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Gopher football coach PJ Fleck appeared on the Sports Huddle on WCCO Radio.
Sid: I've been covering football 75 years. never seen anything like that. the game and the post-game deal. tell me about the kid who intercepted the pass.
PJ: Jordan Howden from Las Vegas - same school as Cam Wiley. the HS coach helps us out there. he's a special player. had to fill in for Winfield last year as a true FR. he was highly recruited, but had some academic things to finish up. as a result, he lost some offers from West Coast teams. great player. we were fortunate to get him. last year he had to play way too early Jordan was back there in a major position. he really didn't know his feet from his head. he's come a long way. really tremendous young man. we're excited to have him.
Sid: Seniors on defense
PJ: whole class. proud of them. being here. when we 1st got here they didn't leave they stayed. they became the culture. Coughlin tremendous. got pressure on them. didn't get a lot of sacks, but we were able to get the ball out of the QB's hands. Barber played well. Winfield. We didn't have Kamal Martin. Oliver, Sori-Marin. had to step in and play big
Sid: your QB. 18 for 20. WR's amazing.
PJ: Tanner - it's the culmination of a lot of work. great leader. intangibles. special player. does a great job distributing the football. like a PG in basketball. put the ball where it needs to be. your play-makers take it from there. we needed the players to be the reason why we won. they were able to do that.
Max: thinking about how you throw the ball. looks like you thought how to attack their defense
PJ: Last week most of the coaches were out recruiting. Kirk C and Joe R stayed all weekend. dissect Penn State. come up with new ideas. nobody better at watching film than Kirk. big one to Rashad was a check. We knew we had to run the football. Sometimes you need to run to set up the pass. On Saturday, by passing we were able to soften them up for the run game. It was a huge win because it was the next one. the players find a way to get better. they compete against themselves.
Mona: better student section. Coaching staff did things interesting to watch. pass protection. bring in another Off lineman. PSU #2 in country on defense. creation of pocket.
PJ: needed to do things with our protection. we knew we couldn't sit back in 5 or 6-man protection. teams that did that against PSU had 9 sacks. Our offensive staff, Callahan, Burns, Patterson, Kirk did a great job of manipulating situations. play-action. max protect. chip with the backs. chips inside. backs come in and block in B gap. had a great game plan. the job is to find a way to win.
Sid: did you know you could throw the ball that well?
PJ: It's not just against who we play that week. We need to be able to throw every week. need to be able to run the ball every week. Over 4 quarters, watch how the game unfolds. we can do both. we're better at that this year than we were last year. when you can do both, you can do special things.
Max: QB doesn't make mistakes. limit interceptions. Is that a teaching process?
PJ: it's about consistency. Kirk is a great teacher. break it down. Don't focus on what you know, focus on what the QB knows. we take it step by step. It's going to take time. teaching progression. there are things we're doing this year that we couldn't do last year. have to continue to get better. players get success, need to make them fail again. the progression starts over again.
Mona: brought in new kicker. 99% of fans hadn't heard of him
PJ: Brock Walker. Lantz had some leg tightness. felt it was in our best interest to go with Brock. he's earned it. knew that sometime we would have to use him. He's got ice in his veins. did a great job. he's put himself in a position to have the opportunity to continue to do that.
Sid: Green. key score from 1-yard line.
PJ: one thing we did - we made all 6 offensive linemen as captains. let them know what kind of game it's going to be. Seth Green gets to run behind those guys. good athlete. good vision. He can hit the hole. He had the extra blocker. OL was outstanding. Callahan deserves a lot of credit.
Max: no penalties. how do you teach that?
PJ: it's a long process. started the day we got here. most games are lost. lot of games that are won are lost less than the opponent. got to be smarter. better in situational football. 78% wins games. when we get the 78% we're almost undefeated since we've been here. when we lose the battle, we lose almost all the time. find ways to build culture around foundational pieces. disciplined. we spend a lot of time on technique and fundamentals. we try to make our system player-friendly. find a simplistic way of mixing it up. find the right people who are committed. 85 players above 3.0 GPA. this is a very smart football team. we'll have clips in our meeting from teams that lost games because of personal fouls, penalties, bonehead plays. give them the reason why. easy way to learn is from watching other people do it. the hard way is from you doing it. cultural basis. slogans are based on situations.
Mona: Morgan clock management. never took snap early. Looked like PSU got away with play after play clock ran out. did you get an explanation?
PJ: I did get an explanation. But I don't understand it. what they said is, if the clock goes to zero. the back judge looks down to see if ball is snapped. if ball is snapped, he lets it go. I thought it hung on zero for a second. they said he looked up, it said zero. he looked down, the ball was snapped.
Sid: crowd noise. Outstanding WR's. MN never had as many good WR's
PJ: that is the best collegiate environment I've ever been in as a player or head coach. It was real, genuine. Had the whole State of MN behind you. felt it from kickoff. that is what we can be, could be, should be every single week. can't thank fans enough. WR's - Coach Simon does great job. got a lot of high draft picks. comes from recruiting to your system. guys believing in that. buying into that.
Sid: your coaching staff doesn't get enough credit. how lucky MN is to have you as Coach and get that new contract. Murray's. lucky break Coyle got you for the coach.
PJ: RTB, Ski-U-Mah, Go Gophers. Now we're back to 0-0. we've got to find a way to be 1-0 against Iowa.
