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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 19, 2018

PJ Fleck

Minneapolis, Minnesota

P.J. FLECK: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for being here. Before we start, I want to make sure Mike Grimm and his father know we're thinking of him. He's part of our media, I know he's part of the media, the voice of "Golden Gopher Football." I know his father is going through some health things right now, so if you continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to move forward, I appreciate that. We miss him today, just wanted to say that.

Really special day for us. 2019 class being signed this morning, really excited about it. It's a tremendous class. It's a pretty deep class, again, another big class that we needed to be able to sign. This class has a lot of different attributes it brings to our program, academically, athletically, socially and spiritually, which we will talk about here in a second.

When I got here I told you the two most important classes as we start this whole process of building a championship-style culture is the '18 class, get 'em in, add 'em the guys that are already here being developed, and then add 'em to the '19 class, and that's what we did.

Last year we were able to play as many freshman as we played. In the bowl game I think you'll see eight freshmen starting on the offensive side of the ball, so we talked about that '18 class mixing with the guys on the team, and now the '19 class is going to come in, and I got the question earlier about how do you get all these guys and tell them to come here if the '18 guys are playing, and you're telling the '19 guys they are going to be playing, because I've proven we are going to play freshmen.

It's not like you have a bunch of junior and seniors and you say yeah you can come here and play early and you can play, and then there's no freshmen on your roster. We have a lot of 'em, and the best players and the best people will play, and they always will do that. Guys that do the right things will play, and they will always do that.

I'm really excited about these two classes moving through the next few years collectively together, and I'm really excited about what they can bring toward Gopher football.

A few things we wanted to focus on with the '19 class, we wanted to focus on the defensive side of the ball. That's not to say that we didn't focus on some of the '19 positions on offense, but we wanted to focus on the defensive side. Last year you saw we took seven offensive linemen, took a lot of wide receivers, did a lot of things on the offensive side of the ball. This year heavy, heavy defensive linemen, which you got a chance to see and the secondary players.

We also wanted to make sure we kept two or three scholarships available to be able to hit possibly the free agent market, which has dripped into college football. Everybody is calling it a free agent market, when names get put into a portal, whether it's a transfer, a grad transfer, in January when we employ back out recruiting, because that's going to be a big step in college football is to be able to have that January for those things, so you learned last year we would have loved to have one or two more, and we would have loved to have had 40 scholarships last year that we could sign, but we felt like signing the 25 all on that day was what we had to do to move forward.

This year we felt like keeping two or three to be able to have that January, like I said, free agent-type market and we have one player committed to us that is going to sign in February, that we're gonna -- when you get in big boy fights, that's what we want to be is in big boy fights, and that's what we want to be able to have in our program. We want to be able to have people look at us that way, and we will recruit against anybody. We want to do that, and we want to be in those positions.

As we even continue to go through on to February, you can see another one, two high school, three high school kids even sign in February, too, as we continue to leave no stone uncovered and unturned. A lot of state champions, seven state champions, even a basketball state champion in this as well, which would possibly make eight state champions, if you count that as well. We wanted too make sure people coming into the program know how win championships. To win championships, you must have champions, people and players; right?

To be able to make sure they did that, we wanted to be able to make sure these players helped their high school do something really special. You will see a lot of teams get to the state finals, get to the state semifinals, maybe not be as necessarily that good at the beginning and be really good by the time they left.

We wanted guys that could completely flip a program around and be part of turn-arounds and be part of that energy to help our program say, hey, we're going to to do this and be part of something maybe for the first time in half a century.

That has to be something they want to do. That's got to excite the people that come here, and we feel like this class did that. This is the highest ranked consecutive class in school history, which we are very, very proud of, since the internet era. Again, the players and the kids like to hear those ranking things. That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a good football team, that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a really good football player.

But I think it's very important for donors, for boosters, for supporters to know what type of quality people we're getting, players we're getting, and who we're beating on the recruiting trail here at the University of Minnesota. This is Minnesota's highest average ranking for offensive and defensive players, ever. We've got seven state championships, which we mentioned, seven state champions. We got 18 of the 23 members were multi-sport athletes in high school, just very similar to what we did last year. We love players that play multiple sports.

It's not a "must" but it's as close to a must as you possibly can get to come play for us, and then 13 of the 23 members of this class are enrolling in January, which we wanted to make sure these guys are here early, because, again,we're going to need a lot of them to play for us next year.

Probably aren't going to want to hear this, but next year we're probably still going to be a little bit young. I'm not saying we're the youngest, so don't be saying, "Coach Fleck, talking how young he's gonna be. Here is another excuse." But that's how we're doing it. The days when you start seeing 23, 24 seniors walking on Senior Day, that's when you know a program is starting to work in terms of being the developmental program that we want to have.

Again, I know we compete against 'em, but Northwestern is a great example. What Pat Fitzgerald did this year in a developmental program to go win the Big Ten West, defeat the teams they did, play Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship is a tip of the cap to him and the way he's built the program at Northwestern.

So when you talk about developmental programs, that's what we want to be here. We want to bring high school student-athletes in here, develop them as freshmen all the way through their senior year, or if they're blessed enough and lucky enough and good enough to leave as juniors, we want to make sure they have the opportunity to do that as well. But, again, we are going to develop them, and then fill in some holes, whether it is with a grad transfer or a junior college player but not build our entire team and recruiting class based around that but do it more of the developmental high school route.

So very proud of the class. There's a lot of the players that we're going to get to. You know how I work. We are going to talk about every player. So if you have a question on that, let me know. Every player signed, every player is a part of this team, and every player deserves for me to be able to talk to 'em.

The first player I'll talk about really in alphabetical order is Nnamdi. He's kinda like Prince, he goes by one name, Nnam; that's all you gotta call him. He is a tremendous wide receiver. He's about 6-2, 230 pounds. He's out of the Ft. Worth Texas area. Clay Patterson did a great job recruiting this young man. I remember when Clay Patterson came in, and I said, "Clay, you know, we gotta get some guys outta Texas," and he goes, "Coach, you know Texas guys don't like to leave Texas very often," and I said, "You've gotta find a way to get 'em to leave Texas, not only leave Texas, they've gotta come to Minnesota." This young man had a lot of offers, a lot of big-time offers. He's big, 230 pounds, this guys is very physical. He can catch the ball in traffic. He's a guy that can catch a slant, go the distance.

