Minnesota & Fleck

I live in Minnesota now. The guy comes off as a snake oil salesmen to me. But, from my perspective, most people in MN don't care much for college athletics. It is all Vikings/Twins/Wild. A good number of Packer fans here, too.
Yeah, I think any discussion of UM football ends up with the Vikings, and rightly so. For whatever reason the Vikings seem to take all attention from the Gophers. Which isn't true in other places like Seattle (UDub) or LA (USC).
 
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I live in Minnesota now. The guy comes off as a snake oil salesmen to me. But, from my perspective, most people in MN don't care much for college athletics. It is all Vikings/Twins/Wild. A good number of Packer fans here, too.
Actually, I think I know more rabid NDSU football fans in the Twin Cities than I know rabid Goofer football fans.
 
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Actually, I think I know more rabid NDSU football fans in the Twin Cities than I know rabid Goofer football fans.
NDSU fans will make it known they are NDSU football fans lol. I am starting to see this more with ISU fans though, too. More are out and about and always ready to say or receive a "go state" walking down the street haha
 
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I live in MSP but don't pay huge attention to UMN sports. All I can say is, the guy is a clown and I would venture that most sports fans up here view him that way. His catchphrases and other nonsense don't go very far when you're not winning. My opinion is the guy is totally engrossed in himself and his "row the boat" culture and cares little for much else.

That being said, he's only entering year 3 (they were 5-7 year 1 and 7-6 year two) and Campbell is year 4. Fleck had the big win against Wisky last year in Madison and I think that fired a lot of people up. I don't think UMN had won over there since like 1994 so it was a big win for the program. There's optimism around the program, but people don't pay that much attention to UMN anyway. When you're competing against the Vikings and Twins, and even the Wild, college football draws a very, very small following. In 4 years of living here I think I've met one season ticket holder for Gopher football.

It will be interesting to see how he does this year. I'm guessing his ******** wears on people pretty fast because all he does is talk in cliches.
Well said - sums up my thoughts pretty well. They do have a very weak schedule this year - like Iowa's B1G schedule from last year - so, it sets up well for him. The Wisconsin win bought him some time with the fans. Despite his snake-oil personality, he's had decently-ranked recruiting classes. If he can coach, he may do alright, but, with his personality, the leash will not be long. He's the kind you can only stand to keep around for any period if he's winning; and, even then, the stench will only be delayed, unless he then wins big.
 
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I do not think Pollard and Fleck, along with all the other major, important personalities of the various programs (Prohm, Fennelly, etc.) would have worked out well together.



To be fair, it is better than it was for awhile there.

Illinois is hot garbage.
Iowa goes 8-4 or 9-3 like the rising of the sun.
Minnesota won 9 games as recently as 2016.
Nebraska is not back to the 1990s but does not entirely suck anymore.
Northwestern might be the most underrated CFB program in the country.
Purdue is way more feisty now than they were a few years ago with Jeff Brohm.
Wisconsin has had legitimately Top 10 teams lately.

Illinois is lucky Kansas is a thing the same way Alabama is lucky about Mississippi.

Minnesota was actually picked to win the West that year because of their incredibly soft schedule. Minnesota went 9-3 and beat absolutely nobody... Every single year the B1G West has a team benefit from dodging the top dogs of the conference and this year it will be Nebraska...
 
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He is in a better position at Minny in the West...imagine if he had been hired at Maryland in the East. Plenty of opportunity for him to have an occasional 8-10 win season given their position in the West and the unbalanced BIG schedule (not playing OSU, Michigan, PSU, etc.). Minny is like Misery in the SEC East.
 
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IMO Fleck has done a really good job selling himself and the program to recruits but it just doesn't seem like the program has any sort of an identity other than a catchy phrase. If he can't right the ship this year I don't think it will happen.
 
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??? This garbage makes me laugh. Fleck built up Western Michigan football from the dumpster fire when he arrived, to 13-1 and 8-0 in the MAC when he left. Best recruiting class in the MAC four years in a row.
Last year Minn went 7-6, won at Wisky for the first time in forever, and won their bowl game.
You don't win games like he does with "catchphrases."
You can say Fleck irritates you, fine; but to minimize his success is ignorant.
 
I live in MSP but don't pay huge attention to UMN sports. All I can say is, the guy is a clown and I would venture that most sports fans up here view him that way. His catchphrases and other nonsense don't go very far when you're not winning. My opinion is the guy is totally engrossed in himself and his "row the boat" culture and cares little for much else.

