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PJ Fleck

Agree with you on Chryst. He's like watching paint dry haha. But who cares, I've never equated personality with performance. I don't really see any correlation. You can have guys like Dabo and Franklin who are lively or coaches like Saban and Meyer who are pretty stoic for the most part. You have guys that run the spectrum and you see guys succeed and fail across that personality spectrum too, who cares. Substance not flash and that is only measured through results not slogans or hoopla or what have you.

Chryst is a fantastic coach. I could see really looking up to someone like him as a player. Franklin seems fake by comparison.
 
Chryst is a fantastic coach. I could see really looking up to someone like him as a player. Franklin seems fake by comparison.
I've thought he was good coach before he went to Pitt and he did an okay job there and seems to be doing quite well so far at his alma mater Wisconsin. Looks like he's done a good job replacing Aranda too.

Mind you his salary was less than some of the more recent first time P5 hires in the B10. Now it may be slightly more or in line after he's shown some results at Wisconsin. That to me is exactly how it should work. I don't like paying big dollars or giving long contracts out for coaches who haven't consistently performed on this level.

People act like this B10 pot of gold is going to solve our problems and we'll be paying up for coach. It's a false panacea. If anything I'd expect we'll be paying 3M for a coach like Ash instead of 2M that's all. That seems to be more the norm these days with ADs going crazy. Money is helpful and it's helps to erase mistakes quicker but it's not the end all if you can't identify good candidates. Many schools spend tons of money with squat to show for it besides the bloated contracts they end up eating.
 
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I would have cancelled my tickets if we hired a clown like Fleck.

You have to actually be able to coach in this conference and he's in the easier division.

Only Rutgers fans would eat our own coach during a massive rebuild, while praising a coach who inherited a 9 win team, tanked it to 5 wins and started calling it Year 0 and it's a rebuild, to save face.
Amazing how he crow barred his Row the Boat schtick into two teams whose mascots were Broncos and Gophers. Rowing the boat would fit like a glove on the banks.
 
I love Brohm but I seriously doubt he stays when a major SEC program comes a calling.
I like him better than Fleck. I feel there definitely could be substance there. But similarly his tenure is too short to say anything definitively, time will tell. He's also got a decent sized buyout in his contract. It was 5M last year and 4M this year and drops a million every year.
 
I like him better than Fleck. I feel there definitely could be substance there. But similarly his tenure is too short to say anything definitively, time will tell. He's also got a decent sized buyout in his contract. It was 5M last year and 4M this year and drops a million every year.

I also like Brohm a lot more than Fleck. Brohm brings instant credibility on offense with creative play-calling and ability to score points. He also brings an under-rated DC in Holt.
Purdue's defense this year is going to be real interesting. Holt has a lot of players to replace, especially on the Line. I'm curious to see if their defense takes a step back.
 
I also like Brohm a lot more than Fleck. Brohm brings instant credibility on offense with creative play-calling and ability to score points. He also brings an under-rated DC in Holt.
Purdue's defense this year is going to be real interesting. Holt has a lot of players to replace, especially on the Line. I'm curious to see if their defense takes a step back.
Yea they did a pretty solid job on defense last year which I wasn't expecting.

I always say some offensive HCs can get lost in their machinations about offense and forget about defense and some defensive HCs are confused and can be way too conservative about offense so try to avoid those types in hiring.

I give Brohm credit for a pretty solid to good job with the defense last year. You'd think he'd get the offense going eventually and then he may have something if the defense can maintain.
 
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Personality is not what wins . But it certainly looks like a lot more fun to be with when it wins.Ash is not and never will be a member of the cult of personalty.


You are absolutely correct. As 2nd year HC coach Scott Frost demonstrated in leading the UCF Golden Knights to a 13-0 finish and a final #6 ranking with almost no Rival 5 and 4 Star recruits but many Rival 3 and 2 Star guys.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!
 
I would have cancelled my tickets if we hired a clown like Fleck.

You have to actually be able to coach in this conference and he's in the easier division.

