PJ Fleck

nwwarrior09 said:
Unfortunately still have to live there, and I don’t think that’s very appealing for kids from the south. Honestly this is probably the worst Big Ten job in terms of recruiting proximity to talent.

Average temperatures in January and February are low to mid 20s for daytime highs with lows in the high single digits. Hard sell if you’re from Florida or Georgia. Probably need to be showering NIL to beat southern G5 schools for 3 star kids that play “athlete” positions.
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It can suck to live in Minnesota no doubt but it can also suck to live in the southeast with the heat, humidity, bugs, and hurricanes.
 
Honestly at a place like this they probably ought to be trying to TP the bulk of the offensive skill positions and the DBs. Pull down the backups from better programs and pull up G5 and FCS studs.

Traditional recruiting keep it mostly in-state and regional with OL and defensive front 7.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
Honestly at a place like this they probably ought to be trying to TP the bulk of the offensive skill positions and the DBs. Pull down the backups from better programs and pull up G5 and FCS studs.

Traditional recruiting keep it mostly in-state and regional with OL and defensive front 7.
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They need to do something because Fleck is a terrible recruiter and roster assembler.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
They need to do something because Fleck is a terrible recruiter and roster assembler.
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Back to your original post, who are they going to get that would do as well let alone better?

He is probably overpaid ($6 million per year) relative to results, but consistently gets them bowl eligible. Should they actually have better expectations than that? Particularly considering that Minnesota is one of the schools that likely gets squeezed down the totem pole by the Big Ten adding the west coast schools.
 
They honestly may be yearning for the years that Fleck was going 9-4 and winning a bowl game playing in the crappy Big Ten West division soon.

Adding USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington is effectively the Big Ten adding four more teams that even when middling will always have more talent than teams like Minnesota.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
They honestly may be yearning for the years that Fleck was going 9-4 and winning a bowl game playing in the crappy Big Ten West division soon.

Adding USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington is effectively the Big Ten adding four more teams that even when middling will always have more talent than teams like Minnesota.
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I guess the overarching point is the B1G has a lot of dead wood when it comes to football. All the B1G schools bring in a ton of money. What are they doing with it?
 
cjb5656 said:
I guess the overarching point is the B1G has a lot of dead wood when it comes to football. All the B1G schools bring in a ton of money. What are they doing with it?
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Minnesota has spent a ton of money on athletic facility projects over the last 5 or so years. Pretty much everything is new in terms of practice facilities, weight rooms, etc., on top of the $300 million that they’re probably still financing from building their football stadium 15 years ago. They’ve renovated or replaced the competition facilities adjacent to “The Barn” that house wrestling, volleyball, etc, and it seems they are working on either a major renovation to “The Barn” or building a new arena entirely for basketball and hockey.

They are spending money. Fleck has a borderline top-25 salary. Are they really going to be any better than dead wood if they fire him and give a bunch of money to a G5 coach? Probably the only way they’ll ever really get any better in football is directly paying players and getting to financially out muscle Big 12 and G5 schools that are better geographically positioned to talent.
 
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nwwarrior09 said:
Back to your original post, who are they going to get that would do as well let alone better?

He is probably overpaid ($6 million per year) relative to results, but consistently gets them bowl eligible. Should they actually have better expectations than that? Particularly considering that Minnesota is one of the schools that likely gets squeezed down the totem pole by the Big Ten adding the west coast schools.
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Don’t know, I just know that Fleck isn’t the answer there. Bring in a guy at the very least who calls an aggressive gameplan that would excite recruits to play there.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
Don’t know, I just know that Fleck isn’t the answer there. Bring in a guy at the very least who calls an aggressive gameplan that would excite recruits to play there.
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The thing is I think it is unexciting because of who they can get to play there.

He was a lot more balanced offensively when coaching in the MAC. He had the same starting QB all four years at Western Michigan, and that guy ended up passing for about 14,000 yards.

He was arguably the best recruiter when on a more level playing field in the MAC. Minnesota is on a very unleveled playing field with recruiting, and he probably screwed up not cashing in and leaving after they had a few consecutive years of winning 9-10 games. Ultimately he’ll end up getting fired now with the Big Ten getting better.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
The thing is I think it is unexciting because of who they can get to play there.

He was a lot more balanced offensively when coaching in the MAC. He had the same starting QB all four years at Western Michigan, and that guy ended up passing for about 14,000 yards.

He was arguably the best recruiter when on a more level playing field in the MAC. Minnesota is on a very unleveled playing field with recruiting, and he probably screwed up not cashing in and leaving after they had a few consecutive years of winning 9-10 games. Ultimately he’ll end up getting fired now with the Big Ten getting better.
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I’m not sure he’ll ever be fired. When I look at Fleck, Matt Campbell and some of these other coaches who seem like they could take the leap to a real power program but choose to sign long term where they are at, I think there are more and more coaches out there that are willing to trade the glory and pressure of Texas, OSU, Bama, etc., for less pressure and appreciation at places like Minny and Iowa State. I think these guys look at someone like Kirk Ferentz at Iowa and think it’s a pretty good life.
 
Fleck hasn’t done a bad job and when you look at him compared to Glen Mason and pretty much any other Minny coach he’s done really well. Minnesota’s problem IMO is a lack of skill players, it was very noticeable last year when they were in Columbus. I don’t believe they’re better at all compared to a school like Toledo with offensive skill. The lines were fine, but they’re struggling to get the great backs they once used to
 
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