balanced to me. I wouldn’t disagree with much of it. PJ is a lightning rod. PJ has brought in some talent, but he hasn’t proven himself vs the big boys just yet. He’ll get the next several years to do that. Year 2.
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Knowing his opinion on a certain former coach; it's easy to read into his passive aggressive sarcasm with Fleck. He needs a new career or at the very least a new venue. His schtick is getting old.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Seems pretty balanced to me. I wouldn’t disagree with much of it. PJ is a lightning rod. PJ has brought in some talent, but he hasn’t proven himself vs the big boys just yet. He’ll get the next several years to do that. Year 2.
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I think this is spot on
 

If now is the time to start were all those people that have judged Fleck up to this point, including Souhan, a thoughtless tool?
 

I don't disagree with his point that how PJ will be judge will be based on his conference record instead of non-conference.
That's true in most cases.

But overall the piece reads like a "Oh, don't get excited about the Gophers yet." Basically a view that has been thrown out by lazy media here in the Twin Cities for years.

The idea that you come into this season with a freshman walk-on QB as your starter and you're expected to have a winning conference record I find to be an argument with legs manufactured by those who want to rip Fleck.
 



There he goes again. There is a reason why I pulled my Strib subscription after he mocked Jerry Kill's epileptic seizure.

Yes, he can write his OP in a positive vein. There is no shame in that. He ought to try it sometime.
 

hungan1 said:
There he goes again. There is a reason why I pulled my Strib subscription after he mocked Jerry Kill's epileptic seizure.

Yes, he can write his OP in a positive vein. There is no shame in that. He ought to try it sometime.
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Here's my point about the Twin Cities media.
When a team is middle of the road (or even when good or bad) as a columnist, you have three options on how to write an article. Positively, negatively, or simply fact based with no opinion.

The Twin Cities media for about 40 years (other than Sid) has routinely been on negative side / cheap shot side of Gopher football.
Meanwhile, if you look at the Vikings coverage, it's largely glowing continuously, even just 2-3 weeks prior to a head coach firing. Media in general was hesitant to even rip Ponder until he was benched, but goofballs like Souhan don't have a floor for what they'll dig up to find a way to rip the Gophers. (not that it's ever been a difficult task).

They've essentially been lazy and grabbed on repeatedly to the items that can be used to rip the Gophers vs digging just a bit to find something positive to write about.
 

It's fair to say that Fleck should show progress in his second season. I don't really have an issue with Souhan pointing that out. But still, I can never really get into these types of columns. They often don't get very deep into statistics and sometimes don't include all of the context. I get it's common in sports media, but this also shows me why sites like SB Nation are becoming more popular.
 

Lazy journalism at its best. Has he even gone regularly to the new Athletic Village in person?

If Sid can do it at his age, so can Souhan. Sid does his homework and goes there all the time in person.

The Strib never used to be this bad. Back in the late seventies, you couldn't wait to get your hands on the Sunday paper. They have an expanded section with all the extensive statistics and for the most part upbeat reporting.

I guess negativism sells newspapers and get political votes.
 



hungan1 said:
There he goes again. There is a reason why I pulled my Strib subscription after he mocked Jerry Kill's epileptic seizure.
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It is just one of a number of reasons that I stopped giving them my money a few years ago. It's a worthless rag, which is really sad because there was a time it was worth reading.
 

Very balanced article. Yet, so many people get so offended if a message isn’t pro-PJ in every way. He didn’t say anything offensive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
Very balanced article. Yet, so many people get so offended if a message isn’t pro-PJ in every way. He didn’t say anything offensive.
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No other city drags their college coaches the way 1500 ESPN and the Strib do in Minneapolis.
It's not that they need to be pro-PJ, but writing 'it's time to judge PJ' when he has a team full of Freshman is lame.

Write a Maryland primer, a player bio, or a puff-piece.
I'm way more likely to read that than the Strib's muckracking garbage.

Sports don't need to be a constant scandal, especially when there is no scandal to report, and Souhan is just trying to stir up trouble.
 

hello-world said:
No other city drags their college coaches the way 1500 ESPN and the Strib do in Minneapolis.
It's not that they need to be pro-PJ, but writing 'it's time to judge PJ' when he has a team full of Freshman is lame.

Write a Maryland primer, a player bio, or a puff-piece.
I'm way more likely to read that than the Strib's muckracking garbage.