Sid: I've been covering football 75 years. never seen anything like that. the game and the post-game deal. tell me about the kid who intercepted the pass.
PJ: Jordan Howden from Las Vegas - same school as Cam Wiley. the HS coach helps us out there. he's a special player. had to fill in for Winfield last year as a true FR. he was highly recruited, but had some academic things to finish up. as a result, he lost some offers from West Coast teams. great player. we were fortunate to get him. last year he had to play way too early Jordan was back there in a major position. he really didn't know his feet from his head. he's come a long way. really tremendous young man. we're excited to have him.
Sid: Seniors on defense
PJ: whole class. proud of them. being here. when we 1st got here they didn't leave they stayed. they became the culture. Coughlin tremendous. got pressure on them. didn't get a lot of sacks, but we were able to get the ball out of the QB's hands. Barber played well. Winfield. We didn't have Kamal Martin. Oliver, Sori-Marin. had to step in and play big
Sid: your QB. 18 for 20. WR's amazing.
PJ: Tanner - it's the culmination of a lot of work. great leader. intangibles. special player. does a great job distributing the football. like a PG in basketball. put the ball where it needs to be. your play-makers take it from there. we needed the players to be the reason why we won. they were able to do that.
Max: thinking about how you throw the ball. looks like you thought how to attack their defense
PJ: Last week most of the coaches were out recruiting. Kirk C and Joe R stayed all weekend. dissect Penn State. come up with new ideas. nobody better at watching film than Kirk. big one to Rashad was a check. We knew we had to run the football. Sometimes you need to run to set up the pass. On Saturday, by passing we were able to soften them up for the run game. It was a huge win because it was the next one. the players find a way to get better. they compete against themselves.
Mona: better student section. Coaching staff did things interesting to watch. pass protection. bring in another Off lineman. PSU #2 in country on defense. creation of pocket.
PJ: needed to do things with our protection. we knew we couldn't sit back in 5 or 6-man protection. teams that did that against PSU had 9 sacks. Our offensive staff, Callahan, Burns, Patterson, Kirk did a great job of manipulating situations. play-action. max protect. chip with the backs. chips inside. backs come in and block in B gap. had a great game plan. the job is to find a way to win.
Sid: did you know you could throw the ball that well?
PJ: It's not just against who we play that week. We need to be able to throw every week. need to be able to run the ball every week. Over 4 quarters, watch how the game unfolds. we can do both. we're better at that this year than we were last year. when you can do both, you can do special things.
Max: QB doesn't make mistakes. limit interceptions. Is that a teaching process?
PJ: it's about consistency. Kirk is a great teacher. break it down. Don't focus on what you know, focus on what the QB knows. we take it step by step. It's going to take time. teaching progression. there are things we're doing this year that we couldn't do last year. have to continue to get better. players get success, need to make them fail again. the progression starts over again.
Mona: brought in new kicker. 99% of fans hadn't heard of him
PJ: Brock Walker. Lantz had some leg tightness. felt it was in our best interest to go with Brock. he's earned it. knew that sometime we would have to use him. He's got ice in his veins. did a great job. he's put himself in a position to have the opportunity to continue to do that.
Sid: Green. key score from 1-yard line.
PJ: one thing we did - we made all 6 offensive linemen as captains. let them know what kind of game it's going to be. Seth Green gets to run behind those guys. good athlete. good vision. He can hit the hole. He had the extra blocker. OL was outstanding. Callahan deserves a lot of credit.
Max: no penalties. how do you teach that?
PJ: it's a long process. started the day we got here. most games are lost. lot of games that are won are lost less than the opponent. got to be smarter. better in situational football. 78% wins games. when we get the 78% we're almost undefeated since we've been here. when we lose the battle, we lose almost all the time. find ways to build culture around foundational pieces. disciplined. we spend a lot of time on technique and fundamentals. we try to make our system player-friendly. find a simplistic way of mixing it up. find the right people who are committed. 85 players above 3.0 GPA. this is a very smart football team. we'll have clips in our meeting from teams that lost games because of personal fouls, penalties, bonehead plays. give them the reason why. easy way to learn is from watching other people do it. the hard way is from you doing it. cultural basis. slogans are based on situations.
Mona: Morgan clock management. never took snap early. Looked like PSU got away with play after play clock ran out. did you get an explanation?
PJ: I did get an explanation. But I don't understand it. what they said is, if the clock goes to zero. the back judge looks down to see if ball is snapped. if ball is snapped, he lets it go. I thought it hung on zero for a second. they said he looked up, it said zero. he looked down, the ball was snapped.
Sid: crowd noise. Outstanding WR's. MN never had as many good WR's
PJ: that is the best collegiate environment I've ever been in as a player or head coach. It was real, genuine. Had the whole State of MN behind you. felt it from kickoff. that is what we can be, could be, should be every single week. can't thank fans enough. WR's - Coach Simon does great job. got a lot of high draft picks. comes from recruiting to your system. guys believing in that. buying into that.
Sid: your coaching staff doesn't get enough credit. how lucky MN is to have you as Coach and get that new contract. Murray's. lucky break Coyle got you for the coach.
PJ: RTB, Ski-U-Mah, Go Gophers. Now we're back to 0-0. we've got to find a way to be 1-0 against Iowa.