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Rival Schools Coming for PJ Fleck and Gophers AD Knows It
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- Rival Schools Coming for PJ Fleck and Gophers AD Knows It
Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images
Our long and dreary national nightmare is over. P.J. Fleck and the Minnesota Gophers are back . Kicking off the regular season against Buffalo on Thursday night, the Drake Lindsey-era will begin.
Last season finished with Minnesota going 8-5 while beating Virginia Tech in the Duke's Mayo Bowl . This season the bar hopefully gets raised again. Although Max Brosmer is now with the Minnesota Vikings , there has been plenty of hype about his replacement in Lindsey.
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Fleck has continue to remain locked in at Minnesota. If he can reach double-digit victories again, the calls generated for his future employment elsewhere will only increase.
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P.J. Fleck building momentum with Minnesota Gophers
This season is Fleck's ninth with the Minnesota Gophers . He won just five games during his first season back in 2017. Since, he's won six bowl games and pushed the Minnesota as high as seventh in the AP Poll. His continued success and momentum with the Gophers is drawing plenty of attentio.
Mark Coyle, who recently gave Fleck an extension in July, knows that the profile of his football leader will only become more desirable.
"If you go back to P.J.'s very first press conference, he talked about sustainability. How can he be here long-term? It's amazing how many fans come up to me and say, 'Does he have the Notre Dame clause in his contract?' He's starting year nine here. He and Heather love it here. I promise you in a few weeks as we get into the college football season, his name is gonna pop up at other destinations. The reason why is he does it the right way."
Coyle sharing that with the Star Tribune's Randy Johnson is not out of fear. Coyle isn't worried about who comes calling, because he is bought into what P.J. has been building. Fleck himself isn't backing down from pushing the program for more either.
"What is the next right step? That's going to be subjective to a lot of different people. As a head football coach, my job is to get the most out of my football team every single year, academically, athletically, socially and spiritually in this life program. … If you get the most out of your players, you're going to have a chance to be really successful on the football field.
With the College Football Playoff where it is, as Indiana showed last year, anybody can get there. If we're delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there. … You've got to continue to raise the expectations."
If this was all just believed to be hollow talk, we wouldn't be in year nine with Fleck. The Minnesota Gophers have elevated the program because he has continued to cash the checks he has written.
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This season has an opportunity to be something we haven't seen since 2019 from the Gophers. If Lindsey winds up being the talent that Brosmer was or better, Minnesota will be a force to be reckoned with.
From there, Fleck will need to decide what options he wants to weigh going forward. For now though, both he and Coyle appear content to let them call knowing it's a direct reflection of what takes place between the lines.
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