Everything that P.J. Fleck said after Minnesota's 31-28 win over Rutgers
Here’s everything that Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck said about the Minnesota Golden Gophers’ 31-28 win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday afternoon at Huntington Bank Stadium.
Opening Statement
Fleck: Yeah, first and foremost, what a football game. I felt like if we could have played another 30 minutes, it would have been exactly the same, back and forth, back and forth. It was like looking in a mirror from time of possession to yards. It’s like looking in a mirror. I got a lot of respect for Rutgers, a lot of respect for the coaching staff. We know them very well. I wouldn’t be where I am without them. So, simply that.
Whether it’s Kirk, whether it’s Greg, whether it’s Joe Susan, I can go on and on. They got really good players. They got a lot of older guys, juniors and seniors, and guys who have played a ton of football within their systems. Those are really good coaches over there. I wouldn’t be where I am. A lot of our coaches in our locker room wouldn’t be here without Greg Schiano and the Rutgers program.
I said that to Greg at midfield, beginning and always after, because I wouldn’t be where I am without him. I’m not sure where that is, but I wouldn’t be anywhere without him. He’s an unbelievable man in my life, and it’s hard when you play against people that you really love. But I’m just glad we scored three more points than they did. I really am, because that was a huge game for us.
We talked about one thing coming out of Cal. We talked about this word courage. It’s thoughts, actions, ideas, without knowing the result. I told them to fully commit for two weeks to this process that we’re about to go through and be courageous people. They were. That was a long flight back from Cal. That was a long bye week. There was a lot of soul searching. There were a lot of decisions that had to be made.
There was a lot of response. We said, for us to win this game, we’re going to have to be really courageous. We’re going to have to play with elite how. We’re going to have to play with elite response. Then the ball is going to be everything. Both teams played with how. They responded. The one thing it came down to at the end was the ball. We didn’t have any turnovers. They had one. In a tight one-score game, it comes down to the ball.
There’s a lot of amazing things that happened tonight. I could talk about our defense with seven sacks. Absolutely got after the quarterback. That’s the intentionality that you coach with and the intention you hope your players play with. They definitely did. I thought Drake Lindsey and the supporting cast, whether it was O-line, tight ends, wide outs, running backs, played exceptional. The kid was 31 of 41, 324 yards, three touchdowns, and no picks.
I’m going to tell you all again, he’s a redshirt freshman. We talked about courage back and forth. Coaches have to have courage to play young players. Jalen Smith, he’s a freshman. You’ve got to have a lot of courage to play him and young players in this new portal world. You can’t go out and get somebody older until he’s a junior. That’s not what this program is about.
This program has adapted a lot. I don’t change who I am as a person and how I truly believe in what makes development happen. You have to play young players, and we do. They’re going to grow up. This is one victory. We’re 1-0. I have no problem playing young players because I believe in them, and I know our coaching staff does too. This was a player victory.
On the coaching side, I thought our coaches made elite, elite adjustments against some really good coaches to almost change the complete game plan as the game flows. It wasn’t perfect. We talked about having to go on a hunt. The state of Minnesota hunting season is right around the corner. Sometimes you let the dogs out of the cage. You’re ready to hunt, and you don’t see a pheasant. You don’t see a deer. You don’t see a turkey. I don’t know what else you can shoot. I’m not a big hunter.
Then you go on to the next set, and you just keep hunting. Row the boat, hunt, keep hunting, row the boat, same thing. Then they kept on a different set and just kept hunting, kept hunting, kept hunting. That last series said it all. As we were bending, I don’t believe in the bend, don’t break. I just believe in the next play, and they made a play the next play.
There were a lot of ebbs and flows of the game. I don’t believe in momentum. There were highs, there were lows. That’s why the how, response, and the ball matter. Got to give them a lot of credit. That’s a really good football team. That offense, as we saw for years, is very efficient. You can control the clock, you can control the game, as long as you execute. They did for a lot of the game.
We just happened to make one more play than they did, and I’m really happy for our players for that. With that, we’ll open it up for questions.
Q: You’re down 14-0, maybe should have been 17-0, Athens having a lot of success. What did you feel like was the adjustments you guys made, both to get after the quarterback and mix things up in the back?
