Coach P.J. Fleck’s University of Minnesota team made a dramatic statement to the college football world Saturday when the No. 13 ranked Golden Gophers upset No. 5 Penn State in Minneapolis. Minnesota’s 31-26 win over the Nittany Lions came in a game the Gophers controlled, and the outcome moved the program to heavyweight status among Power Five Conferences.
The 9-0 Gophers are deserving of a top 10 national ranking by the major polls including the Associated Press. With three games remaining on the regular season schedule, the school that has won nine consecutive games for the first time since 1904 now deserves that kind of attention.
For years the program that often didn’t seem to know how to spell R-e-s-p-e-c-t, now has earned it. Can we all spell C-r-e-d-i-b-i-l-i-t-y?
It will be interesting to see how far Minnesota advances in the College Football Playoff Rankings this week. The Gophers are one of only five undefeated Power Five teams remaining in college football. Last week Minnesota was ranked No. 17 in the CFP listings.
P.J. Fleck
Fleck, the third-year coach who was doubted and mocked by the local citizenry and media, has a team that is not only surprisingly undefeated but improving every week. Already among the favorites to win national coach of the year awards, Fleck could be the honoree if Minnesota can sweep its last three games. In yesterday’s game at least two Gophers added to their profiles for earning national honors after the season. Wide receiver Rashod Bateman was unstoppable, coming up with 203 yards in receptions, while Gopher safety Antoine Winfield Jr. had two timely interceptions.
The potential is there for Minnesota to win its first ever Big Ten West Division championship. The 6-0 (league games) Gophers are being chased by 4-2 Wisconsin and 3-3 Iowa, and maybe 4-3 upstart Illinois. Minnesota’s remaining regular season schedule is at Iowa next Saturday, at Northwestern (0-7) November 23 and then home on November 30 versus Wisconsin.
Minnesota hasn’t defeated Iowa and Wisconsin in the same season since 1990. The Gophers haven’t won a game in Iowa City since 1999. Minnesota has won 11 consecutive games dating back to 2018 when the Fleckers defeated Wisconsin in the last regular season game and Georgia Tech in a bowl game, and now on November 30 the Gophers could beat Bucky in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1993-1994.
The list of implications that came out of yesterday’s mega win is long and includes the prospect of Minnesota advancing to the Big Ten title game next month and playing competitively against Ohio State, viewed as the best team in the country by those who put out the College Football Playoff Rankings. A 12-0 record going into Indianapolis to play the Buckeyes could put Minnesota into the driver’s seat for the program’s first Rose Bowl invite since 1962. That kind of success would be an eye-opener for impressionable high quality recruits around the country who are likely to think about grabbing an “oar” and heading to Minneapolis.
The most optimistic of fans—and some are probably still partying after yesterday’s program turning win—are chortling that the Gophers are contenders to earn their way to the four-team playoffs. In an improbable season, those in the Optimists Hall of Fame are thinking bigger than I am.
Make no mistake, though, the Gophers are likely to sustain success this season. They might lose a couple of games in a closing stretch against the top-25 Hawkeyes and Badgers. A string of unfortunate injuries to Minnesota’s best playmakers could spoil the fun in the games ahead, but so many good things are already in place with more coming.
The Gophers are headed to a credible, if not prestigious, bowl game—see you later Motown. Ticket sales will increase next year, and should be jumping for the home finale to keep possession of Paul Bunyan’s Axe. Fleck’s getting love from fans and learned yesterday he can have a happy football marriage in this on and off the bandwagon town. Athletic director Mark Coyle has already won his presentation to the U Board of Regents next month when he asks for formal approval of the coach’s new seven-year extension.
Donation checks should be on the upswing to the Athletic Department and the University. A Rose Bowl win will goose donations like it did years ago when bottom feeders Big Ten Wisconsin and Northwestern rose up and said, “Pasadena here we come.”
Are you listening T. Denny Sanford?
Hey, Lee Corso, you listen up too. Before Saturday’s game the confident Corso said this about Penn State on ESPN College GameDay: “They’re gonna sink that Minnesota boat.”
Nope. Yesterday the Gophers bagged a Nittany Lion.
