Fleck spoke with Mike Grimm and Mark Rosen for about an hour yesterday. Fun to listen to if you have a drive/down time at work.
PJ was very proud of how his team prepared for the game, saying that you don’t win a game like that unless your preparation is perfect. The coaches gave players Pedialyte to hydrate throughout the week. It took the players nine hours from when they left the airport, to arrive at the hotel. However, the travel lag did not show any affects throughout the game.
He re-iterated that the circumstances surrounding the game (weather, travel lag, etc.) did not affect them executing the game plan. “They knew we had to run the football, and had to stop the run. The key is how we got to that result, which is what I was pleased with.”
Fleck joked that he got all the fans emails yelling at him for running inside zone so much in the first game. Coach indicated that that game plan was by design, and that our team needed to be able to run inside, and will need to run it for us to be successful going forward. In the first game, we did not get takeaways. The past week, Coach commented was much better in practice, and that translated over to the second game.
At one point, the Gophers ran the ball 19 straight times, and continued to move the chains. “This year, we’ll do whatever we have to do to win. We only threw the ball eight times, because that is all we needed to. In the future, with this specific team, if we need to throw the ball more to win the game, we will.”
Coach Fleck had a ten-minute celebration sideline period to teach the players how to inspire and motivate each other when they are on the sideline. He talked about how the defense should be watching the offense, high fiving them on their way off the field, offense should be watching the defense and vice versa. The quarterback should be high fiving the PAT team on their way off the field. “Energy is contagious. It’s not based on just the positive things, but also negative things when they aren’t going so well. I thought we had that this past game.”
Great quote here: “Champions become champions before they are champions. You have to be a championship person first. If all of us want a championship, we have to have champions in side our program academically, athletically, socially, spiritually. I think that’s what you are starting to see. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Importance was stressed by the staff to sleep well, eat right, and hydrate in helping quickly recover and move on to the next game.
Quarterbacks have the “keys to the kingdom”, and must be a leader for the whole team. PJ wanted to find out which quarterback was going to be the one to do that, and said Conor separated himself in that manner. It wasn’t the fumble that made Demry sit out more, but Conor was playing so well.
When things aren’t going well, the leaders must be out in the front. When things aren’t they better be in the back, pushing and motivating everyone else. “I really believe true leadership is in all of us. Certain traits may make some of us better than others, but it’s the ability to bring out that leadership, and demand it of them every day.” There were instances where Fleck told Conor what to say, and who to say it to, to become a leader. But that helped show Rhoda what Fleck was demanding of him.
“This quarterback decision isn’t reactionary. It took a long time to get to this point. He might not take every single rep, but he will be the starter.”
Tyler Johnson has had a very successful beginning to the 2017 season, and Coach gave him quite a bit of credit for doing all the right things. He isn’t a burner, but incredibly efficient with routes and getting separation.
Middle Tennessee State may have one of the most explosive offenses the Gophers will play this year, in PJ’s eyes. Their quarterback and wide receiver are two of the most dynamic that this team will face.
This team’s willingness to change has been one thing Fleck has really enjoyed in his time here. Brought up Steven Richardson as a name by example of a person who is naturally quiet, but is now out of his shell being a leader.
Mark Rosen joked about Fleck catching a ball thrown out of bounds last week. Fleck’s response, “Ball is the program. If the ball is thrown to you, you must catch it.”
Some typical bumps and bruises for the team, however nothing too serious.
The staff targets an eight-hour radius around the university to close off that region. “I’m not going to let Minnesota sit in the corner and be average. I am not going to let people from this state continue to leave. We’ll seal off that eight-hour radius, and then search for the best players in the country that want to be Golden Gophers.”
PJ will let his children play football, but believes that children are hitting too early. He did not play tackle football until eighth grade. He did say however that he thinks we are taking the right steps to getting the game as safe as possible.
PJ was very proud of how his team prepared for the game, saying that you don’t win a game like that unless your preparation is perfect. The coaches gave players Pedialyte to hydrate throughout the week. It took the players nine hours from when they left the airport, to arrive at the hotel. However, the travel lag did not show any affects throughout the game.
He re-iterated that the circumstances surrounding the game (weather, travel lag, etc.) did not affect them executing the game plan. “They knew we had to run the football, and had to stop the run. The key is how we got to that result, which is what I was pleased with.”
Fleck joked that he got all the fans emails yelling at him for running inside zone so much in the first game. Coach indicated that that game plan was by design, and that our team needed to be able to run inside, and will need to run it for us to be successful going forward. In the first game, we did not get takeaways. The past week, Coach commented was much better in practice, and that translated over to the second game.
At one point, the Gophers ran the ball 19 straight times, and continued to move the chains. “This year, we’ll do whatever we have to do to win. We only threw the ball eight times, because that is all we needed to. In the future, with this specific team, if we need to throw the ball more to win the game, we will.”
Coach Fleck had a ten-minute celebration sideline period to teach the players how to inspire and motivate each other when they are on the sideline. He talked about how the defense should be watching the offense, high fiving them on their way off the field, offense should be watching the defense and vice versa. The quarterback should be high fiving the PAT team on their way off the field. “Energy is contagious. It’s not based on just the positive things, but also negative things when they aren’t going so well. I thought we had that this past game.”
Great quote here: “Champions become champions before they are champions. You have to be a championship person first. If all of us want a championship, we have to have champions in side our program academically, athletically, socially, spiritually. I think that’s what you are starting to see. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Importance was stressed by the staff to sleep well, eat right, and hydrate in helping quickly recover and move on to the next game.
Quarterbacks have the “keys to the kingdom”, and must be a leader for the whole team. PJ wanted to find out which quarterback was going to be the one to do that, and said Conor separated himself in that manner. It wasn’t the fumble that made Demry sit out more, but Conor was playing so well.
When things aren’t going well, the leaders must be out in the front. When things aren’t they better be in the back, pushing and motivating everyone else. “I really believe true leadership is in all of us. Certain traits may make some of us better than others, but it’s the ability to bring out that leadership, and demand it of them every day.” There were instances where Fleck told Conor what to say, and who to say it to, to become a leader. But that helped show Rhoda what Fleck was demanding of him.
“This quarterback decision isn’t reactionary. It took a long time to get to this point. He might not take every single rep, but he will be the starter.”
Tyler Johnson has had a very successful beginning to the 2017 season, and Coach gave him quite a bit of credit for doing all the right things. He isn’t a burner, but incredibly efficient with routes and getting separation.
Middle Tennessee State may have one of the most explosive offenses the Gophers will play this year, in PJ’s eyes. Their quarterback and wide receiver are two of the most dynamic that this team will face.
This team’s willingness to change has been one thing Fleck has really enjoyed in his time here. Brought up Steven Richardson as a name by example of a person who is naturally quiet, but is now out of his shell being a leader.
Mark Rosen joked about Fleck catching a ball thrown out of bounds last week. Fleck’s response, “Ball is the program. If the ball is thrown to you, you must catch it.”
Some typical bumps and bruises for the team, however nothing too serious.
The staff targets an eight-hour radius around the university to close off that region. “I’m not going to let Minnesota sit in the corner and be average. I am not going to let people from this state continue to leave. We’ll seal off that eight-hour radius, and then search for the best players in the country that want to be Golden Gophers.”
PJ will let his children play football, but believes that children are hitting too early. He did not play tackle football until eighth grade. He did say however that he thinks we are taking the right steps to getting the game as safe as possible.
