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

‘Critical’ Offseason Ahead for Fleck & Golden Gophers

Posted on November 26, 2023November 26, 2023 by David Shama

The Golden Gophers 2023 football team lacked talent and quality depth at too many positions. The result was a 5-7 overall record and 3-6 mark in the Big Ten that left them in a four-way tie for last place in the West Division.

Now coach P.J. Fleck and his staff face the challenge of upgrading the personnel and depth as the Big Ten transitions in 2024 to 18 football teams with no divisional play. And in the new world of college football Minnesota and other Power Five programs will try to figure out how to retain players and add players in the transfer portal who can contribute next fall while stockpiling incoming freshmen for development. The portal is open most immediately from December 4 through January 3, 2024.

The Gophers had experienced players at many positions, but they didn’t play consistent football. When things mattered the most—late in the season—they lost four consecutive games including Saturday’s finale with Wisconsin. A run of key injuries was problematic all season.

Minnesota could return most of its offensive and defensive starters, and special team regulars in 2024. The most significant losses are defensive tackle Kyler Baugh, center Nathan Boe, receiver Corey Crooms Jr., corner Tre’Von Jones, safety Tyler Nubin and tight end Brevyn-Spann Ford.

The best college teams excel at quarterback and along the line of scrimmage, offensively and defensively. QB Athan Kaliakmanis started all 12 games and was up and down in performance. Not only was his passing inconsistent but he made minimal plays with his legs. The offensive line blocking couldn’t match the performance of three recent seasons when Minnesota won nine games or more. Defensively, too often Minnesota’s line and linebackers were gashed with big runs, and the old nemesis of a poor pass rush continued.

Typically, Power Five teams lose a dozen or more players to the portal. Who those players will be on the Minnesota roster will be known over the next 30 days or so.

Where do the Gophers need help in the transfer portal? “Pick your position,” Ryan Burns said.

Burns, the local recruiting authority from GopherIllustrated, listed quarterback, receiver, running back and offensive and defensive lines as areas of need. If pressed for his top three he prioritizes corner, tailback and “probably quarterback.”

Burns predicts Fleck and his staff will prioritize Name, Image and Likeness money for players already on the roster. Retaining talents like RB Darius Taylor, offensive tackle Aireontae Ersery and end defensive Jah Joyner will be vital for next year’s team.

Burns said creating competition for Kaliakmanis is desirable but the Gophers are likely to find such a QB from the FCS or Group of Five level. Why? Because big name Power Five quarterbacks can command $250,000 and more in the portal.

Fleck, who has a 49-34 record at Minnesota and is fifth all-time in wins, starts his eighth season in 2024. He will have to sort out issues with the program including possible changes needed in coaching philosophy and schemes, and perhaps shaking up the staff.

Burns and others predict this offseason will be different. “Most critical one Fleck’s had, I would say,” Burns said. “It didn’t go their way this year—the breaks they probably weren’t anticipating, but still should have won two games, Illinois and Northwestern, and sitting at six or seven wins going into the Wisconsin game.

“If that’s the case I don’t know that there is as much fan reaction as there has been this season. …Being able to look short term and long term at the same time is going to be critical for him trying to figure out what the best thing is to adapt going into that 2024 new Big Ten world.”

Worth Noting

I am so sorry to write that my friend Jim Carter, the captain of the 1969 football Gophers, passed away on Thanksgiving evening in Palm Springs, California. I knew Jim for more than 50 years and he was a fiery competitor in sports, business and life. He was a loyal friend who cared deeply for the University of Minnesota where he also played hockey.

A great prep football player at South St. Paul High School, Jim could have opted for Notre Dame but instead chose the hometown Gophers. He was a star player and important contributor as the fullback on the 1967 Minnesota Big Ten championship team. The Green Bay Packers made a linebacker out of him and his NFL career lasted through the 1978 season.

Known to friends as “Hurricane,” Jim was challenged much of his life by emotions and addictions. He had been in recovery for about 20 years and devoted a lot of his free time to helping others with their addictions.

Jim passed away at age 75 after battling metastatic melanoma. Longtime friend, confidant and Gopher teammate Jim Brunzell wrote via email how he will miss their lunches, football get togethers and phone calls.

“Jimmy was a man’s man and called his life accordingly,” Brunzell wrote. “…May he rest in peace, ‘till we hug again.”

