STrib: P.J. Fleck's Gophers busy 'self-scouting' during bye week before Purdue game

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,580
Reaction score
15,663
Points
113
per Megan:

The Gophers football team clawed its way through the nonconference season, persisting to a 3-0 record.

The Gophers played FCS program South Dakota State and two Group of Five teams in Fresno State and Georgia Southern, beating them by an average of 4.33 points. And while the Gophers now luxuriate in a bye week — with a Big Ten opener at Purdue on the other end — they won’t be taking the break from a game as a vacation.

Coach P.J. Fleck said following Saturday’s 35-32 victory over Georgia Southern at TCF Bank Stadium that his team will focus on internal reflection in the next few days before turning attention to the conference slate. That’s needed, considering the main reason behind such close calls so far this season has been self-inflicted errors, like turnovers and penalties.

“We now have a body of work of what everybody can do. How people are going to defend us. We’re going to go back to self-scouting ourselves,” Fleck said. “We’re going to go back to fundamentals and details. … What are we doing well? What can we do better? What are the strengths of this football team, as they’ve proven in games, not in practice?”

http://www.startribune.com/p-j-flec...during-bye-week-before-purdue-game/560529452/

Go Gophers!!
 

Excellent! Hopefully, that includes things like what did we do really well last year, with nearly the same guys, that we haven’t even shown yet. And what explosive plays continue to show up on highlights that we don’t utilize...the slant is our money play! Do we have a screen pass? Can we set up TJ or Bateman on an end around/jet sweeep? Could we throw to the tight end down the seam versus the flat? Could we ever figure out the bubble screens? (We have the talent) Could we let Rodney catch a pass out of the backfield and let him operate in space? Will we take advantage of Seth in the right situations? Etc Etc

It’s when you do this stuff and how you set it up more importantly than anything else imo. Yes, then execution must follow but if you are going to save all these things to use once to surprise people I think your opportunities for success in the plays and in games are significantly diminished.
 
Last edited:

Exactly...Good post 60's Guy. I might add, and how to build our depth and get our younger players more experience along the way if possible.
 
Last edited:

I hope they ditch the option handoff thing and start just pounding the ball in straight handoffs. Not give the other team to run around our road graders.
 

silence for reflection and self-examination (got the spiritual aspect covered)
 


Sometimes bye weeks fall at bad times. For us the bye week could not have come at a better time. Lots to work on and a chance to heal some guys up before we head into the conference season. Hopefully we see a team that looks more like the one that ended the season last year when we come out of the bye.
 

Here is a live look in at the coach's watching the film:

giphy.gif
 

I have a feeling our Gophers are going to look much better going into BIG play. If, all the running backs get healthy, I can't wait to see what the offense can do with both Rodney Shannon/Mo on the field at the same time. I would love to see some linebacker trying to cover Rodney on well routes out of the backfield or lined up in the slot.

I think we will be okay over the next few games but we have a lot of growing to do this season.
 

per Megan:

The Gophers football team clawed its way through the nonconference season, persisting to a 3-0 record.

The Gophers played FCS program South Dakota State and two Group of Five teams in Fresno State and Georgia Southern, beating them by an average of 4.33 points. And while the Gophers now luxuriate in a bye week — with a Big Ten opener at Purdue on the other end — they won’t be taking the break from a game as a vacation.

Coach P.J. Fleck said following Saturday’s 35-32 victory over Georgia Southern at TCF Bank Stadium that his team will focus on internal reflection in the next few days before turning attention to the conference slate. That’s needed, considering the main reason behind such close calls so far this season has been self-inflicted errors, like turnovers and penalties.

“We now have a body of work of what everybody can do. How people are going to defend us. We’re going to go back to self-scouting ourselves,” Fleck said. “We’re going to go back to fundamentals and details. … What are we doing well? What can we do better? What are the strengths of this football team, as they’ve proven in games, not in practice?”

http://www.startribune.com/p-j-flec...during-bye-week-before-purdue-game/560529452/

Go Gophers!!

