P.J. Fleck after beating Rhode Island 48-0: 'I told them we were going to play 60 minutes'

first and foremost um I want to start and thank Eric Decker um Jesse James Decker uh their entire family for for being here today uh Eric was uh you know kind enough to see us um yesterday in one of our team meetings and come over as he gets inducted in the Minnesota Hall of Fame and uh there's somebody that really represents what it means to be a gopher on and off the field and it's amazing not only just during his football career but what him and his wife have done after that uh they're really close to our program they're good friends of ours I'm just so thankful that he spent some time with us and uh really grateful for him uh second thing you got to give a lot of credit to Rhode Island they play really really hard really tough throw a lot of things at you I told you that's a really good FCS team um you know I know that people put you know not a lot of stock into certain things but every game deserves 100% of our attention I told our players last week I said uh we got to wait 10 days now to play and I knew that that festered in them uh and it festered in the right way it was more like fertilizer it would just grew and grew and grew and every day they came out with the right mindset and the positive attitude to get better and grow we gave them three things on offense defense and special teams to get better at and I thought they did that they did those three they did those three things very well and I'm sure we'll talk about that throughout the week um so I'm really proud of our efforts it was a complete Game offense defense special teams team win played a lot of players today which we really wanted to do uh but we played him and I made him a promise last week I said we're going to play for for 60 minutes in the portal world in the nil World you've got to play football if you get a position like that to keep playing football uh sometimes your teams aren't even made till June and they're going to be putting guys in there that mid-season that have to go perform at a highest level I told them we're playing 60 Minutes of football so everybody get ready and then they did so give them a lot of credit uh really good football team very well coach coach is a great guy and uh you know but we we we did a lot of really good things today and then we did some things we're going to continue to to to grow and improve on and then last but not least number three I just want to congratulate Dr Rebecca Cunningham our new president on her first gopher football win uh she joined us in the locker room which it was great to celebrate with her so she could get a feel of what gopher Athletics is all about through the leadership of Mark Coyle and uh just a great locker room feel afterwards and um you know proud of our guys to be one and0 in Rhode Island season so with that we'll open up for some questions did you think of the way you were able to find a Groove with quick game Concepts today you know it's a great question I think if you go back to when we talked before I think you might have even asked the question this is kind of spring what do you think you're going to be you know we don't have Muhammad Ibraham that style back um you know people always said why didn't you throw to Muhammad and Muhammad wasn't like the greatest receiver but he could run it 35 to 40 times and and he could do it better than anybody I've ever coached so if your best player can do that do that if your best players can do other things do the other things too and I thought what you saw today was the ability for us what you saw start of the second half last week was throwing to run it we can not only run the football but also we can throw it to run it that's going to set up a lot of different things and that was the whole point we talked about pre-spring was we want to get to a point where we can throw it to run it and I think that's what you saw I mean I haven't checked necessarily his statistic 24 of 30 but you can only do that if you're consistent you're accurate um uh you're efficient plus there's three drops in there I mean you really should have been I mean they're easy drops so that's 27 to 30 that's throwing it to run it and we have to be more of that and create the balance that way that this team needs to have happen now we haven't done that in the past so it's a new team to do it and that's where the trust comes in and and we got really good players you got to be able to trust them and took us a little bit to get going again but once we got going we got going we got going way faster than we did last week um so uh that's what I see the difference was from last week to this week PJ speaking of balance uh 34 passes 37 runs balance you guys love that don't you you know my definition of balance it's being efficient with whatever you do best sometimes you're gonna have to throw it to win the game Run it to win the game we'd all want to be 50/50 every head coach no matter who you are would love the balance right I think it's a it's a word that that's used uh for media coaches you talk about balance it sounds good it's coaching cliches um I had a lot of announcers asked me in the last few weeks about our balance and kind of the tip of the scales I said well if you look at that there's been years we've also had you know 14 15 runs in the fourth quarter in a row to finish out a game they'll still count as runs and they tip the scale if you go all the way back to 17 and so and you even go back to 13 at Western Michigan but I thought today we had a really good uh flow it was a really good vibe and we were always on track and that's what I felt we did and what we're type of team we're gonna have to be we're have to stay on track was was Dar on a snap count at all today and was he Limited at all and how did you feel yeah we we wanted to have I don't know how many plays he played he was on a snap count whether he hit that or not um we wanted him in a range of 15 to 20 plays somewhere around there and I'm not