Rowing to the Promised Land: In Year 8, Does PJ Fleck have his Compass Pointed in the Right Direction? -

By Spenser Hood, Co-Host of Ski-U-Pod

After the 2016 football season, the Minnesota Golden Gophers were in need of a new head coach. The Jerry Kill era, followed by a short stint from Tracy Claeys, showed some promise from 2011 to 2016. Heck, it wasn’t much to ask to turn around an abysmal team led by then head coach Tim Brewster. But even Kill and Claeys couldn’t ever get the Gophers over the hump. That hump was to be atop the West Division in the Big Ten. PJ Fleck, the eccentric, energized head coach out of Western Michigan was looked at as the guy that could potentially do that for Minnesota.

Coach Fleck’s first couple of years were not, in my opinion, too bad. It’s difficult for a first-time head coach in the Big Ten to see success in their first years. But a 5-7 season in 2017 followed by a 7-6 season capped off with a win on the road against Minnesota’s greatest rival out of Wisconsin, their first win since 2003 and first at Camp Randall Stadium since 1994, was electrifying. Finally, the Gophers were victorious over the Badgers, a perennial West champion at the time. It was at this point where Gopher fans everywhere were asking the same question. Is Coach Fleck going to take us to the promised land?

In 2019, Coach Fleck’s best year, Minnesota started off undefeated and hosted number 4 Penn State, a team that looked like a serious College Football Playoff contender at the time. After an incredible game, the Gophers ended up victorious, taking back the Governor’s Victory Bell. The Gophers were 9-0, and had complete control of their own destiny. They only needed to do one last thing – win against ONE of their biggest rivals out of Iowa and Wisconsin. Do that and Minnesota is in the Big Ten Championship game for the first time in history.

That didn’t happen. Since that historic 2019 season the Gophers have been treading water and, honestly, I think that’s putting it nicely. The 2020 COVID year proceeded, and that set all of college football back a year. Coach Fleck seemed uninterested with this season and, I think many coaches across the country felt the same way. The Gophers only had a 7-game season and finished 3-4 but, although this season can be considered a wash, there were glaring issues with this team, particularly with the defense and the quarterback position.

Coach Fleck had a great team in 2021. All-time rusher Mohamed Ibrahim was set to have a historic year behind a huge, experienced offensive line. Veteran quarterback Tanner Morgan was back, and the defense could not be any worse than the year prior. Unfortunately, Morgan was not the same and the offense failed to do anything in the air. In 2022, it was a similar story. Ibrahim was back but, once again, Morgan was not throwing the ball. At this point, it was clear that Coach Fleck did not trust him nor the receivers at this disposal. This attitude has persisted to the present day. If running the ball is working, he will stick to it time and time again. But, if the run game is stopped, the Gophers will fail to turn to the throwing game, ultimately sputtering and losing. The Gophers finished 9-4 and 2nd in the West in both seasons.

Jump to 2023 and the Gophers finish 6-7 in the regular season and received a pity bowl invite. I won’t get into the specifics being that we just lived through this season but, really, the only highlight of the season was a win on the road against Iowa. Coach Fleck’s first win against Iowa and Minnesota’s first win against their longtime rival since 2014 and first in Kinnick Stadium since 1999. A hump overcame by Coach Fleck, but not over THE hump that was becoming the Big Ten West Champion. This year was particularly disappointing, as this was probably the worst the Big Ten West was in the history of the division. Again, the Gophers failed to throw the ball effectively through the course of the season.

Unfortunately, the train has left the station for PJ Fleck and he was unsuccessful in making the Gophers a Big Ten West Champion. He did what Jerry Kill couldn’t, which was win against Wisconsin but I have to be honest, though. Jerry Kill had to play historically great Wisconsin and Iowa teams. Wisconsin had Heisman contending running backs partnered with top 3 nationally ranked defenses during Kill’s time. Iowa had great teams, one team going undefeated before a close loss against a Michigan State team in the Big Ten Championship. I am not saying that Kill was the better head coach and I am not saying that Coach Fleck has had it easy – nothing comes easy in the Big Ten – but the only teams in your way are Iowa and Wisconsin, and they have not been even close to what they were prior to his arrival in 2017.

Wisconsin’s offense has looked out of sorts and their defense, though pretty solid, has not been one of the best defenses in the nation like in years past. Iowa’s defense is incredible, but it is paired with one of the worst offenses in the nation and close to zero competent quarterback play. The rest of your West opponents had seen down years and head coaching changes that have set them back. Coach Fleck was in the driver’s seat and, honestly, could have probably won the West at least twice in the past five years. It is unfortunate, and it is likely due to the reason that Fleck has not changed his identity.

I am not saying that Coach Fleck has to change his culture. I think that he does a tremendous job getting his athletes and staff to buy into his culture. He is a much better recruiter than his predecessors, landing many talented athletes year after year. I would even go so far as to say he brings national excitement to Golden Gopher football with his fiery coaching style and his mantras. What I am saying is that he needs to change the X’s and O’s of his football teams.

Since 2019, the Gophers went from a balanced offense to a ground-and-pound offense. Don’t get me wrong, the Gophers are awesome at running the football. Year in and year out they have a pair of backs that are some of the top backs in the Big Ten. It is just the one-dimensional attitude that has been their downfall. They have rushed almost 600 times a season and have attempted less than 300 passes since 2019. The lone exception was last season where the Gophers rushed 505 times and finally attempted to throw the ball over 300 times at 312 attempts. It should be noted, however, that many of those passes were short yardage attempts. Rarely do we see a deep ball thrown, and I think it is because Coach Fleck worries about turning the ball over and doesn’t completely trust his players.

One of Coach Fleck’s slogans is “Change Your Best,” something he reiterates to his players to ensure that they are constantly evolving to become their best selves both on the field and off the field. He does things very well, like instilling a culture that his athletes buy into and running the football. But he could do some things better like throwing the football, clock management, utilizing timeouts, and overhauling a special teams unit that has been the bottom of the barrel for the past few seasons. Coach Fleck has an ultra-conservative attitude when it comes to play-calling and clock management, which is good in some situations. However, the unwillingness to step on the gas and run a two-minute drill before halftime or throw a deep shot here and there has set the Gophers back. You have to go all-in if you want to win in the Big Ten even if there is risk involved.

I have enjoyed seeing what PJ Fleck has done to this program. He has certainly had tremendous seasons. He has also had disappointing seasons. We all remember his make-shift line graph depicting ups and downs that are bound to occur during his tenure as head coach. He was right, every team will have up years and down years, but ultimately you want to see an upward trend over the years. We certainly saw an initial upward trend at the start of his tenure, but I can’t help but feel like the Gophers are stagnant at this moment in time.

We have lost sight of being a Big Ten West Champion and, with the landscape of college football drastically changing, it is hard to envision how the Gophers will make it to the Big Ten Championship. With the expansion of the College Football Playoff, maybe making one of the 12 (eventually 14) spots is the next hump that us fans should look towards. I can’t be alone in feeling like 6 to 8-win regular seasons are starting to get bland. Especially with one dimensional football that does not appear to get better throughout the season. However, with Coach Fleck’s new hires and transfer portal moves that he has made this offseason, it is apparent that he feels the heat in keeping the Gophers relevant in the Big Ten. I am confident that he has his ores in the water and is working on leading this team to be an elite contender. I only hope that his compass is pointed onward and that this team does not regress into what it was 15 years ago.