Coach P.J. Fleck Press Conference, Sept. 26, Q. Got my jacket on.

Transcription

1 Coach P.J. Fleck Press Conference, Sept. 26, 2017 Q. Got my jacket on. COACH FLECK: A different one, but yeah. Kirk Herbstreit had your jacket on, too, this past week. I don't know if you saw that. First of all, just want to thank everyone for being here, coming to all the press conferences. Again, I'll tell that you every single week, I appreciate the job that you do. I know you have a job. I know we're not here just to be friends, right? I know you have your job to do, I have a job to do, as well, so I want you to want to be here. You know, I want you to look forward to coming here to get your job done, not like, "Oh, we have to go there." I always want you to come into this building to feel good and to do your job, so, right, wrong or indifferent, positive or negative, you got to do your job and I'm here to help you do your job. So with that said, we'll open up for your questions. Q. What about your helicopter, what if it had crashed? COACH FLECK: Wow, I'm going to repeat that question, Sid, for the listeners that didn't hear that. He asked me, what about the helicopter, what if it would have crashed? Well, I wouldn't be here right now, you would have your new football coach, your seventh in 11 years, a new one. I don't worry -- I'll be honest, I don't worry about those things. I fly in so many planes and go so many places, that's one thing you can't think about and I don't want to think about it. But that's why I have life insurance. It's why you have all those things to protect your kids. But the reason for going there, just so everybody knows, is the efficiency to be able to see recruits, and it's not just to make an impact and create a lot of wind around a high school stadium. Yes, it has that effect but we live in a metro area, right, on a Friday night, and if I want to get to multiple games driving, not only that, spend time with the fans, the little kids, who are the future, who I can talk to, right, the 7-and 8-year-olds that we want to be future Gophers, and I can take pictures and hang out with them, legally, and have a great time, that's what it's for, right? That's what you get there so you can spend the time doing that, talking to the high school coach, having a relationship with them. And then also getting evaluations done at the same time. So to me, that's really important, and you've got to be able to do that efficiently, and the more places we can see, the more the benefit we have. So we'll continue to do that as we continue to be here.

2 Q. You had on jersey and pads, what was that? COACH FLECK: It looks like pads, it's just how big the jersey was on a little guy like me. It was just -- the jersey's thick and so it kind of went like this, it was a little boxier. It's not like I took the number and took it in a medium, I'm a medium, so -- and take that number. It was the actual jersey our players wear, so -- Q. All the places you've ever been recruiting, have you ever had any scares, airplanes or -- COACH FLECK: Oh, yeah, I've had numerous scares, yeah, yeah. Q. Up or down or landing -- COACH FLECK: It's always down and it's always in, like, weather, you know, or very windy. But the cool thing about -- if you do ever get a chance to look out the front of a plane, all right, and sometimes when you have the opportunity to fly private, you can do that, you see that, and your plane's tilted this way, right, but the runway is this way, and the way they have to be able to get it all the way down and then turn it at the last second, oh... You talk about pressure like a 4th and 2 call or the Penn State call against Iowa, I mean, that's pretty -- that's close, because that's the one you -- you're facing this way and the runway is here. That's why they tell you sit down and buckle -- buckle your seat belt, but I had to peek, you know. But, yeah, so I don't worry about those things but, you know, one of my favorite country music groups, Montgomery Gentry, you know, he just lost -- Gentry just lost his life in a helicopter crash and we found out after we had just booked the helicopter, and if you can imagine what my wife said -- we're not even allowed to go on the blue helicopters in Hawaii when we go there to see the volcanos because when we were there, one went down, and we weren't allowed to go on there, in terms of -- my wife said we're not going on there. It's not like we weren't allowed, she just said, "We're not going up there." I think she's a little bit more uptight, Sid, than probably me when we travel. Q. What changes now the Big 10 season starts? COACH FLECK: Nothing, to be honest with you. We're going to continue to get better, change our best and continue to make this football team better than it was yesterday, and I thought today's practice, we did that. If you go back to the bye week, Tuesday, what we focused on was strictly individual. It was an hour and 15-minute practice, strictly individual, like skilled development. O line was at the line, D line with your position coach, getting better at the fundamentals and details.

