PJ Fleck Interview new - Sunday 9-15-19

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Gopher Football Coach PJ Fleck appeared on the Sports Huddle on WCCO Radio.

Sid: Opponent scored two TD's on blocked punt and bad pass. ever been in that situation?
PJ: they made a good play. we have to be better. blocked FG is unacceptable. lack of technique. lack of split. have to get better at fundamentals. we will go back to day one. work on multiple things. Missed on 4th down, had a FG blocked, strip-sack for a TD. those are non-defensive issues. our defense played lights out. held an option team to under 200 yds total offense. our offense at times was exceptional but at times we made catastrophic mistakes. the FG block is unacceptable. we are finding ways to win games while making catastrophic mistakes. everybody watched what happened yesterday. numerous B1G teams lost. we were not one of them. we have faced three very good non-conference opponents. we didn't have Rodney, Mo, Cam Wiley, Kamal Martin. Still found way to win with all the things that went wrong. we need to clean up the little things.

Sid: you pull out these games at the end. that's good.
PJ: we are a resilient team. they never give up. that's how we train our players. the game is never over. no matter what. you've got to continue to row. 100% belief that we can win. scored with :13 seconds left. we've trained for every situation. we've had some enormous situations come up. more circumstances than you might see in a whole season. our team has responded. they're battle-tested. people call them the cardiac kids. we've found a way to get it done.

Mona: Tanner Morgan 7-2 last 9 starts. // Update at RB
PJ: proud of coaches. they had to find a way to get the depth chart to work. had a lot of guys banged up on defense. there was one time we had 10 guys on the field. the 4th and 1 - my fault. 10 men on the field, my fault. on the substitutions, we've got to do a better job. RB situation- everybody will be OK by the time we play Purdue. Rodney should be back. Shannon should be back by then. Mo will be back for sure. The Bye came at a perfect time. we needed that. Need to be able to find a way to still move the football.

Max: do you look at your line against their line? want to run the football? how do we stack up?
PJ gotta win the LOS. got to be better. we will do what we do. need to do it better, or look at personnel changes. we have to improve up front. just because we have big guys doesn't mean you have a great line. 4 of 5 guys are doing it the right way and one guy is not doing it the right way. But different guys are taking turns being that guy. we had a lot of good runs, but not the explosive runs. there were times we just missed a block, just missed getting out on secondary block, just missed the Will LB. we abandoned our technique. have to get better at the small things and the big things will come.

Sid: happy for bye week.
PJ: we're 3-0. found a way to win. this team is courageous. they show high character. this team uses the culture every single moment. we made a lot of mistakes. we found a way to win. we're going to focus on the positive. the things we're not doing well, we will positively coach them to get better.

Max: did you want to feature Tyler Johnson?
PJ: teams do what they do to take him away. we need to throw to the backs, Rashad, Bell, Douglas. Douglas made big catches, Rashad made big catches. Tyler had a great game. they doubled him sometimes, but when they went man coverage, we took advantage of them.

Mona: TE's in passing game? do you need to keep them in to block?
PJ: we will get them in passing game as we continue. still, most of the guys are young. Jake is still learning how to play the position. they start with the run game. TE starts with run game. when you're a pass threat, that's a bonus Spann-Ford can catch the ball, but we've got to get him involved in the run game. if you bring in a guy who's not a good blocker, they know you're going to throw. QB's go to their 1st read, 2nd read. There are times they've (TE's) caught passes.

Sid: do you need to be able to run the ball better?
PJ: we need to. that comes with guys getting healthy, getting better. we need to find a way to get better.

Sid: Murray's. good luck rest of way.
PJ: RTB, ski-U-Mah, go Gophers. Thank all the fans. everybody who stayed saw a heck of a comeback.
 

"PJ: we are a resilient team. they never give up. that's how we train our players. t"he game is never over. no matter what. you've got to continue to row. 100% belief that we can win. scored with :13 seconds left. we've trained for every situation. we've had some enormous situations come up. more circumstances than you might see in a whole season. our team has responded. they're battle-tested. people call them the cardiac kids. we've found a way to get it done."

I have to admit, while attending the game yesterday and watching that perfect storm of events in the 4th quarter, I wasn't as down as I would have been in the past. I thought "if we lose we lose, but I'm not certain yet this team will lose." Sure enough, they didn't.

I don't see how our receivers and Tanner couldn't have a huge boost in confidence and optimism after the challenges they've managed to overcome in the last three games. Some of the receptions I could see much better on replay today. In many cases, our receivers were very well covered on those receptions.
 

Oh boy, where do I start? First thanks Son for posting this report. Secondly, very happy all the running backs will be back. In addition, we clearly not to tighten up everywhere; fumbles, blocked kicks, poor blocks, 10 men on the field, time out issues, plus other issues. Bye clearly came at the right time. If there was ever a time to clean up this mess, it is now. The fan base is grumbling and that includes me.
 

Sounds like a fairly candid and accurate take by the coach. Like us, he knows where the corrections need to be made.
 

Sounds like a fairly candid and accurate take by the coach. Like us, he knows where the corrections need to be made.[/QUOTE]

Guessing he knows a lot better than us. We could easily be 0-3 but they are finding ways to win. Certainly hope he's also looking at some of the decisions they're making regarding time-outs and strategic situations.

Still optimistic. With so many returnees from last year and same coaches running the same systems it is puzzling how out of sorts they've looked. Still think the team that beat the hell out of the Badgers in Madison last year will show up when the conference season starts.
 


Thanks SON.
Great News on Brooks!!!


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