Best hire ever!

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College football daily

Link: https://minnesota.rivals.com/news/players-react-to-hiring-of-pj-fleck

Put a few managers and alum in there as well as players, will try to keep it updated as much as possible as more tweets come it.

Ed Pinkham is in his 60's. Might be intelligent for Fleck to go after Sawvel? I know there can be no age discrimination, but Sawvel has the pedigree. And I know they're not necessarily close, but this is about winning football games.

TGR Q&A with MLive.com sports reporter Scott DeCamp

I spoke with DeCamp today to learn more about new coach PJ Fleck from someone who has been covering WMU and Fleck for awhile.

https://twitter.com/i/moments/817432483633524736

Great link.

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https://www.facebook.com/GopherFootball

That during the negotiating process, Coyle "strongly suggested" Fleck find a spot on his Minnesota staff for Jay Sawvel?

Fleck and Sawvel were on Kill's staff at Northern Illinois in 2008 and 2009, so they've worked together. It wouldn't be like hiring a total stranger.

I am hoping beyond hope we can keep Jay Sawvel, who is an ace recruiter and a genius on the defensive side of the ball.

Go Gophers!

someone please post in its entirety....at work and juggling conf call with firing mediocre employees...Row!!!

replay is on btn now.

Final Four and Rose Bowl in the same season.

right in front of the camera, next to a football and a Western Michigan helmet.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Congratulations to Mark Coyle for hiring P.J. Fleck. What a breath of fresh air getting the hiring done in such a short period of time as opposed to hiring a search committee that takes weeks to come up with a decision. Plus, hiring Fleck.....high energy....great motivator....great recruiter. Mark Coyle....you deserve lots of congratulations and a big thank you!

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">He&#39;s heeeeeere. Here&#39;s the first interview from <a href="https://twitter.com/MyFOX9">@MyFOX9</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gophers?src=hash">#Gophers</a> new football coach PJ Fleck: <a href="https://t.co/IUQkKVmkUr">pic.twitter.com/IUQkKVmkUr</a></p>&mdash; Hobie Artigue (@HobieFOX9) <a href=" Login to view embedded media ">January 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I would expect Fleck to take several Western Michigan commits with him. I reached out to the dozen of them.

Tanner Morgan would be at the top of my wishlist. He's an early enrollee but early enrollees don't sign any binding documents until February, so he's still able to get out of his commitment. He's been non-commital about flipping.

Chris Elmore: "I will be reopening my recruitment. And I would love to follow Coach Fleck if I was given the opportunity to be a Gopher and play Big Ten football!"

Tyrone Chambers: "I want to follow him." Chambers just picked up an Ole Miss offer too.

Ralph Holley: "Well I always expected it to happen. It was no surprise to me he is a successful coach. But as far as my recruiting, I am opening my recruitment again. The coaches were a big part of my recruiting, and I grew close to them. I'm open to going to Minnesota with Fleck and other options after dead period is over

Christopher Bell: "I mean at this point anything can happen. I'm still committed on further notice, but I'm open to anything and if Fleck talks to me we'll see."

Several have said they're thinking things over, and a couple said they haven't heard from Fleck yet and don't want to comment until then.

Link: Western Michigan commitment list

Press Releases
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
ESPN Presents MegaCast Production for College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T – Clemson vs. Alabama

By Derek Volner @DerekVolner

Posted on January 5, 2017

Homer’s Telecast, ESPN Voices, and Coaches Film Room from last year’s College Football Playoff National Championship MegaCast

ESPN Presents MegaCast Production for College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T – Clemson vs. Alabama

Coaches Film Room Features Five Coaches; Forgoes Most Commercial BreaksThe popular Coaches Film Room (ESPNEWS) is back with a new wrinkle: Limited commercial breaks. During some breaks in the action on the other networks, ESPNEWS will stay with the Bristol, Conn., based production as the coaches provide in-depth analysis from a film room equipped with multiple camera angles, clicker technology and telestration – like last year during this Deshaun Watson TD throw.

