P.J. FLECK – Page 49 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Don’t Expect Fleck to Leave for Vols

Posted on January 25, 2021January 25, 2021 by David Shama

Word is Gophers head football coach P.J. Fleck isn’t headed to the Tennessee Volunteers, but don’t expect speculation about his future at Minnesota to end in the months or years ahead.

Rumors are circulating of Fleck’s interest in the Tennessee job that opened earlier in January, but a source close to University of Minnesota football told Sports Headliners Fleck has turned down the position. Late last year Fleck’s name was speculated about with an NFL head coaching job.

It’s probably accurate that other job inquiries have been encouraged toward the 40-year-old Fleck who successfully has led the Gophers program since 2017. It could be Fleck and agent Bryan Harlan are more than willing to use talk of the coach going elsewhere as leverage to improve program resources and budgets, including contracts for Fleck and his staff. Fleck’s $4.75 million salary places him in the middle of compensation for Big Ten coaches, and the money pool for assistants is among the lowest in the conference.

Most of Fleck’s assistants have expiring contracts this month, according to the source who acknowledges the head coach is frustrated by his staff’s compensation. It’s not known what stance the University of Minnesota administration and athletic director Mark Coyle are taking regarding contract renewals and salary increases but it’s certain Fleck will fight for assistant coaches.

Money, always a challenging subject in the athletic department, is dramatically more sensitive now because of the pandemic and a department deficit for this school year could total $50 million or more. It just might be that the cost saving of eliminating gymnastics, tennis and indoor track starting with the 2021-2022 school year will at least partially be directed toward the football budget.

It was reported in December the U is facing about a $166 million overall budget shortfall by fiscal year end. In the months ahead money via a loan, or perhaps sale of bonds, is expected to bolster the U budget with a significant portion targeted to the Gopher Athletic Department.

Whether Fleck is determined to stay at Minnesota long-term appears debatable. He has said a career goal was to coach at a Big Ten school and he has expressed his liking for the quality of life in Minneapolis and in the state. The Gopher job, though, can’t match financial resources with the bluebloods of college football.

If Fleck’s ultimate goal is to land at such a program, the U leadership ought to be protecting itself regarding a buyout if he decides to go elsewhere. His buyout figure was set at $10 million last year but now has dropped to $4.5 million. Extending Fleck’s contract in the coming months with new provisions that include a large buyout could be a prudent move for the U.

Worth Noting

Dan Harralson, writing Saturday for Volswire.usatoday.com, contends Fleck could be a great fit for the Vols not only because of his success with Minnesota. The Vols are facing alleged NCAA infractions and Harralson said the program might benefit from Fleck’s relationship with Joe Novak, his college coach at Northern Illinois. The retired Novak is a member of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions.

Hank Aaron, the baseball icon who also passed away last week and played in the minor leagues and majors in Wisconsin, held the career baseball home run record for more than three decades and was compared with rivals Willie Mays and Ted Williams. Aaron, younger than both, didn’t serve in the military while Mays missed two seasons in the major leagues because of the Korean conflict and Williams five (World War II and Korea). Those lost seasons were prime years for both Mays and Williams whose gaudy stats would have been even more impressive, including career home run totals.

Twin Cities resident Dave Wright, the retired Hamline sports publicist, is now in his 52nd year as a public address announcer. “I started when I was a junior in high school at Assumption in Windsor, Ontario in 1970,” Wright said in an email responding to a Sports Headliners request about his P.A. career.

Wright’s impressive resume includes assignments for both the state boys basketball and hockey tournaments. At St. Thomas he was the longtime P.A. voice for both Tommies basketball and football. He has also worked softball and soccer games over the years. Current assignments are St. Thomas Academy hockey, St. Agnes football and high school section baseball games at CHS Field. “I have no idea how many games I have done. The number must be at least 1,500,” he wrote.

The P.A. work is a labor of love, and certainly not an endeavor to make money, with Wright estimating an assignment might pay a person $40 per game at a local high school. He’s still having fun after all these years. “I am 67 and think my voice is still good. But I know it will go out down the line and I hope I am smart enough to leave before somebody tells me to.”

Supporters who previously attributed Minnesota’s mediocre Big Ten basketball record to a string of games against nationally ranked teams had to think again Saturday. Richard Pitino’s Gophers lost at home to unranked Maryland, with the Terps dominating in a 63-49 win. The loss set Minnesota’s conference record at 4-5.

Below .500 in Big Ten regular season games is familiar for Pitino. Now in his eighth season, the coach has led Minnesota to one Big Ten season with a winning percentage above .500.

