PJ Fleck, Minnesota gearing up for their "Kentucky Derby" of a season opener

BleedGopher

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per Colin:

P.J. Fleck has a question for you.

“Have you ever been to the Kentucky Derby?” he said.

Nope.

“Have you ever ridden a horse in the Kentucky Derby?” he said.

Nope.

“I haven't either,” said the Minnesota head coach.

Stick with him. He’s getting to the point.

And the point, in this case, is about the Golden Gophers’ season opener with Ohio State under the lights on Sept. 2.

“But I can imagine right before you get into the chute and they open that gate, that anticipation that you feel,” Fleck said. “And then when they open the gate, you go. The anticipation playing a top-five team to open the season at Huntington Bank Stadium with the crowd being back first the time, a sellout crowd, our third straight, with a top-five opponent, it's awesome. But it's still a football game. Our players are taught to be humble enough to know that anybody can beat you if you're not at your best but confident enough to know that you can beat anybody if you are at your best. They're trained that way. And it's just like the Derby – there are so many horses, and on any given day, one can beat the other.”

Fleck called the awaiting challenge of facing the Big Ten preseason favorite an “enormous challenge.”

“They're well-coached, they're a tremendous football team, incredible tradition,” Fleck said. “I've worked there, I know it. But again, we have to focus on us. We can't focus on them. We have to be the best team we can possibly be September 2, and that's what we're going to work toward.”


Go Gophers!!
 




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