Former Gophers head football coach Tim Brewster has resigned as Colorado’s tight ends coach, per internet reports today.

Mike Conley, 36, is the poised point guard whose leadership is indispensable to the fast-starting Timberwolves. He has been in the NBA since the 2007-2008 season and an indication of his self-control is never receiving a technical foul.

Chet Holmgren, the 7-1 Minneapolis native in his first NBA season, is averaging 18 points and eight rebounds per game for the Thunder who play the Wolves at Target Center Tuesday night.

Tom Reid, the former NHL player and radio analyst for the Wild since the franchise’s inception in 2000, is the latest guest on “Behind the Game” with longtime host Patrick Klinger. Topics include how the recent death of Minnesotan Adam Johnson may influence safety new safety measures in the game. The show is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPvNXskdASI&si=uLHbbftPajzUeD8W

Golfweek’s 2023 rankings of the best private courses in the state starts with Interlachen at No. 1 followed by Spring Hill, Minikahda and White Bear Yacht Club (tied at No. 3) and Hazeltine National. The next five are Windsong Farm, Somerset, Northland, Minneapolis and Golden Valley.

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Talking Turkey for Laughs and Wisdom

Posted on November 21, 2023 by David Shama

Everything I ever wanted to tell you about Thanksgiving.

(Ha! But maybe only a little bit.)

Suggestion for Strib columnist Patrick Reusse regarding the selection process for his annual “Turkey of the Year.” Choose a media person. Hint: It’s “low hanging fruit.”

My most memorable Thanksgiving Day sports event was the 1963 Golden Gophers football game at Memorial Stadium when Minnesota defeated Wisconsin 14-0 while earning some payback from a controversially officiated defeat in Madison the year before. The game on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, had been moved from the previous Saturday because President John Kennedy was assassinated November 22, and the nation was in turmoil and mourning.

Gopher 1962 All-American tackle Bobby Bell recalled meeting President Kennedy in the Murray Warmath book, The Autumn Warrior. The president knew of Minnesota’s frustrating fourth quarter 14-9 loss to the Badgers in 1962 and said to him later in the fall: “Bobby Bell! You’re the one who got that really bad roughing call against you a couple of weeks ago in that big game against Wisconsin, right?”

Warmath, the Gophers coach who probably would have won his second Big Ten title in three years if not for the 1962 officiating in Madison, had an eye for talent and a sense of humor: “No mule ever won the Kentucky Derby,” Warmath liked to say.

BTW I am starting a new tradition in advance of Saturday’s Minnesota-Wisconsin game in Minneapolis. Gopher fans are asked to wear lumberjack shirts (no red) this week to ensure good fortune that Paul Bunyan’s Axe remains in Dinkytown for a third consecutive year.

While the Gophers are practically strangers to Thanksgiving football, the Vikings are not, having played nine times on the holiday. Last year the Vikings defeated the Patriots 33-26 in their only home Thanksgiving Day game ever when Kene Nwangwu worked up an appetite with a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

All-time on turkey day the Vikes are 3-2 against the Lions, 3-0 against the Cowboys and 1-0 with the Patriots for a 7-2 record. A favorite is the 1998 game in Texas when rookie wide receiver Randy Moss took revenge on the Cowboys who bypassed him in the NFL Draft after reportedly first indicating they would select him. Moss caught three passes in the game for 163 yards and all the receptions resulted in touchdowns during Minnesota’s 46-26 win.

No matter when you eat on Thanksgiving the NFL will be right there with you. The lineup Thursday: Packers at Lions, 11:30 a.m., Commanders at Cowboys; 2:30 p.m., 49ers at Seahawks, 8:20 p.m.

Football and food? The facts are these: it takes something like 15 hours to prepare the Thanksgiving feast and about 15 minutes (the length of halftime) to consume much of it.

And woe to those who don’t show appreciation and lend a hand to the preparers of the extravaganza. Without gratitude and willingness to help, there might be no TV football for you and dirty looks at the table could bring on a bad case of indigestion.

My worst and unexpected Thanksgiving drama? Being part of a pro rasslin’ promotion to raise funds for charity and hearing a cascade of boos rein down from the rafters of the old St. Paul Auditorium. Go figure.

Nobody on TV had more fun with football and Thanksgiving than the late John Madden, the Austin, Minnesota native. See what kind of look you get from a butcher if you ask for a Madden favorite, the six-legged turkey! I know we won’t have to count turkey legs beyond two on our bird.

