NoelarBear
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DENISE SEOMIN: Welcome, everyone, to the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. We are joined this afternoon by Minnesota Head Coach PJ Fleck. The Golden Gophers finished the 2021 season at 8-4, 6-3 in the Big Ten. Minnesota has won four straight Bowl games, which ties for the third longest active streak in the country.
HEAD COACH FLECK: Thank you very much. The Golden Gophers, we're incredibly fortunate, and very thankful to be here at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix. I want to thank Guaranteed Rate, obviously, and the Fiesta Bowl for all their hospitality. It's been second-to-none, especially today. We have a backdrop of Camelback Mountain and the Praying Monk, while getting a nice shine from the sun. A day like today is why you come to Arizona. So when you go out there, hopefully everybody gets a chance to experience it like our players today.
But we're very fortunate to be here. Really proud of this football team. I know we've talked about it at length for the last few weeks. Got a tremendous opponent, well-coached, really good football team in West Virginia. Look forward to a great team coming up here in the next few days.
Q. When you look at Joe Rossi (defensive coordinator), obviously the players have called him "the guru." What are the hallmarks of his retention and how does he apply that to make the defense?
COACH FLECK: I love it when the players call him that because Joe hates that. He hates it and the players like it. There is no magic formula. Joe will be the first one to sit up here and tell you that.
It's how you get the players to play within a certain scheme. There's four-three schemes, three-four, three-five-three schemes, all types of schemes out there. It's all about how your players play. We all play a game of football. A lot of us have the same type of plays. We all have 11 positions with guys on the field.
But when you start to look at how you get somebody to play, I think that's what separates really good coaches from average coaches. I think Coach Rossi is a phenomenal football coach because he gets the most out of all his players. They do it for each other and they do it for him.
I think that's really important. It's not just the player-to-player relationship or a player-to-coach; it's coach-to-player, it's coach-to-coach, and it goes down the line from there. That's part of the team, part of the offense, defense unit and special teams, and it breaks down by position and obviously breaks down individually.
I think he does a great job of connecting the defense. He's a phenomenal football coach. I'm glad he's with us. Glad we got him extended. Appreciate Mark Coyle, his help on that, our Athletic Director, and President Joan Gabel for making sure that Joe Rossi stays with us as long as we can hold on to him.
Q. With the COVID situation, how's your team stacking up with that? What extra measures?
COACH FLECK: You have to ask today. So far so good, we've had zero cases. Our players are healthy. Zero cases as of last time we've talked, in terms of we don't have anybody with that right now. That's a credit to our medical team, our medical staff. Joi Thomas and Mike Sypniak and our trainers and our doctors and our medical team. Just following CDC policy and Minnesota state guidelines.
We said we're basically taking the state of Minnesota and we're bringing it over here. Our guys have really respected that. Even our hotel, there's not many people there, which makes it great for us. We get to spread out and really just be around each other as a football team.
We appreciate that from the Fiesta Bowl Committee, especially where we're at. We're pretty isolated. We like that. To be isolated in a year, this is a great year to be isolated. So we came here early and we just kind of have our own little city over there. It's been really good.
I give credit to a lot of our players. We could talk about who's vaccinated, who's not, boosters. Our medical team has provided the vaccination and the boosters and the majority of our players have taken advantage of that. Then we’re just doing everything we possibly can to keep them safe.
Proactive education is the best way to do that. Our guys have always had open ears to that and open eyes, always listening and doing what they possibly can to keep each other safe -- not only each other, but our community.
Q. Matt Simon (co-offensive coordinator) is calling his second straight bowl game. Where do you want to see him develop as a coach before he becomes an offensive coordinator?
COACH FLECK: I think Matt has done a great job. He's been with me an awful long time. We're going on nine years coming up here. I think just complete control of the offense, right, at every single position. It's one thing to just coach the wide receivers, but it's another thing to get into quarterback coaching. I think he's done a great job of that. Even when Mike [Sanford] was here, those two did a really good job of balancing back and forth.
I think the next step is really being involved with the quarterback. It's been nice to watch Matt work with Tanner [Morgan] and the quarterbacks and watch that relationship start to grow. Even our meetings this past week here in Arizona, Coach Simon has met with the quarterbacks and wideouts at the exact same time and I think that has helped.
Just the overall control of the whole offense, not just the wide receiving corps, not just the passing game, but everything else. He's a smart coach. Knows all of it. Can teach it. Can demand it. Just continue to get that experience. Up to me, too, to put him in those positions even more than I do.
A lot of you have been at practices to watch that happen, where we'll get to the end of practice and we'll scrimmage or go rophers, go to the young guys. We'll allow either the players to call it, or we'll allow Coach [Matt] Simon to call it, Coach [Joe] Harasymiak to call it and further down the list as we go. That gains people knowledge and experience to be able to be better. I think it's just overall experience and time and getting around those quarterbacks more.