If Pete Najarian is correct, it’s going to be a happy Saturday for University of Minnesota football fans. The Minneapolis native, former U linebacker, TV personality and financial markets guru told Sports Headliners he is predicting “something like 21-17” in favor of Minnesota over Penn State in the much anticipated matchup of the two 8-0 Big Ten teams. Odds-makers have made the Nittany Lions about a touchdown favorite for the nationally televised (ABC) game at TCF Bank Stadium.
The Gophers are 11-1 since firing defensive coordinator Robb Smith following last season’s 55-31 loss to lowly Illinois. Joe Rossi, Smith’s successor, has a unit that ranks No. 13 nationally in defensive yards allowed per game, 283.8. “The improvement we’ve seen there is why we’re a better team than we were last year,” Najarian said.
Najarian, who played professionally for the Tampa Bay Bucs, also praised the offense with its many playmakers including running backs and receivers. The Gophers have outscored their last four Big Ten opponents 168 to 41.
The offense has been balanced between the run and pass, with the Gophers averaging 38.4 points per game, No. 14 in the country. Minnesota is sixth nationally in time of possession, and long stretches of time on the field by the Gopher offense will keep the ball away from a Nittany Lions offense averaging 38.5 points per game.
Najarian played for the Gophers for four seasons, from 1981-1985. His last two years the great Lou Holtz was the head coach. In the two seasons before Holtz arrived, the Gophers were 1-17 in Big Ten games. No wonder Holtz used to publicly preach, “Expect a miracle.” Then he turned Minnesota into a winning team before becoming head coach at Notre Dame.
Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck and his assistants earned the miracle tag from Najarian when asked about the staff and what Minnesota has accomplished going into Saturday’s game. The Gophers have won 10 consecutive games, the school’s longest winning streak since an 18-game run from 1939-42. Minnesota is also tied for the third-longest active win streak among FBS programs, trailing only Clemson and Ohio State. For the first time since 1935-36, the Gophers have won four consecutive Big Ten games by at least 20 points.
“I think Fleck and the coaching staff have done a miraculous job,” Najarian said. “… It starts with recruiting and I think when you look at the talent levels we’ve got at the University of Minnesota right now we are comparable to so many of the schools, not only just in the Big Ten, but in the top 25 in the country. I would say we have many positions (on offense and defense), that we can easily compete with just about anybody in the country.”
Najarian, who said “spectacular” is an appropriate word to describe the coaching and player development by Fleck and his assistants, has so much enthusiasm, affection and loyalty for his alma mater that he was ready to exit his lucrative career to become Minnesota’s athletic director. He was a candidate for the AD job before MarkCoyle was hired in 2016.
Fleck recently pitched ESPN’s College GameDay on coming to Minneapolis for Saturday’s game, but instead the popular Saturday show opted for the top five showdown between Alabama and LSU in Tuscaloosa. The program always features a celebrity prognosticator to join Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard in predicting the winner of the more important games across the country. When and if GameDay comes to Minneapolis, would Najarian accept an invitation to represent his home town and alma mater?
“I absolutely would,” he answered.
Najarian said others have already made the suggestion. He welcomes the potential opportunity, which would include reconnecting with ESPN, the network that once employed him as a studio personality and also a color commentator on college football games.
“There’s a lot of people there (at ESPN) that I know pretty well,” Najarian said. “It would be fun to hang out with those guys and throw out some picks, especially being a stat guy. I have to throw out picks all the time (for investing). I might as well do it on football.”
Golden Gophers Notes
In the spring game Fleck used 6-foot-9, 400-pound offensive tackle Daniel Faalele as a ball carrier near the goal line, and he scored a touchdown. I asked Fleck months ago when that play might be called in a game this fall. He said, “When no one is expecting it.”
Another surprise for the Nittany Lions on Saturday? Well, Wildcat quarterback Seth Green, a power running specialist, hasn’t attempted a pass this season. As a wide receiver he hasn’t caught a pass either.
Tanner Morgan
Regular quarterback TannerMorgan lines up as a receiver when Green directs the Wildcat formation. Morgan has yet to be targeted for a reception.
Penn State will be in the four-team College Football Playoffs if the Nittany Lions maintain the No. 4 spot in the rankings announced Tuesday night. The Nittany Lions are behind Ohio State, LSU and Alabama, but ahead of undefeated and defending national champion Clemson.