Hopkins basketball legend Paige Bueckers, now a freshman at Connecticut where the Huskies are 10-0, is averaging 17.1 points per game, making .536 percent of her field goals, averaging 5.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists. She missed the Huskies’ most recent game with an injury. Minnesota prep basketball enthusiast Ken Lien points out Bueckers last played in a losing game as a sophomore in high school.

Talk show host Larry King who passed away a few days ago was a friend of Harvey Mackay, the former Gopher golfer, Minneapolis businessman, syndicated columnist and New York Times best selling author. Mackay’s latest book is out this month, “Getting a Job is a Job.”

The Wall Street Journal weekend edition reports NBC is shutting down its cable sports channel at year’s end, with NHL programming transitioning during 2021 to USA Network.

Comments Welcome

U Football Transfers in School Already

Posted on January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 by David Shama

Golden Gophers football transfers began classes at the University of Minnesota this week, per recruiting authority Ryan Burns of GopherIllustrated.com. Head coach P.J. Fleck and staff made news in recent weeks by bringing in more transfers than at any time in his regime dating back to 2017, with the number of newcomers distinguishing Minnesota from its six West Division rivals.

“I think that Minnesota in the West has certainly done the most to improve their short-term (talent) in 2021 using the transfer market,” Burns said. The transfers are linebacker Jack Gibbens, Abilene Christian; defensive tackles Val Martin and Nyles Pinckney from N.C. State and Clemson respectively; kicker Will Mobley, Temple; guardKarter Shaw, Utah State; punter Daniel Sparks, Louisiana-Monroe; and wide receiver Dylan Wright, Texas A&M. All but Mobley are in school now, with the Temple athlete enrolling in May, according to Burns.

The arrival of the newbies, most of whom have considerable college game experience, bolsters the overall Minnesota roster depth, while adding quality talent and potential starters. “I look at every position now and I see competition,” Burns said.

Competition will highlight the team’s offseason as players go through conditioning, weight training, meetings, drills, practices and scrimmages. Intense competition for playing time should make the Gophers more prepared and better on the field for next season starting with an opening game against Big Ten and national power Ohio State, expected to be ranked in the preseason AP top five.

Starting spots on defense are really open, with perhaps cornerback Coney Durr and end Boye Mafe the only locks. Gibbens, a grad transfer with four years experience at Abilene, is expected to provide leadership and quality play at linebacker where the Gophers were both thin and inexperienced last season. Defensive line was also a trouble spot in 2020 and Burns said junior defensive tackle Jamal Teague, who opted out last season, might not return. Another junior tackle, Noah Hickox, has left the program, leaving the defensive line roster even more inexperienced. The arrival of veteran grad transfers Martin and Pinckney clearly fills a need with their immediate eligibility.

Pinckney is a headliner after being a four-star recruit out of high school and playing in 55 games for the powerful Clemson program. The Tigers are heavy on defensive line talent for 2021, with two of their players named this week to an early ESPN preseason All-American team. Pinckney comes to Minnesota looking for a big season and invite to the NFL.

The Minnesota offense contrasts with the defense, having veterans returning at every position, but the arrival of Shaw and Wright, both underclassmen, can mean potentially helping the Gophers this year and beyond. Burns said Shaw has been told he is the center of the future, eventually replacing John Michael-Schmitz. Shaw can play multiple positions and could have helped the Gophers last season as they struggled with depth.

Wright looks like the other headliner among the transfers and Gopher fans need to hope the NCAA soon announces a new policy that underclassmen like he and Shaw can move to new schools and have immediate eligibility. Wright was a four-star recruit out of high school and wooed to A&M by former Gophers assistant Maurice Linguist who worked for Fleck at Minnesota before joining the Aggies, and is now with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. Burns credits Linguist with playing a huge role in Wright choosing to transfer here.

“It’s Linguist who actually tells Wright I can vouch for everything that P.J. is doing up there—look at their wide receiver development. Minnesota is able to land him,” Burns said in telling the Wright recruiting story. “He is a kid that Minnesota doesn’t have anybody in their wide receiver room right now that looks like him. He is a specimen at 6-foot-4. The question is going to be how long is it going to take for (wide receivers coach) Matt Simon to refine his game where he can help Minnesota win football games.”

Minnesota’s extra points and field goal kicking last season was poor. Burns said grad transfer Mobley, who is expected to challenge returnee Brock Walker for kicking duties, holds the Temple record for consecutive extra points made (51). Sparks was among the Sun Belt Conference’s best punters last season as a freshman and if eligible will offer competition to returnee Mark Crawford who has to improve.

Burns said Fleck obviously “wasn’t blind” to special team woes last season that included poor field position on kickoff returns. Burns’ research showed primary returner Cam Wiley, who struggled with decision making, had 11 returns resulting in average starting field position on the 16-yard line. A fair catch places the ball on the 25.

