Everything P.J. Fleck said during his Monday press conference - Northwestern week
On Monday, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck met with the Minnesota media to recap the Gophers’ blowout loss to No. 8 Oregon while also looking ahead to Minnesota’s 11th game of the 2025 season against the Northwestern Wildcats.
Opening Statement
Fleck: “Good morning. Should be a great venue and environment for our fans and our players. So really looking forward to that. Players responded really well last night, had a great practice. That’s what I love about this team. They come in, respond, want to grow, want to get better. And I can’t ask much more from a college football team when it doesn’t go your way on the road against a really good opponent. So really proud of our team for their resolve and their response. But we got to get better as we keep going forward. And that’s what we talked to them about last night.”
On embracing scars:
Fleck: “I think just a life theme. I don’t know if it’s just necessarily this year. I think every year brings a lot of great times and it brings a lot of hard times. I think our scars remind us of where we’ve been. I think that’s necessary. And you look at our football team, for the most part, pretty young and inexperienced football team. And a lot of key positions. Again, that’s not an excuse for anything. It’s just it is what it is. And those guys have to, you can’t skip steps in the journey of development. And those scars remind us of where we’ve been. And you’re gonna have to be able to have those scars at some point. Cuz when you look at it, I mean, it’ll bring you back to some of your hardest times and what you were able to overcome and the fortitude to continue to move forward. So I don’t know if it’s necessarily more scars or less scars necessarily than any other year. But we promote the embracing all of those scars and not ignoring those.”
On NIL:
Fleck: “Yeah, I think that’s a talk for right, maybe 12 days from now. Our focus is only on Northwestern, it really is. It’s a huge topic in the country. It’s a huge topic in college football. Especially when you look at maybe the top 12 teams, as you kind of look at tomorrow night when the college football playoff rankings come out, but where everybody is. But I think that’s just a huge discussion for another day. But we’re working really hard at it, Dave. Working really, really hard at it, that’s for sure.”
On the Gophers’ rushing attack:
Fleck: “Yeah, I mean, it’s either personnel, coaching, or scheme, right? And the coaching talking fundamentals and details, it’s all of it. I think every time we play, we learn more and more about our football team. I think you have to do that, whether you’re playing your 12th game, whether you’re playing your third game, you’re always learning about your team. I think everybody in our organization takes ownership for why things have gone well and why things haven’t gone well. It’s about owning those scars. And in the run game, we’ve had some games where we’ve been really, really good in the run game, and some games we haven’t been good in the run game. Our best players in the run game that have been carrying the ball haven’t been really in there pretty much all year. But we still should be able to do what we need to do. And that falls upon the coaching staff, that falls upon the players, falls upon everybody in the organization. It’s a mindset to be able to establish that. Some of the games we’ve played in have got us away from that a lot earlier than maybe we wanted to get away from. But I think no matter what, we’re always gonna hang our hat on the run game. And whether that’s a ton or whether we’re forced into doing it, not as much. I mean, that’s our DNA and that’s who we are. And so we’ve got to continue to improve in that. But it’s a mixture of all three, that’s for sure.”
On playing at Wrigley Field:
Fleck: Yeah, excited. I mean, I grew up a Cubs fan, still am a Cubs fan. Growing up near Chicago, you pick one or the other. And my dad was a Chicago White Sox fan, and so you kind of pick the opposite. So you can cheer against him, just to be able to make it fun. But I’ve always loved the Cubs, Ryan Sandberg. And I grew up in the Sammy Sosa era and the Mark Grace era, and just a lot of fun to follow the Cubs. So I was there on a high school field trip, when Kerry Wood threw the 20, I think it was 20 strikeouts, is that right? So I was there, school field trip, it was awesome. And anytime anybody brings that up, I was like, wow, I was actually there for that game. That was a lot of fun. I wasn’t one of the kids holding up the Ks in the bleachers, but we were right there. And there wasn’t a ton of people there, and so we just kept moving down as the game went on, which was really kind of fun. So, but yeah, it’s gonna be a really special moment for our players. And just, you get to play in a different venue, and historic venue. It’s just, it’s fun to be able to say you played at Wrigley Field. We played in a lot of baseball stadiums, and a lot of bowl games, and things like that. But Wrigley Field definitely has a special place in my heart, and I think that’ll be a lot of fun.