saying that's where that's right in his wheelhouse but you know Marcus is a really good tailback JoJo's done a lot of good things for us saw jiren at the end of the game you saw CA remember we're deeper there and we want him every time he's in that game to feel really good but uh yeah he was on a little bit of a pitch count uh I don't make those decisions The Doctors medical staff do and give him what he is and always in my ear hey U you know this series he's he's up I want him get him this many Ser carries this time or how many plays and then you know sip came to me towards the end of the game said okay well you know I think he's got his number and we're all good with that what did you think was key today in the defense bouncing back uh well I thought they played extremely well last week I don't even know if it's a bounceback I mean those are two good teams I think North Carolina had 200 and some yards that's pretty good like I mean we got after it last week and so did North Carolina's defense I I don't know about the bounceback I think the difference was the takeaways uh we also had four or five that were just off our fingertips uh but we said we wanted to be able to create more takeaways than we have in a long time and I thought we did that uh I thought we swarmed to the football you know I think coach Heather's really good it sounds simple and cliche but it's pretty simplistic of what we do but we do it with so much versatility and we hope that every week people aren't seeing the same things and can't really get Beats on what we're doing and how we're doing it and uh we felt that same way again today and we'll continue to get really creative and versatile and reach into our our our bag of depth and and kind of go from there but I thought they played incredible hard they swarm that quarterback's really good he can move around he's agile he always keeps the play going he threw some really good passes um I thought we covered them pretty good manto man in their hips uh and I thought you know when you look back on it our our penalties I mean we had four penalties and we only had six last week and I was like there's a lot of penalties six isn't a lot of penalties for us but they're they came at crucial times we had four today you know two to four is usually about where we're at but I thought they played really aggressive I thought that they're all locked in our guys love playing defense and there have so many guys that just love to swarm and play and it's fun to coach them you know and they knew they had to wait 10 days and um you I told them after the game at North Carolina I said you know I just I'd love to go back up and play 60 more minutes we'll just see if they'll do 30 just because our guys just love playing they're they're fun to watch because they love to play we got a long way to go I mean we're one and0 in the Rhode Island season that was the main objective but we were able to do a lot of things tonight that are going to make us better as we keep moving forward and you're finding out what type of Team you are you think you might have an idea then you play game one against North Carolina and they're not going to just let you be what you want to be we're not going to let them be what they wanted to be um and then you start to start creating an identity in my opinion and I think we're starting to form ours a little bit of what we want to become and what gives us the best chance to do that I'll Circle back and answer your question I think we are better on first and second down last year talked about close games uh just playing a complete Game whether it was a win or a loss how do you think that was today in terms of the full team playing I don't know if I call a complete game I mean I got all types of stuff in my little yellow handy dandy notebook you guys too young for the handy dandy notebook see there we go Ryan um I mean we had we had a wide open post drop dropped a touch down on on a seam route uh we drop another ball um we drop two intercep ctions um we miss I can't I only have like how seven tackles on here so I keep track of all that so I'm not saying by any means this was perfect um but what I did see was the whole team was involved it took the offense to complement the defense it took the Special Teams to help with that um you know I thought I thought you know young guy like coyi Parish getting in there and doing what he's doing he's only been here since June everybody kid's a heck of a football player and a heck of a competitor and uh you know we knew wanted to be able to hopefully get to playing a lot of people today and you know that's no disrespect to anybody I just playing 60 minutes but we were going to play 60 minutes from kickoff to the end of the game we were going to play 60 Minutes of football how would you how would you evaluate the day for the offensive line and what went into some of the Personnel changes well I I think this goes into finding out who we are you know when you can't make the decision in training camp and it's too close and then you make your decision and then in game one proof doesn't go as what how you thought you got to be able to go back and say okay let's do this combination and you better find it quick and I think the data from this game will give us more data to be able to make the best decision moving forward for the offensive line uh I love our offensive line but again even today too much penetration early settle down in the second half settle down might not be the best word with the o line I just thought they were doing some things that were difficult on us just the way we were wanting to play the game once we were able to make those changes I think we were able to control them pretty good what do you see from Max today that you think can be repeatable going forward he just got incredible Poise I thought he was way better on the sideline way better leadership way more command of the team um he's a precise passer uh he's poised uh and I I I I just felt him in a different way today I felt him in a