BleedGopher
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per Shama:
Having been burned by Holtz, older Gophers fans are biting their collective nails these days about 38-year-old P.J. Fleck moving on after this season to some place else—oh, let’s just say USC, a storied program like Notre Dame that is under achieving and dreams of hiring Urban Meyer but might have to pitch a guy who preaches “Row the Boat.”
Now I am not suggesting that as Gophers head coach Fleck deserves comparisons with Holtz, Bierman and Warmath but what he’s done at Minnesota is impressive. Dating back to last season, Fleck’s Gophers have won 11 of their last 12 games, including returning Paul Bunyan’s Axe to Dinkytown after a 15 year absence. Minnesota is 8-0 for the first time since 1941 and will play a much anticipated game on Saturday at home against Penn State. The Gophers are ranked No. 13 in the nation, while the Nittany Lions are No. 5. The last time Minnesota was ranked in the top 25 and played another ranked team was in October of 2004 when the No. 13 ranked Gophers lost to No. 14 Michigan.
I might have been the first in the media to inquire about Fleck’s commitment to Minnesota, when I brought the subject up last summer during a brief one-on-one interview. Fleck said that when he was considering leaving Western Michigan to come here with his wife Heather and young children, she emphasized the next career stop needed to be a long-term commitment. “She looked at me and says, ‘Listen, when we move there (the next job), we’re going to live there. We’re going to live there a long time…build a lot of roots.’
“It had to be a community that was high in philanthropy,” Fleck continued. “Had to be a community that was willing to serve and give. Had to be bigger than football. We feel the Twin City area and the state of Minnesota is that. … To be able to serve and give and make other people’s lives better. And that’s what Row the Boat is all about. It’s about serving and giving to other people. It’s about never giving up. It’s about providing opportunities for other people who can’t provide it for themselves.”
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!
Having been burned by Holtz, older Gophers fans are biting their collective nails these days about 38-year-old P.J. Fleck moving on after this season to some place else—oh, let’s just say USC, a storied program like Notre Dame that is under achieving and dreams of hiring Urban Meyer but might have to pitch a guy who preaches “Row the Boat.”
Now I am not suggesting that as Gophers head coach Fleck deserves comparisons with Holtz, Bierman and Warmath but what he’s done at Minnesota is impressive. Dating back to last season, Fleck’s Gophers have won 11 of their last 12 games, including returning Paul Bunyan’s Axe to Dinkytown after a 15 year absence. Minnesota is 8-0 for the first time since 1941 and will play a much anticipated game on Saturday at home against Penn State. The Gophers are ranked No. 13 in the nation, while the Nittany Lions are No. 5. The last time Minnesota was ranked in the top 25 and played another ranked team was in October of 2004 when the No. 13 ranked Gophers lost to No. 14 Michigan.
I might have been the first in the media to inquire about Fleck’s commitment to Minnesota, when I brought the subject up last summer during a brief one-on-one interview. Fleck said that when he was considering leaving Western Michigan to come here with his wife Heather and young children, she emphasized the next career stop needed to be a long-term commitment. “She looked at me and says, ‘Listen, when we move there (the next job), we’re going to live there. We’re going to live there a long time…build a lot of roots.’
“It had to be a community that was high in philanthropy,” Fleck continued. “Had to be a community that was willing to serve and give. Had to be bigger than football. We feel the Twin City area and the state of Minnesota is that. … To be able to serve and give and make other people’s lives better. And that’s what Row the Boat is all about. It’s about serving and giving to other people. It’s about never giving up. It’s about providing opportunities for other people who can’t provide it for themselves.”
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!