P.J. FLECK – Page 18 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Expanded Playoff Breath of Fresh Air for Gopher Football

Posted on June 17, 2024June 17, 2024 by David Shama

The University of Minnesota football team hasn’t won’t a Big Ten championship since 1967 and that’s not likely to change in the foreseeable future with the conference adding premier programs from the west coast to join dominant schools in place for decades like Michigan and Ohio State.

But there is a development that realistically could sooner or later juice the Golden Gophers program—the expanded college football playoff starting in 2024. The expansion from four to 12 playoff teams should put a smile on the face of every loyal Gopher fan. Now this program can potentially be nationally relevant without winning the league title.

“P.J. and I are very excited with the 12-game expansion,” athletic director Mark Coyle told Sports Headliners.

Head coach P.J. Fleck’s 2019 team went 11-2 including an Outback Bowl win over Auburn. That group finished tied for first in the Big Ten West Division standings. Minnesota was ranked No. 10 in the country by two polls following its bowl win.

That 2019 outfit exemplifies a Gopher team worthy of being invited to participate in a 12-team playoff. As a member of the Big Ten, the Gophers belong to a conference exceeded in prestige and reputation only by the SEC. Talk this spring is those two leagues could annually have four or even five teams each in forthcoming playoffs.

Athlon Sports College Football magazine, now on newsstands, offers a projected playoff bracket for 2024-2025 that has Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State from the Big Ten, with Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas from the SEC. The forecast is for a national title game between Georgia and Ohio State with the Bulldogs winning.

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee will evaluate teams including by their schedules. The SEC has an edge with its teams playing eight league games, while Big Ten programs play nine.

That difference gives Coyle pause when a visitor asks about Big Ten teams one day playing 10 conference opponents each year. The change would be appealing to fans and TV viewers, but Coyle said such a development becomes “tricky” in that an extra league game adds another loss for half the schools. “…You’ve got to win all of them (the full schedule) if you want to have a special year,” Coyle said during an interview in his campus office.

The Big Ten adds Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington this year, creating an 18-team league. The SEC expands to 16 teams with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas. Coyle said it’s going to require a couple of years to see how the committee evaluates the teams in the two conferences including wins, losses and strength of schedules.

The Gophers have a mix in quality of nonconference opponents through 2032 with college football kingpin Alabama at one extreme and Lindenwood, a program that became Division I last year, at the other. Other diverse future opponents include California, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwestern State and Rhode Island.

Coyle said Fleck is open to scheduling any school. “He never freaks out,” Coyle said about Fleck who has been leading Minnesota since 2017 and has a career third best Gopher winning percentage of .595 (among football coaches with 45 games or more).

What Fleck’s teams do on the field is critical to revenues for the self-supporting athletic department with 21 sports. The Gopher revenue streams from football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey include those they control directly such as ticket sales and fundraising. A jackpot is Minnesota’s share of TV and other revenue that comes from the Big Ten office, with USA Today reporting that in 2023 and 2024 a full league member received about $60 million.

Tony Petitti, who became Big Ten commissioner in 2023, has a career background in the business side of TV and Coyle raves about him. “He makes it clear that football is 90 percent of the revenue in the Big Ten Conference. The same thing with the SEC.”

Worth Noting

Coyle talking about men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko who took the Gophers to consecutive Final Fours in 2022 and 2023 after being hired in 2018: “The crowds are back. 3M Arena is hopping again.”

Bobby Bell, the greatest Golden Gophers football player I ever saw, turned 84 today. Bell was a two-time All-American tackle, Outland Award winner and Big Ten Conference MVP while leading the Gophers to a 22-6-1 record from 1960-1962.

Michael Hsu, the former University of Minnesota agent, has long been an advocate for treating college athletes as employees. He looks more like a prophet all the time.

It appears as soon as 2025 college football players will be sharing in revenues at their schools. Last month the NCAA and Power Five conferences settled a pending lawsuit by allowing schools to directly pay its athletes in the future. Already in place is the practice of Name, Image and Likeness money that has lined the pockets of athletes from coast to coast.