The Gophers are No. 17 in the CFP rankings, four spots higher than their No. 13 ranking in the Associated Press poll of top 25 teams. The Gophers’ five Big Ten wins have come against teams with a combined league record of 8-22.
The Nittany Lions, ranked No. 5 by the A.P., have quality wins over top-20 ranked Iowa and Michigan.
It’s possible the U will announce Minnesota’s first sellout home crowd since 2015 on Saturday. Official capacity at the stadium is 50,805. Temps could hit 40 degrees during the game, perhaps the warmest weather of the week. If the game were played at climate-controlled U.S. Bank Stadium, attendance likely would be 60,000 or more.
Lou Holtz is the best University of Minnesota football coach since the end of World War II. That statement might shock more than a few Golden Gophers historians who will object and argue such praise belongs to Bernie Bierman or Murray Warmath.
Nope. Give me Holtz, who was dubbed the “Music Man” for his clever and persuasive ways. He coached the Gophers for just two seasons, in 1984 and 1985. That was long enough to see his magic—and I mean that literally.
He was an amateur magician who occasionally performed tricks on TV including on the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. To this day I am convinced that had he stayed at Minnesota, his coaching “bag of tricks” would have turned the Gophers into a Big Ten power and perhaps national champions.
I have never seen a college football coach with the skill set possessed by the wiry little man from East Liverpool, Ohio, who spoke with a lisp. Strategist, taskmaster, motivator, mentor, manager, organizer, recruiter, fundraiser, salesman, marketer and the list goes on. When Lou spoke, the whole state of Minnesota listened.
The CEO of CEOs in the coaching world, Holtz took a mostly deplorable Minnesota roster that was a combined 1-17 in Big Ten games the two seasons before his arrival and turned those players, along with newcomers, into a sound football team. In Holtz’s second year the Gophers came within seven points of upsetting No. 3 ranked Oklahoma and five points of upending No. 9 Ohio State on their way to a 4-4 conference record, an overall record of 7-5 and the program’s first bowl game since 1977.
Bierman won five national titles at Minnesota but they all came before World War II. The Grey Eagle grew older and he wasn’t the same coach after the big war that changed the world. Warmath won Minnesota’s last national title in 1960 and took the Gophers to two Rose Bowls. He was a fine coach and a personal friend but he had his warts including sluggish offenses and never consistently winning over the public.
Holtz was so popular that in less than two years the Vikings were paranoid about losing their place as the No. 1 football attraction in the state. General manager Mike Lynn brought coach Bud Grant out of retirement to counter the Holtz mania that had resulted in crowds of more than 60,000 at the Metrodome and a huge jump in season ticket sales.
But in late 1985 Holtz, a devout Catholic, told us of an enduring childhood memory about how he skipped off to grade school many mornings singing or humming the Notre Dame fight song. Holtz reportedly had a clause in his Minnesota contract that said if the Fighting Irish ever had a coaching opening he could skip off to Notre Dame. And away he went, taking with him a bunch of high school recruits who planned to be Gophers but instead followed the “Music Man” to the hallowed grounds of Notre Dame where a few years later the Irish, not the Gophers, would be national champions.
Having been burned by Holtz, older Gophers fans are biting their collective nails these days about 38-year-old P.J. Fleck moving on after this season to some place else—oh, let’s just say USC, a storied program like Notre Dame that is under achieving and dreams of hiring Urban Meyer but might have to pitch a guy who preaches “Row the Boat.”
P.J. Fleck
Now I am not suggesting that as Gophers head coach Fleck deserves comparisons with Holtz, Bierman and Warmath but what he’s done at Minnesota is impressive. Dating back to last season, Fleck’s Gophers have won 11 of their last 12 games, including returning Paul Bunyan’s Axe to Dinkytown after a 15 year absence. Minnesota is 8-0 for the first time since 1941 and will play a much anticipated game on Saturday at home against Penn State. The Gophers are ranked No. 13 in the nation, while the Nittany Lions are No. 5. The last time Minnesota was ranked in the top 25 and played another ranked team was in October of 2004 when the No. 13 ranked Gophers lost to No. 14 Michigan.
