How continuity has shaped P.J. Fleck's Minnesota tenure | NBC Sports

How Fleck feels about his team going into the 2021 season coach you're usually a pretty upbeat guy how do you feel going into this season I feel great about our team I I think everybody's going to say the same thing right I don't think many coaches are going to sit there and say boy I don't like my team my team stinks nobody's gonna say that um I I really like this football team though um you know the one thing I like about him the most is everybody loves football and I think with all the changes in college football getting all the attention most of the transactional stuff is getting a lot of the attention whether it's a TV deals whether it's nil or portal salary caps conference realignment you still got to go out there love football play football and go win football games and this team's really really connected your eighth year with this program right now how do you feel about where this build is at and if there's anything you feel like you're still being held back by yeah I think you're always building you know I think in my introductory press conference when I got the job I talked about cultural sustainability our athletic director Mark Coyle uh myself are the longest tene ad head coach combination in the Big 10 we're going on year eight I think that just shows the fluidity of the program our our our profession so when we talk about the sustainability part I think fit is more important than ever now and it's not just the recruiting piece it's fit and selection again with all the transactional stuff you still have to be able to find the right fit right type of kid that values all the right things for your program and we have a Life program that we call transformational well the transformational world and the transactional world can coexist uh we just had our best recruit recruiting class that we've ever had it'd be different if it was going the other way and I promise you it wasn't cuz we were the highest bidder but we're getting the right fit and the right selection and the right kid uh that fits our culture where again transformational transaction can both coexist you brought up the continuity you have at the top and like you said in this conference in the profession that's just not guaranteed anymore what kind of you know advantages does that give you guys having that continuity well it's all about alignment you know people always talk about we're on the same page you know one page has different words all over it in different ways talking about we're completely aligned uh Mark Coyle and I share the exact same values we both love Minnesota and I think it's hard when we talk about that because it's okay to love where you're at and it's okay to love Minnesota and I think we both share that because we both have that same value system of what we want to create for a football program and uh I think that's a great partnership the Run game had a lot Running back Darius Taylor of success last year and that wasn't even with a full season of a guy like Darius t who comes back at the bowl game and what more needs to be said over 200 rushing yards what do you think it could do this year with him healthy and ready to roll but also the depth you have in this back field yeah I think the Back Field is one thing but I think it's helping the pass game as well I think one thing that kind of I think stale made it our even our Run game as good as it was was the lack of a pass game and that's for a lot of different reasons uh but that's why Max brosmer is there that's why we brought him in we got a lot more depth at the wide receiver position the tight end position our offensive line's all back um but when you look at Darius I mean he's a special player but again we want our players to be better people than they are players Darius Taylor is a better person than he is a football player now that's a pretty special individual because he's a pretty special player but special people make themselves better players and he's done that in the off season he's really committed to his body I think as a true freshman there's probably way too much put upon him but you want to put that upon your best players and one of your best players is a true freshman we're going to do that but I think he's learned how to take care of his body a lot better than he did last year to be able to handle all those carries play that longer of a season than he did in high school and uh we built a lot of things around him for whether it's pass game Run game we've uh we've kind of built that whole thing around him I know Quarterback Max Bressler this offense will look to spread the ball around but is he the kind of running back that can lead this conference in rushing I do believe he can he can darus Taylor can lead any conference and rushing that's the great thing about him uh you know being at Minnesota I mean we've always been a little bit more run heavy than pass heavy now we've also had two First Team all big 10 wide receivers only team to ever do that in 2019 but when you're talking about that actual Run game for him I mean he is a Workhorse uh he is an absolute Superstar and he could lead any conference you mentioned Max brosmer coming in from New Hampshire ton of starting experience ton of production what does he single-handedly bring to the pass game with that experience and the ability well it's just the leadership piece that he has that we had a very specific role we were looking at who we were going to bring in for quarterback because we knew whoever we