Again, a multi sport athlete, runs track as well, and we're lucky to have him here. This guy is going to really add to our wide receiver corp. We have some of those guys that are around the 6-1, 6-foot area, guys that are long and rangy, but we added guys with major length as well which we felt like we needed to be able to have at that position as well.

Our next player, MJ Anderson, he's a defensive end from the St. Louis, Missouri area, one of the top-rated players in the state of Missouri. This young man was the Class 6-A Defensive Player of the Year, so the highest class Player of the Year in the state of Missouri. Won the state championship in Missouri at Christian Brothers College. Really kind of a fun fact: He's got the longest arm length of anybody in our class, and that's important when you play the D-line.

One of the biggest measurements we take on the D-line is how long your wing span is, to be able to get inside and keep those tackles at a distance instead of letting them keep inside of you, you've got to be able to keep them at a distance, you've got to have space, you've got to be able to play people with one arm. He's incredibly strong, and, you know, we're so blessed to have him. He's got a 3.0 and father, Michael, and mother, Vanisha, had a tremendous home visit with him. And he's a young man that went through a lot of recruiting.

Went through highs, and we had to basically get him back as well, because he wanted to make sure he was making all the right decisions, and we supported him all the way through that. We're really glad he's here. Another big, long, defensive end that has incredible twitch, can play inside and can play outside. He will help us at the 5 technique, the position that "Big O" plays, that you see him, Winston DeLattiboudere, III, as well.

Our next player in alphabetical order is Solomon Brown. He's a defensive back from Largo, Florida. Largo High school. He's a mid-year enrollee, he's a multi-sport athlete, had to fight off a lot of people in our own conference for this player. He's versatile, wonderful young man, very confident young man, you have to be to play in the secondary, but he gives us the versatility to play corner and safety. Not only that, he can play the money position, which you got to see Chris Williamson do later in the year. That's a very important position for us, because of so many teams we play that are more spread oriented. Had over 200 tackles in his career. So we're talking about a defensive back, and when you're in our system you've got to be able to tackle and tackle well. Very excited to have him.

Our next student-athlete we will talk about is Michael Brown Stephens. One of the fun things we had today that Gerrit Chernoff kind of adds his touch to Signing Day, if you get a chance to ever get up there. It's fabulous. It's a lot of fun.

His uncle is John Legend, literally the John Legend, and it's kinda funny because he's Heather and I's favorite musician and artist, and it's just weird they talk about him as "Uncle John." We're going on tour with Uncle John. My Uncle John going on tour, it's a little different than just going on tour with Uncle John. He's the most humble young man. They have one of the best families that I've ever been around. They've got this really cool wall in their house called the celebrity wall.

I'm thinking, alright, head coach is going to go on the wall, this is gonna be a big deal. When does my picture get up there? Listen, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama are on that wall, you got John Legend, all his friends, Chrissy, you got everybody up there. And I'm like, there is no way I'm going on this wall. They got three dogs, and I'm like, where is the picture of the three dogs? Put me on that wall.

He is a multi-sport athlete. He is known as No. 198. So when you see him, you're going to call him, hey, you're 198, because that's the only way that Coach Ciarrocca ever remembered him from our camp circuit. He was like, the best wide out we saw was that 198 guys, you know, and it was Michael Brown Stephens.

He's a young man that came to camp, and had to be able to come to camp in Ohio, and head multiple offers at the time but you know me and receivers, I've gotta see 'em live, I've gotta watch 'em, and we go down there, and he made play after play, comes up to me and goes, "Coach, I just wanted to let you know, you're gonna have a show today," and usually when players come up to you and tell you that, you're like, this kid is a little confident for me.

He goes, "I'm gonna run a 4.4 for you today," and I'm like, not on my watch. That would be very difficult for you to do that. I have an NFL slow watch, and he did. Not only that, he goes, "I'm going to show you I'm the best player here, I'm going to leave no doubt in your mind," and he did. And by the end of that, we did everything we could to make him a Gopher in the next coming days, and we were. He's from Springfield, Ohio, and he's just got a wonderful family. Missy and Tony are tremendous parents to him, and it's a lot of fun.

They've got a dog, a Pit Bull named Chop, and he's the biggest dog you've ever seen in your entire life, and they told me he's the nicest dog you've ever seen in your entire life, but I wasn't allowed outside, so I couldn't tell you if he was really nice or not, but he's tremendous and just a tremendous family. Really, really enjoy this young man's personality. I think you're going to love it, too, as you get to know him.

Next player, I think he's the most underrated player, under-the-radar player we have that everybody talks about some other guys. This guy, we went down to his state championship game, watched it at Mercedes Benz Stadium down in Georgia, and he was by far the best player on that football field. DeAngelo Carter. He's a nose guard for us, from Leesburg Georgia. You want to talk about strength, twitch, explosion, arm length, everything. He's a nose tackle that can move side-to-side and you know in our system you've got to be able to stunt and move. Head four sacks in the state championship game, a forced fumble, and he was the Player of the Game in the state championship, and just a dominating performance by him. Multi-sport athlete as well; he's in track and field.

Just cannot wait. His tenacity and his motor is unlike any I've seen in recruiting, and I can't wait to get him here, can't wait. He's going to be a big part of what we do.

Next, one of the more celebrated guys in our class, just from the media's perspective, from Atlanta, Georgia, Cedar Grove high school, who won a state championship as well, mid-year enrollee, Rashad Cheney, Junior. His father, Rashad Cheney, Senior, has done a great job raising this young man and putting him in the position that he is. As everybody talks, this is an ESPN 300 young man. This is a young man that's been committed to some of the greatest programs in the county, and I give a lot of credit to Marcus West for continuing to recruit a young man every after he was committed, to stay on him. There's a lot of reasons why a relationship goes one way or another throughout an entire two-year recruiting process, and Marcus West was right right there, and that was the biggest difference for us getting this young man or him going to another place that might be a top-10 program right now.