Underrated and underutilized word
 



Fleck has a tendency to stick with things that don’t work for several games in a row. For example....whatever it was that Robb Smith was doing.

This quote following the Illinois game is troubling to me, especially considering he fired Smith within a couple days (a decision I supported).

When asked after the game on how things looked schematically on defense against Illinois, Fleck answered with this quote.

"Every defense we have is schematically sound. It's whether you have the right people in the right place to make those plays, and adjust on the run based on what they're doing...teams that have beat us like this, are very athletic. We have to continue to get more athletic as we keep moving forward."



https://247sports.com/college/minne...utely-dismantled-at-Illinois-55-31-124206006/

In one breath, he said the scheme was sound, but the players have to be in the right place.... and we’re not athletic enough to stop Illinois. Which was it? He rolled the dice, and fired Smith. It worked, but he thinks out loud more than he needs to. It leaves the impression that he doesn’t have the situation under control. Let’s hope whatever he decides with the O-line produces similar results.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I hope Rossi comes into the meeting room and says something like this: "you've got a huge OL, so I'm telling my guys to go around them with speed rushes and loops/stunts on passing downs, and you always use a TE, but he never gets targeted or he stays in, so I can commit an 8th defender to the front almost worry free to stop the running game".


What are Fleck and Kirk C. prepared to do to answer that??
 


I hope Rossi comes into the meeting room and says something like this: "you've got a huge OL, so I'm telling my guys to go around them with speed rushes and loops/stunts on passing downs, and you always use a TE, but he never gets targeted or he stays in, so I can commit an 8th defender to the front almost worry free to stop the running game".


What are Fleck and Kirk C. prepared to do to answer that??

Also, hopefully he's screaming about how they can't keep running read-option if Morgan is never gonna actually make the read and keep the ball to run it himself.
 




As opposed to... panicking and changing everything game to game or something?

Yeah, I don't really see Fleck as someone who is opposed to change.

He moved on from Robb Smith to Joe Rossi at just about the perfect time. It did not come across as a knee jerk reaction and it was clearly the right call. Could it have been done a week or two earlier? Sure, but that's hindsight and these are real people. Coaching is a business where making connections matter.

As far as what he said at a press conference, well, yeah, he isn't going to throw Robb Smith under the bus.
 

Also, hopefully he's screaming about how they can't keep running read-option if Morgan is never gonna actually make the read and keep the ball to run it himself.

Very few of those are read-options, they are almost entirely called handoffs.
 

Very few of those are read-options, they are almost entirely called handoffs.

Right. Inside zone hand-offs.

The "fake keep" is supposed to at least hold the backside DE for a moment, if not ideally get him to commit to the QB. No idea if that actually works, or if that guy has been making the play.
 

Yeah, I don't really see Fleck as someone who is opposed to change.

He moved on from Robb Smith to Joe Rossi at just about the perfect time. It did not come across as a knee jerk reaction and it was clearly the right call. Could it have been done a week or two earlier? Sure, but that's hindsight and these are real people. Coaching is a business where making connections matter.

As far as what he said at a press conference, well, yeah, he isn't going to throw Robb Smith under the bus.


Instead, he threw his players under the bus, by saying they weren’t athletic enough. My point is he gets himself in trouble by talking too much.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

[/b]
Instead, he threw his players under the bus, by saying they weren’t athletic enough. My point is he gets himself in trouble by talking too much.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Who did he throw under the bus? There is 1 DC and a bunch of defensive players. Every football coach in the country would like to get "more athletic".
 

Excellent! Hopefully, that includes things like what did we do really well last year, with nearly the same guys, that we haven’t even shown yet. And what explosive plays continue to show up on highlights that we don’t utilize...the slant is our money play! Do we have a screen pass? Can we set up TJ or Bateman on an end around/jet sweeep? Could we throw to the tight end down the seam versus the flat? Could we ever figure out the bubble screens? (We have the talent) Could we let Rodney catch a pass out of the backfield and let him operate in space? Will we take advantage of Seth in the right situations? Etc Etc

It’s when you do this stuff and how you set it up more importantly than anything else imo. Yes, then execution must follow but if you are going to save all these things to use once to surprise people I think your opportunities for success in the plays and in games are significantly diminished.

