Carter Coughlin: There are few men I’ve met who I respect as much as Coach Fleck

I’m not sure what an “anti-PJ agenda” is?
Do I like him? Nope.
Do I think JK was right with some points? Yep.
Do I think any of what I think matters to anyone? Nope.
Do I think PJ might be the right coach to Finally make MN relevant? Yep.
Am I glad he is our coach? Yep.
Do I want him to leave? Nope.
Do I feel people are hypersensitive when you are negative toward PJ? Yep.
Does it hurt my feelings you called me a name? I died a little bit inside.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You don't like him yet you are glad he is the coach, don't want him to leave and think he could make MN relevant? How does that work?
 

I’m sure the current players love PJ, but having anyone on the current team say as much doesn’t really prove it. I’m sure TM2 posting “you got it Kill” would do wonders for their careers here. Next Heather will endorse him. It’s the equivalent of KHH’s Dad telling us why he left the U.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You should put the keyboard away. Your shtick gets old after a while.
 
Last edited:

You don't like him yet you are glad he is the coach, don't want him to leave and think he could make MN relevant? How does that work?

If you have a boss whose personality grates on you but in general his managerial style has been effective in elevating your groups performance to an extent that it portends a great future for all of your careers, then you don’t think you’d suffer his idiosyncrasies for the potential returns down the road? It’s not that hard to understand Spoofin if ya try.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

If you have a boss whose personality grates on you but in general his managerial style has been effective in elevating your groups performance to an extent that it portends a great future for all of your careers, then you don’t think you’d suffer his idiosyncrasies for the potential returns down the road? It’s not that hard to understand Spoofin if ya try.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Although I doubt spoofin knows fleck personally, so why does anyone base whether they like Fleck or not on his personality? I like any coach that wins here regardless of personality.
 

You don't like him yet you are glad he is the coach, don't want him to leave and think he could make MN relevant? How does that work?

Because I have been a die-hard Gopher fan for decades, I want them to win badly, and I have never been more optimistic about our future. I have said many times on here you would have to be blind to not see the potential and improvement on this team. Why would I want him to leave? I hope he stays forever and we win the rose bowl. Doesn’t mean I personally like him, his style, believe what he says, etc. - which by the way has no impact on results and frankly doesn’t matter. I’m not the only one on here who doesn’t like PJ, but I believe everyone on this site wants us to win. If PJ can do that - great.

As for this thread, I wasn’t trying to say anything about PJ or CC45. A couple replies in it became obvious folks thought I was calling out CC45 and I tried to clarify. Poorly worded on my part and I do apologize. I love CC45. I was trying to say that when someone (anyone) has something to gain personally by saying or writing something that what they say isn’t really proof of anything, and certainly doesn’t prove anything of a larger group - such as Hobie implied in his tweet that I responded to. Still, poorly worded on my part and I am sure I’ll continue to hear about it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:


I get what Spoof is saying and share many of the same sentiments. Shortly after he was hired, I commented that he has an air of car salesman sleaze and still think that. What I mean is that he uses high pressure tactics to land recruiting commitments that I find off-putting. So far, it has gotten results but I worry that this is a short term improvement unless the program meets a higher level of consistent performance.

As long as Fleck doesn't cross the line in how he runs the program, I hope he has a long successful Ferentz like tenure here. I hope he molds young men into the next generation of leaders. I hope he prepares them for the next level of competition if that's their dream.
Fleck could be coach for life as far as I'm concerned.
 

Actually, he signed with Claeys, started his career with Claeys, and that is who he would have played for his entire career.

Still, I suspect CC45 likes PJ. Most players seem to. I’m sure some don’t. I stated my point poorly. I think much of what JK said is true (although am terribly disappointed in how he did it). I’m sure some players do too. No players would tweet that. All players would have motivation to tweet support. I wasn’t trying to say anything specific about CC45. Love him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A lot of people liked Jim Jones, too.

Not comparing Fleck to Jones, just saying people can like someone intensely without knowing what that person is all about.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Quite obvious that Spoofing didn’t play high school or college athletics. If you don’t respect your coach/es, you don’t roll your a##out of the rack at 5 AM to run or lift. Just doesn’t happen. And for you to insinuate something other than fact is ridiculous.

You’re right. Dreams of playing in the NFL aren’t enough to get a kid to roll out of bed at 5am if there’s a coaching change. Just ask Donnell Greene.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

If you have a boss whose personality grates on you but in general his managerial style has been effective in elevating your groups performance to an extent that it portends a great future for all of your careers, then you don’t think you’d suffer his idiosyncrasies for the potential returns down the road? It’s not that hard to understand Spoofin if ya try.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nope. PJ Fleck is perfect. Anyone that only uses mildly glowing adjectives to describe him is a troll.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



Nope. PJ Fleck is perfect. Anyone that only uses mildly glowing adjectives to describe him is a troll.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Man, your dislike is so strong. We get it. Maybe this isn't the board for you if all it does is produce anger, frustration, and comparisons between PJ and a mass-murdering cult leader in your mind. It can't be healthy to have other people's positive comments about a football coach stir up such negative thoughts for you constantly such that you need to vent here to try and refute every one.
 