Only Rutgers fans would eat our own coach during a massive rebuild, while praising a coach who inherited a 9 win team, tanked it to 5 wins and started calling it Year 0 and it's a rebuild, to save face.
you always post this but you keep ignoring the facts of what fleck inherited. Sure, they went 8-4 but they were coming off a huge rape scandal, he had to convince a WALK-ON to come back for his redshirt senior season to start at qb for him rather than graduate and go on with his life. You keep acting like fleck inherited this monster program. He walked into a program in shambles that didn't have a recruiting class ranked higher than 50 in the past decade. Fleck is going to have success there. He will win the big ten west within the next 3-4 years.
 
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you always post this but you keep ignoring the facts of what fleck inherited. Sure, they went 8-4 but they were coming off a huge rape scandal, he had to convince a WALK-ON to come back for his redshirt senior season to start at qb for him rather than graduate and go on with his life. You keep acting like fleck inherited this monster program. He walked into a program in shambles that didn't have a recruiting class ranked higher than 50 in the past decade. Fleck is going to have success there. He will win the big ten west within the next 3-4 years.

Fleck will not win the West within 4 years. Chryst is not going anywhere. Blue blood Nebraska has a new exciting coach who can recruit. And Iowa is also in better shape. Fleck will be fortunate to still be coaching in Minny in five years.
 
you always post this but you keep ignoring the facts of what fleck inherited. Sure, they went 8-4 but they were coming off a huge rape scandal, he had to convince a WALK-ON to come back for his redshirt senior season to start at qb for him rather than graduate and go on with his life. You keep acting like fleck inherited this monster program. He walked into a program in shambles that didn't have a recruiting class ranked higher than 50 in the past decade. Fleck is going to have success there. He will win the big ten west within the next 3-4 years.

Yes they didn't have great recruiting classes per the rankings and yet Kill and Claeys were able to put together average to decent records each year save for Kill's first year. So it wasn't in shambles unless you're a star ranking chaser.
 
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Fleck will not win the West within 4 years. Chryst is not going anywhere. Blue blood Nebraska has a new exciting coach who can recruit. And Iowa is also in better shape. Fleck will be fortunate to still be coaching in Minny in five years.
Fleck proved to be a good mid major HC and recruiter, but it's probably too early to deem him a sure fire sucess or doomed to fail after one year heading a program that looked like it was strong, but had a lot of problems when he took it over.
It says something about a program when it fires a first year HC that went 9-4 running the program after being 5-4 in an interim HC the year before.
That quick hook proved Minny's AD and the school's administration didn't like what was happening to the FB program despite the winning record and felt new leadership was a must.
Fleck's record last season should be given a mulligan and how the Gophers play this season be the guide on what kind of P-5 HC he probably will be.
 
Yea they did a pretty solid job on defense last year which I wasn't expecting.

I always say some offensive HCs can get lost in their machinations about offense and forget about defense and some defensive HCs are confused and can be way too conservative about offense so try to avoid those types in hiring.

I give Brohm credit for a pretty solid to good job with the defense last year. You'd think he'd get the offense going eventually and then he may have something if the defense can maintain.

Agree. Was doing some reading on Coach Holt today. Very interesting background. Lots of stops along the way to get to the point that he is today. Found it interesting that he was a John L Smith guy who eventually went to work for Coach Carroll at USC and in 3 years as DC, USC went 34-5 (his second tour at USC). Did not know that he worked with Petrino at Western Kentucky and when Petrino left for Louisville, he asked Coach Holt to come with him and Holt declined. That's how he ended up working with Brohm. I'm sure that Brohm gives his tons of autonomy running the defense.
 
