Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

It is generally not good to write while angry, and inadvisable to allow a game played by 18-year-olds to affect your happiness.

Nevertheless, on one of the last beautiful days of Fall we spent our afternoon watching what has to be one of the worst coached games of the PJ Fleck tenure reach a familiar end.

I’m too frustrated to check the official box score right now so I’m going off memory. Please forgive any errors. But I think Minnesota gained 8 yards in the 1^st Quarter. In the 2^nd Quarter we got tempo working so naturally we abandoned it in the 3^rd. There, in a short 4^th down on Northwestern’s side of the field we clearly needed to either go for it or punt, no third option. So we picked the third option with our kicker who lacks both distance and accuracy, and the field goal kick careened away from the uprights like a wounded, drunk duck. In the 4^th Quarter we allowed desperately-needed clock to burn, then lit our timeouts on fire, called a play that required Jalen Smith to run an east-west marathon to get out of bounds (and failed), then managed only 2 plays in the 38 seconds we had.

A second missed field goal prevented overtime, which was probably for the best. The world did not need more of this.

All the while, our defensive schemes turned Northwestern’s quarterback into a Heisman candidate. 15/15 for over 150 yards with his pick of receivers so open you’d think they were a Waffle House. The Northwestern offense didn’t require a plan or trickeration to dismantle our system; survive the blitz, and someone will be ludicrously open, every time.

We finally got them to 2^nd and 21 at midfield as time wound down. An offsides, a wide open tight end, and a QB run later, Northwestern scored their winning points.

The closeness of the game was thanks to individual players. Drake Lindsey, Javon Tracy, Lemeke Brockington, and Darius Taylor on offense. Koi Perich and Alan Soukop on special teams. Maverick Baranowski made some tackles. I hope Deven Eastern is ok.

What’s more to be written about PJ Fleck at this point? I hesitated to try but had to get it out of my brain. Because, in spite of it all, I still don’t want him to leave. Especially in a season of unprecedented coaching mobility, where I hold precisely zero hope that any replacement we’d find would be as good or better.

Yet I cannot ignore that more or less the same issues that have prevented Minnesota and Fleck from transcending the Big Ten’s middle are still here. This year they are magnified by a young roster lacking a Mo Ibrahim to paper over the blemishes. Fleck’s clock management remains atrocious, and absolutely contributed to the loss in multiple ways. His assistant hiring, always spotty, has conglomerated this season across several facets of the team. Special teams remains marginal, kicking worse. Greg Harbaugh’s occasional success is overshadowed by bizarre play calls and turning away from things that are working. The defense under Danny Collins is an accelerating embarrassment, careening downhill at a Prefontaine Pace. In an empty Wrigley Field, there is still a Northwestern tight end running a delayed 10 yard route to the right, unnoticed and uncovered.

I reject the idea that Fleck can’t or won’t “change his best” because we’ve seen him do it. He’s fired bad assistants. He was willing to change his offense for Max. He takes the occasional risk in short-yardage situations. He’s mostly survived the transition to the NIL era, better than many others (hi Dabo).

Change in this sport we love is intensifying and I think today’s game shows that it is not lack of adjustment, but rate of adjustment that is failing to keep pace. Whether by oversight, real limits, or design (I will not speculate which), Minnesota is losing the arms race for assistant coaches. The conservativism still emerges at the worst possible times. The clock and game management is as bad as ever.

Today was a microcosm of these issues. Results would have been different if we’d adjusted even one of them. The vibes surrounding the program are beginning to stagnate and ossify, especially among casual fans. Bold moves are needed, the kind that if made, might translate to bigger raises for Fleck himself, or serious looks from other programs rather than rumors fed by his agent to pressure Mark Coyle.

I haven’t been truly worried about Fleck leaving Minnesota for some time. First it was because there weren’t many jobs where his culture and brand were fits, then because I felt he’d elevated the program sufficiently to attract other good candidates if he did go, and now because these weaknesses are obvious to everyone. There are an unprecedented number of openings this year; which ones is he a serious candidate for? There are rumors, social media memes, and message board geniuses but let’s be honest: James Franklin to Virginia Tech and Lane Kiffin to LSU this is not.

I would like to find out what bold moves to change his assistants and his program would do, and I would like to find out here, at Minnesota. I still think he’s one of the better options and can still reinvent himself again to succeed. Unfortunately games like today have started to feel like normal, and its starting to suck the fun out of this for me.

Peej, can we try something different please?

Anyway, see you all next week.