Sports don't need to be a constant scandal, especially when there is no scandal to report, and Souhan is just trying to stir up trouble.
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This! We dont have to be pro PJ. However, you have to take things into perspective:

1. We lost good players from the scandal
2. Fleck had to let some kids go who either didnt buy in or had drug or behavioral problems.
3. We lose essentially half of 2017 recruiting class (quality wise) due to coaching change.

This isnt the pros or Ohio St. We cant just sign free agents.

I guess you can start judging the team by if they are improving week to week but not if they beat Wisconsin and Ohio st in 2018. This year is get to a bowl
 


Gophers Maryland blah blah blah. .. Is Soup Can still really fit?
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
Very balanced article. Yet, so many people get so offended if a message isn’t pro-PJ in every way. He didn’t say anything offensive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Agree it was a balanced article. I could make an argument that it was actually quite positive with some Sohan-trying-to-be-above-it-all noise. This in spite of the fact that I will never get over Souhan’s Kill seizure column followed by his non-apology apology later followed by him claiming that he had apologized. But Souhan is really fit, so he has that going for him.

But I don’t agree with the idea that so many people get so offended if a message isn’t pro-PJ in every way. I think it is more accurate to say so many people get so offended if a message isn’t positive about the Gophers football team in every way. The groups may change a bit depending on whether they like or don’t like the coach, but for some reason, if the local media are not shills, they are offended.

Not caring what the media thinks is much more relaxing.
 

hello-world said:
No other city drags their college coaches the way 1500 ESPN and the Strib do in Minneapolis.
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Could you please rank, say, the media in the top 20 cities in the country from highest to lowest on how they drag their local college coaches? I know Minneapolis/St. Paul is #1, just want to get the rest of the list.

:)

Just having fun. I agreed with most of the rest of your post.
 

hello-world said:
No other city drags their college coaches the way 1500 ESPN and the Strib do in Minneapolis.
It's not that they need to be pro-PJ, but writing 'it's time to judge PJ' when he has a team full of Freshman is lame.

Write a Maryland primer, a player bio, or a puff-piece.
I'm way more likely to read that than the Strib's muckracking garbage.

Sports don't need to be a constant scandal, especially when there is no scandal to report, and Souhan is just trying to stir up trouble.
Click to expand...

He’s a columnist. That’s not any different than other cities.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I'm not offended that he isn't pro-PJ.

My point is the media is using their lazy tactics instead of learning something about the football program and writing about it.
If Souhan dug a bit for some meat on the football team, he'd maybe find something interesting to go off of other than the conclusion he made by looking at the Gophers schedule and realizing the first three games were non-conference.
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
Very balanced article. Yet, so many people get so offended if a message isn’t pro-PJ in every way. He didn’t say anything offensive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Except for all the stupid shiite he wrote. About as unbalanced as a one-legged placekicker.

Ozzy&Ray said:
He’s a columnist. That’s not any different than other cities.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Sorry, but there is nowhere bizzarely like the planet TC columnists live on.
 
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If you can’t see PJ brings this on himself to some extent I can’t help you. Let’s all hope he gets the last laugh.
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
Very balanced article. Yet, so many people get so offended if a message isn’t pro-PJ in every way. He didn’t say anything offensive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


What part of he ripped Jerry skills epilepsy did you miss? He goes out of his way to rip the Gophers like many others in the local media. He doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt nor should he have a voice. Get lost.
 

Nothing wrong with the article at all. Fleck is going to get plenty of time here at the U so might be a little early to say he starts getting judge now but at some point Fleck needs to be judged on wins and losses.
 


Ozzy&Ray said:
Very balanced article. Yet, so many people get so offended if a message isn’t pro-PJ in every way. He didn’t say anything offensive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I think it mainly has to do with people not liking him because of the Kill seizures article and how stupid he looked.
 

Souhan is writing an article like Judd Z does.


How to write a Gophers football article in Mpls.

1.
Start article with something loosely said or believed without naming anyone who said something negative.
"Some say", or "people close to the program say" .... then write something negative.

2.
Pick one thing you don't like that coach says out of 1,000 things they says (this could also be blaming a player for a loss instead of the head coach, or the head coach not taking blame for something obviously done wrong).
In this case, Souhan went with: "Year zero, year one, year Pi, no matter what year you call it"

3.
Point out that the results aren't good enough. This is usually an unexpected loss to a non power five team. In this case Souhan is going with that his conference record isn't good enough or won't be good enough.

4.
Explain further why you feel as you do in #3 using what sounds like sound facts "the conference is down" even though it's still ranked as the second toughest conference in football right now. Be sure to not research whether the conference is actually down or any weaker than the other conferences compared to other years. Just say it is and hit your 500 word requirement to submit your article.
 

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