On the offensive line:
Fleck: “Well, I think that they’re becoming a better five. I think that’s maybe one thing as you continue to go forward, you learn as a coach. Remember, not only are our players learning through this new era of college football, I’m learning through this era of college football. I’m not like anybody else. I mean, I learn and grow, and have to challenge myself, and change, and adapt. And you learn what does work, and maybe what doesn’t work. And you adapt that for the next year, and you continue to make yourself better. But I think our guys are becoming better as five. I think it’s, you would love to have five guys as freshmen, and then develop all the way through, and have the next five right behind that. I don’t know how realistic that is now in 2025, but when you look at it, I think they’re playing better as a five, but we have to just play more consistent. That’s the biggest key that we took away from the game in Oregon, is we had some really good moments, some great moments. But they just weren’t consistent enough. And whether it’s one guy out of the five, or three guys out of the five, or two guys out of the five, we just have to play more consistent. But I do like that they are coming together more and more as the year is going on.”
On Northwestern’s physicality and strengths
Fleck: “Well, one, they tackle really well. They do a lot of the simple things at a very high level. Tim McGargle’s a really good play caller. He’s a really good football coach. He was on our staff when we were at Western Michigan, and have a lot of respect for what he does. And when you peel back the onion on him, it’s the simplistic things. It’s the simple things that allow them to be really successful. They tackle really well. They swarm to the ball. They play the ball really well. They keep things in front of them. Their front seven are very, very active, but very, very physical. That’s for sure. Then you look on the other side of the ball, and they want to establish the run game, definitely want to do that. They’ve got guys who can go up and make plays on 50-50 balls. They have a great mindset, and those guys have been playing with each other for a long time. When you kind of look at their roster and how they’ve come up through the ranks, they’ve done a really good job. Talking with Danny and re-watching the tape, defensively, one of the biggest areas you want to grow up, that Oregon game? Well, I think just in general, how we play, right? I think sometimes when we get in a position, we press, whether that’s offense, defense, or special teams. I think when you have, again, an inexperienced team at a lot of different positions at times, in key positions, the lack of experience and the maturity piece come into play. And guys are trying to make a play. I think that’s kind of been the theme in some games all year, is guys are trying to make the play, trying to get a takeaway, get the turnover, instead of just do the routine play. And takeaways will come from us doing our job with incredible how, effort, and great fundamentals and technique. Whether that’s scheme or whether that’s fundamentals, they will be there. They will present themselves. But I think as you go through the year, people think they have to make the play in some of those big games. And we’ve had some great opponents on the road, some top five opponents on the road, top 20 opponent on the road. And I feel like maybe that’s been just a little bit of a press to make the plays, instead of just allowing us to play within the scheme that we’re creating and the fundamentals we develop. So that’s what I see. And that’s when we dissect it and peel back the onion a little bit on the defensive side, that’s what we saw. But never question how hard our guys play, that’s for sure.”
Following up on closing the gap
Fleck: “Yeah, I mean, maybe it wasn’t a great choice of words for me in talking about closing the gap. But yeah, I mean, I feel like we are going to continue to compete at the highest level. That’s the person I am, that’s the competitor I am. I wouldn’t coach if I didn’t think that. And but just because you want that doesn’t mean that’s going to happen. We’re sitting six and four. There’s a lot of really good football teams in the country that are six and four, including us. It’s really, really hard to win in 2025. There’s not many undefeated teams anymore. And you look across the board, I think when you’re looking at the two big conferences, whether the SEC or the Big Ten, we said this years ago, right? With 18 teams and 16 teams, we’re all beat up on each other. The records might not look like the records of the old, right? So what is a top 20 team? What is a top 25 team? Is a seven and three SEC team ranked really high because of who they play? Probably should be. Big 10 teams that are seven and three ranked pretty high probably should be. It is a gauntlet schedule. And there’s a lot of things that have to go your way. But that’s what we’ll always strive for, Andy. And I think not just closing the gap, to Dave’s question with NIL is a big piece of that, right? Where the funds go is a big piece of that. Development’s a big piece of that. Retention’s a big piece of that. So cultural sustainability is a piece of that. It all goes into this formula. And if it was easy, everybody be 12 and 0 and everybody be at the top. Everybody’s striving to do that. But that’s what I love about being here, because we have that mindset that we will. But again, closing the gap on that, Andy, maybe I shouldn’t necessarily just use those words. But yeah, I mean, to be able to get to where we wanna go, we have to play better. We have to continue to recruit at a high level. We have to retain at a high level. And we have to continue to invest in our program, which again, we’ll continue to do and find ways to do it at an elite level. That’s how you’re able to do it. And consistency really helps, whether that’s in the football game or whether that’s in the development and the progress of our culture. Consistency is everything, and we’re doing everything we can and have to continue to change our best and adapt as we keep moving forward.”
