P.J. FLECK – Page 74 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Must-Win for Football Gophers Tonight

Posted on October 26, 2018October 26, 2018 by David Shama

KFXN Radio’s Dan Barreiro asked for suggestions on air this week for a trophy to be awarded to the winner of the Minnesota-Indiana football game. How about the Splintered Crutch Trophy?

A fight broke out in Bloomington, Indiana near the end of the 1968 Gophers-Hoosiers game. Minnesota fullback Jim Carter took his helmet off and was swinging it as a weapon in the fight. “(It) kept people away from me,” Carter said yesterday.

Carter was doing okay until an injured Indiana lineman in street clothes came out on the field to get in on the action. The Hoosier swung a crutch at Carter, just missing his head and landing on a shoulder pad. The crutch splintered on impact and Carter speculated he could have been in “serious trouble” if the blow had been to his head.

Creation of the Splintered Crutch Trophy could put a little excitement into two programs that historically have struggled to win games. The last time the Hoosiers and Gophers won a Big Ten championship was 1967 when the two programs shared the title along with Purdue. Indiana hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1968. Minnesota last earned its way to Pasadena in 1962.

This fall the two teams find themselves in familiar positions in their Big Ten divisions. Indiana, 1-4 in conference games, is in next to last place in the East Division, while the Gophers, 0-4, are at the bottom of the West Division standings.

The Hoosiers are on a three-game losing streak, Minnesota has a four-game going. No surprise that a former Big Ten coach predicted this about tonight’s game, “It will be close.”

This is a matchup P.J. Fleck and his coaching staff badly need to win. The remaining schedule has Indiana, Purdue and Northwestern at home, with road games at Illinois and Wisconsin. The best opportunities for wins will be tonight and against hapless Illinois. If the Gophers can earn victories against IU and the Illini, and upset either Northwestern or Purdue, they will finish the season with an overall record of 6-6 and qualify for a bowl game.

There will be drama and judgment surrounding what Fleck and the Gophers accomplish between now and the last game of the season on November 24 against Wisconsin. The second-year coach won only two conference games last season but the scenario above delivers an improved 3-6 league record in 2018. The team’s overall record with three more wins will be 6-6, and a step forward from last year’s 5-7.

The Gophers need to restore confidence in themselves and their followers in the last five games of the season starting tonight at TCF Bank Stadium. Fleck’s image with fans and media will improve with a couple more wins, and provide more interest in the program going into 2019.

This is test time for the coaches and players. They need to rally after having the misfortune of losing some of their best players to injuries. Minnesota also has to recover from poor performances on defense when the unit has often looked under coached, confused and even disinterested.

The Gophers will have to pretty much inspire themselves tonight. The crowd will be small and while some loyalists will cheer for the Gophers like it’s a Big Ten championship game, there will be thousands and thousands of empty seats.

Ticket sales for 2018 remaining home games, and for next season, are part of what’s on the line for Fleck and the program tonight and in the weeks ahead. Attendance for 2018 home games could be the lowest at TCF since the stadium opened in 2009.

For Fleck this is an important time and an opportunity for momentum leading into 2019, when in his third year expectations will rightfully be greater than they have been.

Worth Noting

Kirk Cousins has been drawing notice for his pregame remarks to Vikings teammates but a lot of people have been following his verbal leadership skills since a famous speech he made in 2011. Representing the Big Ten Conference football players, Cousins made a speech at the league’s kickoff luncheon in Chicago that has become a YouTube favorite.

Cousins ranks fourth in the NFL with 2,162 passing yards and also fourth with a 70.0 completion percentage. He and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan are the only quarterbacks with at least 2,000 passing yards and a 70+ completion percentage this season.

When the national TV ratings come out for the week of October 28, it’s likely the Vikings-Saints game this Sunday night will be No. 1 for all programming.

The field reporter for the NBC televised game from U.S. Bank Stadium will be Edina’s Michele Tafoya.

Local NBA fans will see two of the league’s most intriguing players at Target Center before October ends. Tonight the Wolves play the Bucks with “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo. LeBron James, considered the best player on the planet, is in town with the Lakers on Monday night.

Then on Wednesday popular former Wolves point guard Ricky Rubio and the Jazz play at Target Center.

The Minnesota-North Dakota U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game Saturday night from Las Vegas will be streamed on NCHA.tv, and seen on cable companies Charter, Comcast (999), Mediacom (MC22) and Midco.

Tickets have sold out for Lindsay Whalen’s debut game November 9 as the Gopher women’s head basketball coach. The Gophers haven’t announced a crowd of over 10,000 since January of 2007. Discounted single game tickets and the excitement about Whalen resulted in the sellout for the nonconference matchup against New Hampshire.

“Behind the Game,” the Twin Cities cable TV show co-hosted by Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson, regularly schedules sports newsmakers, with the latest guest former MLB umpire Tim Tschida. Tom Chorske, who played 11 seasons in the NHL and now is a hockey commentator on local TV, will be an upcoming guest. The Tschida program can also be viewed on YouTube.

