PJ Fleck And The Golden Gophers Finally Get Their Statement Win
WHEN PJ FLECK TOOK THE REINS for the Golden Gophers in 2017 and stepped foot in Minneapolis, it was clear exactly what he had set out to do. Change the culture. For a Minnesota team that had been a rudderless ship for years– cementing its place as a mid-tier, average team in the Big Ten, it wasn’t clear what had to be different. All that was known was something had to be.
Seven years later, the entirety of college football has changed. Bowl games have come and gone, the College Football Playoff has become a steadfast staple, and NIL has taken over as the new normal amongst the landscape. But PJ Fleck’s attitude hasn’t changed. His unique, Type A, raucous, and fiery personality has finally reared its head in the best way. It was clear from the get-go that Fleck would be a paradigm shift from the outgoing regime, but the burning question was just how much would it help? After all, the Big Ten is one of football’s toughest conferences and perennial blue bloods like Michigan and Ohio State weren’t going anywhere.
For years, Fleck needed a statement win. One that would encapsulate all his teachings, his presentations, his unorthodox coaching methods, and his mantras and finally put Minnesota back on the map. It was originally his 11-2 season in 2019, but college football operates like an amnesiac, quickly forgetting what prior success you may have and always forward-looking. Skip ahead five years and the Fleckian dogma seemed to be running out: Minnesota failed to win a Big Ten West title, fell short of .500 in 2023, and has been less than 50% in conference win percentage.
But the revamped Big Ten seemed like a perfect opportunity to strike. In a conference where every pundit had certain newcomers poised to take the slate by storm– Minnesota wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Except Fleck’s.
On Saturday night, PJ Fleck’s Golden Gophers hosted No. 11 USC and won in stunning fashion against one of the hottest teams in the nation. Minnesota has had a rocky start to begin the season, losing against unranked Iowa but putting up a solid comeback effort against now No. 24 Michigan.
An up and down start never wavered Fleck, who has needed this win and felt like it was due for a team that has been through so much, “this is one of the best 2-3 football teams in the country, and maybe one of the most well prepared 2-3 football teams for what’s ahead, because of our schedule and how hard it’s been. No bye weeks and no breaks. Lot of guys out, lot of guys banged up, lot of guys have to step in, lot of guys got hurt tonight. But that was gutsy, that was courage, that was bravery, and that was leadership.”
Fleck’s culture shift felt like more than real on Saturday night, whose “row the boat” cliche has rung true for the first time in recent memory. And it also came at the behest of one of Fleck’s gutsiest calls. With the game knotted and USC’s offense showing minimal signs of life, the Gophers were stalled on the half-yard line brimming the endzone. Then, when you would think in typical fashion, to go up with less than a minute to go, the Gophers’ field goal unit was going to trot out onto the field.
For anyone watching at home, that’s not what you saw. Instead, you witnessed a mind-boggling, flat-out baffling call to go for it– a play in which New Hampshire transfer quarterback Max Brosmer would sneak the ball in and punch it in to ultimately win 24-17.
The play could’ve gone two ways. USC was no overrated team– in fact they had given SEC teams like LSU the hurt and knocked off another mid-tier Big Ten squad in Wisconsin. When it did win, I’m writing articles like this, lauding Fleck’s valiant effort in order to secure a much-needed victory. If it failed and Minnesota had woken a sleeping giant in the anemic Trojan offense, Fleck would have to face the music and a city filled with angry Gopher fans who are mounting for a change.
Fleck was ready for both. And Fleck didn’t care.
IT’S A BIG CALL, but it wasn’t very hard,” Fleck said after the game. “I was asking a lot of people that were really close to us, what were you doing? They’re like, “Oh, yeah, we were definitely going for it.” And then they’re all kind of winking, like, maybe I said kick a field goal.
But that, it’s a players’ game. How many times you heard me say that, right? It’s a players’ game. In a game like this, 17-17, how often do you have an inch to go to beat USC. You don’t have it very often. We kick that field, going make it, that’s fine.”
For years, this has been the win Fleck and his team needed. Changes in the Big Ten don’t happen often or quick. Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State have been the conference bigwigs for decades while the tiers of teams have become more pronounced. It was clear that Fleck on his first day was bound to change that. Fleck has succeeded in the endgame results though, winning five straight bowl games and revamping a culture in Minneapolis that desperately needed attention. But any great coach reveres a win like this, a conference game that is bound to set off the dominoes of a program on the rise rather than one sulking back into the shadows.
