P.J. Fleck on Gophers' road struggles: "I didn’t do a good enough job of finding that formula that works"
The Minnesota Golden Gophers, after week nine, sit at 5-3 (3-2) on the season. Their five wins have all come within the friendly confines of Huntington Bank Stadium. All three of their losses, on the other hand, have come on the road.
On Saturday, the Gophers, for the second time this season, were handed an embarrassing road loss. Three weeks after getting demolished by No. 1 Ohio State 42-3, the Golden Gophers fell to the Iowa Hawkeyes 41-3. They also fell to the ACC’s California Golden Bears 27-14 in September and have been in total outscored by opponents 110-20.
Following the Gophers’ loss to Iowa on Saturday, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck was asked about his team’s struggles away from the Twin Cities.
“It’s a great question. It’s a very valid question, and if I knew the answer, I would have fixed it after going 0-1 on the road,” Fleck responded to the question. “I think playing on the road in the Big Ten is really difficult.
“I think everybody wants to sit and talk about it. We prepare for it. I mean, the week of preparation and what we did for the environment that we had, I thought was very meticulous,” Fleck explained about the Gophers’ planning prior to Saturday afternoon’s matchup. “But obviously, it wasn’t good enough, and the three times we’ve been on the road, whether it’s been on the West Coast or going to Ohio State or coming here and playing in Iowa City, I didn’t do a good enough job of finding that formula that works.”
“I challenge myself to get that done. Because that is a day-to-day game on the road. It doesn’t matter where we play. We always talk about, we’ll play anywhere. Well, to say one thing and do the other thing are two different things. We’ve got to find a way to do it better, that’s for sure.”
Minnesota’s next road trip won’t be any easier, as they’ll travel to a likely top-10 Oregon Ducks team for a Friday night showdown on November 14 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. They also have a November 22 matchup against the Northwestern Wildcats at Wrigley Field in Chicago left on the schedule this season.
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