Fleck proved to be a good mid major HC and recruiter, but it's probably too early to deem him a sure fire sucess or doomed to fail after one year heading a program that looked like it was strong, but had a lot of problems when he took it over.
It says something about a program when it fires a first year HC that went 9-4 running the program after being 5-4 in an interim HC the year before.
That quick hook proved Minny's AD and the school's administration didn't like what was happening to the FB program despite the winning record and felt new leadership was a must.
Fleck's record last season should be given a mulligan and how the Gophers play this season be the guide on what kind of P-5 HC he probably will be.
I'm not a fan of Fleck but it's only been a year so too early to say anything just like Brohm who I do think has potential. I can be proven wrong on Fleck but we'll see. I said at best he'll be where they were with Kill but I don't see any marked improvement over that and I don't expect him winning the West either.

I see him as another Orgeron/Hoke but without the fat school wallet behind him that those guys had/have at Michigan/LSU. Orgeron was lucky he was gifted Aranda by Miles and we see how he screwed up the whole OC mess there last year. LSU probably hopes he's another Dabo/Franklin but that's unlikely outside of plain dumb luck.

Not all these CEO coaches are Dabo/Franklin, at least with them I can see good identification of strong assistants. I've posted articles here in the past about the research/work Franklin puts in to have shorts list of asssitants. Franklin hired Shoop at Vandy/PSU and followed him up with a solid Pees. Screwed up with Donovan and fixed it with Moorhead and we'll see how his replacement does. Dabo hired Chad Morris and has followed him up with 2 solid co-OCs internally and then fired Kevin Steele after the WVU debacle and replaced him with a very good Brent Venables. Having a big checkbook isn't all the helpful if you don't know how to spend the money. Not all CEO coaches do and I'd probably say more don't.
 
I love Brohm but I seriously doubt he stays when a major SEC program comes a calling.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's waiting for that Louisville job to open. Their family is like royalty down there. Petrino no longer has his saving angel in Tom Jurich to watch his back. His all world QB Lamar Jackson is gone and all he could do with him his last year was go 8-5 (4-4/ ACC). Bobby's going to be in for a tough season this year.
 
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you always post this but you keep ignoring the facts of what fleck inherited. Sure, they went 8-4 but they were coming off a huge rape scandal, he had to convince a WALK-ON to come back for his redshirt senior season to start at qb for him rather than graduate and go on with his life. You keep acting like fleck inherited this monster program. He walked into a program in shambles that didn't have a recruiting class ranked higher than 50 in the past decade. Fleck is going to have success there. He will win the big ten west within the next 3-4 years.

I was right there with you up until the last sentence. Wisc & Neb are going to be difficult to beat (IMO).
 
you always post this but you keep ignoring the facts of what fleck inherited. Sure, they went 8-4 but they were coming off a huge rape scandal You keep acting like fleck inherited this monster program. He walked into a program in shambles that didn't have a recruiting class ranked higher than 50 in the past decade.
Well here's the thing about that scandal. They weren't in shambles after they were kicked off the team. That's a big misconception on your part. After week 5 when they were kicked off, they continued to go 5-2 in route to that 9-4 record. 5-2 is not shambles territory. Also those 50 ranked classes(not going to look it up take your word for it) were good enough for other coaches to get them to 5 straight bowls before your "Row the Boat" guy capsized that streak. Even with a lighter schedule.
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if he's waiting for that Louisville job to open. Their family is like royalty down there. Petrino no longer has his saving angel in Tom Jurich to watch his back. His all world QB Lamar Jackson is gone and all he could do with him his last year was go 8-5 (4-4/ ACC). Bobby's going to be in for a tough season this year.
I think the prohibitive buyout that was in place is gone now that Jurich isn't there anymore. So if someone was interested in him he could probably leave fairly easily and we know he would if the offer was right.
 
I agree Minny was basically average when he took over.
My point is........... I will be interested to see just how important football is to those 2 schools I mentioned above. Since both schools are going to be fighting for their coaches in a year or two. When bigger programs come calling.
The only way bigger programs come calling is if Brohm and Fleck pull 10 or 12 wins out of their asses.
 
There's a weather cap on how many wins Minny can pull off year after year. Who would want to freeze to death to play in the frozen tundra without getting paid. This will forever cap the amount of talented star players that would consider going there. On Jan 1st of this year the high was 1 degree and the low -14 which was a warming up from the day before of -6 degrees (H) and -17 degrees(L). Besides, we already have most of the Swedes that want to play in the US, so the potential pool is even smaller.
 