This year’s coaches include:

• Dino Babers (Syracuse)
• Dave Doeren (NC State)
• PJ Fleck (Western Michigan)
• Mark Helfrich (former Oregon head coach)
• Mike MacIntrye (Colorado)
• Matt Rhule (Baylor)

Brian Griese, ESPN college football analyst and national championship winning quarterback with Michigan (1997), joins the coaches to add his insight.

Here are a couple of threads for you to peruse. Will be interesting to see the directions these threads head if Fleck is officially named our new HC.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-804255.html

http://csnbbs.com/thread-804148.html

I have a question about Coyle and Claeys salary.

In Coyle's press conference announcing the firing, Coyle's exact words were "we will honor his contract and the contracts of the Assistant Coaches". He was then asked "will you honor his contract in full or just the buyout", those exact words, and Coyle repeated "we will honor his contract in full". He repeated it several more times, but including "we will honor his full contract, the full amount due to him".

Now, everybody is reporting that Claeys is being paid a $500k buyout. Are all the statements about the buyout incorrect, or did Coyle play with the words when he said "the full amount due to him"? If Coyle was be disingenuous, I am again disappointed with this man.

Confirmed that Fleck will be meeting with the team soon. Players at home for winter break will be able to watch through a video stream.

Fleck says it's not just row the boat. It's SKIUMAH! Login to view embedded media

I will go with the love of my life Paige Spiranac and say this hiring was a hole in one

When Coyle had his press conference after TC and staff were fired, he said he did it to improve recruiting, ticket sales and the culture around the FB team. If PJ can do what he did at WM, I would say Coyle just hit a home run on all three of those things. Plus he just made his job of raising money for the new facilities a lot easier also.
I loved TC as an DC but he didn't have the charisma to do those things needed to do as an HC. Things the HC have to do now days is not only fire up the players, and fans, but more importantly the boosters. They are the programs lives blood.
Welcome aboard Coach Fleck! SKI U MAH

Do we know if there is a meeting with the players scheduled for tonight?

As many probably know, I was not a fan of the Claeys and staff firing, and hated how it went down and the stated reasons. Will have many lingering issues with Coyle and Kaler, but not much I can do about that. That being said, since the firing occurred, I am happy that we got Fleck and there is no question he will energize the fan base for the moment. The ultimate key will be translating the success to the field and in that light, I hope the following happens:

1) He is able to retain 2-3 of the best of the current staff. My preference (similar to many) is Sawvel, Sherels and Miller. Maybe a pipe dream to expect that all to happen but they are good recruiters and coaches, and as importantly, help my point #2.

2) I hope Fleck's charisma is able to stabilize the current team and the rocky waters they have been going through, which will minimize attrition. Our current roster is a good one with only a hole or two to be filled. This wasn't a team losing a coach because they weren't winning. We are left with a room full of players that backed their coach, but lost him in part because he stuck his neck out for them. I can't imagine situations where the level of distrust could be higher against the AD and administration. I don't want a reboot and rebuild, and that is entirely possible if Fleck isn't able to minimize the damage.

3) I hope Fleck gets or retains the best coordinators, whether that is his current guys, a splash hire from around the country, or with the mix of the retention of Sawvel on defense. I don't get the sense that Fleck is that offensive or defensive guru, and so like Brewster, will have to have solid guys in place on both sides of the ball. Brewster failed in consistency and retention in that area, but I don't think the model can't work. I think the coordinator positions will be critical to Fleck's ability to maintain or boost recent success here.

4) I hope Fleck is able to pull out some surprises in recruiting this cycle. I already recognized that this was going to be a down year for an overall class, but the timing of everything is not good. A lost 2017 class in addition to tons of attrition will make the hill steep. There is no doubt that Fleck is an energetic, and charismatic recruiter, but here's to hoping that he is also more in the mold of the Kill coaching tree of "identifying" the talent and "projecting" the late bloomers v. simply focusing on the star ratings like Brewster's staff tended to do. I get the sense he is, but will have to wait and see. His classes haven't been full of high 3 stars, but he has held players with later P5 offers, so that is good.

Here's to hope.