At our house we spend considerable time talking about where to buy, what size and how to cook the turkey. How many pounds will feed how many people for how many days? Do we cover the bird with tin foil to enhance moisture? Maybe we’re influenced this year by a TV talking head who boasted about finding a Butterball at 99 cents per pound.

Temptation has crept into the process this year. We’ve seen wild turkeys in the yard lately, and I’ve pondered securing one for the Thanksgiving table. I am adept at throwing golf clubs and thought that might be a quiet way to knock off a gobbler. Restraint won out when I thought of cleaning the fowl.

Turkey is not for everyone, though. Vikings offensive guard Dalton Risner grew up on a ranch in Colorado and the family was a fan of another bird. “The fried chicken was just more crunchy, more juicy, just better,” he told Sports Headliners.

One year, Risner and his sibs were each tasked with making various parts of the holiday meal. “Yeah, of course we bombed out. I think mom and dad said it was all good, but you know we did something wrong.”

Risner’s mom made her version of Mississippi Mud Pie for dessert—brownies, layered with marshmallow cream and covered in chocolate frosting. A visitor suggested last week that sounded mouth-watering. “I got a sweet tooth, too, man,” Risner said. “Pumpkin bars, pecan pie. It’s going to be a good week, next week.”

Talk Thanksgiving with Viking defensive back Cam Bynum, and along with the importance of spending time with family comes a memory from Black Friday. He recalls his “sneaker head days” in California when he used to collect shoes. “In high school I’d go camp out (at a store with family) and wait in line for shoes, standing there for 12-plus hours, and that was a lot of fun for me.”

At our table we’ll have family from out of town and nearby. We’ll eat until everyone is high on sugar and then play games. I like the ones for ages 4 to 10.

Part of the emphasis in the Gophers football program is serving and giving to the community. Not just Thanksgiving week but other parts of the year, too. So, I asked Gophers’ football coach P.J. Fleck about gratitude yesterday.

He made the point that there are people who only want to be grateful for the good things in their lives. “A lot of things that you’re grateful for are the hardest things you’ve been through in your life because they teach you the biggest lessons—some of the most tragic, some of the hardest things you get through,” he said. “You do as you get older…find the gratitude in that and find out what it teaches you.”

Thank you for reading this space today and throughout the year!

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Don’t Fret about Fleck & Michigan State Coaching Rumors

Posted on October 31, 2023 by David Shama

Michigan State’s football coaching vacancy is stirring a lot of speculation as to who will replace fired boss Mel Tucker. Among names conjectured is Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck who headed the football program at Western Michigan before taking over the Golden Gophers in 2017.

It’s easy for crystal ballers to type Fleck’s name as a possible candidate given his background in the state of Michigan and success at Western and Minnesota. At age 42 his combination of experience and coaching youth makes him an attractive name to speculate about.

However, don’t wager the mortgage on Minnesota’s Athletes Village that the Spartans are targeting Fleck and that he is interested. Reasons include the following:

Sports Headliners has found no credible information there is mutual interest in the job of leading the Spartans. This includes some “digging” while the Spartans were in town last Saturday to play the Gophers.

When asked, a Big Ten athletic director told me there is no conference policy prohibiting a school from hiring another institution’s head coach. Doing so, though, in a highly visible sport like football, would create hard feelings between the two programs and go against the cooperative and supportive spirit of being in a conference aligned with mutual interests and loyalties.

It’s not unusual for assistant football coaches to change Big Ten schools. However, the last time head football coaches switched loyalties in the conference was in late 1972. Alex Agase vacated his position at Northwestern to become head coach at Purdue. Soon after John Pont left Indiana to take over at Northwestern. There have been no similar moves in 50 years.

Fleck is in his seventh season at Minnesota and his name has come up with other coaching openings. It’s believed he was targeted for the Tennessee job in 2021 and may have turned it down. Numerous reports in January of that year said he wasn’t interested in the position.

A source told Sports Headliners there might have been interest in Fleck from Michigan State before Tucker was hired. That was in the winter of 2020 when the Gophers were coming off their 11-2 season and final AP national ranking of No. 10.

Fleck is highly competitive and knows he can have success here. The Gophers have won nine games or more three times dating back to 2019. His 49-30 record translates to a winning percentage of .620 and is among the best in program history. This season the Gophers are 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Big Ten games.