Hsu, who told Sports Headliners he doesn’t receive compensation or expect it in the future for his advocacy on behalf of college athletes as employees, has been supportive of several litigations that challenged the old amateur college sports model. Defendants included the NCAA, Ivy League and Notre Dame.

“They (the lawsuits) basically say that college athletes are being misclassified as student athletes by these organizations,” Hsu said.

What’s down the road could be classification of athletes from revenue generating sports as employees by their schools. That, of course, includes Minnesota who by next year maybe sharing about $20 million in athletic department revenue. Hsu said schools don’t want athletes to be employees because as such that will entitle them to various rights and protections including health insurance.

Hsu, who lives in the Twin Cities area and is a Gopher fan, co-founded the College Basketball Players Association. That entity is dedicated to current, future and past college players and advocates for their rights including “health, safety and welfare,” per the CBPA website.

The Lynx, winners of three straight and having a 10-3 record, remain No. 2 in The Athletic’s latest WNBA power rankings. The Liberty, 12-2, is still No. 1 in the 12-team league.

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Improving U Pass Offense? Unknowns Still Lingering

Posted on May 20, 2024May 20, 2024 by David Shama

Spring practice has come and gone for the Golden Gophers football team and while there is reason for cautious optimism about the upcoming 12-game 2024 season, no personnel unit on offense and defense seems so uncertain as the roster of receivers.

Not since 2019 has Minnesota had an elite passing offense. Ryan Burns pointed out on his GopherIllustrated Website last week that “Minnesota hasn’t ranked nationally higher than 122^nd in pass attempts in the last three seasons, which is how the Gophers averaged a putrid 143 passing yards a game last year.”

Part of the blame was deservedly targeted last season at quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis who is now the presumed starter at Rutgers next fall. But Gophers receivers had their issues, too, including with route running and dropped passes. In 2024 Minnesota returns second team All-Big Ten receiver Daniel Jackson but that’s not enough to clear the murky outlook for the receiver room.

In an interview with Sports Headliners, Burns was asked if the receiver roster and production could be good in 2024. “I don’t think they’re going to have a really good room. I have a lot of questions about that room,” said Burns who has an extensive fan following because of his recruiting knowledge and analysis of the Gopher football program.

Jackson was third in the Big Ten in receiving yards with 831 yards and also in touchdowns for pass catchers with eight. “There’s just so much ambiguity behind Daniel Jackson I really don’t know what to expect,” Burns said. “I think it (the room) has the potential to be better than it has been the last few years, but I would say the bar for that isn’t exactly high considering the inconsistencies we’ve seen at receiver. …”

Burns made his point while talking about specific receivers including Eiljah Spencer, a promising transfer from Charlotte a year ago, who caught only nine passes for the Gophers in 2023 while starting five games. Spencer has struggled with dropped balls but is a potential starter along with Jackson and Lemeke Brockington who has considerable potential but missed most of last season with an injury.

Kenric Lanier is a former four-star recruit going into his 2024 redshirt freshman season after playing in just one game last season. His talent reputation is intriguing as is Georgia transfer Tyler Williams, a redshirt freshman who coming out of high school was considered among the elite prep receivers in the country.

Burns looks at Williams and talks about the Gophers polishing “his clay,” noting he believes the Florida native has different skills “than anything in that receiver room.” Williams played in two games for Georgia last season before deciding to enter the transfer portal, perhaps because of an ankle injury in the spring and prospects of not receiving as much playing time next fall as desired, per Burns.

Raising hopes about an improved passing game is the addition of Minnesota’s FCS transfer quarterback from New Hampshire. “With Max Brosmer, I think a lot of the national media is sleeping on Max Brosmer,” Ryan said about the graduate student who recently was included on the Senior Bowl watch list for quarterbacks.

In seven seasons at Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck has only once had a quarterback throw for more than 15 touchdown passes, Burns said. In 2019 Tanner Morgan threw 30 when he had All-Big Ten receivers Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman.

Burns is hoping for a “souped up Tanner Morgan” in Brosmer who was second team FCS All-American at New Hampshire last year. “Where you can be accurate, where you can be able to put the ball out on time, give your playmakers a chance to make a play, and just do that consistently. What that does for this Minnesota offense (in improvement).”

