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BIG TEN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYSJuly 23, 2018P.J. FleckChicago, Illinois THE MODERATOR: We're joined by P.J. Fleck. P.J. FLECK: I wanted to start today with our thoughts and prayers going out to the entire Sparano family. Minnesota is a very tight-knit group. It's a tight state, especially our athletic teams. Spending one year there, you realize that. And Coach Sparano, as any of you have known him or spent time around him, incredible coach but an incredible person. Minnesota lost a really phenomenal coach. But the one thing I want to make sure that everybody understands is over the course of the last 24 hours I haven't heard anybody share any stories about a technique or a fundamental or what type of offensive line coach he was. All we continue to hear is what type of person and the impact he made on so many lives. I know all of us want to win. We want to win championships. We want to win the conference and do all those things. You're here for all that. But at the end of the day we're teachers and educators. And the difference we make and all these coaches make on lives is really important. And for those that knew Tony, I'm sure he made a huge impact on you. I just wanted to thank our president, President Kaler, who's in his final year. I'm sure you heard that. Director Coyle and his wife Krystan, my wife Heather for being here today and our board of regents, our fans and alumni and boosters. I'm just proud to represent the University of Minnesota in year two as we move forward. We have a lot of challenges and opportunities coming up with our university and where we are. But, again, I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I think last year Pat Fitzgerald got up here after me and said, OK, now he doesn't have any time left since I used it all, I think. And I think every one of you counted how many words I said last year. We have a very youthful, very young, very inexperienced football team which does not necessarily mean we can't win. We have a very talented football team, just incredibly young. We have nine scholarship players on offense and defense, 14 scholarship players as juniors. I mean nine scholarship seniors on offense and defense, 14 juniors on scholarship offense and defense right around there. And everybody else is underclassmen. We're going to rely heavily on our young players to play, make plays. But the one thing about young players is sometimes they don't know how bad they are, how good they are. You haven't watched them play, haven't worked a ton with them. They get in there and really surprise you. But we've talked to our team about how inexperienced and young we're going to be. Our whole model for the year is race to maturity and maturity we define as when doing what you have to do becomes doing what you want to do. That's when people grow up. So we're going to need our young freshman, our true freshmen, our redshirt freshmen -- the new redshirt rule really helps us a lot -- we're going to need those players to grow up really fast. And that's what this whole offseason has been designed about. We lost three really close games by a matter of a few points and we just didn't finish games. And I thought our team last year wanted to win, but we didn't refuse to lose. We didn't have that refuse-to-lose mentality. There's a major difference between those two things. In this whole offseason we focused around having that, for our players to be able to accomplish that here this offseason and springboard into this year. So very excited about the year. Anticipating the year, highly. Really excited about one of the greatest recruiting classes in the University of Minnesota joining us in 2018 right now. And we're really excited right now, top 25 class for 2019 that will join us later. But really proud of the players we have within our program who have grown up over the course of the last year and a half. Q. Wanted to ask you what you learned in your first year at Minnesota and how can you carry those lessons over to year two. P.J. FLECK: I think the biggest lesson you learn as a coach whenever you take over programs and we haven't won a championship for so long, whether that was Western Michigan, whether that was the University of Minnesota, I enjoy that. And I enjoy the first few years that are usually pretty rough in different ways. I called them the dirty water years, the muddy waters. Those are things at times where some people might like that, some people might not. But it goes back to the greatest lesson I learned from Greg Schiano who still continues to be an influence in my life: Never sacrifice what you really want down the road for what you want right now. We're in a right-now society. We need it now. When are you going to do it now? We haven't for 51 years as a championship football team. The reason I took the job was to be the bridge and have our staff be the bridge and our culture be the bridge from then until now. But the biggest thing I've learned is simply reassuring that. Every year you want to make sure you reassure yourself of the things you know, that you believe in, and I think we've done that. Year one is a lot different than year two, Andy. Year one is all about learning. Everything is new, no matter what. Everything is new. And year two, you start to master that. Not only do you have guys master that, but now they can start teaching players so your players start to lead a lot more than just the coaches. But last year we were not a player-led football team. Bad teams, nobody leads; average teams, coaches lead; elite teams, players lead. You've heard me say that before and we weren't at that level. We've got to build that as we continue to go. That's why we're going to rely heavily on those seniors. Not a lot of them, but they have to do a tremendous job of bringing those young guys along. Q. When I spoke to you year two at Western Michigan you had gone through a tremendous transition, a purge, if you will, of a lot of players to try to get your guys in. As you evaluate this process, kind of building on what you just answered, where are you in that process? What are the steps in that process? How do you define it? And what's the ultimate goal where you'll feel like we've arrived, this is Minnesota and this is the way I want things? P.J. FLECK: One thing I've learned about Minnesota is they want honesty -- exactly where is our program? Just because we're a young and inexperienced team doesn't mean we can't win ahead of schedule. I said the same thing at Western Michigan, I think we started 1-3 and then went on a seven-game winning streak and shocked everybody, including myself. And I think right now I call it year one. I know everybody sits there and says what is he talking about. Year one, last year, is really year zero the way I look at a program. And I know everybody's like what do you mean by that? Is that just to get a contract extension? Is that just to delay a process? No, that's reality. Year zero everybody's learning and everybody's getting to know each other. We took over a very tumultuous time to be honest with you and we had a lot of