Everything P.J. Fleck said after Minnesota's 38-35 loss to Northwestern
Minnesota head football coach P.J. Fleck met with the media on Saturday afternoon following Minnesota’s 38-35 loss to Northwestern. Here’s everything that the Golden Gophers head coach had to say.
Publisher’s Note: Questions may be paraphrased or generalized
OPENING STATEMENT
Fleck: All right, first off, gotta give North Carolina a lot of credit. Somebody had to win that game, somebody had to lose that game, fortunately and fortunately. So they made enough plays to win the game. There’s so many good things from that football game with our football team from a lot of different people’s perspectives and performances that it’s going to get overshadowed by the loss, but not on my mind. I loved our effort. I loved our resolve. This is what they’ve been working on all year with the resiliency and the fight.
Other teams get scholarships, get paid too, and they’re gonna make plays and they’re gonna fight scratch and claw and it just went back and forth. It was a really good football game. Unfortunately, they made more plays than we did and gave up three points on the winning side and we had our opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them.
They had their opportunities, took advantage of them. They didn’t play a perfect game either, but that’s a typical Big Ten. Remind me of the old Big Ten West. They went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So you got to give them credit. They made a lot of plays. So did we, but we did not play well enough as a team, offense, defense, and special teams to come out with a victory of what was necessary to win this football game.
So with that, a little bit of questions.
On the Gophers’ defensive issues
Fleck: There are a lot of them in. There’s a lot of them. There’s no excuses, but there are reasons. We got a lot of guys out there that are playing for a lot of them the first time. They’re really young players. It’s the way you grow up.
This is an investment program and behind a lot of our starters are a lot of depth. They’re young players and they get an opportunity to play. They got to go out there and deal and execute and we’ll continue to challenge them. I’m responsible to put people in the game. So transferring over the practice field to the football field. We got to coach them better and then we got to be able to play better.
Q: It’s the third straight game where the defense has allowed over 450 total yards.
Fleck: Yeah, I don’t look at the third straight game. This is one game championship season. That’s it. We’re all in one. This game has nothing to do with last game. It has nothing to do with the week before. They’re all different kind of all different opponents that all do different types of things.
Q: Specifically in your mind, what were the biggest issues there today?
Fleck: Well, I mean we just didn’t cover well enough. We took a bad look at it. 17’s a really good player. He’s getting open versus everybody and that’s what he does. I thought the quarterback for them played really, really well. Maybe his best game of the year. But we didn’t get to the quarterback very often and we didn’t cover well down the field. When you put those two together, I mean you’re gonna have all day to throw. They’re gonna complete them. So got to get some guys back. Got to get some guys healthy. But our guys fight, fought, scratched and clawed. I’m proud of them for that.
But these are part of the things that when I say don’t skip steps in our type of program that we run, that we have, can’t skip steps.
Q: And does that mean playing a younger player?
Fleck: It means playing a really young player. And fortunately there was a bunch of young players out there. Now that means our older players have to lead them and play way better. But as a team, offensively, defensively, special teams, I mean we just didn’t do enough to win the game, period. So we should, in that type of game, we got to be able to overcome that. And that’s going to be the issue. Too many third and longs that were converted. Too many second and longs that ended up being first downs. But that doesn’t, it doesn’t take away from how hard they played. And the resiliency and the resolve and the fight to keep going. This is how teams grow up. When I say skip steps, this is what we’re talking about. Not just for right now in the 2020-25 season. It is what it is, right? You look at the future and these are part of the things when you play some young players. These are some of the things that possibly could happen when you’re playing someone. And some by choice, some not by choice.
Q: What’s the message to Brady (Denaburg)?
Fleck: He’s a tough dude. Yeah, man. Keep kicking. Just keep kicking. You know, I mean in the NFL and college football, that’s why every kicker doesn’t have a 20-year career. Sometimes it goes through, sometimes it doesn’t. We’ve got to execute way better. But you know, he’s made some really big kicks for us all year. So I know he’ll respond to that, that’s for sure.
Q: What did you like from Drake today?