Fleck and wife Heather are enthusiastic about the quality-of-life here. They’re building a new home in the metro area and have immersed themselves in the community including with charitable activities.

The wild card in retaining Fleck long-term is Name, Image and Likeness money for players. Dinkytown Athletes, the official collective for Gopher athletes in all sports, has momentum this fall with increasing revenues including from innovative ideas like the sale of Duck Duck Beer in state liquor stores. DA has only been operational for about 13 months. (Note: DA advertises on this blog).

Collectives are quiet about their “pots of gold” but news of late hasn’t been good for Sparty. Internet reports a few weeks ago said MSU’s official collective was pausing payments to many of the football players due to a lack of support from the public.

Michigan State football has been in turmoil this fall because of alleged improprieties against Tucker that resulted in his in-season dismissal. Who knows what other fallout there could be at MSU? The school and athletic department have absorbed multiple serious problems in recent years.

The situation contrasts with the stability Fleck has at Minnesota including a close relationship with AD Mark Coyle who hired him in January of 2017. It’s invaluable for a head football coach to have the ear and support of his AD. The two not only share a mutual trust but also a staunch commitment to operating in compliance with NCAA rules. Who you work for, and the athletic department’s culture, can be invaluable for a coach in the combustible world of college football.

Given its geographic location near recruiting hotbeds, winning tradition, large fanbase and deep-pocket alumni, the MSU job is attractive. East Lansing is an easier place to win than Minneapolis and the Spartans have shown a willingness to pay beyond top dollar with their careless commitment to Tucker at $95 million.

Per Usatoday.com earlier this fall, Tucker was No. 5 in the country with a ridiculous 2023 salary of about $10 million. Fleck ranked No. 26 at $6 million on a national list of compensation for college football coaches.

In a bidding war for Fleck, MSU probably wins. But Spartan AD Alan Haller and whoever is helping him with the search for a new coach are more likely to target a flashy name such as icon Urban Meyer or a coach having a big season like Duke’s Mike Elko, Lane Kiffin from Mississippi, or Lance Leipold at Kansas.

Notice that none of them is currently coaching in the Big Ten.

Minnetonka Girls Basketball: For Sure a Team to Watch

Among the intriguing storylines to follow in state high school sports this fall, and winter, will be the girls’ basketball team at Minnetonka High School. Second-year coach Brian Cosgriff won seven state championships at Hopkins and will have one of Minnesota’s best 4A teams in 2023-2024 at ‘Tonka.

“When you have a USA basketball player on your team, you should be pretty good,” Cosgriff told Sports Headliners. “And then you got a Golden Gopher commit and then you got a point guard that’s being recruited by power fives—you got a shot.”

Aaliyah Crump averaged nine points per game and 3.8 rebounds for the Under 16 USA team last summer that had a 6-0 record and won a gold medal. Cosgriff said the 6-1 junior is “being recruited by everybody” for her skills and versatility. “She can play any position she wants,” Cosgriff said.

Senior Tori McKinney, a 6-1 guard-wing, has verbally committed to Minnesota and is another versatile player who Cosgriff praised as a “great defender” and hard worker. Point guard Lanelle Wright was named Lake All-Conference as a freshman last season.

The Skippers have other experienced players, too, who will play important roles in an opportune season ahead. “We have a nice nucleus coming back,” Cosgriff said.

He coached Paige Bueckers at Hopkins High School, and she became the biggest star in women’s college basketball while playing for UConn in 2021. Cosgriff said Crump is probably the most pursued recruit he’s ever had because Bueckers committed early to UConn and by so doing discouraged other schools.

“Both are equally talented,” Cosgriff said. “Paige had a basketball IQ that was off the charts. Crump has athletic ability that’s off the charts, and height. They both are very, very good players, but it’s hard to compare the two.”

Cosgriff has been a head coach in Minnesota girls’ basketball since 1999. He’s seen the development of talent in the state through the years. “…I mean it’s gotten really good, and I really think it’s kind of a hotbed for a lot of colleges to come in here and start recruiting players. Because it used to be a kid…would maybe get an offer from the U or some smaller D I school. Now you got your Power Fives coming in here on a regular basis.”

Cosgriff said legendary Hopkins’ boys coach Kenny Novak once told him he thought Bueckers could be a starter for his team.

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