Everything P.J. Fleck said during his Monday press conference - Wisconsin week edition
Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck met with local reporters Monday morning as the Gophers look to regroup from a 38–35 loss to Northwestern and turn their attention to rival Wisconsin, with Paul Bunyan’s Axe on the line at Huntington Bank Stadium this weekend.
Opening Statement
Fleck: All right, good morning, everybody. Thanks for being here. Big week for us, Axe Week. Obviously, playing Wisconsin and Senior Day. So it’s a big day for a lot of guys who have given so much to our program. So it’s a heck of a week for us. Got Thanksgiving. We also have our turkey drive coming up, teaming up with Coca-Cola and Cub Foods like we normally do with Carrie. And from Cubs, she’s absolutely outstanding and giving out close to 600 turkeys here coming up this week too.
So one, we got one of the best rivalries in all of college football. And getting our team ready for that, which is exciting, but not losing perspective of Thanksgiving throughout the week. So keeping things in perspective as well for our student-athletes as we are a life program. So got a lot going on, as you can imagine. So coaches are really busy at work, and so are the players. So with that, we’ll open it up for questions.
Q: When you went back and looked at the defense’s tape, coaching personnel scheme, you talked about it with this postgame. What were the issues on Saturday?
Fleck: Garrett called it. Garrett said that was going to be your first question. And you’re dead on. Schematic piece, it’s not a big schematic piece. So remember the three things, as you mentioned. Schematics, coaching, and personnel. It’s very similar defense that we’ve played for 13 years. So there’s not like this schematic piece. But the coaching piece and the personnel piece, yeah, there’s some things we have to do better.
There’s a few explosive plays. We’re in man coverage, and we drop our man. You can’t drop your man. That’s a young player. We were playing, I think, four to five freshmen on defense, playing a few freshmen on offense. That’s not an excuse. They’ve got to be able to do it. We drop a man down the field when we’re in plaster coverage on a scramble. They hit a big explosive play. We line up on the wrong side, and that’s a young person mistake. We fit the wrong gap, young person mistake.
But they’re going to grow from that. And this is still a developmental program, and it will be. So in the world of 2025 and the sustainability around the country is going faster and faster and faster, meaning it’s not sustainable over and over, we’re going to have at Minnesota, we’re going to have some really experienced teams, and then we’re going to have some inexperienced teams. Year nine has nothing to do with it. Every year is its own entity. We lost nine NFL players last year off last year’s roster, nine. That’s a lot. And we’re not going to just be able to buy nine guys at the same level. That’s not realistic.
Remember, I live in a real world, not a perfect or ideal world. So when you have to replace that, it’s one in recruiting, one through the portal, but then you’re going to be forced to play some young players, especially if some of those guys either didn’t pan out or got hurt. And so this is all paying off. And we are a six and five football team. This isn’t two and ten. So it’s only going to make them better, not only now. Sometimes you’ve got to go touch the stove. But it’s going to help in the future as well.
Now, we as coaches can put them in better positions. But when you go through the week, when sometimes you don’t see those, and then they rear their head in the game, then that’s an experience issue. So we’ve all got to do better. But the schematic piece, that’s fundamentally sound. That’s one thing as a football coach. You go in, and you’re not wanting to find that. But you’re like, all right, something’s got to be wrong schematically. Nope. It’s a personnel piece, and it’s a coaching piece, because we’ve got to connect both of those. And it starts with me.
Q: The fan base, I think, talks a lot about in praise of the way the Gophers played against Nebraska. Looks like the best game the Gophers have played. What would you say would be the key things as to why the Gophers haven’t been able to get back to that level or build on a little bit more?
Fleck: Yeah, I mean, we win that. We come off the Michigan State game, right? We’re 6–3. We go to one of the best teams in the country and get beat. I mean, they just beat USC, who I think is pretty good too. I mean, USC gave up 42 points. So I think we were right around there too, right? And then you’re going to play a game that’s a toss-up game in Wrigley Field. And we played really good football at times. I mean, we played really good football. And then there were times we didn’t play really good football.
