Mike opened the show asking about PJ’s decision to relieve Robb Smith of his duties as a defensive coordinator. PJ responded that: “You never want to have to make those decisions, however sometimes it is necessary. That is my job as the head coach is to evaluate everything. There’s a lot of blame to go around and it all starts with me. At times we’re very inconsistent defensively. There are times we show maturity a team and there’s times we’re not. Robb (Smith) handled it first class. He’s a tremendous person and a tremendous coach.”
Mark Rosen questioned if the big plays were schematics, coaching, or personnel related. Before the season starts, everything is personnel driven around who the team has. While the team is incredibly young all around, there were a lot of expectations on defense with some returning starters. Fleck felt that the team had to make a change after seeing the defense under perform.
“It takes a match between a coach, the proper personnel, and the proper scheme. Every piece is responsible for it. On defense we have four players who are experience and have played a lot of football. Then you start to look around beyond that and see where we are talent level-wise and if we are recruiting to our scheme.”
On the decision to fire Robb Smith, PJ said that once he made the decision that he decided to go through with it right away rather than waiting.
Coach had an interesting quote regarding the fan perspective and the way things have gone this season. People are frustrated with the youth that PJ talks about and that the injuries are being used as excuses. He replied that those are reasons, not excuses. “We knew that we were going to get a lot younger before it got etter. A lot of people ask me ‘Coach, what’s going wrong?’. I think the only person not surprised of where we’re at is me. We had to stay healthy in order for us to get to where we wanted to be. The difference between the starters at key positions and the backups is large. We don’t have seniors across the board in our two deeps. This is the process that we stated from Day 1 that this is how it was going to look. Recruiting is the way to fix this, we don’t have a free agency.”
Joe Rossi will call defensive plays in the meantime for Robb Smith. The coaches don’t expect a ton of schematic changes however it is a different personality with different tendencies.
Rashod Bateman won Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors this past week for his performance against Illinois, racking up seven catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns. It is the third freshman on the team to win the Freshman of the Week award.
Asked about Tanner Morgan and Zack Annexstad, PJ reiterated that we will see both of them going forward. Tanner played very well against Nebraska and Indiana and deserves a chance to bounce back from his performance against Illinois.
The 2018 recruiting class was offense-heavy as Fleck felt that they needed more immediate help on that side of the ball. In 2019 it shifts back to being more defense-heavy since that is where more needs are. “You can’t fix every problem in one class. It takes a couple of classes. We said when I started that the 2018 and 2019 classes were going to be the main two classes to lift us and that’s our plan.”
Coach will recruit JUCO kids to get some immediate help in certain areas, however he believes that JUCO kids are for specific positions/situations and that depth is best built through high school kids.
Fleck met with every senior on the team after the changes to talk with them and hear what their thoughts were. “These kids are part of the foundation and the concrete building blocks. They are sacrificing a lot. It’s not the more glorious way to go out. They’ve been tremendous leaders to the younger players.”
Purdue is the next opponent for the Gophers who has won 5 or their last 6 after starting 0-3. They have a freshman receiver, Rondale Moore, who was originally committed to Texas and re-committed to Purdue. Coach has tremendous respect for Jeff Brohm and for the Purdue football program.
Antoine Winfield Jr. is out for the season with a Lisfranc injury. PJ said that he has “a tremendous mindset.” Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks have also had a rollercoaster of emotions with not knowing if they could play again, to then getting hurt and having another year. The staff gives them resources to physical therapists and mental health specialists to help them through the strain of injuries.
It does not look like Antonio Shenault is ready to come back yet.
Fleck called Brevyn Spann-Ford “unbelievable” and expects him to play a bit more in two games. He doesn’t want to sacrifice anything right now from the standpoint of injury or burning a redshirt.
Mark Rosen questioned if the big plays were schematics, coaching, or personnel related. Before the season starts, everything is personnel driven around who the team has. While the team is incredibly young all around, there were a lot of expectations on defense with some returning starters. Fleck felt that the team had to make a change after seeing the defense under perform.
“It takes a match between a coach, the proper personnel, and the proper scheme. Every piece is responsible for it. On defense we have four players who are experience and have played a lot of football. Then you start to look around beyond that and see where we are talent level-wise and if we are recruiting to our scheme.”
On the decision to fire Robb Smith, PJ said that once he made the decision that he decided to go through with it right away rather than waiting.
Coach had an interesting quote regarding the fan perspective and the way things have gone this season. People are frustrated with the youth that PJ talks about and that the injuries are being used as excuses. He replied that those are reasons, not excuses. “We knew that we were going to get a lot younger before it got etter. A lot of people ask me ‘Coach, what’s going wrong?’. I think the only person not surprised of where we’re at is me. We had to stay healthy in order for us to get to where we wanted to be. The difference between the starters at key positions and the backups is large. We don’t have seniors across the board in our two deeps. This is the process that we stated from Day 1 that this is how it was going to look. Recruiting is the way to fix this, we don’t have a free agency.”
Joe Rossi will call defensive plays in the meantime for Robb Smith. The coaches don’t expect a ton of schematic changes however it is a different personality with different tendencies.
Rashod Bateman won Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors this past week for his performance against Illinois, racking up seven catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns. It is the third freshman on the team to win the Freshman of the Week award.
Asked about Tanner Morgan and Zack Annexstad, PJ reiterated that we will see both of them going forward. Tanner played very well against Nebraska and Indiana and deserves a chance to bounce back from his performance against Illinois.
The 2018 recruiting class was offense-heavy as Fleck felt that they needed more immediate help on that side of the ball. In 2019 it shifts back to being more defense-heavy since that is where more needs are. “You can’t fix every problem in one class. It takes a couple of classes. We said when I started that the 2018 and 2019 classes were going to be the main two classes to lift us and that’s our plan.”
Coach will recruit JUCO kids to get some immediate help in certain areas, however he believes that JUCO kids are for specific positions/situations and that depth is best built through high school kids.
Fleck met with every senior on the team after the changes to talk with them and hear what their thoughts were. “These kids are part of the foundation and the concrete building blocks. They are sacrificing a lot. It’s not the more glorious way to go out. They’ve been tremendous leaders to the younger players.”
Purdue is the next opponent for the Gophers who has won 5 or their last 6 after starting 0-3. They have a freshman receiver, Rondale Moore, who was originally committed to Texas and re-committed to Purdue. Coach has tremendous respect for Jeff Brohm and for the Purdue football program.
Antoine Winfield Jr. is out for the season with a Lisfranc injury. PJ said that he has “a tremendous mindset.” Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks have also had a rollercoaster of emotions with not knowing if they could play again, to then getting hurt and having another year. The staff gives them resources to physical therapists and mental health specialists to help them through the strain of injuries.
It does not look like Antonio Shenault is ready to come back yet.
Fleck called Brevyn Spann-Ford “unbelievable” and expects him to play a bit more in two games. He doesn’t want to sacrifice anything right now from the standpoint of injury or burning a redshirt.