3 Wednesday was Minnesota versus Minnesota, so we were like a training camp practice. You know, we didn't do any other opponent stuff, it was just us. No individual, just all team stuff, 7 on 7s, to get better at our stuff. And then Thursday we started getting into Maryland and that's when we could start that next group in terms of that next opponent, and so we did that. And then they got some days off. We went out recruiting and we got a chance Saturday as a staff to spend time with our families, which I know all of our staff did, and then here we are, we're back into game week. Big 10 play. It's really -- we just want to be 1-0 in the Maryland season but we have to embrace our past. We have to be humble about our past. We have to be able to gather all the information and squeeze all the juice from that orange possible to become better this week. And it doesn't -- like, okay, now, here you go, nothing mattered. It all mattered. Now matters, you know, tomorrow matters, but we can't get there until we get done with today, and, you know, it's just a really good opponent, who beat Texas. I know they've had some quarterback things but, remember, Tom Brady was a backup at one point, too, not only with the Patriots, he was a backup at Michigan, and he's the greatest quarterback of all time. This kid has worked incredibly hard, number 18, he's got a family, got a mom and dad, you know, he won in high school, he got a scholarship like everybody else, and he's just been waiting for his opportunity, and it's one thing when you kind of get thrown in the game when somebody gets hurt, it's another thing to actually prepare the whole week with your guy that's going to play, and that's what they have this week. Coach Durkin is a phenomenal football coach, he's going to get everybody ready to go, and they have four big-time playmakers on the offensive side of the ball, big ones, that are incredibly explosive. None of those guys are hurt and they're going to make sure they get the ball to them. Q. Coach, on the defense line and in the secondary, did you look at the returning pieces you had coming back and thinking you're starting from a pretty good spot on that side? COACH FLECK: In terms of the -- Q. Your defense, just -- I know you have some issues with depth on the defensive line and the secondary but you have some returning -- COACH FLECK: Yeah, the one thing we had, we had three returning starters on defense, right, that had significant amount of starting which was great. I'll take three over two, I'll take two over one, you know, one over zero, but I think the biggest depth we have is linebacker and we have some depth, D-line issues and secondary issues but everybody at this point has issues, right? We had it walking into this, but we've also developed some young guys, too. Now I might have to pull some red shirts. I can't even say I pulled a red shirt because I didn't red-shirt them

4 yet but I might have to play guys that I planned on red-shirting which doesn't help you for the future but it's the only option we have right now. And if it's the only option we have, I have to use it. If there's another option, I won't use 'em. But that's where we're at, and I know if we need to put them in the game, they'll be able to do it. To what level, we'll find out. But, again, we're going to put them in the game and coach 'em up, and like Rey Estes. Rey Estes might have to play and if Rey Estes has to play -- remember, Rey Estes five weeks ago was a quarterback, so, you know, I mean, when you start talking about developing DBs, that's what we have to be able to do. And we have to fix that '18 and '19 recruiting, which we are, but the defensive side of the ball, I think they're playing incredibly hungry and playing with exceptional how, right, and that's what we want our team to do. The X and Os, okay, that's the scheme we have, but how hard they're playing, that's what inspires me. Q. So does that start with Winfield and Celestin, and they kind of raise the level of everyone else around them? COACH FLECK: Yeah, you like everybody to raise the level of everybody. What we have to be able to get here is 11 captains on defense and 11 captains on offense. You want to be able to have that mentality and then 11 captains of your starting special teams. Not just one or two guys that have to uplift everybody. We showed them a quote today that, you know, it -- you don't want to be the person that everybody has to motivate. Right? You want to be the guy that is motivating everybody, but everybody's looking at who's going to motivate each other better because they're all motivators and that's what we have to get. We can't have guys that have to constantly be motivated so we need to get to the point where all 11 are doing that, but, yes, Antoine Winfield, Jon Celestin have come into a leadership role for us and their play speaks for itself. But, again, I'll go back to this. If you do the right things off the field and you do the right things in the classroom, right, and you do the right things in your spiritual life, in your academic life, your athletic life, your social life, you're going to become a pretty good player in this program, right? You might not start all the time, and you might be the best player ever but you're going to get opportunities. What you do with those opportunities is up to you but it's no coincidence a guy like Jacob Huff is having a phenomenal first three games. Jacob Huff, there's not a better person on this football team than Jacob Huff and, again, he didn't play at all last year, not much at all. And when all of a sudden you start to see him make the plays he's making, it's just a direct reflection of all the right things he's doing off the field. So, we need everybody to have that serving, that giving to each other, which we're getting there. Every day it's getting better.