Every team at this part of the season is pretty banged up. There’s some that are more than others. Some have more depth than others. Some can get away with it. Some can’t. But we had every opportunity to win that football game. That’s a toss-up. Let’s say we make that field goal, and then we score once, and we win the game in overtime. Does that change how we played? No. It changes everybody’s mindset that you’re sitting here 7–4 instead of 6–5. But how we played, that’s the step piece. That’s taking the next step.
But I thought we played tremendous against Nebraska. But if everybody just played their absolute best and played like that every week, everybody would be 10–11 wins. That’s not realistic. There are things that different opponents do, certain things. As you go through the year, you have way more tape. And again, like I started before, I told you a little bit about what our issue is with the personnel piece and the coaching piece. We just got to be better at connecting those with who’s on the field.
So we’re doing everything we can to make it better. But that was a heartbreaker. A lot of guys disappointed. We had every opportunity to win that football game, just like Northwestern did. And that’s why it was a toss-up game. I thought it was a really good football game to watch or to be involved in. We just came up on the short end of the stick on that one.
Q: What impressed you most about Drake on Saturday?
Fleck: I think Drake’s playing at a really high level. I do. I think he can always continue to get better. But I keep saying it, but it’s poise. It’s command. It’s maturity. It’s leadership. It’s ability to throw people open. It’s one thing, then you’re open, then the ball comes. But to throw people open in the location of some of his throws—I mean, that’s 500 level. And he’s only a redshirt freshman.
But I can say that about a lot of guys on our football team. When you look at this football team, the majority of the football team comes back. We’re still a pretty youthful team. And they’re fighting, scratching, clawing. Never question how hard they play. And I think that goes back to Ryan’s question. Is it scheme? Is it personnel? Is it coaching? One thing I love about our team: they play incredibly hard.
And I mean, you watch our kickoff returns. You just keep going, keep going. It’ll eventually pop. And bang, we get something to pop. And that was a huge point in the game. So there are so many things that are good, offense, defense, special teams, that get dirt poured over it because we lost. But as a coach, you’ve got to be able to take the result out of it and dissect into how we lost and how we won. And I think our coaches do a really good job of that. And our players do a really good job of that.
Q: You’ve got 20-plus seniors. It’s Senior Day. What stories stand out as you look at that group?
Fleck: I still remember Jalen Logan-Redding showing up with his dress shirt on and all dressed up and his notepad. And they were the most meticulous notes. And I’m sitting there going, this guy’s on his official visit. Some guys just come on the visit for the steaks and the dinners and be wined and dined and ready to have a good time. And I mean, he came with this notepad. He’s taking—I mean, and he’s still that way to this day. He’s a very inquisitive young man.
And watching him and having his D-line coach leave while he’s on his visit. And all of a sudden, he’s on his visit on Friday, and come Saturday morning, he’s being recruited to go to a different school by the same guy. I mean, it’s just awesome. Those are the stories you remember forever. Because they are very unique. But that would be one, thinking of Jalen Logan Redding for sure.
And Darius Taylor during—or Darius Green during his recruitment. And it feels like he’s been here seven years. Really has. I mean, he’s been here an awful long time. And all the things that he’s done and how he’s matured and grown. And Derek LeCaptain, I could talk about him. And he’s been here seven years. And it’s incredible. I mean, he’s going to be a great coach one day. So I think it’s just fighting to see who hires him first.
But I can go on and on. Think back to even Derek. I mean, when Derek had to fill in at tailback that year, we had five tailbacks out. And go in at Northwestern and score a touchdown. I mean, that picture is on my wall. Because it just shows ultimate teammate. The ultimate teammate. Derek LeCaptain, out of all the guys I’ve coached—I’ve coached some great guys—he’s probably one of the top five most ultimate teammates I’ve ever coached. And that’s why he’s on the wall in my office. Because that picture, him scoring a touchdown at Northwestern, shows I’ll do anything for the team. And our world doesn’t necessarily, in general, think that way in terms of this transactional world at times. And it’s really refreshing to see that picture all the time and be like, he’s the ultimate teammate. And that’s what you want your team to be all the time.
