P.J. Fleck recalled the episode with a chuckle.
Debbie Schmitz, the mother of Gophers center John Michael Schmitz, walked into Fleck's office and wanted an explanation from the football coach.
" 'I just want to know why my son's not playing,' " Fleck said from Big Ten media days in July. "I had no idea she was coming, but she was on a mission in saying, 'Why is my son not playing?' I told her the reasons, and she said, 'Thank you very much,' and drove back to Chicago."
John Michael Schmitz was a third-year sophomore during that 2019 season, and he hadn't yet broken into the starting lineup. "It was nothing John Michael was doing wrong,'' Fleck said, "but he wasn't ready yet. It was coming, it was close, and that's all she wanted to hear."
John Michael persevered through those frustrations and eventually started four games that season.
"I was kind of going through some hard things and wanted to air some things out, but we got through it," Schmitz said. "We kept rowing the boat like we always say, and yeah, here we are."
Here he is, indeed.
Schmitz enters the 2022 season — his sixth with the Gophers — as one of the top returning offensive linemen in the nation. He's a preseason first-team All-America selection by Athlon Sports and is on the watch list for the Rimington Trophy, the award given to the best center in college football. He's poised to become the Gophers' most-decorated offensive lineman since Greg Eslinger, a two-time All-America center who won the Rimington and Outland trophies (best interior lineman) in 2005.