That's an ELITE clown to you, sir! :D
 
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??? This garbage makes me laugh. Fleck built up Western Michigan football from the dumpster fire when he arrived, to 13-1 and 8-0 in the MAC when he left. Best recruiting class in the MAC four years in a row.
Last year Minn went 7-6, won at Wisky for the first time in forever, and won their bowl game.
You don't win games like he does with "catchphrases."
You can say Fleck irritates you, fine; but to minimize his success is ignorant.

It isn't like we have anything to stand on regarding success, two 8 win seasons is huge to us but on the outside its hardly a blip. My only interaction with goofers is online fans, some come off extremely arrogant/condescending towards ISU based on nothing but the attitude that MSP is a big city and Ames is just podunk central.
 
2018 was a weird season for Gopher football. Started out okay in NC and than tanked out starting Big 10 play by giving up 42, 48, 30, 53, 31 and 55 points. Shocking amount of points in a league not known for scoring by the bucketful. Fired the DC and than went to give up only 10, 24, 15 and 10 to end the season against Purdue, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Georgia Tech. It was the damnist turnaround I've seen. Something was definitely broken on the defense.

No real excuse for the Gophers to not succeed with the right coach. Big city, new stadium, uber upgraded facilities, currently the weak division of the Big 10, etc. Is Fleck the right coach? Beats me but think we'll know more this year. Iowa like schedule for 2019 with no Ohio State, Michigan or Michigan State. They did draw Penn State but it's in Mpls as are the Wisconsin and Nebraska games.
It was a wild turnaround and it was actually pretty similar to when Heacock decided to try 3 safeties.

Also, I agree. We'll know more this year. He's less salesman and more coach than Basement Brew but that's a pretty low standard.
 
??? This garbage makes me laugh. Fleck built up Western Michigan football from the dumpster fire when he arrived, to 13-1 and 8-0 in the MAC when he left. Best recruiting class in the MAC four years in a row.
Last year Minn went 7-6, won at Wisky for the first time in forever, and won their bowl game.
You don't win games like he does with "catchphrases."
You can say Fleck irritates you, fine; but to minimize his success is ignorant.
I believe that a charismatic coach helps a lot more in the non-power 5 conferences, because you need something to set yourself apart and potentially snag a "bigger" recruit here and there. They had the most talented group of players in their conference for those 4 years, and it showed. My belief with his current situation in Minnesota is that, that schtick doesn't work the same way in the power 5s. Some players love it, and will eventually sign there because they love his personality and what he sells to them, but that only goes so far because it isn't going to be bringing in the difference in talent compared to the rest of your conference like it did in the MAC.

Its now about him coaching his players to that next level. I, for one, have not seen the ELITE coach yet. Not saying he can't do it, but I don't think you can point to his success in the MAC and say, "it's for sure coming".
 
??? This garbage makes me laugh. Fleck built up Western Michigan football from the dumpster fire when he arrived, to 13-1 and 8-0 in the MAC when he left. Best recruiting class in the MAC four years in a row.
Last year Minn went 7-6, won at Wisky for the first time in forever, and won their bowl game.
You don't win games like he does with "catchphrases."
You can say Fleck irritates you, fine; but to minimize his success is ignorant.

You’re describing Paul Rhoads.
 
It was a wild turnaround and it was actually pretty similar to when Heacock decided to try 3 safeties.

Also, I agree. We'll know more this year. He's less salesman and more coach than Basement Brew but that's a pretty low standard.

Yeah, sounds like their schedule this season will provide Fleck with the chance to dazzle Gopher fans.
 
I also heard he's pretty weird.. Like in the recruiting process with the kids. I guess when recruiting Jirehl Brock he locked the door and had an hour glass and was giving him that long of time to make his decision.

Yeah, there is talk on the Iowa boards that he is fairly "aggressive" when trying to get kids to commit which leads to a larger number of decommits it seems.

Iowa has gotten 4 decommits from Minnesota in Phil Fleck's tenure alone.
 
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It isn't like we have anything to stand on regarding success, two 8 win seasons is huge to us but on the outside its hardly a blip. My only interaction with goofers is online fans, some come off extremely arrogant/condescending towards ISU based on nothing but the attitude that MSP is a big city and Ames is just podunk central.
I'm not saying that what Iowa State has done in the last two years is unreal or anything but it's much more than what Minnesota has done. Iowa State has 5 ranked victories, two of them against top 5 teams, 1 against a top 10 team. We've also been ranked for a total of 5 weeks the past two years and were also in the hunt for the Big 12 championship game in November. Minnesota's only conference wins the past two years have been against Illinois, Nebraska 2 years ago, Indiana, Purdue, and Wisconsin (who were okay last year). They then beat an average Georgia Tech team. PJ Fleck is going to have to take down a couple of the big boys before they are talked about as a threat in the West.
 

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