Strib Chip Scoggins: Minnesota QB search twice as tricky, given coach P.J. Fleck’s philosophy

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MINNEAPOLIS — P.J. Fleck is in the market for a starting quarterback. Anyone got a spare $1 million you can loan the Minnesota coach? That and a fundamental shift in offensive philosophy might do the trick.

Actually, $1 million might not be enough to attract an established Power Five quarterback searching for a new home. So says Nebraska coach Matt Rhule....

Fleck likely never envisioned being in this position at the start of the season when he handed the keys to his offense to sophomore Athan Kaliakmanis. Everyone associated with the Gophers program saw high potential in the young quarterback. I had similar thoughts....

The folks operating the Dinkytown Athletes collective, the group tasked with connecting Gophers athletes to endorsement opportunities, are doing yeoman's work in finding new ways to increase available NIL funds....

Fleck has something else working against him: his coaching philosophy....

 



fmlizard said:
Do the Gophers run a lot due to a weakness at QB, or can they not find a good QB because they like to run a lot?
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ON PAPER, Minnesota is signing much better QBs than they have in my lifetime. Athan, Clark, Knuth, and even Annexstad all had other FBS offers. So PJ is getting people here that others believe can play QB in college. Either they’re miscalculating that beforehand, not developing them, or not putting enough offensive talent around them. Probably a little bit of all that.
 

MGGopher said:
ON PAPER, Minnesota is signing much better QBs than they have in my lifetime. Athan, Clark, Knuth, and even Annexstad all had other FBS offers. So PJ is getting people here that others believe can play QB in college. Either they’re miscalculating that beforehand, not developing them, or not putting enough offensive talent around them. Probably a little bit of all that.
Click to expand...

It's interesting to me that the best QB the Gophers have had in my lifetime was not recruited by the Gophers. A 2-star signed up to play in the MAC and throw it a lot more then followed Fleck here
 


fmlizard said:
It's interesting to me that the best QB the Gophers have had in my lifetime was not recruited by the Gophers. A 2-star signed up to play in the MAC and throw it a lot more then followed Fleck here
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Love Tanner, but when you take out 2019, his stats look pedestrian. Even when he was here, the pass offense statistically has gotten only marginally better.
 

another chicken-and-egg debate.

Is it the QB - or is it the system?

I tend to think it's a little of both. but Chip makes a solid point. if I was a transfer QB with a choice of schools, why would I choose a school that A. doesn't throw the ball as much; B. runs a constipated offense; and C. is lagging behind other schools with NIL.

If Fleck wants a legit QB, is he willing to promise that there will be changes in the offensive system or philosophy? given everything we've seen, I am pleasantly surprised that Lindsey seems to be remaining a strong commit.
 





PMWinSTP said:
Love Tanner, but when you take out 2019, his stats look pedestrian. Even when he was here, the pass offense statistically has gotten only marginally better.
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Very true. However, he had the OC, KS leave and enter MS then he basically gets canned and then KC comes back with zero intent on staying. It's kind of been a circus at the OC position. No consistency. Plus, with the exception of a couple of years the O line has not been very good.
 

This article is a great example of how the local media is unnecessarily critical to the program, in contrast to several of the Gophers' rivals. I'm trying to imagine a similar article being written when Wisconsin needed a QB under Alvarez and his successors. The pitch can be pretty simple: we plan to win 8-10 games per year, you can contribute at QB as a thrower (and we won't really ask you to run), and if you play well the NFL will know who you are. Meanwhile, we are in a major metropolitan area, have great companies in the region, and a broad array of competitive academic programs. How does that sound?

I'm glad Max Brosmer seemed to think that sounded like the place he wanted to be. Sure, the offense could be more exciting, but throwing the ball X% more doesn't actually mean you'll recruit a better player.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Love Tanner, but when you take out 2019, his stats look pedestrian. Even when he was here, the pass offense statistically has gotten only marginally better.
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That is true, but you can't take 13 games out of his resume.
 

I guess chip was right and they wouldn’t be able to get a QB
 



short ornery norwegian said:
another chicken-and-egg debate.

Is it the QB - or is it the system?

I tend to think it's a little of both. but Chip makes a solid point. if I was a transfer QB with a choice of schools, why would I choose a school that A. doesn't throw the ball as much; B. runs a constipated offense; and C. is lagging behind other schools with NIL.

If Fleck wants a legit QB, is he willing to promise that there will be changes in the offensive system or philosophy? given everything we've seen, I am pleasantly surprised that Lindsey seems to be remaining a strong commit.
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You didn't factor in a key part of what I am sure attracted Brosmer and would have made us a pretty attractive destination for other transfer QBs looking for a new home.

Starting spot at a power 5 school in the Big Ten with minimal competition on the roster. If I was a QB looking for a place to finish out my college career that would really appeal to me, even if it was at a place that doesn't throw the ball a ton.
 




fmlizard said:
Do the Gophers run a lot due to a weakness at QB, or can they not find a good QB because they like to run a lot?
Click to expand...

