He might have been conducting some intentional coaching subterfuge. Or he might have been telling the truth. The answer will come Thursday and beyond.
Will P.J. Fleck change as a coach, as change swirls all around him?
P.J. Fleck insists he's adapting, not changing, as he leads the Gophers through a very different college football landscape.
August 31, 2023 at 11:09AM
P.J. Fleck stated firmly last week that he's not changing his stripes, thus dumping a bucket of cold water over those of us who have begged the Gophers football coach to blowtorch his old-school offensive playbook and come out slinging the ball with new strong-armed starting quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis.
"We still have our same philosophical beliefs," Fleck said, "and that will never change."
He sounded convincing, but we shall see Thursday night when the season kicks off against Nebraska.
Fleck insists he's adapting as a coach, not changing, but the landscape that surrounds him has shifted dramatically as he begins his seventh season in Minnesota.
When he took the job, Fleck still had hair, the transfer portal and NIL (name, imagine and likeness) did not exist and the Big Ten wasn't planning an expansion to 18 teams.
In a nod to the "time flies" principle, Fleck is now tied for fourth on the Big Ten coaching seniority list, trailing only Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, Penn State's James Franklin and Michigan's Jim Harbaugh. He outlasted Scott Frost at Nebraska and stayed put longer than Jeff Brohm at Purdue.
In many ways, Year 7 feels like a new beginning for Fleck, or at least a clearly defined new chapter. He has a new quarterback, new co-offensive coordinators and a newish roster that no longer features players who became synonymous with Fleck's tenure: Morgan, Ibrahim, Sori-Marin, Schmitz, et al.
Fleck made an observation last week that crystallizes this sense of longevity.
"You start getting compared to the success that you've had," he said. "Not the success that Minnesota teams had before you, but how you've done."
Seven years is long enough time to establish that benchmark. It's no longer about measuring his success against what Jerry Kill accomplished, or Glen Mason, or the low bar set by Tim Brewster.
Fleck's scorecard is large enough now for observers to set expectations. We might not know the exact ceiling of each team, but nothing about the way Fleck runs his program, what he demands of players or how he coaches on game day should come as a surprise.
"You always want to come in and make the place better," Fleck said. "Not that it was bad before, not that it had all these issues before, not that coaches didn't do a good job before you. I've never truly said that. But what I'm saying is, you want to take it to a different level."
Even critics of Fleck's coaching style and personality would admit the program stands on solid footing. Fleck's pet phrase — "cultural sustainability" — is a fancier way of saying stability. His program has that now, which comes amid a torrent of chaos in college football, and college sports overall.
The portal and NIL have made coaching infinitely more challenging at every school. Rosters change every season, sometimes in waves. The disparity in NIL opportunities school to school has made the playing field even more uneven.
The core tenets of Fleck's coaching philosophy have not changed within this new realm, but the job itself has changed substantially. There are far more brush fires to contain.
"Everybody has way more on their plate than they ever have," Fleck said. "If you don't adapt, you're going to have a problem. The game has changed. There is a lot more to worry about. That doesn't mean I don't worry about the same things I worried about seven years ago. There's just 20 more things to worry about."
The Gophers' 2023 schedule would keep most coaches up at night, considering it's viewed as the second-most difficult in college football. Fleck is more equipped and more experienced now in Year 7 to handle a challenge like this.
It's impossible to predict how long a major college football coach will last in a job. The Gophers' season-opening opponent envisioned a fairy tale when Frost returned home to Nebraska. That proved to be a disaster. Now the Cornhuskers are starting over.
Fleck has been in Minnesota long enough that his program feels settled in. The Big Ten will become even more competitive next season with the addition of the four Pac-12 schools (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington). The job isn't getting any easier. Fleck's program must keep advancing to keep pace in this new superconference.
The start of any season always feels invigorating. This one especially so. All the changes create the perception of it being something new, something different, version 2.0 of Fleck's tenure.
The head coach swears he's not changing. If his quarterback throws as much as he hands off, we'll know Fleck was just being coy.
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