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How P.J. Fleck Ranks with Big 10 Peers

Posted on October 24, 2018October 24, 2018 by David Shama

This space has provided power rankings of Big Ten football teams in the past, but today I offer my listing of the league’s 14 head coaches. Most readers will immediately wonder where Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck ranks. He checks in at No. 11 and here’s my capsule on the 37-year-old “Row the Boat” specialist:

About halfway through Fleck’s second year at Minnesota his record in conference games is 2-11. His only two wins came last season against two underwhelming teams, Illinois and Nebraska. In nonconference games his record is 6-0, with those victories earned mostly against inferior opposition. Give Fleck, his assistant coaches and players credit for impressive performances in wins over Nebraska and Oregon State in 2017, and this season’s victory against Fresno State.

Team defense is now in alarm status. The Gophers were outscored 70-0 in their last two Big Ten games in 2017. In their four conference games this year they are giving up 43.5 points per game including a 53-28 loss to Nebraska last Saturday.

Fleck has gone overboard in emphasizing how young his roster is but the starters on defense are primarily juniors and seniors. Despite their experience, Minnesota defenders are often out of position or nowhere to be seen, as they allow opposing offenses to break off long gains. Defensive coordinator Robb Smith, who according to a college football insider was forced out at Arkansas before being hired by Fleck, should be under scrutiny.

Fleck and staff have improved the offense, including by bringing in young talent such as true freshmen quarterback Zack Annexstad and wide receiver Rashod Bateman. Fleck has done well in national recruiting rankings and been tireless in talking about his vision to make the Minnesota program “elite.”

But the Gophers have to stop giving up easy scores and start winning conference games. The program was 5-4 in Big Ten games the season prior to Fleck’s arrival in January 2017. Minnesota had winning records in the Big Ten in two of the three seasons prior to Fleck being hired.

The conference totals on wins and losses say the program is going backward. It’s up to Fleck and his staff to soon change that.

In ranking all 14 Big Ten coaches (below) multiple factors were considered including not only wins and losses, and championships, but also the difficulty of their assignments. It’s not an even “playing field” when comparing resources at each of the Big Ten programs. Far from it. Among the most difficult jobs are Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern and Rutgers. Places of privilege include Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

1. Mark Dantonio, Michigan State. He is a taskmaster’s taskmater whose defenses have allowed the Spartans to overachieve and win for many years.

2. Urban Meyer, Ohio State. He won’t lead any popularity polls nationally, or in Big Ten country, but he’s won every place he has coached and is 77-9 in seven seasons with the Buckeyes.

3. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern. Historically not a program with great resources but Fitzgerald is a superb leader and coach who gets the most out of the Wildcats.

4. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa. There is a reason Ferentz has been at Iowa for 20 seasons. He and his staff are masters at identifying under the radar player talent and developing it.

5. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan. Harbaugh failed in three previous seasons to find a quality quarterback but the fiery coach has one now in Shea Patterson and the Wolverines’ coach could be on his way to a first Big Ten title.

6. Jeff Brohm, Purdue. Beating No. 2 ranked Ohio State last Saturday was no fluke. The second-year coach immediately improved a dreadful Purdue program in 2017 and is the real deal.

7. Scott Frost, Nebraska. He is 1-6 in his first season at Nebraska but he was 13-0 at Central Florida last season, and just as importantly comes from a gold-plated coaching tree that includes Tom Osborne and Bill Walsh.

8. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin. Chryst was given the keys to a national top program and in four seasons is 38-10 overall and 25-5 in league games, but the Badgers have occasionally stumbled including a surprise loss to BYU and poor performance against Michigan this year. Maybe he is more of a maintainer than a builder.

9. James Franklin, Penn State. Impressive recruiter who has helped restore the Penn State program but he couldn’t close out big home games this fall against Ohio State and Michigan State.

10. DJ Durkin/Matt Canada, Maryland. Canada is the interim coach with Durkin on administrative leave while the school investigates his program. What is certain is the Terps have recruited successfully the last few years.

11. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota. See comments at the top.

12. Tom Allen, Indiana. A coin flip in ranking Allen behind Fleck. The second-year IU coach is 3-11 in Big Ten games.

13. Chris Ash, Rutgers. He was smart enough to hire Jerry Kill as offensive coordinator for one season in 2017 but Rutgers is one difficult place to coach. In Ash’s third season he has yet to show a lot and is likely to go winless in the Big Ten.

14. Lovie Smith, Illinois. The Illinois job is deeper in resources than Rutgers but you wouldn’t know it looking at the mess Smith has contributed to in three seasons. The former Bears Super Bowl coach has a league record of 3-18.

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Gophers Football Ticket Sales Decline

Posted on October 10, 2018 by David Shama

Ticket sales continue to decline for Golden Gophers home football games. In response to a request from Sports Headliners, the University of Minnesota reported that both non-student and student season tickets had declined 2,572 from last year.

As of late September, 21,682 non-student season tickets had been sold compared to 22,990 in 2017. The student season tickets total of 4,730 compared with 5,994 last year.