On special teams:
Fleck: “Yeah, I mean, we’re growing. I think, Randy, holistically, it comes down to the fundamentals and techniques to everything that we do. Our special teams, when you look at it through the film’s eyes, you’re always gonna say, okay, why couldn’t we have done that better? Well, comes down to the fundamentals and details within the scheme. And that’s the biggest thing we have to continue to improve on in the special teams part, is just the fundamentals and technique within the scheme. I thought our guys played really hard on special teams, I thought we covered really well. You gotta give them credit, though. They’re a really good football team, and they played really, really well. I mean, we played Ohio State, and Ohio State played really well. We played Iowa, and Iowa, they played really well. We played Oregon, and Oregon, they played really well. This isn’t like they had five turnovers, right? And we’re at their place, and we’re in it. They played really well. The catches those young people made, those skill players, there were times we contested them and they made it. Sometimes we didn’t contest it and they still made it. That quarterback put the ball where a lot of times their guy could only get it, or that ball was out of bounds, and they made some fantastic catches. And you gotta give them credit. They’re really good athletes and really good players. They don’t make some of those plays, maybe the game looks a little bit different. But when you play a top five team, you have to be really good in all phases. Special teams a big piece of that. I thought Brady did a really good job of doing his job and put it through the uprights. I thought our opening drive, coming down the field after halftime, our guys could have 28-6, go down a score, make it 28-13, get back into the game. But ultimately, they did a really good job of getting the ball in the hands of the playmakers and doing a really good job making those plays.”
On Eden Prairie coach Mike Grant achieving 400 wins
Fleck: “One thing I will say about Mike Grant is that he treats everybody the same and that’s what I respect about him. I remember when I first met him, I was at Northern Illinois University. And one thing that I really liked about him was sometimes when you’re at different schools in the old recruiting model, you’d have to wait because there was a logo in there. And the guy would come in the logo and you’d have an appointment and the logo would move in front of you, if you know what I mean when I say logo. And they’d move in front, next thing you know, there’s five coaches that pass you and you’re just kind of over here because you’re in a lower level Division I school. Mike Grant never did that, ever. You had an appointment, didn’t matter who was in there. If the Minnesota Vikings were in there, well, maybe Minnesota Vikings. But he would say, listen, he has an appointment. He’s gonna get the full respect and he’s gonna be able to get everybody that we have and I love that about him because I was a very regimented recruiter. And I had a schedule and I was gonna keep that schedule and I was gonna get to a lot of schools. But he was always so gracious to everybody. It didn’t matter who you were. When you walked in that school, you got his best, you got his time. And it was not like he’d rush you out of there either. Story after story after story. Mike Grant can tell stories. I’m sure you all know that. He can tell some stories and he gave you that time. And whether that was Mike Grant, whether that was Coach Nelson, that’s the feel I always got from my high school coaches here in the state of Minnesota and Mike’s always led the charge on that. So congratulations to him. That’s a lot of wins. That’s good for him. That’s a lot of time coaching. That’s for sure. Talk about the sustainability and the consistency piece. My hat’s off to him, that’s for sure.”
On Northwestern coach David Braun
Fleck: “I have a lot of respect for what he’s done and how he’s done it. I think the situation he was put in a few years ago is really, really difficult. And the way he’s been able to keep that program competing at a very, very high level and not lose that DNA of the physicality, how hard they play, how smart they play, and the culture they have. I mean, that’s really tough to do. And I have a lot of respect for him, get to see each other in big ten meetings. And I think he’s a fantastic defensive football coach. The guys play incredibly hard for him. He’s really passionate about his team. I’d like to think that we are too. And I think that’s what’s so fun about coaching against guys that you know and have a lot of similarities in terms of how you build a team. And you build it on the toughness piece and doing a lot of the fundamentals at a high level. And I think he’s really, really good at that. And a really, really smart man and a really good”
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