5 Q. Coach, when you look at the defense and all the success that you guys have had, how do you look at sacks and pressures through the first three games? COACH FLECK: Well, I think we have to be able to get more pressure on the quarterback, more sacks, but look at the teams we faced, right? Quick game, quick game, quick game, hard to get sacks in three-step drops, it's hard to get sacks when guys are just getting rid of the ball or they're out of the pocket immediately. We're getting a lot of quarterback hurries so if you look back to what we keep stats on, in terms of, like, quarterback hurries, quarterback pressures, not just the sacks, because a quarterback can -- at some level, he can handle whether -- he can dictate whether he gets sacked or not. He can get rid of the ball, he can take a grounding, you can get out of the pocket, throw it past the line of scrimmage, you can go to the ground and throw it to a receiver, you can get out of those sacks, but our quarterback pressures or hurries are up and that's what we're really pleased with. I'm not a statistician, I'm not here for stats. Some people asked before about our stats on defense. Robb Smith didn't come here for stats, either, and neither did our football team. We came here to get better. We've had some success on the defensive side of the ball but, again, that's thrown out the window, that doesn't matter anymore. Whatever we've learned from those three games matters now, and how are we going to respond to those. And today's practice shows we're going to respond really, really well because our players practiced incredibly hungry today, and our defense, we cannot be satisfied. You know, we call it ADS disease, which I won't get into that right now but that's what we call it. Q. P.J., what's your message to the team about having the '67 team back this weekend? COACH FLECK: I think it's incredibly important. We talked to them today about embracing your past to create your future. We want to bring the championships back to Minnesota. That doesn't happen overnight, and I said that from the day one in my press conference and every time I've talked, doesn't happen overnight. When it happens, we'll find out, right? Because the timeframe's not guaranteed, either, but the one thing I'll say is, we want to make sure, when the 1967 team watches our game, they're inspired. It brings them back to their day. It brings them back to, "Wow, now, I know they have this, this, this and this, but, wow, do they play hard. It reminds us of us, Tommy, doesn't it?" "Yeah, that reminds me of you, and that reminds me..." That's what we want them to be able to say. So it's embracing our past, of our past championships and even embracing our 50-year drought of not having championships but all the people that tried to do it. And all the success they had and all the close calls we had. Being proud of that and embracing that, as part of our history, is very important to where you go in the future. Because you have to do it for somebody else

6 rather than yourself, or you'll never get there. We want to bring it to all of them, right? Past, present and future, but it's embracing your past to create the future. So the message was exactly that, embracing our past with the 1967 team being back. And I hope they love what they see. Q. P.J., with a few of those rest days and the bye week, do you feel better about maybe some of the red shirts and things? Did guys get healthier or are you still kind of in the same boat? COACH FLECK: We're kind -- we got healthier in some areas. We're still in the same boat with some other areas because we have some season-ending ones that are going to affect us pretty quickly, right, and so what we have to be able to do is get those guys caught up. I mean -- and that's the job of our coaching staff. We got to get 'em right. But, again, those freshmen won't be freshmen long, they'll be freshmen for a year and then they'll gain the experience they need and then they'll continue to go through their career. So playing them early, not necessarily what a coach wants to do but if it's necessary, we'll do it. And then I look at the positive of everything, right, so to me, if they're going to gain the experience for the future. Q. Who's out for the season? COACH FLECK: A few guys, a few guys. Q. Coach -- COACH FLECK: You asked. Go through the whole roster? You give me a name, I'll tell you yes or no. Q. Coach, how important was the off-season work and practice this season to make Jacob Huff into the player he was? COACH FLECK: I think it's very important because I think the one thing for us, it doesn't matter who you are, we need everybody on this football team, and when you lack depth at certain positions, we need everybody. So there's going to be guys that never thought they were going to play, now all of a sudden have to play. Nate Umlor, we thought we were going to red-shirt him and now he's going to play. And now he's playing. We didn't think that would ever have to happen. I don't know. Tanner Morgan, never know if he's going to have to play. We were going to redshirt him but he might have to play. You start going through all of that and you start to say, where do you go back to? You go back to your preparation, you go back to training camp, you know, you go back to spring ball the guys that could do it back in spring ball but, again, you go back to that and you're still searching for things because you only had four linemen in spring, you had 22 off-season surgeries so nobody really practiced in spring so you're still getting to