A little of both I would say. On the one hand, Fleck has said himself that "we'll always be primarily a downhill running team" but, on the other hand, shortcomings in personnel have played a factor. Those shortcomings are not limited to the quarterback. At times this past season it seemed like Daniel Jackson was the only wide receiver we had. We weren't alone among Big Ten West teams when it came to lack of truly good receivers. I think that's why you see so many short passes in Big Ten West games. Guys just don't get open downfield often enough.
 

Some guy said:
Kaliakmanis was 5th in the big ten in pass attempts by the way.


More than Michigan QB
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lol, pretty easy when you have Corum and Edwards running the ball.
We had RB5 Jordan Nubin.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
A little of both I would say. On the one hand, Fleck has said himself that "we'll always be primarily a downhill running team" but, on the other hand, shortcomings in personnel have played a factor. Those shortcomings are not limited to the quarterback. At times this past season it seemed like Daniel Jackson was the only wide receiver we had. We weren't alone among Big Ten West teams when it came to lack of truly good receivers. I think that's why you see so many short passes in Big Ten West games. Guys just don't get open downfield often enough.
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The other thing at play is the general lack of true difference maker QBs out there. There are a ton of teams dealing with very mediocre to bad QB play.

Star QBs are few and far between. Heck, look at the NFL, the best of the best play there and there are a ton of teams with bad QB situations because there are so few really good ones available.
 


jonnyganas said:
lol, pretty easy when you have Corum and Edwards running the ball.
We had RB5 Jordan Nubin.
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Yeah maybe.
But if the point chip was making is how could anyone come here? You don’t get to throw the ball.

You throw it more than Michigan. I assume chip would write the same article about Michigan?
 

Some guy said:
Kaliakmanis was 5th in the big ten in pass attempts by the way.


More than Michigan QB
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This is a lot like how Minnesota, Purdue, Northwestern, and Maryland have 10 of the top 14 passing yardage QBs in Big Ten history, and Michigan and Ohio State only have one each.

For all the Ohio State Heisman QBs and pyrotechnics only JT Barrett ranks among the Big Ten's top 30 QBs all time in pass yards.

The best teams spend a lot the 2nd half running the ball and playing the 2nd string, while the weaker teams find a decent QB the pros aren't after and throw his arm off trying to catch up.
 

fmlizard said:
This is a lot like how Minnesota, Purdue, Northwestern, and Maryland have 10 of the top 14 passing yardage QBs in Big Ten history, and Michigan and Ohio State only have one each.

For all the Ohio State Heisman QBs and pyrotechnics only JT Barrett ranks among the Big Ten's top 30 QBs all time in pass yards.

The best teams spend a lot the 2nd half running the ball and playing the 2nd string, while the weaker teams find a decent QB the pros aren't after and throw his arm off trying to catch up.
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It’s nothing like that IMO
Ohio state QB had more attempts than AK

AK had more first half throws than second half throws


Athan in the second half of games this year 63-142 44% 4 touchdowns 6ints
If he wanted to throw more he should’ve completed some passes to keep drives alive.




The reason Ohio state and Michigan don’t have a lot of the all time leaders in passing is twofold and neither of the two is sitting on the bench in the second half
1) until about 2000 they didn’t need to throw much to win the big ten anyways
2) they are almost never shitty enough to be starting a freshmen or sophomore that becomes a 3 or 4 year starter.
 
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Excited by this but it only works if we lose some of the predictability and become a little more aggressive with our offense. PJ needs to hit it big on this or else he can count on never getting a playmaker at QB to ever want to come here.
 

akgo4 said:
Excited by this but it only works if we lose some of the predictability and become a little more aggressive with our offense. PJ needs to hit it big on this or else he can count on never getting a playmaker at QB to ever want to come here.
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I see you are doubling down on the premise they can’t attract a QB the day after they do.
 


Some guy said:
I see you are doubling down on the premise they can’t attract a QB the day after they do.
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Not that. More the "We will attract a QB and then not trust his abilities, settling for Tresselball again". There come's a point where we will have very limited ability to recruit QBs because they arent trusted to handle the offense.
 

Not sure what type of player we bring in next. We have Lindsay and Brosner. Need another one yet unless they roll with Shik. I doubt Brosner would come unless he had some kind of guarantee we weren’t looking for another transfer qb to complete for the starting job. Nobody would transfer for a final year to MN just to have to have to compete just to start next year.
 

akgo4 said:
Not that. More the "We will attract a QB and then not trust his abilities, settling for Tresselball again". There come's a point where we will have very limited ability to recruit QBs because they arent trusted to handle the offense.
Click to expand...
Are people just blindly choosing to ignore 2019? Did Covid take their brains? When PJ has a passing game he uses it.
 

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