Ash could use some kind of schtick. Because recruiting isn’t good right now. Don’t be jealous of this baller..

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Money is money but being decent at Purdue gets you a lifetime contract. Every SEC fanbase will sell you out afterthree or four straight losses.
Anyone remember Brohm losing it on his brother on the sidelines during the game in 2006?

Add throwing the chair in there.. and I think Brohm loses it sometime and get fired.

As for Fleck being a star here? At least "Row the Boat" jives with "Upstream, Red Team"
 
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I would have cancelled my tickets if we hired a clown like Fleck.

many fans might start out thinking like you, but might get sucked into sticking around if Fleck had a couple of 4 star studded recruiting classes..... not saying you would be patient, but it would be tempting to give it a few years.....

also, don't discount the possibility of any head coach getting a really good OC and DC that puts the coach on the right path.

we expect McNulty putting us on the right offensive path, for example
 
Fleck would never survive the media in NJ. Between his skeletons and schtick he’d be a laughingstock in no time.
 
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Fleck would never survive the media in NJ. Between his skeletons and schtick he’d be a laughingstock in no time.

What's the difference, RU could win a national championship and the NJ media would still be trying to tear it down.
 
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What's the difference, RU could win a national championship and the NJ media would still be trying to tear it down.
At 5-0 in 2006 the paper of record mocked us "predicting" we'd go undefeated and play for the National Championship.

Then they sold a book commemorating the season.

So, yeah, you are correct.
 
Ash is not going anywhere for the next 10-15 years, so the next coach is right now either still playing football or a grad assistant that nobody has heard of.
 
Anyone remember Brohm losing it on his brother on the sidelines during the game in 2006?

Add throwing the chair in there.. and I think Brohm loses it sometime and get fired.

As for Fleck being a star here? At least "Row the Boat" jives with "Upstream, Red Team"


i remember that. I agree, he's going to blow up one of these days. Too much of a hot head.

The funny thing about that tirade was his brother was playing way better than he ever did.
 
Fleck would never survive the media in NJ. Between his skeletons and schtick he’d be a laughingstock in no time.
You’re assuming he’d lose.
Because if he won the press would protect him and couldn’t care less about skeletons and schtick
 
PJ is just yesterday's Scott Frost
In the sense of hot coach at that time yes, in the sense of substance over flash I'd say no. Who knows ultimately how either will turn out but I'd feel better about Frost's potential compared Fleck's potential.
 
That article also highlights one other thing I don't like about his profile besides his schtick and the rest, he's fully immersed in RU bubble of coaches and that's not something I'd be all that positive about. He had Ed Warrinner for a bit but he's gone to Michigan but the rest are pretty much former coaches from here.

I've said before I like coaches to look beyond just their coaching bubbles/contacts for assistants. Like what Gundy did with Yurcich. It's natural and sensible to use previous contacts but don't limit yourself to that.

But when you do use you former contacts the bigger your tree the more branches to pull on and I prefer that. You see the limit of Fleck's "sapling" so I'm not a fan of that either. It could work out of course but the more vast your network the better.

I've given the example of Alex Grinch as a next possible up and comer assistant that could have some potential. He did a solid job at WSU and now he's a DC at OSU with Schiano so you'd think he'd do a solid job on that side of the ball. But during his football career, he's played with Matt Campbell /Jason Candle, he's coached on Chip Kelly's staff at New Hampshire and Mike Leach's at WSU and now is working with Kevin Wilson/Ryan Day (another former Kelly assistant) at OSU. That's a nice network of coaches and branches and offshoots to pull on and I like that and they're all good offensive coaches. So one you'd hope he'd have a better understanding of offense and how to implement one being around all those good offensive coaches and two he'd have a contacts to call upon for assistants. That's the kind of thing I look for to get a fuller profile of what guy might bring.
 
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