We're excited about having him. Won a Georgia state championship, as we said, highest ranked player to ever sign out of Georgia, just beat out Bateman, and we know how good Bateman is, but this guy has got incredible explosion, get off, and incredible power. So, again, we needed guys that were strong enough to get in here and help us early, especially on the line of scrimmage. We had to be able to have that, no questions asked.

We couldn't take somebody on the inside that we said they're not going to be able to play for two years. That was unacceptable. We needed guys that were ready to play right away, no matter if they were a freshmen or a junior college player and Rashad Cheney, Junior does that. He will be here mid-year.

Out next player is our quarterback, one of the quarterbacks we brought in, Jacob Clark, who is at Rockwell high school, down in Texas. He originally was in Kansas City. This is a big four-star recruit, according to major publications. This guy is a gun slinger. He's not only a gun slinger, but he's got incredible intangibles. Threw for over 430 yards against one of the most prolific and one of the most historic high school programs, against Allen high school, I think it was in the first round of the playoffs, or second round of the playoffs.

Multi-sport athlete, basketball state champion. He threw for over 6,000 yards in his high school career, over 60 touchdowns. Again, how important are camps? This is a young man that camped with us down in Oklahoma, not that far of a drive for 'em, so we were able to get down there, identify talent in the Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Dallas area, down in Texas, and we needed to be able to get one of those Texas quarterbacks, and we did. High, high intangibles, wonderful young man, incredible family, very, very smart and can diagnose and process things very quickly, and he's got a heck of an arm. 6-4, 215 pounds, mid-year enrollee, will be here in January.

Some of you might not have know about this young man, but we have been recruiting him for a long time. Jahmile Addae, our defensive back coach, has been recruiting this young man out of Tampa, Florida, but he came to the way of us through Hutchinson Community College. Jahmile Addae is from Tampa, knows everybody in Tampa, and remember we always say we want relationships where our coaches have been, where they've coached, where they were raised, not just an area.

We want relationships. And Coach Jahmile Addae has known this young man for a long time. Kelvin Clemmons, a corner back from that Tampa area, 6-1, 205 pounds, very physical corner, can play safety, but he is a big, physical corner.

As we've kinda watched, as we have progressed, we wanted bigger corners that can be physical in our league, especially in the run game. When you go back and look at the issues we have had defensively, we've got to be able to play more physical and set edges and be more of linebacker-type tacklers at the corner position with a lot of people that we bring in as we move forward.

Head 15 PBUs in 2018, another multi-sport athlete, a late edition for you guys, but for us, Jahmile Addae has been recruiting him and known him for a very long time. He's a top-10 ranked junior college corner back, and he will be a mid-year enrollee as well. Very unique story. He's never visited campus. So of you are like, how did you get a guy who has never visited campus? Technology, you use technology the best way you possibly can, as fast as you possibly can for as long as you possibly can. He has seen probably more of campus than probably anybody who has been on campus, so really, really proud of his trust and commitment to us and his belief in us as well and the trust that he has in us, so Kelvin Clemmons, excited to have him.

Our next edition is Tyler Cooper from just across the border, Saint Croix Falls, WI, went to Saint Croix high school. This guy is a barrel-chested, big, gritty, nasty guard. When you watch his film, that's who he is. He's 45 minutes away from our campus, another camper. He's 6-4, 310 pounds. He's one of those guys you have to watch live to respect how he plays, because he plays so hard, and he has incredible "how" and passion and he plays the game the right way.

It's not just saying, yeah, he's this, yeah, he's this, no, he doesn't want to run the 40, no, he doesn't want to work out. This kid did everything we asked him to, and we're excited to have Tyler Cooper here, just a road grader. And I remember meeting him for the first time. We're in my office, and his family travels all together. I mean everybody. So grandma, mom, dad, brother, and brother looks at me and he doesn't say anything. Little brother usually never says much in my meetings until I ask them, but I said, "You wanna say something?" And he goes, "Yeah," and kinda looks at me and he goes, "You're not my favorite head coach," and you can imagine who the favorite head coach is, which is a pretty good football coach in college football in that state, but he let me know that I wasn't, but at least we were able to convince Tyler to come here, but I think I got his brother by the end, so maybe he has two favorite head coaches, by now, maybe not. Maybe I didn't win that battle.

Our next player is an an awesome story. What an awesome home visit, which I will talk about here in a second. Listen, if one of you want to make a lot of money one day, you've got to invent a reality show based on recruiting home visits for three weeks. There you go. And I don't know who is crazy enough to allow you to do that, full access to everything, but it would be the biggest and craziest reality show, and you would be just amazed at what we get to see and how much fun we actually get to have. I'm not talking about Heather's shopping and all the cities we go to, but I'm talking about the actual home visits of what we do.

James Gordon from Plant City, Florida, Plant City high school. This young man is a -- I mean you talk about hittin', you talk about runnin', I mean he can run, he can hit, he's fast. Head a lot of in-state schools on him for a long time, and to be able to stay committed -- you walk into the home visit, and they call it the man cave, and it's kind of off in this distance down there in Florida. It's kinda off back in the woods a little bit, and you kinda walk in there and I've never seen more family members in my entire life.

And you walk in there, and immediately here comes the head football coach from the University of Minnesota and boom! You get hit with all of the other flags, memorabilia, posters, signs, colors, that aren't ours. You talk about being nervous, you're like, wait a second, I just walked into a trap! But he was the one. All of them are talking about those teams, and he's committed to us. This is amazing! This kid's got all these people talking about where he should go, what he should do, and he stuck true to where he felt he belonged. He introduced me to everybody head. We had alligator. I don't know if any of you have had alligator before, but it's a combination between calamari and chicken. It's in the middle because texture is important to me when I eat food, and it's in the middle of that. Perfectly fried. There is the alligator, it's not like, you're going to hide everything, pictures of the alligator and it was an interesting home visit.