“They lost nine yards of field position every time he decided to return a kick. I cannot stress to you (enough) how horrible that is,” said Burns, who noted the Gophers had the fourth worst starting field position following kickoffs in college football last season.

In yesterday’s interview with Sports Headliners Burns also talked about Minnesota’s 2021 freshman recruiting class that has 17 players signed to national letters of intent, with two highly publicized players pending. The next date for signing is February 3, and the Gophers hope to lock up offensive tackle Saia Mapakaitolo from Arizona and Nebraska cornerback Avante Dickerson.

Mapakaitolo was committed to USC and had his choice of West Coast offers, per Burns who said a California recruiting authority raves about the athleticism of the young tackle. Listed at 6-5, 280 pounds by 247Sports, Burns is intrigued by Mapakaitolo’s size, athleticism and participation in rugby, a grueling sport.

It was a disappointment to Gopher fans that Dickerson, a four-star recruit and the highest ranked of Minnesota’s verbal commitments last year per 247Sports, didn’t sign in December as expected. Burns believes Minnesota and Nebraska are the front runners for the gifted cornerback. With only about two weeks until the February signing date, Burns said Dickerson and his mother may visit Minnesota to help make a final decision.

The issue of location, staying closer to home and playing for the Cornhuskers in Lincoln is apparently a major factor in trying to make a decision. For Burns, there is no question what school Dickerson should choose.

“I don’t think particularly highly about Nebraska, with all the (outgoing) transfers they’ve had in the last year, their win-lost record. … To me it doesn’t make a ton of sense, because especially I believe (head coach) Scott Frost is on the hot seat. So why would you want to be going to a school, other than it’s close to home, that you could potentially be playing for a new coach in the next year or two?”

Worth Noting

The Gophers also have several players from the 2021 freshmen class who have enrolled early and started classes. 247Sports identifies early enrollees as DE Deven Eastern, WR Brady Boyd, WR Lemeke Brockington, “athlete” Dylan McGill, CB Justin Walley and LB Devon Williams.

Word is the Gophers have given up on recruiting Davon Townley, the defensive end from Minneapolis North High School. At one time Minnesota coveted the four-star for its 2021 recruiting class. Where might Townley be headed? “I have no idea,” Burns said. “All I know is I assure you…it ain’t going to be at Minnesota.”

Legendary Herb Brooks, who led the hockey Gophers to national championships in 1974, 1976 and 1979, was named the WCHA’s 1970s Coach of the Decade today as part of the league’s 70-year celebration.

The NFC title game Sunday in Green Bay features the franchise, the Packers, with the most world titles (13) against the quarterback, Tom Brady of the Bucs, with the most post season wins, 32.

Packer wide receiver Davante Adams had 18 touchdown receptions during the regular season. That total ranks behind only former Viking Randy Moss (2007) and ex-49er Jerry Rice (1987), who are tied for most in NFL single season history with 23 each.

Jeff Crilley’s email newsletter, “The Rundown,” included a story yesterday listing the states whose residents are most to least stressed during these turbulent times. Citing a OnePoll survey for stress supplement Natrol Relaxia, Minnesota ranked among the most relaxed citizenry. Iowa is the least stressed, Missouri the most.

Comments Welcome

Gopher Road Woes Mark Pitino Era

Posted on January 11, 2021 by David Shama

Coach Richard Pitino’s Golden Gophers basketball team lost 86-71 at Iowa yesterday and has dropped six consecutive Big Ten regular season road games dating back to last season. Pitino, now in his eighth season as Minnesota’s coach, has been unable to find success on the road in conference games except for the 2016-2017 season when the Gophers were 5-4.

Pitino’s career record in Big Ten regular season road games is 14-55, a 20 percent winning percentage. Most years the Gophers have won only a couple games away from Minneapolis and that goes a long way toward explaining the season-ending conference finishes of Pitino teams. In seven full seasons he has a fourth place finish in the conference standings (2017), with the next best results two years (2014 and 2019) when the Gophers placed seventh.

Big Ten title contenders win on the road, as history shows. When the Gophers won conference championships in 1982 and 1997, they lost two away games each season. Despite highly competitive road competition in the Big Ten last year, Wisconsin managed a 5-4 record on the way to a share of the conference title.

The Gophers are 10-4 overall and 3-4 in Big Ten games. Their four losses (all on the road) against Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin have been double-digit defeats. Minnesota has been way behind in road games and often because of poor defense and undisciplined offense. The Gophers have also been unable to match the energy of opponents on the road.