7 know your team and now you're getting to know your freshmen and what they can do and maybe putting them in the position sooner than they need to be in there but it's a need and they have to -- they have to go do it. But a guy like Jacob Huff, it's a direct reflection of all the things he's done in the off-season, how hard he's worked. Q. Coach, how involved are you with the combinations of jerseys? You had the Goldy helmet and the shoes, how involved are you with the decisions you make with that? COACH FLECK: Very involved. Very involved. I let a lot of artists draw things up, I'm not drawing my own shoes, but the Goldy decision was done all the way back in the summer that we wanted to celebrate Goldy with a big Goldy on the side and then the design team takes it from there. I don't do all those. I just say what we want and how we want to create it, and then they take it. And the cool thing about that is, is that I like to be really creative, you know, and I think that's a good thing. But, also, we have a lot of resources here at the University of Minnesota that are way more creative than me, so to put all of our heads together in creative meetings as we move forward, I think that's a benefit for everybody. I don't think you'll ever see anything too wild. You know, you're not going to see us get out of school colors and do weird things like that, things don't match, but, again, in terms of when you start to see alternate uniforms this year, and then in the future, you're going to see a lot of things maybe you haven't seen before. Q. Is that for the kids? Is that kind of a recruiting tool, like Oregon used it for a recruiting tool? COACH FLECK: I think when you go back to the Oregon -- what made Oregon really different, Oregon was one of the only teams that did it at that level at that time. And then you watch Boise State do it with their blue turf. I think everybody now has the ability to do that, even -- you look at schools like Notre Dame who have changed up traditions to make it veer more towards recruiting and players, but I think it's fun. Penn State's even got away from some traditional things at times which is one of the most traditional schools in college football. I think it's fun. I think kids want -- again, 15 years ago was a different -- a different era than now with the kids with their smartphones, that whatever is on that smartphone at that second, they flip and it's old news. It's boring now. What else you got? What is going to stimulate my mind? You know, we have unique team meetings, every day. Ask our players, it's a little bit different but it's to stimulate their minds, stimulate their day. Our team meetings are always done at the beginning, why? Because I get to set the tone of how they think for the whole day, that's why it's done in the morning. I don't have eight hours to -- of other people putting things in their

8 mind and saying how should I respond to this. We set the tone from the beginning. So when you start talking about jerseys, it's more for our players in house, I think they enjoy that. I think there is a fan experience for that. I think there is a marketing tool for that. And I think there is a branding aspect of that. And there's an experience part of it, and that all kind of funnels into recruiting. Because we want to show that we're willing to do some things that are neat or different or unique, right, because we want to be unique, you know? Nobody that ever made a difference did anything that everybody else did. If you're making a difference, you're obviously doing other things that other people haven't done, right? And I think that's important for our football team to understand. And not trying to do it, just be yourself. You know, we put Goldy because Goldy is our mascot and it was his birthday. And he's the National Championship mascot. And the people that are in -- I shouldn't say, all the little kids out there, Goldy, in terms of, you know, all the people that support Goldy, and all his handlers that make sure Goldy is where he is all the time, they don't get enough credit. When's the last time somebody in this room thanked the people that help Goldy out? And make Goldy who he is? That's what college football is about. And there's a lot of people who pour a lot of energy in that that deserve that recognition. Maybe they won't get it from the media or they won't get it from the world but they'll get it from at least their head football coach and, you know, the staff and the players saying, you know, we get college football. So that's kind of how the thought process -- just doesn't say, hey, this will stand out, let's do this. There's always a reason behind why we're doing something. Great -- sorry about the long answer. Q. What's been the conversations about the National Anthem and the kneeling and all this? Do you get -- does the team ask you about it? Do you guys get involved in that at all? COACH FLECK: We talked -- I mean, this has been an issue for a while now, right, and so we've talked about it even back in the spring -- the winter, the spring, the summer, I mean, but here's the one thing I'll say is that our student athletes -- because I think everybody's commenting on this, right? And that's okay. Our student athletes are citizens first, and then they're student athletes second. They're citizens of the United States of America. So who am I to tell them how they should believe or what they should believe in. We provide a lot of moments of silence for our players to do whatever they want in that moment. They are all different walks of life, from different religions, different spiritual backgrounds, different home lives, different thoughts and ideas about our nation. And that's their time to be able to do that. I never want the political issues to pull our team apart. I want them to be comfortable enough to talk about the political issues, or mention the societal issues but, also, let our culture help