One of the best I've ever had. You talk about a young man who wants you to meet everybody in his family. He introduced me to every single person there, and it was amazing to be able to see him light up so proud to be a Minnesota Golden Gophers. Head 136 tackles on the year, 26 tackles for loss, eight sacks, five interceptions as a senior, with three pick six's, not just picks, pick six's, long ones, too, one-handed ones.

Very athletic, committed to us during the summer splash that we have on the OV here. When you talk about the importance of the summer official visits, very important. A young man from Florida committed to us in the summer here, and used his official visit in the summer and committed to us. So he had a hard pitch from a lot of people, late. A wonderful young man. He's got a smile that will light up a room, excited to have him here.

Our next student-athlete is JJ Guedet. From, really, central Illinois, Washington high school, down there in Washington, Illinois. He is a mid-year enrollee. When we met JJ, he was about 247 pounds. There's a lot of 270-pound, 6'6 type bodies in the country, and you've got to diagnose who can get bigger and who can't. So you look at dad, you look at mom, you look at bone structure and you think you're really smart, and you're kind of evaluating these people, and all of the sudden, we're thinking, okay, this guy is going to get really big. We didn't know in six months he would be 307, and that's what he is.

He's done it the right way. He's big, he's strong. His home visit, again, interesting. He lives in a cul-de-sac in a subdivision, cul-de-sac, but in the backyard some of you have dogs. He has horses, goats, donkeys, chickens and ducks. We're talking about a subdivision, and we're talking about a cul-de-sac where other people live. I got a chance to go out there and feed the horses. There is one horse that doesn't go anywhere without the goat. They're best friends. Wherever the horse goes, the goat's got to go, and where the goat goes, the horse follows. It's amazing, you talk about relationships from recruiting, there you go.

He was an IHSA All-State player. We are really proud of the offensive linemen we are bringing here. We haven't had an offensive lineman drafted in 12 years, and we're going to change that, and we are going to do that through recruiting and development. When you talk about that, he is one of the eighth highest ranked offensive linemen to ever come here. Well, some of the other ones were Curtis Dunlap, Junior, Daniel Faalele, Blaise Andries. We're talking about four out of the top eight in the history of our program, in the internet era, however we've done that, are here right now, or are going to be here for this coming year and developing in this. We need this to be Offensive Line U. It deserves to be. He's a mid-year enrollee, just a tremendous multi-sport athlete, basketball, baseball lead his team to an 11-1 record, one of the best records ever at the high school, tremendous student-athlete, J.J. Guedet.

Also, he was one that actually cooked the home visit meal, which was very interesting. He did a tremendous job, by the way. I mean, knocked it out of the park. He'll pass the Gopher Life cooking class, for sure.

Next player from St. Louis, Missouri, Kenni Burns really did a nice job recruiting the St. Louis area for us this year. From Lutheran North high school, Coach Reed does a great job down there helping all of us, in terms of being the recruiting coach down there as well. D'Vion Harris, defensive end. Not the biggest guy but might be the most "twitched" guy we have in the class. He can get off on the ball, incredible speed, great pad level, can dip, can bend really well.

He had 263 tackles, 67 tackles for loss, 20 sacks on the varsity. One of the first members committed to us of this entire class, multi-sport athlete. Again, a wonderful "get" for us to increase the speed on defense of what we feel we need to be able to do and rush the passer. D'Vion Harris, excited to have him, 6-2, 220 pounds out of St. Louis.

Next up, an area young man, Minnesota native, Cole Kramer, quarterback, out of Eden Prairie high school, played for the legendary Mike Grant. Mid-year enrollee. We had Cole Kramer in camp. When you came to one of our camps, and you saw these highly-ranked guys, a lot of offers, and you kinda threw him in the mix with all those guys, by the time you got out of there, you wouldn't know who had the offers, who had the stars, because Cole Kramer was right in there with everybody else.

I know he's in a run-first type offense. This young man didn't throw an interception until his senior year. He is a 4.5 40 young man. He can really fly run. He's tough, got a really good arm, he's incredibly intelligent, and he's a football guy, coming from a very historic football program in the state of Minnesota.

He's first cousins with Carter Coughlin, and obviously his grandfather was the former Gopher, Tom Moe, and a lot of you know who he is, and he was the first commit of the 2019 class, around this time last year to get this thing going, him and Jason Williamson. But he won a state championship as a junior, starting quarterback at Eden Prairie, so again, getting our local talent to be here, very, very important. Congratulations to Cole Kramer for being with us.

Next up, our kicker, Michael Lantz. Obviously with Emmit Carpenter moving on, we needed to be able to replace that, and I'm one to go after the best we can possibly get. No hold back, just get the best guy we can, have him kick as a freshman and go from there, and Michael Lantz has the ability to do that. He's from Starrs Mill high school down there in Georgia. He was offered back back in January, and we had him ranked at the beginning of January as our number one kicker, and then we went through he wanted to wait, he wanted to wait, and then obviously you've got to move on at some particular time.

Coach Wenger went down to see him right after the 2017 season. He's a five-star kicker by Kohl's Kicking Camp, one of the best in the country, was a perfect 45 of 45 in PATs, 25 field goals made in high school. This is one of those things where when we sat there and talked, even in the summer when he visited, that is just meant to be, and you have people put you together, at somehow, some way that we found our way back. However we found our way back at the end, we found our way back together, and we know it's meant to be. We're excited to have him.

He will not be here at mid-year. He will be here in June, as well, and if there is one position that's okay with, I'm okay with kicker, because he can kick down there in Georgia all year-round, so congratulation to him and his entire family, Michael Lantz out of Georgia.

Our next recruit, you don't have any favorites because they're all your son when you get 'em. This kid is a special young man. One, because he's from an area I am from, literally down the street from where I was born and raised and grown up. He's from St. Charles, Illinois, Tyler Nubin, corner, 6-1, 190 out of St. Charles, Illinois. This tells you a little bit about this young man. They just get done. I think it's the semifinal game and his whole team -- listen: He led them to the state finals for the first time. He lead them. He played Wildcat, played corner, played wide out, did everything. And at the end of the game, they win and they're chanting his name, "Nubin, Nubin" the whole team's chanting his name! Then he steps in and says, "No, no, no. SCN, SCN."

