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Gopher Football Coach PJ Fleck appeared on the Sports Huddle on WCCO Radio with Sid, Dave and Max.
Sid: Situation with 3 hurt players. Smith, Brooks, Winfield
PJ: they're not hurt anymore. all doing really good. Shannon is a little behind the other guys. Rodney and Winfield are cleared. Brooks will start out doing some things on the side. He will play this year at some point. right now, he's limited.
Sid: replacements for Cashman?
PJ: hard to replace an NFL player. (look for contributions from) Sori-Marin, Oliver, Rush. Barber, Martin back. excited about LB corps. finally have a few guys with experience. excited as we keep going forward.
Sid: place-kicker?
PJ: going to be one of the biggest question marks. Walker had a good off-season. We have a young man from Georgia - Lantz - who's a FR. some other guys are going to battle. long-snapper - have to replace Jordahl. lot of times you don't know who the long-snapper is until they screw up. Herbers will be solid at punter. now on scholarship.
Sid: Casey O'Brien had meeting with Cousins at Vikings practice to prepare for his speech at B1G media days. Casey wow'd em.
PJ: tremendous job at big ten media day. Casey inspires people daily. you will not meet a better person. he loves being part of the program, being a Gopher. he cherishes that. (Asst AD) Paul Rovnak called me the other day. he helped set up Casey with Kirk to get ready for his speech. thankful for Kirk. he's judged by stats - but he's a fantastic person. invited Casey out. that's special. Casey had a heck of a few weeks. He brings a lot of motivation to team. It's a dream for him to be around the Vikings.
Mona: B1G writers - picking Gophers 5th or 6th in West.
PJ: it gives us a chance to make something of it. these are predictions made prior to the year. don't put a lot of stock in it. we have to go out and get better today than we were yesterday. that's what we've talked about since day 1. we have our own expectations. no one puts more pressure on the team than me. no one puts more pressure on the team than they do themselves. they know what type of team we can be.
Sid: how will you alternate the RB's?
PJ: that's exciting. At the RB position you want to have depth. we finally have depth. We have 4 Tailbacks anyone would want to have. Add Wiley and Potts, now you have 6. Rodney has worked very hard at playing WR. last year we weren't able to show it. excited about how we can get multiple ones on the field. not just in 2-back sets. every RB would take being healthy over running for a certain # of yards. last year people were wondering what we were going to do at RB. Ibrahim comes out, Williams comes out. we finally have depth at RB. B1G such a physical conference, need multiple RB's.
Max: in recruiting, do you set parameters for certain positions - 40 time, height, weight, etc?
PJ: we set some on different positions. not always. OL - we definitely have parameters for this league. B1G is a big man's league. a tough mans' league. up front, it's a big boys contest. need to be big up front. learned that here more than at WMU. at times, if we're going to take 2 receivers, might say let's try to take bigger receivers. I don't have a number. I made it to where I made it and I didn't have any numbers that would impress anybody. this year, talking about taking DE's with length. not saying they have to have this certain wing span, but close to that.
Mona: Winfield's brother. really small. did he grow? // Notre Dame Transfer
PJ: Treadway the DT from Notre Dame. excited about him. very mature young man. mom and dad were doing mission in Twin Cities. he wanted to go somewhere he could start. helped us. he can take the place of OJ Smith. excited about the direction he's moving in. Austin Winfield, not the biggest guy. look forward to seeing what he can do. Players report on Tuesday. get after it Wednesday.
Max: youth football in MN. fewer players, teams. Lot of talk about why kids are not playing football. Tell us why should they play?
PJ: always going to be that. people watch games on TV because packages are better, instead of going to games. USA football is doing a really good job. there is progression of every sport. has not been a big progression in FB. USA is developing that progression from young age to high school. Football teaches people about life. it's not an easy game - life isn't easy. when something happens to you, have to be able to respond in a positive way. it teaches you teamwork. all walks of life come together from different backgrounds. our society can learn from football. life is about preparation. so many things it teaches you. I'm excited about improvements USA football is making. so many options to play sports. soccer becoming bigger in united States. We can make parents feel better about kids playing football. A 4th grader doesn't have to go right into tackle football - they can go into flag football. one of the things that can help people understand the game.
Sid: 9 offensive players back from last year
PJ: a lot of competition. really talented. give them an opportunity to play. give them an opportunity to go win a job. QB, OL, RB, WR critical for us going forward - who be 5th, 6th, 7th guys. DL, LB, Secondary really exciting to see who can emerge. got to have more depth at Corner. specialists. got to find out who will be the kicker. this is probably the most excited I've been about camp. Our players respect each other. They failed a lot last year. then they had a taste of being a champion by winning the championship of the bowl game. need to be able to see both ends of the picture. look forward to kicking it off on Tuesday
Sid: Murray's. ticket situation. lot of good tickets available. get your tickets.