I might have been the first in the media to inquire about Fleck’s commitment to Minnesota, when I brought the subject up last summer during a brief one-on-one interview. Fleck said that when he was considering leaving Western Michigan to come here with his wife Heather and young children, she emphasized the next career stop needed to be a long-term commitment. “She looked at me and says, ‘Listen, when we move there (the next job), we’re going to live there. We’re going to live there a long time…build a lot of roots.’
“It had to be a community that was high in philanthropy,” Fleck continued. “Had to be a community that was willing to serve and give. Had to be bigger than football. We feel the Twin City area and the state of Minnesota is that. … To be able to serve and give and make other people’s lives better. And that’s what Row the Boat is all about. It’s about serving and giving to other people. It’s about never giving up. It’s about providing opportunities for other people who can’t provide it for themselves.”
Fleck, his wife and players on the team have made good on their intentions to give back, getting involved in many ways with the community including children’s causes. Fleck has made it clear he and his wife love living here and that there is unfinished business with the Gophers. Yesterday he told WCCO Radio’s Chad Hartman that “I expect to be here a long time.”
Athletic director Mark Coyle told WCCO Radio’s Dave Lee this morning (Tuesday) that he and the coach are having conversations about a new contract but there is no date yet for an announcement about details. Even if the Gophers fall into a tailspin, Fleck will receive a reward for at least a good season and the renewed interest in the program. He makes about $3.6 million, a mediocre amount compared to his Big Ten peers. A great finish to the season will increase Fleck’s leverage in contract negotiations, and in such a scenario Coyle might need to offer $5 million for next year and a 10-year contract (his present deal goes through 2023).
The U Athletic Department has been cutting budgets of late so where does the money come from if Fleck’s compensation is boosted by $1.5 million? There perhaps are a few scenarios including new school president Joan Gabel approving a loan from central administration that would pay for other department costs and free up money for Fleck. Outside money sources could be another alternative. A person with money and connections told me a few weeks ago he believes if the circumstances are right, funding can come from individuals or private businesses. Coyle might also project new monies from ticket sales, sponsorships and other revenue streams that will increase enough with football’s new popularity to justify big money for Fleck.
Money really needs to go beyond the head coach. Fleck will certainly ask for assurances that his outstanding staff will be rewarded, too. Retaining Fleck but seeing an exodus of top assistants is not a win for Coyle, the program and Gophers fans.
Fleck has to decide if after three years the U and this state is where he wants to be for the foreseeable future. Yeah, there are jobs out there with more resources regarding money, access to top recruits and public support. Those jobs, like at USC, also bring more pressure with high annual expectations including national championships.
Fleck said on WCCO Radio Sunday that Minnesota is a “big time” job. Holtz referred to it as one of the better jobs in the country when he was in Minneapolis. Both Fleck and Holtz are learned optimists. They aren’t going to tell the world about the negatives here including the cold weather and a recruiting base that can’t compare with California, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas and other more fertile football states.
If you want to rant, throw in the minimal fan support—although what else to expect in a pro sports town where for decades the Gophers have mostly disappointed? Student attendance? Don’t even get me started.
But let’s be more positive and balanced about a school that in the last several years has increased its commitment to football with new facilities including a stadium, and a practice and training palace. The U is also the only Division I football school in the state and there is high potential to make the Gophers a big deal here with the public like long ago. The caliber of high school football recruits is underrated, with many young players just needing coaches to recognize their potential and the time they need for development. The metro area and state are known for quality of life including the schools, neighborhoods, health care, and entertainment and recreational options. Trust me, most “college football factories” are not located in places that begin to compare with Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota for quality of living.
So in a few weeks it’s up to Coyle to see how far he can go with his resources and how committed Fleck is to stay and keep rowing. Coyle is a sharp operator. I will bet my last buck he’s got a locked desk drawer with the names of top coaches that interest him if Fleck moves on. I am confident, too, he will make an aggressive offer to Fleck. He had the vision to hire Fleck, knowing he was getting a coach with the kind of varied skill-set needed to win at Minnesota including the personality and intelligence to connect with 17-year-old recruits and assemble a quality staff.
Fleck has to decide whether he wants to waltz off to another job humming a new fight song or stay at Minnesota and do the job Holtz never finished—build a legacy as the coach who turned around a program that has struggled and failed for decades, and hasn’t connected with its tradition-rich past since the 1960s.