There is a whole video of it, and it's emotional because he took all the attention off of him, put it on everybody else. He's a very selfless young man to take all the attention off of him and put it on somebody else, and that's the type of young man we're getting. Very, very high academia young man. His father, Rodney, played at Eastern Michigan. His mother, Charese is probably the best athlete out of everybody in that family, and whether Rodney agrees with that or disagrees, that's what we know.

But he's one of the best academic young men in this class. He's a three-time academic all-conference player, all-state honoree, multi-sport athlete. One of the 25 highest ranked commits in the history of Minnesota, and he's just a wonderful young man. He's going to be here. He's one of those guys you want to rely on this year, and he brings a lot to the table. Congratulations to Tyler Nubin and his entire family and the entire St. Charles community.

Next up another mid-year enrollee, Trey Potts, from the Williamsport, PA area, and I've always wanted to go to the Little League World Series. The problem with the Little League World Series, it's right during fall camp. So it's on the bucket list for Heather and I and the kids to go to one year. He lives right there. I just wanted to get there and talk about what is Williamsport like during the Little League World Series? But when you're in Williamsport, it's kind of like one of those things that's like, yeah, it happens every year, Coach, not that big of a deal, and I'm like, it's a huge deal! Show me around. What do we do? Where do people go?

He's a multi-sport athlete, he's a young man that averaged 10 yards per carry, and he's quick, elusive, great receiver out of of the backfield, scat back. This young man can play multiple positions, too. We're going to have some tailbacks in the backfield. He's coming back from in-season surgery. We're going to have him back, ready to go when he gets here, hopefully get him through spring ball and through some things he's able to do, but we're talking about an all-purpose back that can do a lot, help us in the punt game, punt return, kick return, Williamsport high school, again, Trey Potts, congratulations.

Next up, mid-year enrollee. A lot of you know who he is. He was part of what we had, a "Gray Shirt" last year, Logan Richter, over there, from Perham Minnesota, Payton Jordahl from Perham, Minnesota, as well, for all of our Gopher fans. This young man is really big and he's really strong, and I think he's gotten a lot better in his senior year.

He's got great get-off, great twitch, he's really big, 6' 4, 320 pounds right now, but I thought he moved way better as a senior than he did as a junior. He's really worked hard at getting his body to where it needs to be.

He's worked hard at his strength and conditioning, and he will be a mid-year enrollee that we need to be able to help on the interior defensive part of the ball, and I know he will.

Next up, another mid-year enrollee, Keonte Schad from Madison, Wisconsin. This is by the way of Ellsworth Community College. This was -- you talk about recruiting battles, this was one of them. I'm so thankful he signed with us. It was a long road with a lot of schools involved. When you are the No. 2 junior college ranked player in the country in terms of defensive tackles,, everybody is on you. But the need to be able to play early, the location of his family, being right in Madison, Wisconsin, right across the border, he had 19 and a half tackles for loss in junior college.

We were his first offer and had him committed for a long time and were able to hold on to him. His home visit was special, because I know the ax means a lot to them, and we brought the ax over there to his home, and that wasn't to show off anything, it's very important to him. He grew up around that rivalry, and for him to pick us and his family and his grandma and for the other members of his family to be able to see that ax, that was important. It wasn't like we were holding it out the window as we drove down the road or I was running down the streets of Madison with it. That wasn't what it was about. What it was about was being able to bring that to him because of where he's from and the wonderful rivalry we have with Wisconsin, and really the respect of those two teams, what they have for each other in terms of what we have now and really excited to get the ax back, obviously, and so was he. He was actually at that game in the stands, and that was important for him to be able to see that and see that moment. We just need him to get here to experience it more. So mid-year enrollee, Keonte Schad.

Next up, another in-state talent, Peter Udoibok, from Cretin Derham high school, coached by Coach Brooks Bollinger. Another camp young man. We needed some length and some size at the wide receiver position, 6-3, 205, 210 pounds. He's really long. He was the player of the game in the Minnesota All-Star game, did a great job, set a receiving record for the All-Star game here in the state of Minnesota and another what camp means and how important camp is to be able to get eyes late on somebody, and we're so excited he's going to be a part of us and glad to have Peter Udoibok from Cretin Derham here representing the University of Minnesota and another Saint Paul young man as well.

Another mid-year enrollee kinda finishing out in terms of our specialists, the number one long snapper in the country. Not very often you talk about long snappers when you talk about Signing Day, but we've had an amazing one, an elite one for a long time in Peyton Jordahl. A lot of you forget that's a position you have to replace, because you don't hear about it that afternoon. Brady Weeks, from St. Peters, just a tremendous young man from Ft. Zumwalt high school, ranked the number one long snapper, like I said, by Kohl's Kicking Camp. He is invited to the 2019 Under Armour All-American game, and the last person that I had play in that game was at Michigan by the name of Wyatt Feiffer, who got to play in Another Army All-American game. When you want to be able to replace your long snapper, you don't want to be wrong. He's on his official visit in front of everybody, we do these introductions, and he stands up, he's got a microphone, and he goes, "My name is Brady Weeks, and I'm the long snapper, and this should be the last time you ever hear my name. Thank you." And he sits down.

He's right. You don't want to hear the long snapper's name, ever. You should always wonder who the long snapper is. The third year he's there be like, "I didn't even know that kid -- who is that kid? What's his name?" Because that means he's doing his job. He's a tremendous young man, incredible family, but he had to compete head-to-head with high-pressure stakes to get invited to that game, because they pick specialists based on your performance. He did a great job, got picked, head-to-head a lot of pressure and will represent the Golden Gophers in that game coming up here soon.

Next up, the last NLI we got in today, based on where he lives from Las Vegas, Nevada, Desert Pines high school, Cam Wiley, running back, just a big, physical back, incredibly athletic, 6'2, about 200 pounds right now and incredibly long but very fluid, very loose hips, he's got a unique running style, very powerful young man. He's at the same high school as Jordan Howden, who is actually part of this class when you start looking at numbers of how we were able to use those numbers with Jordan Howden. Multi-sport athlete, really a track star. This guy's numbers are through the roof in terms of athleticism, speed, agility, height and weight for a running back, but then you're talking about vertical jump and everything else.