PJ: RTB, Ski-U-Mah, Go Gophers.
Sid: Situation with 3 hurt players. Smith, Brooks, Winfield
PJ: they're not hurt anymore. all doing really good. Shannon is a little behind the other guys. Rodney and Winfield are cleared. Brooks will start out doing some things on the side. He will play this year at some point. right now, he's limited.
Sid: replacements for Cashman?
PJ: hard to replace an NFL player. (look for contributions from) Sori-Marin, Oliver, Rush. Barber, Martin back. excited about LB corps. finally have a few guys with experience. excited as we keep going forward.
Sid: place-kicker?
PJ: going to be one of the biggest question marks. Walker had a good off-season. We have a young man from Georgia - Lantz - who's a FR. some other guys are going to battle. long-snapper - have to replace Jordahl. lot of times you don't know who the long-snapper is until they screw up. Herbers will be solid at punter. now on scholarship.
Sid: Casey O'Brien had meeting with Cousins at Vikings practice to prepare for his speech at B1G media days. Casey wow'd em.
PJ: tremendous job at big ten media day. Casey inspires people daily. you will not meet a better person. he loves being part of the program, being a Gopher. he cherishes that. (Asst AD) Paul Rovnak called me the other day. he helped set up Casey with Kirk to get ready for his speech. thankful for Kirk. he's judged by stats - but he's a fantastic person. invited Casey out. that's special. Casey had a heck of a few weeks. He brings a lot of motivation to team. It's a dream for him to be around the Vikings.
Mona: B1G writers - picking Gophers 5th or 6th in West.
PJ: it gives us a chance to make something of it. these are predictions made prior to the year. don't put a lot of stock in it. we have to go out and get better today than we were yesterday. that's what we've talked about since day 1. we have our own expectations. no one puts more pressure on the team than me. no one puts more pressure on the team than they do themselves. they know what type of team we can be.
Sid: how will you alternate the RB's?
PJ: that's exciting. At the RB position you want to have depth. we finally have depth. We have 4 Tailbacks anyone would want to have. Add Wiley and Potts, now you have 6. Rodney has worked very hard at playing WR. last year we weren't able to show it. excited about how we can get multiple ones on the field. not just in 2-back sets. every RB would take being healthy over running for a certain # of yards. last year people were wondering what we were going to do at RB. Ibrahim comes out, Williams comes out. we finally have depth at RB. B1G such a physical conference, need multiple RB's.
Max: in recruiting, do you set parameters for certain positions - 40 time, height, weight, etc?
PJ: we set some on different positions. not always. OL - we definitely have parameters for this league. B1G is a big man's league. a tough mans' league. up front, it's a big boys contest. need to be big up front. learned that here more than at WMU. at times, if we're going to take 2 receivers, might say let's try to take bigger receivers. I don't have a number. I made it to where I made it and I didn't have any numbers that would impress anybody. this year, talking about taking DE's with length. not saying they have to have this certain wing span, but close to that.
Mona: Winfield's brother. really small. did he grow? // Notre Dame Transfer
PJ: Treadway the DT from Notre Dame. excited about him. very mature young man. mom and dad were doing mission in Twin Cities. he wanted to go somewhere he could start. helped us. he can take the place of OJ Smith. excited about the direction he's moving in. Austin Winfield, not the biggest guy. look forward to seeing what he can do. Players report on Tuesday. get after it Wednesday.
Max: youth football in MN. fewer players, teams. Lot of talk about why kids are not playing football. Tell us why should they play?
PJ: always going to be that. people watch games on TV because packages are better, instead of going to games. USA football is doing a really good job. there is progression of every sport. has not been a big progression in FB. USA is developing that progression from young age to high school. Football teaches people about life. it's not an easy game - life isn't easy. when something happens to you, have to be able to respond in a positive way. it teaches you teamwork. all walks of life come together from different backgrounds. our society can learn from football. life is about preparation. so many things it teaches you. I'm excited about improvements USA football is making. so many options to play sports. soccer becoming bigger in united States. We can make parents feel better about kids playing football. A 4th grader doesn't have to go right into tackle football - they can go into flag football. one of the things that can help people understand the game.
Sid: 9 offensive players back from last year
PJ: a lot of competition. really talented. give them an opportunity to play. give them an opportunity to go win a job. QB, OL, RB, WR critical for us going forward - who be 5th, 6th, 7th guys. DL, LB, Secondary really exciting to see who can emerge. got to have more depth at Corner. specialists. got to find out who will be the kicker. this is probably the most excited I've been about camp. Our players respect each other. They failed a lot last year. then they had a taste of being a champion by winning the championship of the bowl game. need to be able to see both ends of the picture. look forward to kicking it off on Tuesday
Sid: Murray's. ticket situation. lot of good tickets available. get your tickets.
PJ: RTB, Ski-U-Mah, Go Gophers.