Pitino gave his team higher marks for its effort yesterday against Iowa than the other three road losses. “I thought this game was totally different than the other three losses. I thought we did a great job fighting back. We just took some bad shots down the stretch and weren’t able to get stops.”

Iowa quickly increased a 39-37 halftime lead to double digits for most of the second half but the Gophers were down by five points with about five minutes to play. Then Minnesota didn’t show enough patience on offense, rushed shots and got three-point happy. After the game Minnesota forward Brandon Johnson acknowledged the Gophers can “fall in love” with three-point shots at the expense of running an efficient offense. “It’s something we gotta fix as a group for sure,” he said.

In less than a month the Gophers have played seven consecutive conference games against nationally ranked opponents, including home wins against Michigan State, Ohio State and Iowa. Pitino said on his KFAN postgame radio show yesterday the stretch has been a grind. “We wore these guys down. That schedule was as hard a schedule as you’re going to see. …”

The Gophers will take three days off to rest before preparing for Michigan at home Saturday. This is one of Pitino’s more talented teams and has been ranked among the top programs in the country but the road failures have been glaring. Even the team’s most talented players have struggled away from home including preseason All-Big Ten guard Marcus Carr, and center Liam Robbins who was out played in the last two games by national player of the year candidates Hunter Dickinson of Michigan and Luka Garza from Iowa.

“Obviously you got an undefeated (10-0) Michigan coming up, but these guys (the Gophers) got better,” Pitino said on the postgame show. “We need a little break and get back to work.”

Worth Noting

Minnesota native Brian Dutcher, the San Diego State coach who has a special opt out in his contract that would allow him to coach the Gophers if the job opened, has won 13 consecutive regular season road games dating back to 2019.

Scott Ellison, the personable Gophers senior associate athletics director in charge of facilities and capital projects, retires at the end of this week after more than 32 years at the U. Ellison has worked on about $600 million in capital projects including the construction of TCF Bank Stadium and the Athletes Village. Long time assistant Jeff Seifriz will succeed Ellison.

Gophers’ offensive coordinator Mike Sanford Jr. might have been a candidate for the head coaching job at Boise State filled last week with the hiring of Andy Avalos. If Sanford, who has Boise State ties as a former Bronco OC, had been hired that may have opened the door for the return of long time P.J. Fleck OC coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. He left Minnesota after the 2019 season for Penn State but was dismissed last week.

Sanford’s offense had its struggles last season, showing inconsistency and veteran quarterback Tanner Morgan regressing. Sanford came to Minnesota after career moves that included only two years as head coach at Western Kentucky before he was fired, and serving as offensive coordinator at Utah State in 2019 where quarterback Jordan Love went from 32 touchdown passes and six interceptions in 2018 to 20 TD throws and 17 interceptions.

Morgan, a redshirt junior, was being mentioned a year ago as a future late first round or second round NFL Draft choice but for now that looks unlikely and he is expected to return as the Gopher starter in 2021.

If the Vikings were going to part ways with head coach Mike Zimmer it almost certainly would have happened by now. Pioneer Press columnist Charley Walters wrote this on Sunday: “But next year is clearly make or break for the 64-year-old grump.”

Local connection: 1983 Waseca High School grad Mike Larson was the advance scout for Tommy Lasorda’s 2000 U.S. Olympic baseball team. Lasorda, who died last week, managed that team to a surprise gold medal and was the long time colorful manager of the Dodgers.

Doug Mientkiewicz, the former Twin, played on the 2000 Olympic team and credited the experience with giving him confidence. John Manuel, now a Twins scout and once editor-in-chief of Baseball America, wrote about that American team who many observers thought would lose out to Cuba.

Versatile calendar: the men’s Gopher hockey team, now 11-1-0 after splitting a weekend series with the Badgers, has played games every day of the week because of TV programming.

John Drum, the newly named general manager of U.S. Bank Stadium, is the latest “Behind the Game” guest with co-hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson. Drum, who talks on the show about the post-pandemic future for the stadium, worked with Robertson in the mid-1990s as part of the Angels organization in Anaheim. The program is available for viewing on the “Behind the Game” YouTube Channel and via cable access throughout the state.

Hoping for the best of transitions for Susan Wilkinson who has moved into a Bloomington long-term care facility. Susan is the terrific wife of Mike Wilkinson, author of the Murray Warmath biography, The Autumn Warrior.

Rob Hunegs, the popular owner of Twin Cites Sports Cards in Golden Valley, is home after a 12-day battle with COVID-19 in the hospital.

Thoughts of friends are with former Gophers football player Joe Pung who was diagnosed in 2019 with stage 3 melanoma and is undergoing treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

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