“Huge win for our program,” Fleck said. “Unbelievable individual performances. But what a team effort. We knew we were going to have to take, I don’t know if you want to call them risks, to me they weren’t very hard decisions, because of the team you’re playing. You don’t get many chances to beat a top 10, top 11, top 12 team, and a team that a lot of people…
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We were listening all day, and we got a chance to listen to the media. I’ve got a lot of respect, and Joel Klatt is one of my favorites, and at the end of the Penn State game, they’re all shaking hands, and Joel Klatt says he can’t wait for the USC and Penn State matchup for the College Football Playoff.
I just kind of took that in. I have a lot of respect for him. But you’re always looking for things to be able to show your team like, you know, that’s part of it. We’re not going to listen to the external piece.”
Fleck drawing direct parallels to what he sees isn’t out of the norm– instead, it’s business as usual in the Gophers’ facility. It’s Minnesota’s unconventional team style that has led them to this point. Fleck has emphasized nektons his entire coaching career– the name given to an organism that can swim freely of any water current. To him, the outside noise and naysayers represent the sharp flows of college football any program must learn to avoid.
Never mind that just two weeks ago the Gophers got embarrassed on their home turf versus Iowa who ran the ball down their throat. Never mind that the week prior, Minnesota’s improbable comeback against the No. 12 team in Michigan was cut short by a bogus offside call on an onside kick that was returned by the Golden Gophers, never mind that Minnesota lost by less than field goal to North Carolina to open the season. To Fleck, none of that matters. The only thing that does is the team’s mentality to move on and keep swimming against the current.
“Mistakes do not define you; they refine you,” Fleck said to the team prior to the beginning of the season. “Our job is to get you to fail every day … and come back hungry to improve.” Fleck has made it clear it’s all in the response. On the flight home from Ann Arbor last weekend, the Gophers hit a defining fork in the road. One path was to sulk and let a heartbreaking loss underline what the team does forward or to push forward and treat every game independently with the understanding that the Gophers have a great opportunity to salvage their season against the Trojans.
The reset in culture that happened almost seven years ago has made a lasting impact on the team now.
“The ability to thrive around people who constantly want better, want to change, want to grow, that’s uncomfortable for people, and that’s why I think I’m not for everybody,” Fleck said. “If you’re within my presence, I want to make you better, and if you’re not willing to grow or change or adapt and make yourself better, we probably won’t understand each other.
NICK SABAN SAID THIS a long time ago. Elite doesn’t understand average. Average doesn’t understand elite, and they’ll never apologize to each other. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Building a culture doesn’t happen overnight. Building one from scratch requires ebbs and flows– troughs that look like valleys and highs that look like mountaintops.
There’s an age-old saying in coaching, “nothing is ever as good as it seems and never as bad as it seems.” While the stagnation of the Minnesota program has been discouraging, the win over USC almost somehow redeems it in a fashion. It proves that Fleck’s policies are working and consistency somehow prevails in the long run.
In a day and era where college football is dominated by disloyalty, constant shuffling, huge paydays, and a dramatization of the sport by certain teams– it’s somewhat refreshing to see a return to old-school classical values.
The nekton mentality isn’t new, but it’s all but true in Minneapolis. Where other schools in the same conference are offering NIL deals worth millions, Minnesota still boasts one of the highest roster retention rates in the Big Ten. PJ Fleck emphasizes a risk-seeking nature, a willingness to embrace the mundane, and a never-give-up mentality. Every coach across the nation preaches these same principles on the daily, but rarely has it been implemented and so deeply engrained like in the Gophers’ culture.
“Running out the tunnel with P.J. is by far the best experiences I’ve had in my life,” said Michael Henry, a receiver who played for Fleck at Western Michigan. “In the moment of [his speeches], things feel magical because he’s talking about stories and creating an image in your mind [for] you as a player to go out and conquer anything that’s possible.”
It’s these player testimonials that allowed Minnesota to beat USC. It wasn’t a massive influx of transfer portal players nor was it the Gophers digging in the coffers to pay players (NIL deals on the high-end only range up to $20,000– a drop in the bucket compared to other FBS schools). Instead, it was Fleck and the Gophers digging deep, embracing mentality and teachings, and blocking out nearly everything else.
The Golden Gophers aren’t College Football Playoff contenders nor are they favorites to win the Big Ten. But they sure are making a run for it. Until then, make no doubt– they’ll be rowing that boat.
