Entering Year10 of PJ Fleck, what have a we loved (or hated)?

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Since Murray Warmath ended his 18-year career as head coach, the Gopher football program has been cycling through coaches every 5.2 years on average. Only Glen Mason made it to 10 years before his lack of fielding teams that can play defense and his signature epic collapses caught up with him, and the U moved on. PJ Fleck is entering his 10th season, making him the only other coach to hit 10 seasons since 1971.

He is undoubtedly a charismatic figure who elicits strong reactions from Gopher fans, recruits media and opposing fans. Love him or hate him, he’s been the most successful coach at Minnesota since Warmath.

There are things to love and things to hate about the Fleck tenure. Here are some of the things that stand out.

LOVE: Beating Wisconsin

If you could pick just one rival to consistently beat, I think that for most Gopher fans, it would be Wisconsin. And before Fleck, it had been a very long time since Minnesota had beaten Wisconsin. There was a stretch between 1995 and 2017 where the Badgers had a 21-2 record against the Gophers. Then PJ Fleck’s team dominated Wisconsin at Camp Randle in 2018 and this has been his series ever since. Currently, they have won four of the last five matchups and PJ Fleck’s record against this rival is 5-4.

The timing of Fleck starting to consistently beat Wisconsin has coincided with the Badger program taking a pretty significant downturn. After 22 consecutive seasons with winning records, the Badgers have had back-to-back losing seasons and were just 7-6 in the two seasons before those.

HATE: Losing to Iowa

But sadly, Kirk Ferentz owns PJ Fleck. Over his tenure, his teams are 1-8 against the Hawkeyes. And many of those games have not been close. 2022 was frustrating as they lost at home and Mohamed Ibrahim rushed for 263 yards. 2019 was even more frustrating when the Iowa offense exploded to a 20-3 lead before the Gophers woke up and fell short, 23-29. And the last two seasons have been blowouts.

There is clearly some animosity between these two programs and right now, Iowa is the big brother who

LOVE: The floor of the program

We are not very far removed from 3-9 or even 1-11 seasons. Fortunately, those are getting further and further back in our memories, but they still linger. Jerry Kill took over the program and focused on building a solid foundation, “brick by brick.” Which he essentially accomplished. After his initial season of going 3-9, he improved to 6-7 and then had back-to-back seasons of 8-5. The floor had been raised, but Kill was never really competitive at the top and there were cracks in the culture off the field.

Fleck has raised the floor a bit more. Under Kill, it felt like this was perennially a six or seven-win team that might break through for either eight or nine. Fleck’s teams feel like eight wins every year with a chance at 10 if things break in our favor. The floor is raised because of more talent (more on that in a moment) and quality coaching that has stabilized.

HATE: Inability to break through

2019 was a fantastic season, but it was a fantastic season that really didn’t accomplish much of anything. Earning an 11-2 record, a top-10 ranking and an epic win over #5 Penn State and the bowl win over #10 Auburn are all fantastic. But that team didn’t win the Big Ten West and just ended up going to a bowl game.

The hope was that this was going to be a springboard. But the program had a few opportunities in subsequent seasons to play in the Big Ten Championship game, and they fell short every time. Back-to-back nine-win seasons, a 5-7 regular season and then back-to-back 8-5 seasons…the floor has been raised, but the patience of the fan base is getting tested.

LOVE: NFL Talent

Part of the reason that the floor has been raised and there has been a level of consistency with this program is that the talent level has been raised. The list of first and second round picks in the Fleck era is as strong as it has been for any Gopher coach. Watching NFL games on Sundays, we frequently see former Gophers playing throughout the league. 20 kids drafted in the nine years of Fleck, eight of them being in the first three rounds.

The recruiting is better, the talent evaluation is good and the development has been excellent.

I’m loving this current recruiting class, where they are no longer in recruiting battles with MAC schools and are beating out other P5 programs on the regular.

But where this staff is thriving is in the NIL world. We do not have the NIL budgets of other programs, but we are routinely keeping the majority of our roster and typically plugging holes with the right fits. We are paying guys, but I believe that the strength of culture is also a significant draw for players.

HATE: Special Teams

This is the one area on the field that has never been fixed. Rob Wenger was here too long and his special teams were bad on multiple fronts. Bob Ligashesky was briefly here and was also not terribly successful. Maybe Daniel Da Prato can get things going in the right direction and this program can get some help from special teams.

Enough said on that.

LOVE: The life program

Call me old-school, but these are still kids. They are leaving their homes for the first time in their lives and I appreciate having a program that cares about developing them as young men as much as football players. It is part of the culture, it is a recruitment tool and it helps toward winning football games.

But even at this level, winning football games isn’t the only thing that matters. I appreciate that this program’s graduation rates are high and its incidents with local law enforcement are low.

I hope Fleck continues to be successful here, I hope he has a breakout season once in a while and I hope that he develops quality young men who make an impact in our community.

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