Fleck's Ego

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SPEGOPHER

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While there are many reasons to be absolutely disgusted tonight, what stood out to me is Fleck's ego. The unsportsmanlike penalty was costly -- and the decisions to play the starters at the end was both strategically questionable (Morgan has regressed a shocking amount) and incredibly selfish (risking an injury to Bateman or Mo so we can score a garbage time TD against Iowa's backups?) -- but what really, really pissed me off was the humiliating timeout pissing match with Ferentz at the end of the game. Ferentz's team and coaches wiped the floor with Fleck (and has since Fleck became coach) but instead of owning the loss, he acted like a spoiled child and Ferentz called him on it. We have seen horrendous gopher football before, but I'd prefer to retain a smidge of dignity if possible.

Fleck needs to own the fact that the current roster and coaching staff that he 100% built are entirely uncompetitive in two phases of the game, and devoid of coaching talent in the third. No pointless drives to end an abysmal home performance against a rival, or slogans, or sweet nothing post game "it's on me" statements will fix this mess. To save himself from becoming the laughingstock that other Big Ten Coaches and fans so desperately want him to be, Fleck needs to admit his poor roster construction, whiffs on important coaching hires and make meaningful changes, fast.
 


You nailed it on the head... I love Fleck but he is driving me crazy this season. He seems in over his head.... other coaches like Fitzgerald have had bad seasons but with Fleck this year it feels like it is absolutely spiraling out of control. I don’t think I can handle even watch the press conference (My Sunday morning ritual as soon as i wake, win or lose).
 

Bad penalty to pick up for sure. Would like to know what exactly fleck said but I’m sure we never will

I thought the penalty he was arguing about was a pretty clear penalty
 

Some guy said:
Bad penalty to pick up for sure. Would like to know what exactly fleck said but I’m sure we never will

I thought the penalty he was arguing about was a pretty clear penalty
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The guys on the radio said Fleck ran 15 yards onto the field after the flag was thrown.
 




SPEGOPHER said:
While there are many reasons to be absolutely disgusted tonight, what stood out to me is Fleck's ego. The unsportsmanlike penalty was costly -- and the decisions to play the starters at the end was both strategically questionable (Morgan has regressed a shocking amount) and incredibly selfish (risking an injury to Bateman or Mo so we can score a garbage time TD against Iowa's backups?) -- but what really, really pissed me off was the humiliating timeout pissing match with Ferentz at the end of the game. Ferentz's team and coaches wiped the floor with Fleck (and has since Fleck became coach) but instead of owning the loss, he acted like a spoiled child and Ferentz called him on it. We have seen horrendous gopher football before, but I'd prefer to retain a smidge of dignity if possible.

Fleck needs to own the fact that the current roster and coaching staff that he 100% built are entirely uncompetitive in two phases of the game, and devoid of coaching talent in the third. No pointless drives to end an abysmal home performance against a rival, or slogans, or sweet nothing post game "it's on me" statements will fix this mess. To save himself from becoming the laughingstock that other Big Ten Coaches and fans so desperately want him to be, Fleck needs to admit his poor roster construction, whiffs on important coaching hires and make meaningful changes, fast.
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11-2 last year. 2 top 10 wins. Finished as the 10th ranked team in the country. Best season in half a century, or more? But by all means, go on.
 

SPEGOPHER said:
To save himself from becoming the laughingstock that other Big Ten Coaches and fans so desperately want him to be
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This is a worry. I really just wish he would be more honest and transparent. That ego decision at the end of the game killed me. It's ok to be pissed about it, but you've gotta take the loss and maintain dignity and respect for the players/game like you said.
 




Some Day...Maybe said:
11-2 last year. 2 top 10 wins. Finished as the 10th ranked team in the country. Best season in half a century, or more? But by all means, go on.
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Lets hope we can do that again someday. Maybe it’ll just be every 3-4 years for us to have special seasons like Mason’s 1999 and 2003 seasons. I mean we all want to be great every year but come one, we are still just the little baby Gophies.
 

I see no problem with Fleck calling timeout and trying to score. What’s wrong with that? You compete till the end, and who wants to get shutout? Ferentz was the one showing no class. They really hate PJ, but that’s there problem. The way I see it, Iowa hasn’t been relevant in a long time. They’re Iowa, they have to live with that.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
I see no problem with Fleck calling timeout and trying to score. What’s wrong with that? You compete till the end, and who wants to get shutout? Ferentz was the one showing no class. They really hate PJ, but that’s there problem. The way I see it, Iowa hasn’t been relevant in a long time. They’re Iowa, they have to live with that.
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Hot take:
Fleck was fine calling timeout and trying to score
Iowa was fine calling timeouts

None of it matters and nobody did anything offensive
 



IrishGoph55 said:
You nailed it on the head... I love Fleck but he is driving me crazy this season. He seems in over his head.... other coaches like Fitzgerald have had bad seasons but with Fleck this year it feels like it is absolutely spiraling out of control. I don’t think I can handle even watch the press conference (My Sunday morning ritual as soon as i wake, win or lose).
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Why? Northwestern went from 9-5 west division champs, to 3-9 and being last in the west when comparing 2018 and 2019. Why is this season spiraling out of control and Fitzgerald's was just a bad season?
 