Fleck: quarter, mixing up some coverages. Second half, same thing. Completely different looks. We were going to have to be able to get there with four at times, and I thought that was going to have to rely heavily on shrinking the pocket from the D-line. I thought Anthony Smith did a tremendous job of that, everybody internally. I thought we could have tackled a little better in the second half.
But they’re good. They put you in space. Their backs are thick. They can run really well. This was a great game for you, Andy. A great game for you. A lot of third and long runs that happened to end up being first downs. Remember, I’m putting that down in one of my notes. Always refer back to this game for Andy’s question.
But that’s what’s hard about it. They put you in space. They got really good players. Those two wideouts are tremendous. The kid in the slot is really athletic. I thought Danny Collins made incredible halftime adjustments, and so did Coach Harbaugh. We were a completely different team in the second half, as you saw. But we had to get away a little bit from the run. One of our first runs would come out, and we would have hit our head on the goal post. But we slip, and you can’t slip. It happens. We had two empty possessions right away, and we’re down 14-0 like that.
But I’m so proud of our players’ resolve. That’s what Row the Boat’s about. Never give up. Keep rowing. Next play, 1-0, and they fought.
Q: You’re down four, six-and-a-half minutes to go. What did you see in Drake when he sent him out on the field there?
Fleck: We just said we’re putting it on your shoulders, big boy. The faster I can get to saying that, the better we’re going to be. But that’s Drake. I went to his high school state championship, and he put the entire team on his back. There weren’t a bunch of five-star people on his team, and there weren’t a bunch of people going to Division I schools on his team. It was him.
We made the decision at halftime to put the ball in five’s hands and let five go win the game. I thought the supporting cast did tremendous. Contested catches, understanding situational football, catching, puncturing, moving the chains. I thought he played tremendous. Of course, there are things we learn from. But 31-41, didn’t throw a pick. Got some really good defense that’s really well coached. That puts you in a phone booth a little bit.
When you look at our receiving core: Javon Tracy, six catches. Meke, five catches. Jalen, four catches. Biber, four catches. You never know when you’re going to have six or seven catches. You might have two catches one game, ten catches the next game. But we spread it around. That Jalen Smith’s a good player. I told you that. He’s a freshman, too. Might go find some seniors. But we believe in our freshmen, believe in our young players. I thought our coaches did a great job of making some adjustments.
On the three scores in the second half, you guys had between five and seven receivers catch balls on each of those drives. Besides that, I thought that was a key, and then a really stout job on the offensive line. They didn’t allow any pressure on Drake. I thought that was tremendous. Our whole game plan was to keep it pretty balanced and even, and let’s go run the ball, and it just didn’t turn out that way. You got to be able to swallow that pill and say, all right, talk to the O-line. Listen, guys, this is going to be a throw-in game now. Don’t let them touch the quarterback. They didn’t all night.
Remember, at the beginning of the year, it’s not going to be how Drake plays. For us to have success this year, we don’t have a Rashad Bateman. We don’t have a Tyler Johnson. We don’t have a Daniel Jackson who’s got all this pub, and that’s the guy who’s going to get all these balls. Now, I’m not saying our receivers can’t and won’t be as good as those guys one day. Well, Le’Meke Brockington a phenomenal receiver. He’s playing at a really high level. But it was going to have to be: you don’t care who gets the catch, and that way we can expand the field laterally, horizontally, and then vertically. Drake can truly go through his reads and throw to the open guy. Somebody’s going to be open. I thought Drake does such a great job of that. Coach Harbaugh and him have such a great relationship.
Sometimes when you have one guy, they can take away one guy. But now, if we keep developing the way we’re developing, it’s the system. And it’s the players within that system. If you’re selfless, you might have 14 catches one game, you might not have a catch the next game. That’s how it works. The Minnesota Vikings have more receivers than Justin Jefferson. And you’re better. They have a lot of them because you can take away one guy. I think our guys are learning how to play as one. They don’t really care who gets the ball and who gets the credit. I think today showed that.
Q: How key was that to being able to set up access and clean a release?
Fleck: It was huge for us. There are two things. They’re playing quarters and they’re playing man and keeping everything the same. It looks the same. But the tall tale sign is the motions and the short motions and the reverse motions because you’ve got to unfold it somehow. Otherwise, you’re going to get outflanked. You better communicate on defense. If you are going to banjo that or you’re going to pass that off, that’s fine. But you’re going to make it look like zone, but it’s man. That’s pretty risky with all those types of shifts in motion. We were able to get a beat on the man-zone stuff. I thought our guys did a tremendous job of using that really wisely. I thought one of the biggest plays in the game was the blocked field goal. We miss a field goal, they get one blocked. That’s football.