Q: Wisconsin’s playing some of their best football this season. What stands out to you about them?
Fleck: Well, first of all, I mean, when you look back at their schedule, I mean, they had a gauntlet of a schedule. I mean, they played some of the best teams in the country every single week. And if you look at us, Ohio State and Oregon, and playing four more of those, I mean, I don’t know what our record would exactly look like. But when you look at them, and while they’ve continued to change weekly—it’s almost a new offense every single week. As they got to the last three to four weeks here with new people, new system, they’ve done some things defensively, too, that they’ve changed up a ton. And looking for things that are going to make their identity as they move forward, like every good coach would do.
But they have really captured what they’re going to be really good at to finish this year, and done it at a very high level. And they showed that against Illinois last week. I mean, that film, I mean, that looked like that had been their offense the entire year, the way they were executing that at the level that they were doing. So it’s just an honor to play in the rivalry, and we got to play our best football of the year. That’s for sure.
Q: What have been the elements to even up that rivalry?
Fleck: Well, I think it’s just—one, I mean, you’ve got to continue to recruit, and you’ve got to continue to develop. But it’s all mindset. I mean, you’re always going to have—I’d say mindset and belief. I mean, when you have—this is what’s great about playing at Minnesota is that we have so many rivals. We have so many trophy games. And we have four trophy games, right? But you could technically argue Nebraska is one of them too. And without the trophy—I know it’s the chair—but you could talk about our fan base uses that, whether it’s Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska. They kind of use all those three as somewhat of a rival.
So I think it’s the mindset and the belief that you can do it. And then you’ve got to find a way to get proof, trust, trusting that. And trust comes down to time, consistency, and proof, right? So you’ve got to have all three of those to be able to trust that, and trust that process, and trust that you can do that.
And 2018 was a huge step forward for us getting over that hump. Now, look, every single coach has some type of vice where you’ve got a team that maybe they haven’t beaten in a while. I think every team in the country has something like that. But for us, it was being able to get that first one. And then I think it brought the rivalry back. I’m not saying that we’ve dominated that or they’ve dominated us, but I think that the pendulum has gone right back to you don’t know who’s going to win that football game every single year. And I think that that’s what rivalry should be. I think that’s a healthy rivalry. And I think—I don’t know what we’ve done in terms of having success, not having success. That’s not for me to judge. But I’ll say that I feel like in the rivalry world, you want to bring the rivalry back. And I feel like it’s a very healthy rivalry right now, where either side could win that every single week. And I think that that comes from the trusting the process piece and that mindset and that belief. We still have a long way to go. I know that. But it’s a very healthy rivalry.
Q: Do you feel that you and other coaches in the Big Ten have very clear criteria as to what pass interference is?
Fleck: I figured I’d get one of those questions. Listen, here’s what I’ll say about that. Because I truly believe this. They have a really hard job to do. I respect our officials in the Big Ten wholeheartedly. I love our commissioner. I respect him. I absolutely love Bill Carolla. I’ve known Bill Carolla for a very, very long time. They have a very, very difficult job to do. There’s a lot of people on the field and very few officials. And everybody does the best they possibly can.
Our coaches make mistakes. Players make mistakes. Officials make mistakes. And all three of us get things right too. It’s all part of it. And that’s what makes the game really, really special. It’s like baseball. We can argue balls and strikes all you want. And they’re thinking about just making the automated strike zone. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe one day they’ll replace it with robots. I have no idea. But it makes the game the game. And I think that’s the element of the game that will never be perfect, just like coaching will never be perfect. And the players will never be perfect. But it’s part of the game. And you’ve got to overcome, whether you agree or disagree, whether it is or it isn’t, you have to overcome those things. And you can’t rely on that to be the reason you win or lose. How’s that?
