Category: Golden Gophers

Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck said the reality TV show that is billed with his name and debuts next week on ESPNU wasn’t his idea.  Speaking at Big Ten Media Days this morning in Chicago, Fleck was asked about the show along with several other questions during a session with reporters televised by the Big Ten Network.

“This wasn’t something that we said, ‘We’re going to have a reality show,’ let’s go find somebody to air it,” Fleck said.  “They approached us, which was an honor.

“One thing I am hired to do is bring national exposure, national attention to the University of Minnesota, and that’s what we’re going to do.  And the title, I don’t get to pick. You know, ‘Being P.J. Fleck,’ that’s not a title that I would necessarily pick, but I think it’s every head coach’s job and responsibility to bring attention to their institution. That’s not self-promoting, but I think every head football coach in America is self-promoting at some point.

“We’re all selling ourselves. We’re all showing what we’re like. We’re all selling our cultures.  We’re all recruiting our cultures. We’re all developing our cultures.

“You’re the front porch of the institution. You’re not the most important thing on campus, but you’re the front porch of nationally of what everybody sees, and you’re representing a ton of people. …

“I have not seen the show. I’ve lived life, so I kind of know what that’s like.  But I don’t know what the show is going to be like, so I don’t know if it’s going to be like the Kardashians—if they’re going to spin it that way, or it’s going to be a little bit tamer.

“It will be interesting to see what kind of comes out of the reality show. But…it’s about the University of Minnesota.  It’s about ‘Rowing the Boat.’ It’s about our culture and our new program that we brought into the Twin Cities.”

“Being P.J. Fleck” debuts on ESPNU August 2 at 8 p.m. Minneapolis time, and three other 30-minute episodes will air August 9, 16 and 23. Each show will be available on demand via ESPN streaming devices.

Hired as Gophers coach last January, the series follows the 36-year-old Fleck throughout the offseason, and covers him in various settings, including team meetings, hospital visits and motivational speeches around the country. Viewers will have a look at Fleck’s upbringing, including his hometown and hearing from his family, and understanding the impact of two major coaching influences—Mike Nolan (New Orleans Saints linebackers coach) and Jim Tressel (Youngstown State president and former Ohio State coach).

Fleck is the second youngest major college head football coach in the country and a 24-7 package of non-stop energy.  “To no surprise, P.J. is all heart, all the time,” said co-executive producer Bo Mattingly in a news release last week from the Gophers.  A trailer about the series is available on YouTube.

Fleck was the first of seven Big Ten head football coaches to address the media today.  He talked for approximately four minutes with prepared remarks before taking questions, longer than many coaches speak in Chicago but shorter than Indiana’s Tom Allen at five minutes yesterday.  Reporters don’t always fill all the time allotted to ask questions of the Big Ten coaches, but this morning there were no gaps or cutting the Q&A short with Fleck.

After Fleck spoke, Big Ten Network studio host Mike Pizzo said to co-host Glen Mason, “If you didn’t have your coffee this morning, ‘Mase,’ before you got to Big Ten Media Day, I think you’re still okay energy wise now.”

“Well, most coaches want to get off the podium,” Mason said.  “You get the feeling he’d like to be there all day.”

The Gophers start practices next week and Fleck meets with Minnesota media on Monday. Training camp begins Tuesday.

The Gophers are a popular media choice to finish fifth in the seven-team Big Ten West Division.  Among the team’s expected strengths is running the football and Fleck brought Rodney Smith, last season’s top rusher, to Chicago to meet with media.

“He’s kind of the personality of our football team,” Fleck said. “Huge smile. Ton of energy, (and) very charismatic.”

While the Gophers had more than 20 offseason surgeries to players, they had good news in the classroom.  Fleck said the team had the highest collective GPA in 25 years of documenting that number.

Based on figures provided by the Gophers athletic department late last month, the renewal percentage for public football season ticket accounts was up from 2016, but the total number of tickets sold was down by about 1,000.