Fleck: Poise, confidence. I thought he was really good in the huddle, in and out of the huddle. I thought he was really good taking command of the offense. You know, we’ve got to know the ball better. I don’t think that’s a secret. You gotta run the ball better. And that goes on everybody. But we’re not playing complementary football. Whether that’s offense, defense, special teams working together, right? So you can manage and call the game better on all sides, right? But complementary in terms of offense and defense. Within the offense, running the ball, throwing the ball, mixing it up. And we’re not being able to do that on defense if they’re running game in the pass defense. So we’re not playing enough complementary football as a whole. And then we’re not playing complementary football well enough on offense, defense, or special teams.
Q: PJ, you’re talking about young people out there. Danny Collins is in his first time as a defensive coordinator. How do you look at him this year and kind of as he’s done this season?
Fleck: Yeah, again, I look at three things, right? I look at coaching. I look at personnel, right? And then we look at scheme. Those are three things that I evaluate every single week. But if we have to look at, okay, I gotta go back through the tape, Andy, you know, as we go. I mean, I can look at the iPads, but we really need to diagnose the tape. But I love what Danny’s doing. I love how hard our defensive staff works. Part of it’s we just gotta be able to make the plays and present themselves. And again, I think at times, you know, throughout the entire year, we press here and there. We’re pressing to go get the ball. And the details matter. So we’re talking about the fundamentals and the attention to detail of the fundamentals. Plugged into the scheme, like they deserve its own discipline. Like those need to be working hand in hand. And if we’re supposed to be in an alignment that’s exactly that, be in that alignment exactly, and then it’ll then from there be the football player you need to be. But some of that we’re not, we’re not doing well enough. So again, it all falls on me to start with the teaching piece of all of that. And we’re gonna be way better.
Q: Besides Danny actually coached down from the field. I think he’s normally up in the box. Was that a baseball stadium decision, a coaching decision?
Fleck: We felt like the view from the box possibly might not necessarily give us an advantage. So you know, Danny being down on the field was just the decision we made this week. It wasn’t something that was like, okay, it was a reaction. It was just more of, you know, it’s not like a normal football game where you’re at. So it felt like being down on the team with the team, especially with some guys that are going to be playing today, we felt like him being down on the field would be probably a little bit better, especially on the back end. And then with us being in a baseball stadium, the view probably gives an advantage of him being on the field with his energy and his voice.
Q: A little bit through the game you made a change along the offensive line, brought in Tony Nelson. Is that an injury issue or are you just looking for something a little bit different?
Fleck: No, just Tony’s worked really hard. Tony deserves an opportunity. You know, my job is teaching the man and player’s job to prepare and perform and you got to make some calls as you go through the game. So, but you know, I believe in all of our guys. But when you’re going through the film and you’re watching certain things happen, you’ve got to be able to fix certain issues. And again, if there’s personnel, it’s scheme or it’s coaching and you’re even going through that through series to series.
Q: What’d you say to the team afterwards?
Fleck: Well, I started with them. I’m really proud of them. I’m not, forget the result piece, the way they fight scratch claw. This is going to be a one possession game. I think everybody understands that when these two teams get together. It didn’t go well and then it went well. They went back and forth, back and forth. Their fight, the resolve, the resiliency. I love to watch that because that’s gonna make them better husbands, fathers. That’s gonna make us a better football team. This team never quits. It doesn’t matter what the score is. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We just didn’t play well enough to win.
But I did tell them, I said that this is the perfect time to keep coming together and even get closer together. In adversity, you get way farther apart or you get way closer together. There’s no in between. That is a decision and a choice. And I said, you got to give them credit and they’re a really good football team. You look at who they’ve played and who they’ve played really tough over the last four to five weeks, even last week. I mean, this was a toss-up and it was going to come down to the last possession and we felt like that was that type of game and they made one more play than we did. They didn’t play perfect. We didn’t play perfect, but they made one more play than we did.
But that’s what I told them. I told them we’re a really good football team. We’ve got seven days and we’ll be playing for the Axe in Huntington Bank Stadium back at home.
Q: Did you get an explanation on the lack of a DPI on last drive?
Fleck: No, I didn’t. My guy’s on one side. He’s on the other side. No, I didn’t know.
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