Q: How do you split your time with the schedule the way it is, signing day on the horizon, all those kinds of things that you’ve got to deal with?
Fleck: You’d love to be able to cut yourself in half in fours and go to four different places. And we have a really good staff, a staff who works really, really hard. And as we get down to this, I think there’s a lot of things that have made it a little bit better, where December being dead, where we’re not bowl prep, we’re not on the road, and signing day, and the portal all at once. I think we’ve done—to help this process out, I think we’ve done the necessary steps to at least give it a little bit of breathing room. That doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to be satisfied. And I don’t mean breathing room as relaxed. I mean, you can organize it where you can give your attention to this last week of the season. You can give your attention to the last week of signing day, as we’ve continued to give all throughout the year, and really finish strong that way. And then you can get into bowl prep as well. And then you can obviously get into the portal piece, which is going to be really, really critical of retaining your players.
But it’s all going to happen within here in about 40, 45 days. I mean, that’s a lot going on in 40, 45 days. I mean, by February 1st, I mean, it’s going to—you’ll know who your team is. I think that’s really healthy. I think that’s fabulous. You can start developing your team. I think last year, that’s not good for anybody, in my opinion. So I think we got that part right. It just makes it a little bit like drinking out of a firehose a little bit for everybody. But what’s the saying—that this job is constant crisis, interrupted by brief success, brief moments of being able to go, OK. That’s our job.
Any time you’re educating young people—I’m sure elementary school teachers would say the same thing—constant crisis, interrupted by brief success when that kid gets a B. I can’t believe little Johnny got a B. Brief success. Now little Johnny forgot his name again. Now we’ve got to get him back up there. So that’s—when you’re in education, and you’re in teaching, and you’re in coaching, and you’re working with young people, we have a sign up in our office that says just that.
Q: How do you defend a dual-threat quarterback like Carter Smith?
Fleck: Yeah, I mean, he’s really, really talented. You can tell that they have a lot of trust in him and a lot of faith in him, not only to run the football, but do a lot of misdirection plays with him. They’ve done a ton of stuff with him at the quarterback position that make it very difficult to defend, because everybody’s got their job to do. Everybody’s gapped out. Everybody has their assignment. It’s like option football. And they force you right now—and the system they are running right now is to defend it like option football—where if you don’t get him on the ground, it’s a big run. It puts you in one-on-one matchups in the pass game, and they do a lot of deception and a lot of misdirection, where if your eyes aren’t in the right spot and you are gapped out and you’re in the wrong gap, it’s a big play, whether it’s a tailback or a tight end or a quarterback. So they’re doing a really good job with him.
Q: Malachi Coleman’s been getting some more snaps and action. What are you seeing right now with him?
Fleck: I see this in our entire football team. You could talk about Javon Tracy. I think Javon Tracy’s making strides kind of like Elijah Spencer made, where Elijah was really good, but I think the next year he became an elite receiver. And I think you can start to see that with Javon Tracy. We’ve had multiple meetings in my office just about his game and where it needs to go and where we need to continue to pour into that development. And I’m proud of him because he’s taken that coaching advice from Coach Simon as well, and gone and applied it. And I think you see that growth from him.
Malachi Coleman is the same thing. We still have a lot of young players on this team. Malachi is one of them. Malachi goes up, gets knocked out of his hands on the one play, and then comes right back and makes a huge play. He is a very big receiver who can run, who can stretch the field vertically. He’s just young and inexperienced. Well, the only way you’re going to get experienced and get older is play and time.