You’re 100% right. I thought Greg did a great job of peeling back the onion and giving Drake the keys. A lot of people don’t know how much — this is an NFL system. Max Brosmer is excelling because of the type of system we have here. There are certain things that make a quarterback really special. One: run game. Can you get us into the right run call? There are times he has three runs he can call at the line of scrimmage. It’s not like, hey, look over here and I’m going to tell you which way to run. He has the choice of that based on him and Greg’s talk and experience. He can get us in the right run. Two: third downs. I thought Drake was tremendous on third down tonight. Can you go win a game in two minutes? Like quarterbacks in the NFL, that’s how they get paid. You want to be a two, four, two, three, $400 million quarterback? Go understand the run game, get us in the right place, go win in two minutes, and be really good on third down and move chains. I thought Drake did a tremendous job of that today.
Q: When it comes to Max Brosmer and his influence on Drake Lindsey and the way he plays in a game like this, how did Max’s influence help Drake persevere in this win?
Fleck: I don’t think Max ever allowed Drake to be a freshman, a true freshman. Nope. He may attach to his hip. You’re going to be the future of this program. If you’re going to learn from me, you’re not just going to observe. You’re not just going to kind of learn from me. I’m going to hold you accountable to learn everything that I know, and you’re going to work and learn how to work as an elite player. I’ve never seen a kid work like Max Brosmer, ever.
Now, as I’m watching Drake, it’s very similar. It just happens to be four years earlier than when we had Max. It’s just fun to work with him. Comes from an unbelievable family: Brooke, J.D., Amy. They’re incredible people. They raise an unbelievable son that loves to work, loves ball, and loves his teammates. He’s so fun to be around. As you all know, he doesn’t seem like a freshman. And, again, this is one game. But what was it? Most passing yards or completions? Completions. I mean, it’s 11 a.m. kickoff on September, whatever. It’s fun. I told Heather this. Whose birthday is Tuesday, by the way, everybody? She’s 35 again. This team’s really fun to coach.
I tell her that when I come back from work. It’s really funny. I don’t know how many games we’re going to win, but they’re fun to coach. You get to coach them. You don’t have to manage them. You’re not observing them. You’re not just moving them like chess pieces. You’re not looking at them as objects. They’re people. Really, really fun people to be around. There’s a lot of personality on this football team in a lot of different ways. I thought Drake led the team better than he did at Cal. It was a big step in his leadership. He was over on the defensive side, he was over on the offensive side. He got in the huddle. Instead of me going in the huddle, I said, you got him. He got in there and took control of the sideline huddle and told them what we were going to do. Those are big steps in a quarterback’s development.
Q: Can you talk about Koi Perich and his bounce-back performance?
Fleck: I mean, I don’t know if they’re coming down. Look, when you’re an elite player, to much is given, much is expected. And much is earned, much is expected. He’s a phenomenal football player and an unbelievable person, and he loves ball. I think we’ve watched Koi do so well his freshman year and do all the things he did. Maybe some of the things he didn’t do necessarily well last year were all covered up by all the great he did. He makes a mistake, makes two mistakes, and the world’s coming down on him. That’s the responsibility and expectation of an elite player. I thought his response was unbelievable.
The hidden things he did today — I’m looking at the tackle piece and 11 tackles. Unbelievable in the return game. The spirit, the energy. The great thing about Koi is his personality. I don’t think he even remembers the Cal mistakes anymore. What I love about Koi is his mistakes were, “I’m going to go make a play mistake.” I’d rather that than a true, true give-up mistake. A lazy mistake. An effort mistake. Uh-uh. He wanted to make a play. Sometimes you’ve got to live and die by that a little bit because playmakers are playmakers. As long as you don’t sacrifice the non-negotiables, his response was unbelievable.
That was a really tough few days. I know it was for him. He had to battle through some things internally for himself because I don’t think it ever happened to him like that before. There was a lot of transparency and honesty, and I thought he responded absolutely elite to it. Couldn’t be prouder of him and his family. That was a really good response from him. He didn’t have three picks and two touchdowns, but he played an elite game, and that was an elite response. I knew he was going to do that. He’s probably better than most people at flushing it onto the next play, onto the next game.