Brosmer is expected to throw more accurately than Kaliakmanis including on intermediate passes. He is also one of at least 14 anticipated new starting quarterbacks in the new 18-member Big Ten. Most of the league will be figuring out how their quarterbacks will settle in next fall, with Burns predicting if Brosmer can total 20 touchdown passes and be “under double digits in turnovers,” that will go a long way in Minnesota improving on last season’s 6-7 record including 3-6 in the Big Ten.

The anemic Minnesota passing offense produced just 16 touchdown passes in 13 games while accumulating 1,884 yards. The rush offense, usually the program’s bread and butter, was challenged by running back injuries and didn’t provide a lot more production with 2048 yards and 13 touchdowns. But the running game should be rolling in 2024 with lead back Darius Taylor and a refortified roster of quality backups for Taylor who made All-Big Ten honorable mention as a freshman.

Burns thinks the floor on next season’s record is 4-8, with the ceiling 9-3. The performances of all players and coaches, of course, will all impact outcomes and so will injuries. But Burns emphasizes (as was seen last season) without “consistent quarterback” play it’s difficult to win games.

What if Brosmer plays poorly, or is injured? Well, that’s where things become more dicey. In the spring the Gophers added Virginia Tech quarterback Dylan Wittke. He redshirted last season and didn’t see game action. He didn’t arrive here until late April so it’s difficult to assess Wittke, who was an athletic player coming out of high school in Georgia.

With more experience right now in the Gopher system than Wittke is true freshman Drake Lindsey. “Minnesota is incredibly, incredibly high on that young man after being able to work with him here this spring,” Burns said.

Lindsey, an Arkansas native, comes from a family of Razorback fans. There’s an impression here and down in Hog country the Razorbacks didn’t push hard enough to recruit the hometown quarterback. Any last minute recruiting rush, Burns said, was apparently negated by all the work and time Fleck and co-offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. had already invested on the three-star quarterback.

This spring Burns saw why Lindsey was a recruiting priority. “Drake Lindsay just looked different to me than other true freshman quarterbacks I’ve seen. He was very poised. Nothing really flustered him. Now (it’s true) he was drinking through a fire hose (learning so much). He’d make a great play one time; then the next time would not make a great play but I think his poise DNA ability to make plays is something that excites me.”

That’s good to hear because as recent history shows, the Gophers need help in a lot of places to raise the production of their passing offense.

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New U QB: ‘I Live and Die by Preparation’

Posted on March 26, 2024March 26, 2024 by David Shama

Between now and the University of Minnesota’s opening football game August 29 against North Carolina, no Golden Gophers player will prompt more curiosity and anticipation than transfer quarterback Max Brosmer. He made FCS All-American last fall at New Hampshire while leading the FCS in passing yards and total offense. Yet there is no certain way to know how well he will perform at a higher level against FBS/Big Ten teams.

That answer will have to wait until the Gophers go through their 12-game schedule, but a few things are known after Brosmer’s short tenure here that includes workouts in the winter and now spring practices that began last week. The intel is this: the transfer QB is an adult, with a pro’s work ethic, dedication to preparation and a desire to lead.

“I live and die by preparation,” said Brosmer who played five years at New Hampshire and was a team captain in 2023. “I know that my skill only goes so far. I don’t run a 4.4. I can’t escape every single blitz but if I know it’s coming, then maybe I can have a chance to get out of it. …I think that it (escaping trouble) comes from a team effort. Comes from the staff and also a group effort from the offensive line, the running back room, the receiver room and me as well–together (with us) doing it. …There’s a lot that goes into it.”

Brosmer, already named a Gopher captain, has known for years that he doesn’t have the strongest arm to throw the football as hard or far as some of his peers. “The thing that I had to improve at a young age was to be able to throw to tight windows before they were there,” he said.

At New Hampshire last year Brosmer attempted 459 passes and was intercepted only five times. That kind of success comes from repetition and knowing where the holes will be in the secondary. Brosmer will also tell you success comes from knowing his receivers and mutually being in synch in all aspects of passing and catching.