Antonio Johnson chimes in. His twitter is private so I can't embed the tweet.

"I played under kill. I ain’t lose no respect. He came to my house and told me I could be a starter and a difference maker on a big 10 team. Only coach that said that to my face. I led the gophers in tackles my senior year playing under him. I’m riding w him, right or wrong"
 

Ultimately I suspect Kill will feel embarrassed by what he did. Many people have regrets after doing things like this, even if it feels good at the time.
 




Antonio Johnson chimes in. His twitter is private so I can't embed the tweet.

"I played under kill. I ain’t lose no respect. He came to my house and told me I could be a starter and a difference maker on a big 10 team. Only coach that said that to my face. I led the gophers in tackles my senior year playing under him. I’m riding w him, right or wrong"

That's hardly a ringing endorsement.
 

CC45 also came out swinging hard against the U administration when Claeys got fired. He's a good kid, smart leader and is loyal to his coaches and will support/defend them publicly. Nothing else to see here, move on.
 


The more I see this thing, the more I get the sense that Fleck loyalists blew this wayyyyy out of proportion.

The main problem is that Jerry has a way of talking that isn’t always perfectly eloquent and precise. He doesn’t always elaborate on every little thing.

The internet is hyper-sensitive and hyper-critical of every word, in as literal a sense as possible.

Then you have people hearing what they want to hear, and just running with stuff ... like Kill attacking Fleck for having a divorce (that’s not what Kill said or meant), Kill saying Fleck doesn’t care about the players (again, I don’t think that’s what Kill said or meant).
 

Maybe Carter Coughlin is one of the few players recruited by the past staff that PJ didn't actively try to run off the team?
 

I think its important Coughlin said something. He is a leader on and off the field. Him stepping up and throwing that out there, even if its all a lie, is important. Paints PJ in a better light to the media which helps the program.
 

The more I see this thing, the more I get the sense that Fleck loyalists blew this wayyyyy out of proportion.

Unless you believe that multiple national media outlets are Fleck loyalists, I would have to disagree with you.

This kind of personal comment from an ex coach, let alone an AD, pretty much fits the criteria of “man bites dog.”
 

National media don’t give a crap about anyone ... they only care about clicks, views, etc. If taking that stance gets then those clicks, that’s the stance they’ll take.
 

So here is a key thing:

did Kill use the word “only” in his statement? Or are people making that up?

"Do I enjoy him running up and down the sideline? No." Do I think he's about the players? No. He's about himself."

I'm not sure how you can interpret that to mean anything but him thinking Fleck is only about himself.
 


National media don’t give a crap about anyone ... they only care about clicks, views, etc. If taking that stance gets then those clicks, that’s the stance they’ll take.

So they don't care about Fleck and are not motivated to make us all bow to him as you implied in another thread and yet they universally all seem to agree that Kill was out of line. Yep, definitely the Fleck supporters blowing this one out of proportion.
 

I'm not sure how you can interpret that to mean anything but him thinking Fleck is only about himself.

Maybe Im just fluent in Kill-speak. I think everyone else is taking everything hyper-literally combined with wanting to turn it into a bigger insult than it was meant to be.

He did NOT say “he doesn’t care about his players at all”. But that’s what everyone here seems to have waned him to say.

I could take a stab at interpreting, in the context, to translate something like “all that flashy stuff, running up the sideline, all his gimmicks ... he doesn’t do that stuff for the players, he does that stuff to stroke his own ego”.


IF that’s what Kill meant ... then I do agree he did a poor job of elaborating. But that has always been his speaking style ... half-sentences, not elaborating fully.
 
Last edited:

Couldn't you say the same thing about Kill and the whole "change the culture" comments?


Yes.

I think Kill got that wrong. Unless he heard Fleck talking trash about him from other people, and we don’t know that, I think Kill got that part wrong.
 

I don't think it was IMPORTANT for CC45 to tweet that.
It's not like Fleck is suddenly in danger of losing the team.

It's nice that CC45 did post it though which is a bit of a dig at Kill right now.
But Kill should just apologize, or else some media outlet should just have Kill and Fleck meet to have a televised discussion so they can bury the hatchet.

It largely appears to me that Kill is just bitter and is taking most of what Fleck says in a negative light.


Also, just because CC45 tweets that, I'm sure not all 100% of players love PJ. Probably a couple guys who will transfer after spring when they find out they are #4 or #5 on the depth chart who won't be as big of fans of Fleck as CC45 is.


And that's normal.
 


It largely appears to me that Kill is just bitter and is taking most of what Fleck says in a negative light.

I think he’s just still mad about the culture stuff, which I think is a misunderstanding. And that is unfortunate.

Obviously Fleck can’t go on he radio and say “hey look Jerry, there was nothing wrong with your culture. You did a lot of good stuff. Had the GPA up. Got the athletes village built. But Kaler and Coyle told me when I took the job I had to come in and trash the previous culture. I had to do that as a PR stunt to scapegoat it because of the scandal.”

But he could in a private phone call.
 




Top Bottom