Q: How important was it that your offense took control of the third quarter to get your defense on the sideline?
Fleck: On the sideline we’re talking about winning the middle eight. Win the middle eight. Win the middle eight. Then we don’t get the fourth and one. That was tough. Then they go down a score, so we lose the front end of the middle eight. We lose the front four. I got back in at halftime and said, we’ve got to win the opening four. We’ve got to at least make the middle eight a draw. Our players did. They understand situational football, and they understand when I say the middle eight what I’m talking about. We didn’t win the last four of the first half, but we won the opening four in the second half. That was the difference. We scored, then got them to punt. That was huge.
I don’t have an initial diagnosis just yet. It was a leg, but it didn’t seem too serious from that level. We’ll get a medical report soon. I’m sure you’ll find out two hours before Ohio State appears. I’ve got one for you from someone who really, truly rose the boat. Your good friend and my friend, Jace, he actually wanted to know. My man, Jace. My man, Jace. No one’s more persistent than him. He wanted to know what was going through your head in the last 30 seconds of the game. Somebody make a play.
That’s exactly what Jace went through in my head. We’ve got so many playmakers, somebody make a play. I’m just thankful that we did. The ball goes through the legs, they get on it. Hopefully we recover that. But it just extended the field goal, which was great for us. Somebody make a play. Somebody make a play. That’s when you’re really believing in your team. There’s 22 guys on the field, and somebody’s going to have to make a play. I thought our guys made one more play than they did. Jace did a tremendous job.
We went to a Cub food event, didn’t we? Had a great time over there with Cub food. Great sponsor of ours. Jace went over there, did a tremendous job speaking in front of 1,000 people and telling his story. It’s a powerful story. You can look it up. He’s what Row the Boat’s all about. I mean, I can point to Megan and Brax, and we all know that. Jace, they know each other very well. But we got to do an event together. You got to introduce me, didn’t you? That was the best introduction I ever got, from that young man right over there. It was short and sweet. We were on that stage together, which was really special for Cub. Big sponsor of ours. He has surgery on Tuesday. Row the Boat, big guy. We’ll be praying for you.
Q: Those final two minutes before halftime were some of the most chaotic of the game, between Fame getting his helmet ripped off and some short yarded shotgun runs to Koi, then taking it back to a field goal attempt. What were some of the emotions and thoughts in the headset during that time?
Fleck: You know what? It’s pretty cool. Heather even said it was pretty cool. There’s a conference that allows you to see what the replay is, and you can go inside and hear the replay booth talk to the officials. Everybody’s making that a big deal. I don’t know if we’ll ever allow people inside the headsets because it’s pretty chaotic. We might look pretty calm. There’s a lot going on, a lot of people talking, a lot of people in the ear.
But you’ve got to be poised in those situations and always think in plays ahead. We knew that if we could get a really good return, we’d go kick a field goal. But it was eight seconds. Do we take a shot at the end zone? They’d probably back up, risk an interception. Let’s just kick it. I initially said, let’s run one play. Then I said, okay, let’s not. Let’s kick the field goal. Our field goal kicker goes to the net to start kicking field goals, and then we’ve got to run them back on the field after I make a decision to kick it because I didn’t want to come away with nothing. Eight seconds is right on that line. It just depends on what you’re going to do. They sit in cover two. You catch the ball and you’re short, the half’s over. If you throw the ball deep, you might have a chance to throw an interception. I thought it was a long enough return by Coy, put us in a really good position. There’s helmets getting ripped off, all types of stuff. I have to review some video to give a better response. But that’s the middle eight.
There’s a lot of situational football now that the two-minute warnings here for T2 and T4 — T2 meaning the end of a half, T4 end of a game. So many situations created for college football, especially with the running clock outside of it. I’m just really proud of our football team. I thought they did everything they needed to do to win. They had the resolve and the courage to keep rowing that boat. Great lesson to everybody. All it means is we’re 1-0 in the Rutgers season. Really proud of our football team.
Enjoy our players, and thanks everybody for being here. Last but not least, I just want to thank our crowd. An 11 a.m. kickoff, beautiful day. What energy our fans brought. Our student section — I hope everybody has a wonderful night celebrating, but also really safe.
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