Tough love from Ohio State’s Greg Schiano taught Gophers’ P.J. Fleck how to coach
By ANDY GREDER | agreder@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: October 12, 2018 at 11:54 am | UPDATED: October 12, 2018 at 6:25 pm
P.J. Fleck was Rutgers’ receivers coach in 2010 and was conducting a ball-security drill during a spring practice that Scarlet Knights head coach Greg Schiano wasn’t happy with.
Up to that point, Fleck had lived a charmed football life — star receiver in Kaneland (Ill.) High School, overachieving standout at Northern Illinois, and a brief stint with the San Francisco 49ers. He then fell into a graduate assistant job at Ohio State before returning to Northern Illinois for his first full-time coaching job.
Bucking advice from mentors that taking a job working for Schiano in New Jersey might not be the right fit, Fleck joined the Scarlet Knights staff only to be delivered a rude awakening during that practice eight year ago.
“I see a guy sprinting from across the field, a dead sprint, I’m sitting there going, ‘Greg Schiano is not happy,’ ” Fleck recalled. “He’s gonna get after someone, must be right around me. I feel bad. I’m going to get a front-row seat.
“The next thing you know, he is right here (in my face) and it was one of those things that — wow. Yeah, I will never do that again. It’s like touching the stove as a kid.”
After that practice, Fleck was in the office with then-Rutgers co-offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, retelling how his new boss yelled at him.
“I’m giving my best impersonation in the staff room of Greg Schiano,” Fleck said, “and all of a sudden I hear (a knock) and open the door, Greg Schiano sticks his head in there. (He) goes, ‘Kirk, it wasn’t even close to being that bad. That guy has no idea what it’s like to be yelled at.’ He shut the door and walked out.”
Fleck tells that story fondly, in a nod to what Schiano would cultivate in Fleck as a coach during two years together at Rutgers and a third on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers staff in 2012. They will be on opposite sidelines Saturday at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, where Fleck’s Gophers (3-2, 0-2 Big Ten) meet No. 3-ranked Ohio State (6-0, 3-0), where Schiano is defensive coordinator.
Fleck’s coordinators — Ciarrocca on offense and Robb Smith on defense — were also assistants under Schiano at Rutgers. Schiano took a program that hadn’t been to a bowl game since 1978 to six bowls in seven years from 2005-11 before he, Fleck and Smith moved on to the NFL.
Schiano was fired by the Bucs in 2013 and became the Buckeyes’ associate head coach/defensive coordinator in 2015.
In November, Schiano was on the cusp of becoming a head coach again, finalizing a deal to take the job at the University of Tennessee job when the news hit Knoxville and an uproar ensured.
Fans and UT students pointed to unsealed testimony from Penn State assistant Mike McQueary saying that he heard Schiano, then a Nittany Lions assistant, had witnessed fellow assistant Jerry Sandusky “do something” to a boy in the shower in 2001.
Schiano denied seeing or knowing anything about Sandusky’s molestation crimes against children, and prosecutors concluded there was nothing to pursue with Schiano. But Schiano’s job with the Volunteers fell through, and he returned to Columbus, where his Buckeyes are the 20th-ranked scoring defense in the country.
This week, both Ciarrocca and Smith showed they could be called on by Schiano as character references if and when he seeks another head coaching gig.
“Unbelievable football coach, X-and-O-wise,” Ciarrocca said. “… Then from there he is an unbelievable leader. Just listening to him address a team taught us a lot in his messages. Coach taught us how to teach and demand, to educate our players and then demand that they do it the right way but don’t demean them. I owe him a lot, and I think any of us would tell you the same thing.”
Smith added, “Greg gave me a wonderful opportunity at two different places at two different levels. I’m forever indebted to him for that. He’s a tremendous man, a tremendous husband and tremendous father, tremendous friend, tremendous mentor.”
Fleck went steps further.
“He’s the greatest influence on my entire life,” he said. “He was a father when he needed to be a father to me. He was a head coach when I needed a head coach to teach me how to be a head coach. A disciplinarian, most organized, most detailed, most accountable coach I’ve ever met.”
At nearly every opportunity this season, Fleck mentions how young the Gophers’ roster is in his second year with the team. Often in the next breath, he paraphrases a Schiano saying.
“It doesn’t matter if you are a true freshman, senior, 10th-year player, it doesn’t matter — whoever is on the field has to perform,” Fleck said after the Gophers 48-31 loss to Iowa last week.
That, too, can be applied to Schiano’s assistants.
“When I got there … I needed to be able to be held accountable for everything,” Fleck said. “I needed to know how to discipline players. I needed to know how to discipline myself. Greg Schiano got me to do things I never thought I could do in my entire life. It was hard — and that is what I appreciate about him. He prepared me to become a head coach. He gave me leather skin. You can’t be sensitive if you work for Greg Schiano, and I was sensitive before that.”
Fleck often telephoned Schiano during his first year as Western Michigan head coach in 2013 and said they remain in contact.