9 you figure it out. Right? But there's nobody that's more in support of our nation and the American way than myself as a head football coach and all of our players. So that's why we visited Bruce Smith's grave. But when you start to look at why are people doing these things, it's not -- it is at times but it's not just the flag, and it is at times but it's not just the anthem. It's the societal issues we're having, and if you get to the bottom of why people are doing something, you know, whether it's the racial equality or whether it's the, you know, the police or whether it's the -- the racial injustice or the inequality, right, those are societal issues that that's what people are standing up for, or kneeling down for. And some are doing it because of the flag or what it stood for or the song or who it was written by but, at the end of the day, you know, we are Americans, but I'm in charge of 125 American student athletes that are citizens of this country. And they have the freedom to think whichever way they want. I just want them to think about that respectively and do it in a connecting way. Let's do it in a connecting way, right? And I think that's what some of the best leaders in our world have always done, they've taken something that's so controversial and instead of dividing everybody, they've connected people while doing it. Martin Luther King is a prime example of that. Yeah, people didn't like his thoughts and ideas but he did it with love and care and compassion and brought people together, right? And so citizens first, student athletes second. And in terms of us, you know, the way the time sheet's going, the way I bring our football team out, I've always been in the locker room for the National Anthem but always given our team a moment of silence to do what you've always done. It's never been because of that. I've been doing that for the last five years but it's to give them the opportunity to do it their way. Q. P.J., I imagine defenses are going to start to focus on Tyler Johnson now. Outside of him at that receiver corps, where's your confidence level that you're going to have guys that can step up if -- COACH FLECK: Well, my confidence level is we have what we have and I believe in the guys we put on the field to be able to do that job. But a lot of the guys we put on that field haven't had the game experience to prove it yet. Or haven't had enough to say, I have done it and to recall back from. Think of all of us, the first time you do something, whether it's the first time you fly or whether it's the first time you go up an escalator, first time whatever, right? Or your kids, first time they touch the hot stove, you know, there is a learning experience to that. And you're not just going to be the best wide-out in the country the first rep you take when you've had no experience, let alone never played, all right, or been put in a position to be a guy that has to produce. We've got to speed that up for these players and that's why you're going to start to see this youth movement of all these guys coming in and inexperience but we're going to run our offense.