For the upcoming 2017 seven-game home schedule, 87.7 percent of public season ticket accounts had renewed as of June 22, compared with 79.3 percent on that date in 2016. The Gophers reported a total of 6,518 accounts and 22,462 season tickets, compared with 6,898 accounts and 23,494 tickets in 2016.

The Gophers didn’t provide student season ticket sales, with an athletic department spokesman noting via email that while those tickets are available now the campaign marketing doesn’t begin until next month.

Another sales number provided was that 1,310 new season tickets were sold as of June 22.  No comparable figure for 2016 was offered but it seems fair to draw some conclusions about the 1,310 total and the other public season numbers.

The improved renewal percentage is almost certainly impacted by the applauded decision last year by new athletic director Mark Coyle to eliminate a scheduled 2017 price increase on tickets referred to as “scholarship seating.”  Prior implementation of extra pricing on tickets had annoyed a lot of buyers.

While fans aren’t storming box offices for Gophers football tickets, the hiring of new coach P.J. Fleck probably slowed the apathy toward the product that was visible in 2016.  The Gophers averaged 43,814 for seven home games.  That was the lowest average since TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009.

Also provoking attention were the large number of empty seats at all games.  Many of the seats were located in prime locations at TCF Bank Stadium.

Fleck’s reputation and outgoing personality hasn’t resulted in a lot of new sales yet, but he may have pushed back some of the malaise about Gophers football while creating at least a potential group of ticket buyers who have been wearing “Wait and see hats” for awhile.  The Gophers will be selling season tickets for a couple more months and they don’t play their first game until August 31.  That means the athletic department will add additional season ticket buyers, but not a lot—perhaps, though, pushing past 2016 final numbers for total accounts and tickets (unavailable today).

If Fleck shows he can coach, he will be the second coming of college football Hall of Fame dynamo and Mr. Marketer Lou Holtz.  When Holtz was at Minnesota in the mid-1980s he arrived as a proven winner and a big name in the coaching business.  The state accepted Holtz and his hype from day one.  Within two years he had season ticket sales at 56,000.

Holtz came here from Arkansas, and had a national following for various reasons including his appearances on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.”  By contrast, the 36-year-old Fleck arrived in Minneapolis in January from Kalamazoo, Michigan—coming off a Mid-American championship but with a modest career resume at Western Michigan that included only four years as a head coach and 30-22 record.

But like Holtz, Fleck has big goals for the program.  Holtz talked about turning Golden Gophers football into one of the better coaching jobs and programs in the country.  Fleck—gulp—has spoken of eventually competing for national championships.

Fleck even got in front of an audience of state high school coaches last spring and shared his vision of expanding the seating capacity of TCF Bank Stadium—one of the smallest Big Ten football venues with its (embarrassing?) 50,805 seat capacity.  He told the group that “three years down the road” he wants to expand the stadium to 85,000 seats.

Spend time around Fleck and may well be convinced he believes in his dreams of creating championship teams and large fan followings.  But things aren’t going to magically happen within a few months.  Can’t possibly, right?

The 2017 Gophers don’t represent a program rebuild but there are reasons to see this fall as a .500 season.  Minnesota doesn’t have the talent at several positions to measure up with the Big Ten’s better teams.  But Fleck, like Holtz, regards himself as a salesman, and there’s no target group, including fans, more important to him than high school recruits.  Fleck knows success eventually will be realized if he can consistently bring superior talent to Dinkytown.

That’s not an easy task when your brand includes no championships since 1967 but Fleck has impressed recruiting analysts so far.  His 2018 recruiting class ranks No. 27 in the 247Sports composite rankings.

Finalizing a top 30 recruiting class for 2018 won’t be easy, but Fleck knew what he was taking on when he accepted the Minnesota job.  If he needed a recent reminder of the challenges, all he had to do was summon the ticket numbers referenced in this story.