The public isn’t rushing to buy single game home tickets either. Announced attendance for four games so far includes three totals under 42,000 in TCF Bank Stadium with a seating capacity of 50,805. The attendance of 38,280 for the Fresno State game was the second lowest in stadium history since its opening in 2009.

There is also the eyeball test at each game that shows huge patches of unsold or unused seats all over the stadium, including many that are expensive seats. Buyers are paying for tickets but not showing up or successfully giving those seats away. This was evident even at the most attractive game on the 2018 schedule, last Saturday’s rivalry game against Iowa.

Announced attendances for college football games, including those at TCF Bank Stadium, have long raised eyebrows and caused speculation about accuracy. A Wall Street Journal article last summer reported that based on actual ticket scans at FBS games last year far fewer fans actually show up in their seats than what announced attendances indicate.

The Journal reported in its August 30 article that the Gophers announced total attendance in 2017 of 310,506 for seven home games contrasted with a tickets scanned total of 210,909. That resonates with last Saturday’s Iowa-Minnesota game at TCF Bank Stadium when despite an announced attendance of 48,199, it appeared that 10,000 to 15,000 fewer fans were in the building.

College football attendance decreased for a fourth consecutive season in 2017, and there are many reasons. HD TV delivers captivating pictures for those watching college football in the comfort of their homes without paying high ticket prices and investing time travelling to and from game sites. Then, too, the college game is lengthier than its NFL rival with longer halftimes and more clock stoppages during the four quarters of “action.”

Younger fans, including college students, often aren’t as interested in their hometown team as past generations. The argument of moving Minnesota’s games back to campus at TCF Bank Stadium to draw more students has proven highly questionable.

Whether a school has a winning team, of course, also has a big impact on attendance. Often, the schools that draw the smaller crowds in their conferences (like the Gophers) don’t have successful teams and in many instances haven’t for a long while. Add it all up and many universities, including those in the Big Ten such as Minnesota, find themselves with lots of empty seats but grateful for TV revenues in the range of $50 million this school year.

Interest in Gophers football began declining with the mid-season resignation of head coach Jerry Kill in 2015. Kill had the program on the rise and was a popular personality who connected with the public. Ticket buyers didn’t respond the same way with Kill’s successor, Tracy Claeys, who had one full season as head coach in 2016.

A couple weeks prior to the start of the 2016 season the University reported about a 19 percent decline in non-student season tickets. The total in 2015 had been 27,885 but in mid-August of 2016 the Gophers had sold 22,706 non-student season tickets.

Despite a winning Big Ten record and unexpected Holiday Bowl win in 2016, Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle and University president Eric Kaler terminated Claeys in early January of 2017. “I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program,” Coyle said in a statement.

University regent Michael Hsu said the message from administrators was there would be a “Fleck bump” in ticket sales by hiring P.J. Fleck, known as an exciting young coach from Western Michigan who was coming off a 13-1 season. Fleck had drawn national press coverage because of both his record and salesmanship. Hsu told Sports Headliners he had been reluctant to approve Fleck’s contract because it was not only considerably more compensation than Claeys earned, but also the athletic department was taking on the expense of over $3 million for buyouts of Claeys and his assistants.

In fact, there hasn’t been much “Fleck bump” in ticket sales. Last year, the Gophers’ first under Fleck, attendance for seven home games averaged 44,358—slightly improved over the average of 43,814 in Claeys’ only full season as head coach. That average was the lowest in TCF Bank Stadium history. The Gophers had averaged a TCF best 52,355 fans in 2015 when the Kill-effect was still in play and the stadium had a temporary larger capacity because the Vikings were playing there.

This season might set a new attendance low at TCF with the team off to a 0-2 Big Ten start, giving up 90 points in the first two league games. The Gophers could be underdogs in all of their remaining games. The remaining home schedule has three opponents with no marquee pull—Indiana, Northwestern and Purdue. Through four home games Minnesota is averaging 42,233 fans per game in announced attendance.

The “honeymoon” effect of TCF Bank Stadium has been gone for some time. As the weather turns colder, and the possibility of precipitation is in play, having an outdoor facility in this marketplace (compare to U.S. Bank Stadium) is a liability in selling tickets, and it causes those with tickets to stay away.

In an interview last month with Sports Headliners, Kaler acknowledged the attendance problem at Minnesota and elsewhere. “We’re not alone in this situation across the country,” he said. “As you know, attendance at sporting events has dropped off nearly everywhere. Of course, I expected more people to come (to Gopher games), but nothing brings people to a stadium better than a winning team. I think as P.J. begins to put more w’s up on the board, (and) the young men continue to perform, our attendance will rebound.”

Fleck’s recruiting classes have ranked higher than what Gophers fans have known over the years. Fleck, Kaler and other leaders at the U are counting on more talent in the seasons ahead. “I am very pleased with the decision that Mark and I made to hire P.J.,” Kaler said. “He is exactly what we expected him to be. …He is setting a foundation that I think will hold up a very, very strong team as time goes forward.”

When does Kaler believe the Gophers can start filling up their stadium for every game? “Oh, I don’t have a timeframe for it, Dave. But I do think when we start routinely beating Wisconsin, we will sell out.”

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