But getting a chance to go out to Nevada, Las Vegas and pull some players out there, especially from Desert Pines was really good for us.

Another in-state talent, Jason Williamson, another mid-year enrollee, a lot of you know him. He's Mr. Football in the state of Minnesota. Anytime you get your Mr. Football in the state of Minnesota who needs and wants and has dreamed of being a Gopher, it's really, really positive, from Owatonna high school, back-to-back state champions, this young man ran for over 3000 yards, just this year. Just this year!

That's unbelievable! Over 40 touchdowns this year, over 80 touchdowns in two years. Those are unbelievable numbers. We get back, Heather and I get back from the Wisconsin game, we're putting on the TV and there is really nothing on when you get back that late, and we're watching the ESPN top-10 and all of the sudden, No. 8, here comes Jason Williamson in the big game in the state championship and I'm like, "Is that our Jason Williamson?" Yes. We rewind it and it was fun to watch. Multi-sport athlete. He's going to be a great athlete whether it's tailback, linebacker, safety, this guy can play all over the field, and he's proven that.

Went out to Cleveland, Ohio, to get one of our linebackers from Garfield Heights high school. 6'2, 205, 210 pounds. This guy can really run. He can block punts, he'll hit you, this guys is not afraid of any contact. He's very violent with the way he plays. Last two seasons he had 235 total tackles, 51 tackles for a loss, 19 sacks, 5 interceptions and 6 defensive touchdowns, and a Partridge in a Pear tree. All-Ohio this season, multi-sport athlete. Great basketball player. He lead his team to an 11-1 record; which is the best record his high school has ever had. They never won 10 games, they won 11. He committed, again, during our summer splash during the OV.

Again, very, very power fortunately group, very important group for us as we continue to build this program the way we want to be able to do it. We have two to three left. We have a young man committed that will possibly sign in February, knew that all along, can't share that information with you as we continue to go through recruiting, but I can share that with you now, but also as we get into the free agent market in January, we will look at that what we have as we keep moving forward and make some decisions on that.

Very proud of this group, and very proud of our coaching staff, very proud of our fans. Thanks for all your support. Thanks for helping us be able to get this group here. Thanks for always doing what you do on social media, hitting 'em up. Thank you for the coverage you gave us throughout recruiting, it meant a lot, and it helps in every way possible.

As I recruit young men one of the things I tell them about all of you: I say, "You're going to be trained for real life. Media not is not easy. You are going to be trained for real life," because this is a big-time media, big-time, right? Cover all pro sports. You're not going to get into your press conference and have one guy with a little camera that's on his phone and he forgot to start it halfway through, then he's going to make up half of the story.

You're going to get cameras in your face all the time. You're going to be prepared for the National Football League, you are going to answer really tough questions, you are going to be able to have a big market, where you've got to do all the right things, you've got to represent not only the University of Minnesota but the entire state and all of Gopher Nation.

Kudos to you. I talk about you in recruiting as well. With that, the opening statement is finished and we will open it up for questions.

Q. Coach, preparing for the bowl game, and you start practice. There is a thought that there are some players that are not playing or not going to the game. Can you talk about that?
P.J. FLECK: Yeah, when I was out recruiting there was a report that six to eight players were not practicing. There's way more than six to eight players not practicing for a lot of reasons. I allow people during bowl prep to miss practice for finals, for studying for finals, if young men have to be able to get the grade they possibly need. We have concussion protocol, and if people have concussions, especially early in the protocol, they're in the training room not on the practice field. We have injuries that are rehabbing inside that training room.

We have guys that have already committed to go on to the National Football League to bypass the bowl game. We have transfers that young men right when the season is done talk with me about possibly leaving, going on official visits and going somewhere else because maybe they weren't playing as much as they thought they were going to play, and then there is also, if anybody breaks any team rules, yeah, I'm a football coach that's going to discipline people, but either a player or players will not play in the bowl game.

If you do not do the right things you will not play. But I'm the same guy who sent a guy home during the season for not going to class, period. That's not going to go away, this is a privilege ledge to play at the University of Minnesota not anybody's right.

Q. Are there any players that have violated team rules that are not playing?
P.J. FLECK: If young men have violated team rules it has been dealt with, and it will always be dealt with swiftly, quickly and correctly.

Q. Did you say there are players that won't be playing because they violated?
P.J. FLECK: No, no I said at the beginning the report was there were six to eight players who missed practice. There were a lot of players who missed practice. I'm not sure where the number came from, from that, especially with sources. I don't get that, especially when that's just what people say. It's unfortunate that some of those players get tied to certain things because people speculate and talk. Young men go on and go somewhere else, and they're tied into things that people are talking about, and that's unfair for young people.

We have high, high expectations of our student-athletes, period. They will always be. They will be dealt with accordingly, always, no matter what.

Q. How many of those players are sitting out because of violating team rules?
P.J. FLECK: A player or players will miss the bowl game.

Q. How many?
P.J. FLECK: Not six to eight.

Q. That's --
P.J. FLECK: We were talking about what was reported. Not 6-8. That's inaccurate.

Q. What's the number? What's the violation?
P.J. FLECK: I'm not going to get into what student-athletes do, based on -- especially when you are talking about student athletes inside our program, based on what they have, but, again, this has been nothing that was dealt with outside an illegal issue, nothing that was done in terms of domestic or violence or anything like that, so, again, anything that gets done, but I never talked about any numbers. The numbers is inaccurate. I'm talking about the reporting of the numbers. This is after the fact. That number has been thrown everywhere, and it's inaccurate.

Q. What's the number?
P.J. FLECK: I've told you player or players, but that's not what this is about. That's not accurate.

Q. What's accurate?
P.J. FLECK: Not six to eight.

Q. You're not going to tell us how many players are sitting for disciplinary reasons.
P.J. FLECK: I told you why players are missing practice because that's what was reported. What's reported is these players are missing practice because of all of those certain reasons.