“The best advice he said was, ‘Listen, you are not for everybody, just keep being yourself,’ ” Fleck said. “He goes on that so many people when you start to be a head coach, everybody scrutinizes what you do and a lot of people fold to that. He just said just keep being you.”
https://www.twincities.com/2018/10/...chiano-taught-gophers-p-j-fleck-how-to-coach/
By ANDY GREDER | agreder@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: October 12, 2018 at 11:54 am | UPDATED: October 12, 2018 at 6:25 pm
P.J. Fleck was Rutgers’ receivers coach in 2010 and was conducting a ball-security drill during a spring practice that Scarlet Knights head coach Greg Schiano wasn’t happy with.
Up to that point, Fleck had lived a charmed football life — star receiver in Kaneland (Ill.) High School, overachieving standout at Northern Illinois, and a brief stint with the San Francisco 49ers. He then fell into a graduate assistant job at Ohio State before returning to Northern Illinois for his first full-time coaching job.
Bucking advice from mentors that taking a job working for Schiano in New Jersey might not be the right fit, Fleck joined the Scarlet Knights staff only to be delivered a rude awakening during that practice eight year ago.
“I see a guy sprinting from across the field, a dead sprint, I’m sitting there going, ‘Greg Schiano is not happy,’ ” Fleck recalled. “He’s gonna get after someone, must be right around me. I feel bad. I’m going to get a front-row seat.
“The next thing you know, he is right here (in my face) and it was one of those things that — wow. Yeah, I will never do that again. It’s like touching the stove as a kid.”
After that practice, Fleck was in the office with then-Rutgers co-offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, retelling how his new boss yelled at him.
“I’m giving my best impersonation in the staff room of Greg Schiano,” Fleck said, “and all of a sudden I hear (a knock) and open the door, Greg Schiano sticks his head in there. (He) goes, ‘Kirk, it wasn’t even close to being that bad. That guy has no idea what it’s like to be yelled at.’ He shut the door and walked out.”
Fleck tells that story fondly, in a nod to what Schiano would cultivate in Fleck as a coach during two years together at Rutgers and a third on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers staff in 2012. They will be on opposite sidelines Saturday at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, where Fleck’s Gophers (3-2, 0-2 Big Ten) meet No. 3-ranked Ohio State (6-0, 3-0), where Schiano is defensive coordinator.
Fleck’s coordinators — Ciarrocca on offense and Robb Smith on defense — were also assistants under Schiano at Rutgers. Schiano took a program that hadn’t been to a bowl game since 1978 to six bowls in seven years from 2005-11 before he, Fleck and Smith moved on to the NFL.
Schiano was fired by the Bucs in 2013 and became the Buckeyes’ associate head coach/defensive coordinator in 2015.
In November, Schiano was on the cusp of becoming a head coach again, finalizing a deal to take the job at the University of Tennessee job when the news hit Knoxville and an uproar ensured.
Fans and UT students pointed to unsealed testimony from Penn State assistant Mike McQueary saying that he heard Schiano, then a Nittany Lions assistant, had witnessed fellow assistant Jerry Sandusky “do something” to a boy in the shower in 2001.
Schiano denied seeing or knowing anything about Sandusky’s molestation crimes against children, and prosecutors concluded there was nothing to pursue with Schiano. But Schiano’s job with the Volunteers fell through, and he returned to Columbus, where his Buckeyes are the 20th-ranked scoring defense in the country.
This week, both Ciarrocca and Smith showed they could be called on by Schiano as character references if and when he seeks another head coaching gig.
“Unbelievable football coach, X-and-O-wise,” Ciarrocca said. “… Then from there he is an unbelievable leader. Just listening to him address a team taught us a lot in his messages. Coach taught us how to teach and demand, to educate our players and then demand that they do it the right way but don’t demean them. I owe him a lot, and I think any of us would tell you the same thing.”
Smith added, “Greg gave me a wonderful opportunity at two different places at two different levels. I’m forever indebted to him for that. He’s a tremendous man, a tremendous husband and tremendous father, tremendous friend, tremendous mentor.”
Fleck went steps further.
“He’s the greatest influence on my entire life,” he said. “He was a father when he needed to be a father to me. He was a head coach when I needed a head coach to teach me how to be a head coach. A disciplinarian, most organized, most detailed, most accountable coach I’ve ever met.”
At nearly every opportunity this season, Fleck mentions how young the Gophers’ roster is in his second year with the team. Often in the next breath, he paraphrases a Schiano saying.
“It doesn’t matter if you are a true freshman, senior, 10th-year player, it doesn’t matter — whoever is on the field has to perform,” Fleck said after the Gophers 48-31 loss to Iowa last week.
That, too, can be applied to Schiano’s assistants.
“When I got there … I needed to be able to be held accountable for everything,” Fleck said. “I needed to know how to discipline players. I needed to know how to discipline myself. Greg Schiano got me to do things I never thought I could do in my entire life. It was hard — and that is what I appreciate about him. He prepared me to become a head coach. He gave me leather skin. You can’t be sensitive if you work for Greg Schiano, and I was sensitive before that.”
Fleck often telephoned Schiano during his first year as Western Michigan head coach in 2013 and said they remain in contact.
“The best advice he said was, ‘Listen, you are not for everybody, just keep being yourself,’ ” Fleck said. “He goes on that so many people when you start to be a head coach, everybody scrutinizes what you do and a lot of people fold to that. He just said just keep being you.”
https://www.twincities.com/2018/10/...chiano-taught-gophers-p-j-fleck-how-to-coach/