brought in was going to have to start okay so that takes a very mature individual now I could pull a lot of players and they'll be like oh I'd love that job I'll take that job but do you really want that job are you mature enough to handle it the minute you walk in be accepted by the team you be humble enough to be accepting others as well when you don't even know them and then take the culture and run with it and Max brosmer has done that he's incredibly curious I mean leaders that are great leaders are usually really curious because they want to want to constantly grow and he is definitely that way he's constantly curious um and he is one of the smartest players I've ever been around so we look forward to him being Max Bresslers intelligence our quarterback is that something you caught on to in the spring or even before you got him to Minnesota that intelligence level well I think that when you get around him it's not hard to figure out how smart he is and how curious he is um we identified his personality and his character as exactly what we were looking for did we have some other kids that were right in there yeah but you rank him at that point and then he was the one that we wanted and in the portal with quarterbacks you better work really fast because they go fast and again he didn't come to Minnesota because it was the highest bid he didn't do that he came because that's exactly what he was looking for he looked for a culture a transformational program where he could go in and play remember he's only got one year left so he can't waste it and it was a perfect Offensive line fit what is it like for the staff the backfield even Max to have an anchor on the offensive line like arante ursery who for a while felt like he was going on under the radar and those days are long gone right now yeah I'm glad we kept him under the radar as long as we did but he's a superstar he really is and he's gotten so much better uh the funny thing about him is if you know the EA Sports new college football game uh he's a top 25 player in that and that's sneaky now I also know if you move him to tight end he becomes a 99 so he becomes one of the best players in the game so just a hack just so everybody knows that which I don't play it but I heard from somebody from a friend so but he he is he's grown up so much and again just like anything we have 16 of 17 eligible returning starters back and that doesn't get talked about enough and again wasn't because we're the highest bidder Arian fits our culture our program and he has developed Leaps and Bounds from the moment he walked in our program and look forward to him leading that offensive line so four new teams in Challenges this conference feels like that's the big talk of town it's exciting but what kind of challenges does that bring especially geographically well this year I mean I told our fan basee when I got the job I'd take him to the Rose bow you never never lied I never lied it's a different perspective but I never lied uh I really I really like it uh now we talk about who's the most powerful conference it's not about that but we talk about the nine conference games we we're Nationwide east to west west to east uh there's parody within our league every week is going to be a fight uh but I think it's really healthy uh as we continue to expand and change college football especially for the fan base there's nothing boring about this league nothing and now as we keep adding teams and and and added the the four West Coast teams it gives us a whole new College Football Playoff market what does the expanded playoff do for your mindset it feels like I've been saying to people it feels like it opens the door a little more and I know everybody goes in saying we're going to be one of the best four but now as that opens up does it change things a little bit mentally of course it changes things you know everybody wants to be one of the four I think if you're not talking about being one of the four and you're in the power two or the power four or five whatever it used to be uh then I I think you're doing a disservice we've always talked about that now that's not our only focus but we've talked about it but I think it brings reality uh to a lot of teams if you go back to 2019 we probably would have been in the college football playoff I mean that that is that's huge for Minnesota we've been there seven years and one of those seven years we have a chance to compete for a national title I think that's what our fan base has always wanted um and now I think we have a little bit of more parody that way that if you can find your way into that top four or five teams in the Big 10 and have a really good year that you can be rewarded for that what is your favorite thing about Favorite thing about coaching Minnesota coaching this program coach as you said you're a grizzled vet now in this conference it feels like not a lot of coaches can say that well it's one it's our state of Minnesota our fans where we live the access to so many things with the city and the lakes and you have it all in Minnesota but it's really who I work for uh I'm a big people person and that's why Mark and I are so close uh he allows me to be me I think about that statement I think the world is full of people trying to be somebody that they're not and even our profession full of people that trying to be a head coach acting like a head coach my boss he allows me to be myself and it's refreshing every single day and I don't take it for granted thanks coach yeah my pleasure R the boat Sky Mago gophers