So again, I’m not afraid of those steps. Back to your question before about fan base. I mean, this is going to be—this is still a developmental program. Those guys are being developed. This is not just—we’re going to have 50 new players and buy them, and we’re just going to buy older players, and that’s what we’re going to do. This is going to be a mixture of transfer portal, players within the program developed, and then high school players. And you’d love it for them to all be older. And every recruit makes it. And you get to every portal kid you want. You’d love to have that. But there’s going to be some peaks. There’s going to be some dips. That’s part of a developmental program. But we are bowl eligible. That’s a pretty good dip.
Q: Do you feel like you’ve got a good handle right now on a number or percentage of kids that are going to come back?
Fleck: Yeah, I think you have an idea. You just don’t know until you really sit down and have those conversations. We’ve had some conversations with players, but it’s different than last year, because last year you had to do it way quicker. You had to do it a lot during that second bye week, or that actual bye week, whether you had one or an extended long week. We had one bye week last year, I think it was. So we did it a lot during the bye week because the portal opened so quickly.
Now you have that month of December. Once we get done with Wisconsin, you’ve got a longer time to really kind of sit down—Garrett, Marcus Hendrickson, myself, the agents, the players’ agents, the players. I mean, you’ve got more time to do that. So waiting until after Wisconsin and having this game—that’s when you start getting into those talks a little bit more. We’ve had some, but not a ton.
Q: Tony Nelson got in the game late. How do you assess his play?
Fleck: I thought he played really well. I think Tony’s another developmental player that he’s finally at a part where I think he can handle more and more consistently. But he’s worked his butt off in the weight room. He’s worked his butt off with Coach Callahan and his fundamentals and techniques. I think he’s done a really good job of having the ability to get on the field, and he’s earned the opportunity to play more.
Q (follow-up): Emmanuel Karmo, another developmental player, kind of thrust into a spot. True freshman.
Fleck: True freshman, right. And a lot of people—I’ll say this, sorry. Sorry to interrupt you, Manny—but even Koi. Like Koi’s technically been here, if you want to think of it, 15 months, 16 months. It’s not a long time, right? So we’re talking about developing these players and it’s not just, hey, go out there and play. They’re getting better every single week, but sometimes you’ve got to go through some really tough times. So you’re out of questions about Emmanuel. Go ahead.
Q: Yeah, just his development and being thrust into a spot.
Fleck: Yeah, I mean, there were some really, really good parts about Emmanuel’s play. For a true freshman to play the way he did, he makes some outstanding plays where you see the flashes of like, wow. I mean, this kid’s going to be a player-player. And hey, that’s why he is playing. But then there are some things that come along with experience. Then again, you can’t skip the step. And it’s unfortunate, but you can’t skip the step. And one thing about Emmanuel is he’s going to make it right. Like if he makes a mistake, he’s going to make it right. He is a competitive son of a gun. And that kid—like he’s got a motor. He’s really, really intelligent. He works his butt off. He’s always in the facility and they care. And so he’s going to be a really good player. He already is. He wouldn’t be playing if he wasn’t good.
But when—again, when you make the decision to play a lot of young players, right? And that’s what you’re either forced to do or you make the decision to do that. In a developmental program, you know there’s going to be a learning curve. As they play, not just in practice, there’s going to be some mistakes. But when we do have a mistake, if it turns out to be catastrophic, that’s where we’ve got to look at it from a coaching standpoint of how much can we give that individual right now during this time. But he’s been able to handle a ton. So I’m really proud of him.
Q: After the season on the road, how does it feel to be defending the Axe back at home with the Gopher fans?
Fleck: Yeah, I think it’s great to be back at Huntington Bank Stadium. This is one of the greatest rivalries in all of college football. We’re all just honored to be a small part of it and get an opportunity to be 1–0 against Wisconsin. I know they’ve got a great fan base and they’re going to be fired up for the game. We’ve got a great fan base. We’ll be fired up for the game. It’s one of the best rivalries in all of college football. But having it back here is going to be great. It’ll be good to be back home. But we’ve got to find a way, no matter where we play, to play our best football.
Thanks everybody. Row the boat, Ski-U-Mah. Go Gophers. Go Gophers.
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