things to have happen. We had players leave, players stay. But it was a transitional time. When you get to year one, right now, I mean, if you look at our team, I think we're 128 out of 130 in terms of youth and inexperience. We have two quarterbacks who have never played who are both freshmen. And we have Ty Johnson, yes, but other than that, I think everyone else Ty is going to play with is going to be a redshirt freshman or a true freshman. We have true freshmen, redshirt freshmen offensive linemen. Our defensive backfield will be filled with young, inexperienced players. Our D line, linebackers. When you look at our two deep that's where we are. I think there's a process to that happening. But one thing about young teams, when you're in year two, you can't have yourself not be surprised. But you're kind of surprised by it all as it continues to take shape. There's not a, hey, by year three this is going to happen, year four this is going to happen. It all takes its own time. Being young and inexperienced and playing freshmen in the Big Ten, I think it's a little different than it was in the Mid-American Conference. There's a size and strength component. You're playing top 15 teams in the country at times, week in, week out. So there's a strength component to that when you're young that maybe you can get away with the league I was in before, but you can't get away with it in the Big Ten. We're in year one, the way I look at it. And we're here to develop our quarterbacks because it all starts with them and continue to bring this program along by joining the nine teams next year. But obviously our focus right now is of developing academically, athletically, socially and spiritually in everything we do. Q. You've seen the playoff perspective from Western Michigan. You've seen it now in the Big Ten Conference. What's your overall impression of just the effectiveness of it? P.J. FLECK: I think it's the best thing to happen in college football. I think it's brilliant. There's nothing more exciting than finding out who is going to be in the college football playoff. I think one of the challenges are when you're starting to schedule and the people are scheduling one of the issues you're having is what is the college football committee really truly valuing. You saw everything with strength of schedule maybe at the beginning and now is it an undefeated season. It depends on the committee. What are their thoughts and ideas? And as you're making more plans to schedule games you look at all those things as a head football coach whether it's the Big Ten or SEC. But I believe we have all the systems in place. I think the NCAA is making a lot of elite decisions, especially with the new redshirt rule. I think we're really in a good place of college football. The game is safer than it's ever been. The college football playoff has brought a completely new dynamic. I was asked a question today -- do you feel like a group of five team should be able to do that if you go undefeated, now that you're not in the group of five. I said absolutely. I'm a huge advocate of that. And I'm sure Scott Frost might say the same thing. But I think the ability for that to happen might not happen for a while. And I think the possibility of that ever happening is there. Maybe if you go 13-0 and 13-0, but they say that one last year doesn't affect necessarily this year. But I think that could start to turn the tide a little bit if you have a team that's 26-0. You force somebody to do something. But again I love where it's at. It's a very exciting time in our game. Q. You mentioned youth and experience specifically at the quarterback and wide receiver positions. Can you talk about what your expectations are at this season for the passing game and what you've seen from those two positions this offseason? P.J. FLECK: Yeah, I'm the most cliché coach when it comes to expectations. And I've said this my six years of being a head coach. We're going to be better today than we were yesterday -- academically, athletically, socially and spiritually. That is the expectation. It is a peace of mind. Because sooner or later 10 wins won't be good enough. Nine wins aren't good enough. Coaches get fired all the time for that number. So what's that number? At some places it's national championship or you're out. So it's what is it that expectation? Our expectation is making sure our players, our student-athletes are better on the field, off the field every single day, are becoming a team, doing the right things, creating a culture that can advance their life in every avenue of their life, and eventually you'll get the wins on the field. But in terms of people asking me about the system and what are we changing, same coordinator, Kirk Ciarrocca, year one at Western Michigan, 1-11, worst offense in America. Two years later, three years later, top 20 offenses back to back, then a Cotton Bowl appearance. Same coach, same guys, same system. We change it based on what can our players do. What can they manage? What are their strengths? We adapt our offense that way, but it's the same thing. It will, it comes down to how well our quarterback can play. And I'm really excited to see, out of the two guys, who can win the team. We have two quarterbacks. That's not exactly a position every coach wants to be in. But we have other needs. I mean, I would love to take four quarterbacks. I'd love to take we had to take seven offensive linemen this year. A lot of people don't do that. We had to. A lot of those guys are going to see the field. We had a lot of depth holes to fill very quickly and we've got to continue to do that in '19 as well. Q. I'm just curious your position with the Supreme Court ruling on legalizing gambling, states being allowed to -- there's talk of more of a national approach to injury report and being more open about injuries. Is that something that you would like to see happen? I know the commissioner said he would like to see that happen on a national basis? P.J. FLECK: Are you talking the gambling first and then the -- Q. Just more about the injury reports, if that's something you're open to being -- P.J. FLECK: I'm all for it. Now, the specific reason why somebody's not playing, I don't agree with. I think there's a lot of things that our university and our policies that we have to protect with the student-athlete's rights. But I would love to be able to -- I'll give the information just like somebody else. But just like the NFL, now they give specific things. But is somebody going to be available or not available. That's all I want to know. I don't need to know why, whether it's a suspension, whether it's an injury, whether it's a knee, whether it's grades, whether it's disciplines -- I don't need to know all that. But I'm a huge advocate. I'd love to be able to see who is going to be able to play and not play. I think that creates different game-planning. It gives you a better advantage. But you're also giving somebody an advantage, so it's an equal playing field. I think teams have the right to know that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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