Fleck's Ego

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U2Gopher said:
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.
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Mafe and Durr.
 

How long do people continue to accept his we're young on D while they continue making the same mistakes over and over?. If you are coaching them to do it the right way it shouldn't take a whole season for them to stop making the same stupid mistakes unless they just plain aren't as talented as Fleck has said they are.
 


GopherVotary said:
When we routed IA in 2014, Ferentz used his timeouts to score a meaningless TD late in the game.
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Yep. And didn't they also go with an onside kick after they scored with about 30 seconds left down by 45? One of their players injured a knee on the play as well.
 

U2Gopher said:
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.
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I don't think Minnesota has looked uncompetitive in any game but I guess you could argue this one but it was still a ball game prior to the 3 and 6 run at the end of the 3rd.
 


Fleck has demonstrated he can build football programs.

Now he has to show that he can maintain one at a high level.

So far not so good.
 

CentralGopher said:
How long do people continue to accept his we're young on D while they continue making the same mistakes over and over?. If you are coaching them to do it the right way it shouldn't take a whole season for them to stop making the same stupid mistakes unless they just plain aren't as talented as Fleck has said they are.
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Well considering there has not been a whole lot of practice and game time I’d say half the season? I’d say they looked much more in position last week, this week they just got beat on the lines and were in much better position than Michigan or Maryland. Still frustrating and no idea if they can get it turned around this year but I guess we have no choice but to watch and see what happens. PJ got this team to the best record I’ve ever seen in person last year! I don’t see this being his normal year and I still feel like this program is going in the right direction!
 

Replacement Gopher said:
Mafe and Durr.
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Like I said, I’m not sure we have anyone who starts for Wisconsin or Iowa. Mafe and Durr are good players, but based on the coverage I saw being played by Iowa last night, they are as good as or better than Durr. Mafe is still more of a pass rushing end than an every down player. He’s great at the former and still improving at the latter.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
I don't think Minnesota has looked uncompetitive in any game but I guess you could argue this one but it was still a ball game prior to the 3 and 6 run at the end of the 3rd.
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I guess we can agree to disagree, but other than dominating an Illinois team that was hard hit by COVID, we’ve only been competitive in the second and third quarter against Maryland. We were never close against Michigan. Gave up more than 10 yards per play. Maryland ran thru us like crap thru a goose in the first and fourth quarters and we lost last night 35-7. Again, we can agree to disagree but if that is competitive to you, your bar is set low. I’d like to see is aspire to more.
 



CentralGopher said:
How long do people continue to accept his we're young on D while they continue making the same mistakes over and over?. If you are coaching them to do it the right way it shouldn't take a whole season for them to stop making the same stupid mistakes unless they just plain aren't as talented as Fleck has said they are.
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The defense isn't even that young. DrewTreadway is a sixth year player, Schad is a senior, Mafe and Otumwa (sp.) are juniors, Rush is a junior, Howden a junior, St. Juste is a veteran, Smith is a junior, Howden a junior, Sori-Marin has played a lot. There are some young linebackers and D l, but everyone has 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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At that point in the game the problem was he was doing it with starters while Iowa had reserves. It was a dick move to leave the starters in at that point.
 
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A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Why?

What rules are these where starters have to come out and not play in a game?
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Because the game was over. Let your back ups play and if they can drive the field by all means call a TO so they can score.
 


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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This is why the Gopher community consider Gopherhole, Fleckshole. Most have left for Gopher fan sites.
 

It is time for Fleck to put his multimillions in an annuity, leave when his contract ends and spend the rest of his life where his real talent is-on the motivational speaker circuit.
 

GFBfan said:
Because the game was over. Let your back ups play and if they can drive the field by all means call a TO so they can score.
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Ian that just a choice?

Shouldn't the coach make that call?

What does "sick move" mean?
 

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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Don’t bring logic into this. GHole has spoken and it’s time for everyone everywhere to panic.
 

Agree 1000% on the part about leaving starters in, just to avoid the shutout, against Iowa's backups.

As I said in the other thread:

In chess, when you get badly outclassed .... you resign. Even though it's not checkmate yet, it will be. It's the classy thing to do.

We should've had backups in the game, getting experience. Fleck's ego did not allow that.
 

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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They had no QB last year. They got a transfer from Indiana that can throw the ball pretty well. That's been pretty much the whole difference with last year.

They were lucky as hell to catch Maryland in week 1. They'll also get a horrible Mich St team that will finish last in the East with a loss to Rutgers. They squeaked by Iowa, Nebraska, and Purdue. So they'll beat everyone in the West, except Wisconsin. Next week will show everyone why the West is Wisc and everyone else, this year.


Sanford broke Tanner this year, and I have no hope that he'll fix it the rest of this year, and sadly why would that change next year?
 

On Fleck - I have dealt with HS coaches who also like to use the "it's 100% on me" routine after a bad loss.

And I am tempted sometimes to ask - "Well, if it's 100% on you, and the team is losing badly every week, what does that say about you as a Coach?"

But, I'm too nice - or too cowardly - to do that.

The thing with Fleck is that he says "it's 100% on me," but then, he goes into "we're young, we're inexperienced, we're missing people" routine - which to some, sounds like excuses.

maybe this year is an anomaly. But, it does raise the ante for next year.
 

GFBfan said:
At that point in the game the problem was he was doing it with starters while Iowa had reserves. It was a dick move to leave the starters in at that point.
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Nonsense. The Gophers have to remove their starters because Iowa did? If anything....it was better experience for their backups. Clearly Fleck wanted to get rid of the shutout. I hate Iowa and I'd prefer not to hand them one.

Keep in mind....there was nearly seven minutes on the clock when we got the ball back. It's not like we got the ball back with 45 seconds and the offense was put out there to throw up hail marys.
 





People need to start understanding what 2019 was and what it wasn't.

- Penn State was amazing and will always be a feather in Fleck's cap. Franklin was so impressed, that he store Ciarrocca away.
- The bowl game was a nice surprise and a great win, too. Especially given what the media and everyone thought was going to happen. Auburn was dejected to be in that game, compared to what they thought they could've accomplished that year, and also assumed they'd just "out speed" us or something.
- The Iowa and especially Wisconsin games were disappointments.
- Every other Big Ten game was against a down or easy opponent.
- Non-conf games could've easily been 0-3.


It was a great season. Hey, I'll take being lucky over being good. But in hindsight, we should've understood why it wasn't going to be a launching pad.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Ian that just a choice?

Shouldn't the coach make that call?

What does "sick move" mean?
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I meant dick move, but my finger typing skills on my phone aren’t as accurate as a keyboard.
my opinion is it’s a bad look to leave starters in during a blow out win or loss. Especially in the 4th quarter against the other teams back up.
It also doesn’t give your back ups some real game experience. Which when your a young team, as PJ continues to say, is inexplicable
 

GFBfan said:
I meant dick move, but my finger typing skills on my phone aren’t as accurate as a keyboard.
my opinion is it’s a bad look to leave starters in during a blow out win or loss. Especially in the 4th quarter against the other teams back up.
It also doesn’t give your back ups some real game experience. Which when your a young team, as PJ continues to say, is inexplicable
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I agree it's not very classy to keep your starters in a blowout if you are the winning team but I really don't see how it's a problem if the losing team keeps their starters in. The coaches want the team to play a full game, play hard until the final whistle, teach them to not give up no matter what the score is and it can provide some positive momentum going into the next week. I really don't see the issue and actually, this is the first time I have ever read the idea that its not classy for a losing team to keep their starters in during a blowout.
 

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