I was screaming for this when GA Southern blitzed 15x in a row in the 4th quarter.
 

Right. Inside zone hand-offs.

The "fake keep" is supposed to at least hold the backside DE for a moment, if not ideally get him to commit to the QB. No idea if that actually works, or if that guy has been making the play.

In the second half at least the DE was crashing down hard on the running back, so the fake keep was doing little to no good.
 

Who did he throw under the bus? There is 1 DC and a bunch of defensive players. Every football coach in the country would like to get "more athletic".

He flat out said they can’t stop athletic teams with the players they have, which was clearly wrong, and not a wise thing to say. He was thinking out loud in the press conference, which is what he did this week with his bizarre answer regarding the failed 4th down conversion. There’s a reason Belichick gives one word answers. PJ has foot in the mouth disease at times.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


It seemed as if Mitch Leidner kept the ball half the time on the read-option. Although, he was much more of a bruising runner than Morgan is.
 

It seemed as if Mitch Leidner kept the ball half the time on the read-option. Although, he was much more of a bruising runner than Morgan is.
He was also very good at reading the situation.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk
 

Self scouting

He was also very good at reading the situation.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

Self scout Tip #1
When you have a nice gain on second down setting up a third and short, rushing up to the line in a hurry and running inside zone doesn’t fool anybody. Take your time, get set and run the play.

Self scout Tip #2
When you have third and extremely short, whether at midfield or near the opponents endzone, snapping to a QB under center (as opposed to a QB 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage) puts you closer to your end goal (gaining an inch) and will limit the amount of penetration from the defense.

Self scout Tip#3
You have the best receiving core I’ve seen in my 42 years of watching Gopher football. Use them. Throwing to set up the run is not a sign of weakness;it will soften things up in the box for our Oline that appears to be on the “sweet and gentle” side.

More tips to follow
 

Also, hopefully he's screaming about how they can't keep running read-option if Morgan is never gonna actually make the read and keep the ball to run it himself.

They would have to start running read option in order for them to keep running it.

Mods - can we sticky a thread at the top of the forum explaining that Kirk Ciarrocca's offense (the offense that the Gophers currently run) is RPO and not read option?
 

It seemed as if Mitch Leidner kept the ball half the time on the read-option. Although, he was much more of a bruising runner than Morgan is.

Well, Leidner actually played in a read option offense, whereas Morgan does not.
 

Self scout Tip #1
When you have a nice gain on second down setting up a third and short, rushing up to the line in a hurry and running inside zone doesn’t fool anybody. Take your time, get set and run the play.

Self scout Tip #2
When you have third and extremely short, whether at midfield or near the opponents endzone, snapping to a QB under center (as opposed to a QB 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage) puts you closer to your end goal (gaining an inch) and will limit the amount of penetration from the defense.

Self scout Tip#3
You have the best receiving core I’ve seen in my 42 years of watching Gopher football. Use them. Throwing to set up the run is not a sign of weakness;it will soften things up in the box for our Oline that appears to be on the “sweet and gentle” side.

More tips to follow

Solid tips there Goldy! Agree wholeheartedly!
 

Self scout Tip #1
When you have a nice gain on second down setting up a third and short, rushing up to the line in a hurry and running inside zone doesn’t fool anybody. Take your time, get set and run the play. Agree 100%! I hate it when we do this!

Self scout Tip #2
When you have third and extremely short, whether at midfield or near the opponents endzone, snapping to a QB under center (as opposed to a QB 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage) puts you closer to your end goal (gaining an inch) and will limit the amount of penetration from the defense.somewhat agree. However, I am not a fan of the QB sneak near the goal line, but it does work better at mid-field

Self scout Tip#3
You have the best receiving core I’ve seen in my 42 years of watching Gopher football. Use them. Throwing to set up the run is not a sign of weakness;it will soften things up in the box for our Oline that appears to be on the “sweet and gentle” side. Pretty much agree. We obviously have to protect Morgan better

More tips to follow

x
 




Top Bottom