It will take time on and off the field for Brosmer to develop things with his receivers, but he already has their attention and impressed both them and other teammates. Wide receiver Daniel Jackson, the team’s star wide receiver, refers to Brosmer as the “general” for the way he has taken over the huddle and been embraced and trusted by teammates.

“… In the huddle, on the field when we’re already lined up, he’s able to make adjustments on the fly,” Jackson said. “He’s able to see things that really no one else on the field is able to see. And he’s able to put us receivers and running backs in the best position to go out there and be successful. It’s just his knowledge of the game is very, very impeccable.”

The Gophers have struggled in recent seasons to develop a consistent passing offense. Last year they ranked 123^rd among 130 FBS teams in passing yards per game at 143.4.

Brosmer is aware of the challenge but has noted there is a strong willingness by him and others to put in the effort to make the results better in 2024, which will be his one year of eligibility at Minnesota. “I am super, super excited,” he said.

Brosmer added he sees talent to work with and added this about the receiver room: “There’s a crave and a desire to grow and to progress. …”

Brosmer is talking about work ethic and he has created a sense of commitment that goes beyond his teammates. “He’s the hardest worker I’ve been around. No question,” said co-offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. who talks about “a partnership” with his QB.

Harbaugh said Brosmer has challenged him and changed him. “The best thing about (being) a coach is when a guy can challenge you, and he makes you better every single day. And I think that is the number one thing that he does. Me and him are together all the time, and we’re working together. He challenges me to make sure that every meeting that I have…that I’m ready to roll.”

The Gophers, 6-7 last year, didn’t find the passing consistency they needed with Athan Kaliakmanis who has transferred to Rutgers. Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck was looking for an experienced and accomplished quarterback in the portal.

“…We talked about how we needed a quarterback to walk in here and connect the entire football team,” Fleck said before spring practice started about his quarterback. “And that was going to be a tall task for anybody. But you can tell in two and a half short months this team is completely connected to him, has leaned on him and has looked to him for guidance.

“And that’s a credit to our players, but also a credit to him that he’s been able to do that in such a short amount of time. And it’s real, it’s authentic. He’s a special young man. And we look forward to him actually throwing some footballs here coming up. …Because this isn’t like having a freshman come in here that’s really talented.

“He has all the experience that you want. That doesn’t promise you anything, but it gives you a better chance. And his work ethic is through the roof and has really taken this team probably farther quicker than maybe expected.”

Coming out of Centennial High School in Roswell, Georgia he threw for 3,459 yards as a senior, but he didn’t have FBS recruiters knocking down his door. Late last year, though, there were FBS programs pursuing the high-profile Brosmer, but he didn’t take long to decide on the Gophers.

“…I wanted to get in out of the portal as quickly as I could as long as I was going to the school that fit me the best. Minnesota being that school for me.”

The fit has been more than fine so far.

Gophers Travel Notes: Rose Bowl Return

Stillwater-based Creative Charters has been arranging Golden Gophers football fan trips since 1993 and will be carrying on that tradition in the fall including the October 12 game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Minnesota last played in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1962—ironically against UCLA.

For over 60 years Gophers fans have yearned to see their team back in the “Granddaddy” of all bowl games. It hasn’t happened but the next best thing is playing in Pasadena during the regular season where the Bruins host their home games.

Creative has already sold out three trips for the return to the Rose Bowl. “We have the entire Godfrey Hotel,” Steve Erban told Sports Headliners.

Steve and wife Dorothy own Creative Charters, and they’re adding two more trip packages to accommodate the strong interest in the game. The Godfrey and now the Loews, both in Hollywood, are host hotels. Creative Charters has also scheduled a Warner Bros. Studio Tour as part of the trip experience.

Fleck said going back to the Rose Bowl means coming “full circle for a lot of families” in a football program that is tradition rich. U defensive lineman Danny Striggow, a Minnesota native, said of the game and the playing venue: “That’s an awesome opportunity.”

A potential 600 travelers going with Creative Charters thinks so, too.

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