I can see your point......But to say Iowa hasn't been relevant is just being sour. Maybe the actual state of Iowa is lame and irrelevant but not their football team. They had an undefeated regular season and made the BIG Championship and Rose Bowl in 2015. Granted they lost both, but I would still take their 2015 season over our special season we had last year any day.
 

Taji34 said:
Why? Northwestern went from 9-5 west division champs, to 3-9 and being last in the west when comparing 2018 and 2019. Why is this season spiraling out of control and Fitzgerald's was just a bad season?
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I thought I remember Fleck saying after the bowl game...This program is moving forward, we are not going back to that....
 




GopherGangsta said:
I thought I remember Fleck saying after the bowl game...This program is moving forward, we are not going back to that....
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He has said that a lot and is always referring to mentality

Hopefully he doesn’t think this okay. If he does, he should be fired. I bet he doesn’t think this is ideal
 

@Some Day...Maybe:

No matter how Fleck’s tenure ends up, I will appreciate what he did to give us last year; by far the best gopher season of my life.

But this year has made some things clear: Last year is owed in large part to non-Fleck recruits and our departed offensive coordinator. Fleck has (seemingly) failed miserably to replace either.

In terms of trying to score, I have no problem with it generally, but to do it with your starters in and get involved in the timeout shit show that the soft-spoken Ferentz absolutely destroyed in his post-game presser is a whole different matter.

Bottom line: as great as last year was, there are few legitimate reasons to feel optimistic about the direction of gopher football.
 

Iowa hasn’t been relevant for a long time? Wow what does that mean for our Gophers? Last 6 in a row —8 out the last 9 years! I wouldn’t call that non-relevant!!!!
 


There are some great points here but what I would like to know is if the act is running a little thin with the players. It's probably tolerable and okay when winning. But when getting your butt kicked, I am not sure they want to read books about poop. The players are looking for real answers and instead they are getting corny motivational gimmicks. I have no idea or insight but really do wonder.
 

skiumah1 said:
This is a worry. I really just wish he would be more honest and transparent. That ego decision at the end of the game killed me. It's ok to be pissed about it, but you've gotta take the loss and maintain dignity and respect for the players/game like you said.
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I have been in sales my entire life. I've never seen a successful salesperson without an ego. Head coaches are both a teacher and a salesperson.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
11-2 last year. 2 top 10 wins. Finished as the 10th ranked team in the country. Best season in half a century, or more? But by all means, go on.
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Some Day...Maybe said:
11-2 last year. 2 top 10 wins. Finished as the 10th ranked team in the country. Best season in half a century, or more? But by all means, go on.
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I am in your camp, and I’m trying hard to stay there.

If it weren’t for some gutless coaching against Maryland, we’d be 2-2 right now.

Even great teams/coaches have bad/down years. I’m not necessarily expecting 11-2 every year that rolls around. There will be years where due to injuries, bad luck or both, you have a losing record.

What I am expecting however is to be competitive on the field, and in that aspect of the game, we really seem to be struggling. That is alarming in season 4 of a coach whom virtually everyone agrees has been recruiting better. I’m not sure we have a single player on the defensive side of the ledger, who could crack the starting lineup at Iowa or Wisconsin. This should be alarming to all of us.
 

Taji34 said:
Why? Northwestern went from 9-5 west division champs, to 3-9 and being last in the west when comparing 2018 and 2019. Why is this season spiraling out of control and Fitzgerald's was just a bad season?
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There is something to be said for how you lose. Of Northwestern’s nine losses last year, only against Ohio State and Indiana were they not in the ball game. They lost 4 games by 10 points or less and their defense at least held opponents to under 400 yards per game. Now, it remains to be seen how this season plays out. If we can find wins against Purdue and Nebraska we can chalk this season up to rebuilding. But if we continue to look uncompetitive game in and game out then I’m afraid there could be a deeper problem. We shall see.
 


When we routed IA in 2014, Ferentz used his timeouts to score a meaningless TD late in the game.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
I see no problem with Fleck calling timeout and trying to score. What’s wrong with that? You compete till the end, and who wants to get shutout? Ferentz was the one showing no class. They really hate PJ, but that’s there problem. The way I see it, Iowa hasn’t been relevant in a long time. They’re Iowa, they have to live with that.
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Surely you are not talking about relevant in the Big in FB. As much as I like to see Iowa and for that matter WI lose, Ferentz and Iowa are very very good. And have been for the majority of over 2 decades. PJ has a lot of work to do, based on 4 games this season.
 

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