different way and and not drastic but just certain things as he continues to learn of how to lead the whole team I said that after the game last last week how do you lead the whole team I thought he did a better job of doing that today and that's what he does well like that's who he is I mean look I mean saw how comfortable he was I mean truly that that is his comfort zone and maybe that hasn't been our comfort zone of old but every year we have a different team and we're just going to have to continue to find ways to get our Playmakers the ball in space and uh again this is this is one step but I'm really proud of the guys we got a lot of room for improvement especially in the first half uh but I I was really really grateful that we got a lot of guys in today and Coachman Ro gave a g great speech on Thursdays I let our staff talk um that I pick a staff member to kind of do a team meeting to give them the ability to be the head coach you know for a day uh in front of the team and Nick Monro gave this great talk about gratitude and a lot of you know Coachman row had a horrible car accident in the offseason and um last offseason um you know just it was it was one of the best 10-minute TED Talks that I've ever heard and the whole team you could tell when it hits home and you can tell when you know they're good uh that one hit really hit home we gave him a game ball in there because uh it was tremendous and uh he's a phenomenal football coach and he's done a great job with those guys DJ you had Aiden's interception there in the second quarter and then you had a 14 play drive to score what did that do to set the going for the day yeah I think that this team's going to have to be really complimentary I think for us to have success with the schedule we have the opponents were going to play the new Big 10 we have to be complimentary offense defense special teams working cohesively I mean I've talked more back and forth on the headsets probably more than I ever have and I do that a lot but I'm telling Cory what we're doing on offense I'm telling him what the flow is where we're going what how I feel we're doing I feel like we can get this going I feel like we can't get this going remember Cory started as a quarterback Cory hman he was a quarterback was an offensive guy he went to a defensive guy so he can he understands all of it too it's fun to have those conversations with him and having him on the sideline helps helps me uh it's been great but I think the complimentary piece of that is going to be critical for us as we move forward and you know hopefully q's okay and bounces back but if not then we'll have some different things in the return game thought mecky had a nice return koyi had a really nice return um so is able to spread the ball around today what did you see from guys like l um Christian and Elijah as well as Steve Jack reliability you know we had a few drops we got to eliminate those if we're going to be that type of team we got we got to catch them all uh you can't waste opportunities in this league you you know as well as I do there's not going to be you know 40 something to nothing games that doesn't happen in the Big 10 uh so there's going to be some real close games where those plays that we didn't make tonight have we have to make those moving forward but and we're 24- 30 with three drops I mean they're catching it they're getting open they understand the offense they understand their role in the offense and what I think is really cool is I kind of looked over at djck and I was joking with him like djck do you have a touchdown today what's going on djck you know like he starts smiling you know because all these guys that we that we're developing uh were able to make a ton of plays tonight and we're going to have to be if we can do that consistently our versatility and depth not only on defense but offense we can have that as well one or two more for coach mentioned that you feel like this team is formed like they formed an identity out there to somewh of an identity what would you characterize that identity balance for Coach uh first drive of the game you end up going for a long field goal how how important do you think it was for draon to see that go through the uprights I think he thinks everyone's going through the uprights listen 55 yards too it doesn't matter just miss it a little right I'm not saying so what CU I don't I care he cares but get back out there and do it again I mean I I grew up where the more you fail the better I did because I just couldn't wait to go do it again and that's Dron I mean what do you do with a hitter that is in a slump hitting he keep hitting he keeps swinging right boss Mark says all the time to me keep swinging I tell him keep rowing right back and but what do you do with it you you keep playing golfers you keep playing you keep hitting the ball you keep your faith in it and he did like I I he's one I'm not saying I don't worry about I worry about all of them I just worry I get paid to worry in a lot of areas but it's I have a ton of faith and trust in my players because I watch what they do during the week and you guys get to see him in training camp a few times but you get to see him on game day I get to see him all week long on the field off the field off seon community service academics reports from professors just awesome stuff I'm like absolutely I I put him out there it's about them it's not about me I can't go out there and kick it he can kick it way better than I could kick it and he's the best one I think one of the best in the country keep going man just just keep going and I think he did a great job of responding and uh Taco Bell heals a lot 2 amm after that Miss field goal him and a bunch of his buddies you know because this team's really close they I went to Taco Bell and that was a start of him feeling better you know some cheesy gordito crunches and solves a lot don't ever forget they're still kids any other questions all right brother boat Sky Maga Gophers thanks for being here everybody