Q. Are there starters that are going to be missing the game?
P.J. FLECK: There could be, starter or starters.

Q. For discipline, P.J.?
P.J. FLECK: Yeah. Absolutely. But we have other people -- again, it was reported six to eight players were missing practice, and that was tied into certain things, which, again, I gave you a list of why those players were -- we haven't had open practices, so in terms of sources I'm not sure where that number comes from, but to be able to report on that, to be able to put that out there, based on what we're hearing with you not being at practices, especially with something that's not out there in terms of a legal situation, that's what I was -- because there were so many people of why people miss practices, especially during bowl prep. But if people violate or break any team rule they will be handled accordingly.

Q. What are your thoughts on guys skipping bowl games to avoid injury or to workout, whatever.
P.J. FLECK: It's a trend in college football. Where people are skipping their bowl game right now, and I think that's been for a while, but I think it's becoming more popular and almost being expected of some people. I get it. I've played in that league. I've coached in that league.

There's a lot of people telling other people what to do. When you get to that point, there are a lot of other people in their ears by then at the next level in terms of people that possibly want to sign 'em, agents, you know, they're getting information from different people on different sites. They're getting all these certain, you know, rankings of where they fit or where they should be, but there is only a certain amount of people who actually know where they're going to be drafted and where they're going to be and that's the NFL. Those are the only people that know those things. But, again, I get it.

I think everybody has a certain case of why they should or shouldn't do it and I think every case has to be handled individually. I do believe that. I had a guy who was a fifth overall pick play in his bowl game, and I have had guys that have left early, so it depends on what the family thinks is.

Q. Do you expect anybody else to leave early for the NFL?
P.J. FLECK: No, I don't expect that.

Q. What was that conversation like with (No microphone.)
P.J. FLECK: Healthy. We're here to make sure that their dreams come true, down the road, whatever they want to accomplish. I'm only here to give them the information of my perspective of what I think. They come to me because I've played in it, and coached in it. I can give them advice, but I'll never tell anybody what to do. I will give them my opinion, but I will never say you have to do this and if you don't why are you or aren't you doing that?

I think they are both really good talents, and they both have the ability to play in that league, and they have to make that decision accordingly. They've both given a lot to the program.

Q. Explain the process you're going to go through with Peter Udoibok and Tyler Cooper.
P.J. FLECK: We're able to use a lot of different shirts, you know? These two young men that we want to be able to have here, they're fully committed to the university because of what they have to do personally to be here and then have the opportunity later on to be put on scholarship down the road.

But, again, they're amazing, amazing players and you gotta get creative when you want some really good players, and those are two guys we feel down the road have really good chances to not only play but to earn what they deserve.

Q. You mentioned the freshmen will play but when you look at this recruiting class specifically how important was it for you to create position battles at every position really with some of the guys you're bringing in?
P.J. FLECK: It's incredibly important. You've seen our team come together and the talent level elevate not because you brought in a class but because there is competition everywhere. Competition brings out the best in everybody. So when you have competition and that guys knows he can't just be there, or I don't have to practice today because I'm the only player you got, we had a lot of that in the first year I was here.

You couldn't challenge them enough except for just coaching them. You couldn't challenge them with another guy replacing him, because there wasn't anybody even to replace them with. When I first got here, we had four linemen that could actually play for spring ball. So it wasn't like we could put anybody else in there. But now you're starting to see and now you will start to see that '18 class get this '19 class added to them, and just because you played this year, you're going to have to play better next year to play, because there is a another class in behind you. And the old rule I was taught is it's the head coach's job to outrecruit everybody on the team.

And I make sure I tell my players that, but I soften it. That's not saying I want to. I'm not saying, like, you will be. It's your job to be able to keep your job. If you have a job, that's your job to keep it. That's the NFL. They're going to draft people every single year. If you are not going to compete and you are not going to be able to raise the level of your game every single day, then you're going to get passed, and that's what we have to create here.

It's not a fear or a threatening, it's just here's is how we are going to do it. We're going to compete with each other not against. There's a difference. We want Rashod Bateman to compete with the other wide outs from this year's class. We want him to compete with Tyler Johnson, not against them. Make them all better, Because they are going to make you better and that will bring the whole thing up, not just separate the team.

Sometimes when you compete against, it separates everybody. This not isn't the NFL, and you can't cut the other guy or send 'em off to free agency or sign the guy from another team. This is college football, this is teaching, and you're bringing them all with you. I love it. I love bringing in another full class, I love bringing in talent and really good people to be able to add to what we have to create more competition, to raise the level of our program on and off the field.

Q. Is it still the expectation that Rodney and Shannon will be back? Are they going to get that year?
P.J. FLECK: They are, yeah.

Q. You guys offensively averaged a touchdown more this year than last year. That was a 40th place jump nationally in scoring. What do you think the expectation is for next year when you bring the guys back and add those two?
P.J. FLECK: Be better than we were today, tomorrow, that's the expectation I have. Numbers are really hard to be able to sit there and put expectations on people. I want this team to be better than we were last year. Not -- it's going to be a different team; right? When you compare last year to this year, it's a different team. Now there is a natural progression you want to see in performance; there is a lot of things that go into that.

We lost five or six of our best players at the beginning of the year. What would the year have been like? Woulda, shoulda, coulda, all you want; it was what it was. I think it's going to help our football team, I will say that, as we move into the future, to be able to have our offense mostly back. They gained the experience they have, a guy like Curtis Dunlap, Junior, being able to start in this bowl game, because it will be his fourth game, and still redshirt, that's going to help. Add this to this '19 class, and then be able to -- as we go through the quarterback competition find out who will be able to do that.

Q. Do you know what your quarterback is going to be next year?
P.J. FLECK: No. It's a competition. We're going to find out. We went from one scholarship quarterback to -- I don't think it's any bit of a mystery that Zach will go on scholarship. I don't think I have to do something tricky to say, wow, I never saw that coming. But we will have four come January, basically, when you think about it, we went from one to four, and they're all sophomores and younger, and that's what we wanted to be able to create with time.

