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PJ Fleck: Minnesota players drank 'antidote of confidence' before USC upset

IMG_6598by: Nick Kosko10/08/24nickkosko59
USATSI_21490401 (1)
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Minnesota coach PJ Fleck had an interesting anecdote regarding the Gophers’ win over USC this weekend. Well actually, it was an “antidote” to be precise.

“Nugget: #Gophers coach PJ Fleck said on @KFAN1003 show that players were given an ‘antidote of confidence’ last Wednesday after their tough Michigan loss,” Andy Greder wrote on Twitter. “The players drank the capsules, which contained Sprite, and then upset USC on Saturday.”

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The tough Michigan loss led to the win he says? Fleck might be right considering the Gophers had the Wolverines on the ropes.

That was until an onside kick was nullified due to an offsides penalty. If Minnesota actually got the ball back in a 27-24 loss, perhaps the Gophers would’ve knocked them off too.

In fact, the call caused a big stir that the Big Ten heard Fleck’s request at a change at how an onside kick is officiated.

“Officiating crews from the league will now position the line judge and head line judge on the restraining line of the kicking team, ‘thereby putting multiple officials in the best position to consistently make the correct judgement,'” ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg wrote. “The change to the officiating mechanic was approved by the NCAA.”

After the game against USC, Fleck was asked about the Michigan experience and what it did to propel Minnesota.

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“That’s a great question, because I don’t know if it was just the Michigan experience, because I think that goes one of two ways,” Fleck said. “When you lose really, really…this team has lost hard, hard football games against really good teams. And we can say some teams right now aren’t, but when we played them, they really are. North Carolina was a really good team when we played them with their quarterback. He’s really, really talented. They were really good, right? Iowa, really, really talented, really, really good. That rivalry could have went either way. We made some mistakes in the second half that Iowa takes advantage of, that you can’t make. The Michigan game, what a second half, but we didn’t do it in the first half …

“The antidote, we call it the antidote, the antidote this week was all confidence. Belief, confidence. My pregame speech was 10 seconds, ‘Let it rip!’ That’s it. That’s all I told them. And they did, they let it rip.”