Quotes provided by Caption Pros – (480) 419-3809
HEAD COACH FLECK: Thank you very much. The Golden Gophers, we're incredibly fortunate, and very thankful to be here at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix. I want to thank Guaranteed Rate, obviously, and the Fiesta Bowl for all their hospitality. It's been second-to-none, especially today. We have a backdrop of Camelback Mountain and the Praying Monk, while getting a nice shine from the sun. A day like today is why you come to Arizona. So when you go out there, hopefully everybody gets a chance to experience it like our players today.
But we're very fortunate to be here. Really proud of this football team. I know we've talked about it at length for the last few weeks. Got a tremendous opponent, well-coached, really good football team in West Virginia. Look forward to a great team coming up here in the next few days.
Q. When you look at Joe Rossi (defensive coordinator), obviously the players have called him "the guru." What are the hallmarks of his retention and how does he apply that to make the defense?
COACH FLECK: I love it when the players call him that because Joe hates that. He hates it and the players like it. There is no magic formula. Joe will be the first one to sit up here and tell you that.
It's how you get the players to play within a certain scheme. There's four-three schemes, three-four, three-five-three schemes, all types of schemes out there. It's all about how your players play. We all play a game of football. A lot of us have the same type of plays. We all have 11 positions with guys on the field.
But when you start to look at how you get somebody to play, I think that's what separates really good coaches from average coaches. I think Coach Rossi is a phenomenal football coach because he gets the most out of all his players. They do it for each other and they do it for him.
I think that's really important. It's not just the player-to-player relationship or a player-to-coach; it's coach-to-player, it's coach-to-coach, and it goes down the line from there. That's part of the team, part of the offense, defense unit and special teams, and it breaks down by position and obviously breaks down individually.
I think he does a great job of connecting the defense. He's a phenomenal football coach. I'm glad he's with us. Glad we got him extended. Appreciate Mark Coyle, his help on that, our Athletic Director, and President Joan Gabel for making sure that Joe Rossi stays with us as long as we can hold on to him.
Q. With the COVID situation, how's your team stacking up with that? What extra measures?
COACH FLECK: You have to ask today. So far so good, we've had zero cases. Our players are healthy. Zero cases as of last time we've talked, in terms of we don't have anybody with that right now. That's a credit to our medical team, our medical staff. Joi Thomas and Mike Sypniak and our trainers and our doctors and our medical team. Just following CDC policy and Minnesota state guidelines.
We said we're basically taking the state of Minnesota and we're bringing it over here. Our guys have really respected that. Even our hotel, there's not many people there, which makes it great for us. We get to spread out and really just be around each other as a football team.
We appreciate that from the Fiesta Bowl Committee, especially where we're at. We're pretty isolated. We like that. To be isolated in a year, this is a great year to be isolated. So we came here early and we just kind of have our own little city over there. It's been really good.
I give credit to a lot of our players. We could talk about who's vaccinated, who's not, boosters. Our medical team has provided the vaccination and the boosters and the majority of our players have taken advantage of that. Then we’re just doing everything we possibly can to keep them safe.
Proactive education is the best way to do that. Our guys have always had open ears to that and open eyes, always listening and doing what they possibly can to keep each other safe -- not only each other, but our community.
Q. Matt Simon (co-offensive coordinator) is calling his second straight bowl game. Where do you want to see him develop as a coach before he becomes an offensive coordinator?
COACH FLECK: I think Matt has done a great job. He's been with me an awful long time. We're going on nine years coming up here. I think just complete control of the offense, right, at every single position. It's one thing to just coach the wide receivers, but it's another thing to get into quarterback coaching. I think he's done a great job of that. Even when Mike [Sanford] was here, those two did a really good job of balancing back and forth.
I think the next step is really being involved with the quarterback. It's been nice to watch Matt work with Tanner [Morgan] and the quarterbacks and watch that relationship start to grow. Even our meetings this past week here in Arizona, Coach Simon has met with the quarterbacks and wideouts at the exact same time and I think that has helped.
Just the overall control of the whole offense, not just the wide receiving corps, not just the passing game, but everything else. He's a smart coach. Knows all of it. Can teach it. Can demand it. Just continue to get that experience. Up to me, too, to put him in those positions even more than I do.
A lot of you have been at practices to watch that happen, where we'll get to the end of practice and we'll scrimmage or go rophers, go to the young guys. We'll allow either the players to call it, or we'll allow Coach [Matt] Simon to call it, Coach [Joe] Harasymiak to call it and further down the list as we go. That gains people knowledge and experience to be able to be better. I think it's just overall experience and time and getting around those quarterbacks more.
Quotes provided by Caption Pros – (480) 419-3809