10 And I know this, our coaches are phenomenal at getting players ready, and that's what we're going to do, and this is the only way you learn. This is part of year zero, right, when you have the inexperience and lack of depth. When you do, you get guys in there and they've got to gain it somehow. I was a different player as a freshman than I was a junior and a senior, way different player, because I could embrace my past to create my future. But if you have no past to pull from, it's hard. You got to create that past now. Paul: we'll take one or two more. Q. Tyrone Carter -- COACH FLECK: Well, Tyrone is one of the greatest players to ever play here. I think for me is that -- look, I'm not for everybody and when I take over a program, we instill our culture, it's about everybody, but not everybody's going to agree with what I do or how I do it. Whether that's in the recruiting department, whether it's in development department, whether that's in the play-calling department, whether that's in the uniform department. Whatever it is, right, you're not going to make everybody happy. But, you know, knowing that Tyrone wasn't happy at some point with a decision I made, you know, I understand that. I understand decisions that are made. I think there was a little misunderstanding throughout the whole thing and I think what happened, just being able to have two guys talk about it instead of, you know, both people going to the media or doing those types of things, but that's what I want our alumni to understand, is that I am not for everybody but I am here for you. And I told Tyrone the same thing. I have no ties to Minnesota. I'm not from Minnesota. My grandparents don't live here. It's not like I've had a dad that graduated here and I couldn't wait to take the job because of my past. But I did it because of all of our players for the last 50 years who haven't won a championship, I want to bring it to them, right? I want to bring it to our community, bring to our state. Now, it takes time to do that and I do it a different way than somebody else. Not that my way is the right way, it's just one way to skin the cat but when you have a lot of turnover in the last 11 years, six coaches in 11 years, it's hard to be able to sit there and say, you know, that's -- you know, this is another coach with another new belief and I -- I had a lot of success as a player, I had a success as a team and we did it this way and they're not doing it this way, I get all that. That's normal. But I want our alumni to know you can always come talk to me if there is an issue or a problem, or if you don't like something, to straighten something out. But I do know this, every decision I ever make, whether you are an alumni, a professor, student athlete, is always to make the University of Minnesota better. That's it. But I do it in maybe a different or unique way that maybe we haven't had but that's okay.

11 Like I told you before, you know, to be different, you got to do things that other people haven't done. And I don't try to do that, I'm just myself, but there's going to be decisions I make that, you know, that don't make people happy and that's okay. If you're not -- then come see me. Especially if you're close to the program but I'll tell you exactly why. But I can't make everybody happy. But he's such a great player here and he's such a huge influence on a lot of people here that we just had a man-to-man discussion, a man-to-man meeting and came out on the other side and then we're back to Tyrone and P.J., like we were before. And I think he got a little bit of insight into a decision-making head football coach of what goes into that and why it goes into that, and I got an understanding from his perspective, so I get it, but that's how you solve issues, and I think our society shows that a little bit now with going out there and doing things before people meet. And -- but like I said, he's such a great player here and I'm proud of him and just proud of the meeting. You know, that's progress. Because at the end of the day -- I'll say one last thing on that topic, is that eventually I want -- if our alumni are here, right, and you have children, I want there one day to be no doubt in your mind your son or your daughter is going to the University of Minnesota. Period. No questions asked. Have we had that 100%? We got to get there. Because there's other schools in our conference that have people that have graduated from that school and their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, they're going to that school, period. You don't have a choice, you're going there. I want to create that. That's exciting. That's neat, I mean, that's different. We've got to be able to do that and, you know, I want everybody to feel that, and getting there is hard, right, and there's decisions you have to make to be able to get your whole class filled, things like that, so I've talked way too long on that topic. But he's an elite person, an elite player here. We just need more Jim Thorpe award winners, I told him. I said, "We need more, we need more." Paul: One more for coach. Q. P.J., have you considered having the team on the field for the National Anthem here or at Western Michigan? COACH FLECK: Because of the time constraints, the time constraints made me feel like it wasn't necessary to be able to do that. That's my -- that's the only reason why I've never been out there. You know, your team stands out there for ten more minutes, I would rather have them in their resting. They're student athletes, their well-being is what I'm looking after, their hydration and all those other things, but the time frame has never necessarily matched up. And again, I think for us, it's become at times this -- to get the politics involved in sport and football and that, I think that's where we're going down a slippery slope, you know. That's just -- that's just hard. Remember, football is a release for a lot of people, it's a chance to get away, it's a chance

12 to take a deep breath, but when all those issues start to creep into the place that you're going to take a deep breath, that's where you start to feel all these emotions that people are feeling, and respectfully so. But for me, I want our players to have the freedom and the ability to do it their way. But still keep our team connected the way they need to keep our team connected, but do -- but have the freedom to be able to do it their own way. You had your hand up a while back so I'll let you get one more. Q. I was going to ask, Rashad Still, what's his role coming into Big 10 play after not having much going on for him for the first three games? COACH FLECK: If you do the right things, you'll be on the football field. He'll be back this week. All right. Row The Boat, Ski U Mah, go Gophers. Thank you.