Q. So that competition is wide open --
P.J. FLECK: We're going to let 'em all play and go with the one that gives us the best opportunity to win.

Q. What does the bowl game mean for jobs for next year in terms of players?
P.J. FLECK: I think anytime you play a game, you are always evaluating, right? And the old saying, you are only as good as your last game. I don't necessarily believe that, but it gives you things to be able to say what's now, and how are you going to change now to make it better then? But I'm excited we're in a bowl game. I'm excited that we're in the Quick Lane Bowl, excited we get to go to Detroit, spend Christmas at a bowl site. Those are things that we can never take for granted, and I don't want to take for granted, and we will never take for granted.

Every bowl is an elite bowl, and you gotta get to 'em. I was excited for our players to do that. Anytime you play the triple option, it's been a challenge for us, which you want. I would have loved to have three weeks of just playing our style of defense to develop our guys, but we did that for the first week and week and a half during bowl prep, and it's been fun to be able to almost change positions, because you have to really redo your defense when you are facing the triple option. You will see different players play different positions. You might see guys that haven't played a lot play a little bit more based on the team that we're playing, and teach players a whole different type of system playing the triple option. That's kinda neat. You know? They're going to now know how to defend the triple option, when they go be a high school coach, or college coach, they are going to have that experience.

Plus talk about Paul Johnson and playing an ACC opponent that we have in Georgia Tech, playing in his -- coaching his last game, a legendary coach, that really has been the staple behind the triple option in college football for a long time, and the mark he's left on college football has been tremendous. There's a lot about that game. It's a big game. This isn't just something. It's not just a bowl a game. It's a huge game, and that's the way we have approached it with our players and approached it with our preparation and approached it with everything we do on a daily basis.

Q. How has coaching changed for you from the time you walked through the door to right now. Is there a baseline that you said you saw something that needed to be here, that needed to come in, need head to change something and have you reached that?
P.J. FLECK: Every head coach has their philosophies, I don't think one is right or wrong or better or worse. I don't ever believe in that. Everybody does it their own way. When you hire a new coach you basically hire a systematic approach, a new personality, new character, new way of disciplining, but I think the biggest thing that I have learned here is that consistency matters. I've said that since day one. I'm honored that Mark Coyle, our -- President Kaler have thought highly enough of what we have done to extend us another year.

We're fully committed to the University of Minnesota. Heather and I love living here. We love coaching here. We want to bring that consistency here. That consistency is earned; it's earned by the players, it's earned by the coaches, it's earned by the staff. That's not something you're ever given either. You've got to earn that consistency, and we look forward every day to earning that, but I think consistency is something that's needed here, and when you look at the other people in our league, especially in our west division that we play a lot, consistency matters to championship football.

I already talked about Pat Fitzgerald and his Northwestern Wildcats. He's a good, close friend of ours, so I have no problem talking about him. They have had consistency through really good years, through really bad years, and look where they are. So, again, we came here to be able to bring a championship culture back to the University of Minnesota. Not saying it wasn't here prior to that, not saying that. I'm just saying that's what I was hired to do and, again that's what I know. We want to be able to be that bridge from the past to the present now and to the future.

To be able to hold people accountable for what they do in every area of their life, academically, athletically, socially and spiritually, period. We are going to hold people accountable. That's been a two-year learning process for a lot of people at times about how maybe drastic I am at those at times.

I've said it since the day I walked in here: You do the right things you're going to be okay, if you don't do the right things, we're going to have a hard time getting to like each other. I think that's something I've believed in my entire life and something that will never go away as long as I'm the head football coach here, and it doesn't matter who you are, and I think I want our team to respect that, not to disagree with it, think it's hard or think it's tough, but know it's right.

Q. Recruiting a defensive lineman, seems like that's hard?
P.J. FLECK: It's very hard.

Q. In the past they have gotten undersized guys and had to build them up. What is the challenge when you are going off more ready-made.
P.J. FLECK: We went off a body frame, body structure, type of talent. We knew we couldn't take interior guys and wait for them to get to that body size. When you do that you put yourself in a whole different ball game of recruiting, whole different aspect of how many teams, how many guys can visit, how many guys are interested, you put yourself in a completely different league.

Projects at times are way easier to maybe recruit at times than the ready made guy because the ready made guy looks way more impressive, which means probably plays more impressive, he's more developed than other high school kids and he's going to have a better high school career and maybe be higher ranked. So we knew what we had to be able to get at the nose and three technique based on our defense and style of defense and we went after it really hard. They're still 17 and 18 year old bodies. They might be bigger bodies, but they're still 17 and 18 years old. I use Daniel Faalele as an example. He's got five more years of growth technically when you talk about the anatomy of a human being, around there. Right?

How much more county guy grow? But there is a lot of things through his development, his bone development his muscles his weight training his nutrition, diet plan, speed, conditioning, all that stuff takes shape over a long period of time, especially for bigger guys and we got the bigger guys now we gotta make 'em stronger because a big body doesn't necessarily mean they're strong. This is a man's game that you have to be strong to be able to play a strong game, and we feel like we've got the right guys to bring them into our strength and conditioning program and give them to Leslie and Dan and our entire strength and conditioning, nutrition team, and let them run with 'em. Those are great molds. You want the mold. You want the clay, and now you can build it, so I think we've done a great job of that.

Q. Just to be clear, you told us that there is at least one starter that is not on the 26th for disciplinary reasons?
P.J. FLECK: Yes, ma'am.

Q. And you are not telling us what those reasons are because?
P.J. FLECK: It's a team rule, which we have multiple team rules. I can tell you every team rule we have.

Q. You don't feel any obligation to make that public so people can --
P.J. FLECK: I think that's based on the student-athletes when you are dealing with young people I think that's the student-athlete's right to do that or not.

Q. And you won't give us a number?
P.J. FLECK: It's not six to eight.

THE MODERATOR: I think he's answered that question a few times now.

P.J. FLECK: I appreciate everybody. Congratulations to all of us on National Signing Day. Go Gophers.

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