VIDEO: Patience will be key for Minnesota quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis
Minnesota Gopher Football: Quotes from Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck reflecting on the win at Nebraska and looking ahead to his team’s home game against the MAC Conference’s Eastern Michigan Eagles this weekend.
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “I’m happy to be 1-0 on the Nebraska season. We have to get a lot better, and there’s a difference between saying we want to get better and then getting better and getting better, and that’s what this whole week is about. 0.” -0. That’s kind of what we’ve been talking about rebooting all season long. It’s the way we’ve always done it.
We have a hell of an opponent here that won nine games and won their bowl game last year. I think it’s one of the best coached teams in college football that doesn’t get talked about enough because I think Chris Creighton is one of the best coaches in the country. What he did in Eastern Michigan was ages ago. And we’re going to play against a really good football team that comes here on Saturday evening. So there is still a lot of work ahead of us, of course we have to improve and get better. And that will be the focus this week.
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “I think you look at the stats and go, it’s surprising. But if you look at it, we had three possessions in the first half. We’re preparing for ghosts, right? I’m like, oh, that’s what they wanted to do after the first play. This is constant and when there are limited possessions and limited time in the first half. They have changed their front several times. They’ve done a lot of things. And the first quarter was 20 minutes long, maybe in real time. So you’re constantly adapting, changing and making adjustments.
But you still don’t know what you’re going to see. I mean, throw in other formations out there to really see it. Therefore, it is one thing that we tip our hats to football and that is philosophical. But when we come back after three possessions. They take the first kickoff, score a touchdown, and the score is 7-3. There weren’t many plays in the first half. You have to collect some points on the board.
But having to pass up 44 times is probably shocking to many, but that’s exactly what it took to win that particular game. And again, we need to be better in a lot of areas if we want to throw the ball the way we do, and there will be changes to our offense this year as well. And we all talked about it.
But we have to complete more passes and we have to throw it to execute it. And there were three drops and then three misses where you just sit there and say, “This is normal, what we do.” Then you’re at 30 out of 44, which is about the middle of 60%, and see They, we, did what we had to do, but there was something underneath. So we need to be able to improve that… but we want to get better in this area. And that’s something we always talk about: balance, playmakers touching the football and we did what we had to do to win that particular game.”
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “He (Zach) is doing well, but this is all about competition. I don’t do the depth charts. The players make the depth charts. I’ll just pick who played the best. Just because you did something one year doesn’t mean you’ll be there next year. We’re constantly adding talent, and then you have to go out and perform. We have full confidence in him when he gets out there and gets his chance. The same applies Darius Taylor.
We felt really good about Sean and what he had to offer. Plus, Bryce Williams with the experience of especially not knowing what they were going to do. We felt really comfortable with these two defenders who played a lot of football. I played against Nebraska in Bryce before, and Sean has played a lot of football in the past anyway, so we had a really good feeling working with those two guys.
As far as the offensive line goes, I think we did a good job of what we expected to see. But we have to keep our quarterback up, right? There weren’t as many sacks, and some of it went to the quarterback, some of it went to the offensive line… I just thought we needed more consistency at a really high level. Efficiency needs to be much more consistent across the board. It doesn’t matter what position it is. We all just need to be more efficient and consistent in everything we do.”
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “I don’t know if I learned anything new because I knew this team was resilient. We chose this word as “balance” in January when we looked at our schedule and felt our team for the first month. It’s going to be really, really good moments, and there will be really deep valleys at times throughout the year. Whether it’s injuries, whether it’s the opponents, whether it’s the way you play, whether it’s winning or losing, and we have no idea, but there’s a lot of that experience and be inexperience.
It’s about how we deal with the moments when things are really high and how we deal with the moments when we’re in a valley. How do we respond to all this stuff? So the word “balance” fits this team perfectly. And I thought you saw that on Thursday night. They never thought they would be out of there. This isn’t about offense versus defense or special teams. We are the Minnesota Golden Gophers. And we have said for a long time that we want to play complementary football and that we will need each other to be the best football team we can be… and this team will be ready. You have great self-confidence.
They have a pretty balanced mind even though some of them are so inexperienced. And then a few guys played a lot of football, like Tyler Nubin… and when you start looking at what he learned from Antoine Winfield Jr. as an X-factor, Antoine clicked on him and then he becomes that fits in with the Kerry Brown and Coleman Brysons of this world. That’s what it’s all about. And that is cultural sustainability over time.”
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “No update.
Q. Are you surprised the season took so long?
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “I’m not surprised at all.”
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “Hopefully very soon. But you’re going to figure it out because the Big Ten has a two-hour rule and we’re going to use that and the Big Ten wants it to be used.”
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “That’s a great question. We will see.”
I think we have seven or eight guys who can play. I think we have four guys who have established themselves as starters. And we’ll do what we need to do in practice to continue to evaluate and see what that guard position looks like and go from there.
But I have faith in all the guys. It just comes down to who does it better and who, when it’s so close, stops someone from playing the most. These are the questions we have to answer. It’s not that we’re not good enough there. That’s not what I’m saying. There are four of us and someone has to part ways. And whether it’s a young man or an older man, we’re waiting for it, but that’s a good problem to have. You have eight people. We just have to be more consistent.”
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “I think we did pretty well except for the one kick return. Looking at this again, we see that we have two players who are getting clutch and are too far down, causing them to lose their gap integrity. There is no return there,” and he simply gave up because two young players didn’t have the necessary control. And they are trained and we believe in them.
But Eastern Michigan had a really good return game. Anytime you have two returns for a touchdown in a game. This is no coincidence. They did that last year when they played a home game against Western Michigan University. They are good at it and have spent a lot of time on it. They use some techniques that are a little different than what we have seen and that can help them in their work. But if two guys each return a kick, that’s very rare.
But they play their best players on special teams. They are everywhere. You can tell that Coach Creighton has always placed special emphasis on special teams. Even back when I was at Western Michigan, they had really solid special teams. And this bridge that connects offense and defense. He won a lot of games on special teams and that makes the difference.
When you look at the offensive side of the ball, they have a quarterback who can really throw it. They do it with him too. They have a running back who used to be a quarterback at Iowa. And then he does some more wildcat. He plays running back. He can throw the ball, so he provides the dangerous wildcat aspect to still throw the football. They’re really big in the front. I mean, right tackle is huge. They have a lot of offensive lineman that they play. They have a lot of skill and throw the ball around the field. They carried it out with some efficiency.
And defensively, they are diverse in what they do. It doesn’t matter if it’s four or three down linemen. They keep everything in front of them. They’re really good at eliminating a lot of explosive plays. And they played really hard. They fly around the football and I would expect nothing less from Chris.
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “Well, I just thought it was collective. From top to bottom or from back to middle to front. We played a lot of players, changed a lot of players, with 20 plays or whatever it was in the first half. “There wasn’t a lot of data in the first half. And in the second half I think both teams threw the ball a little bit. I think if it had been a normal Minnesota game from years past, we might have made it 40 games total.
We threw the ball a lot more than usual, but I just liked the way we approached the ball. I loved how they thought they were out of it. They just played really, really hard. And if you play hard, especially on defense, sometimes even if you’re wrong, you can put someone on the floor. They did a great job with the halftime and sideline adjustments. I don’t think there’s anyone who can do this better than Joe.
Even with linebackers, it’s part of cultural sustainability. I think when you look back at our linebackers Blake Cashman To Kamal Martin To Thomas Barber. What they pass on to the Marianos and Jack Gibbensto what they passed on Cody Lindenberg. And what Cody, who has three years left on this team, passes on to Maverick Baranowski, Devon Williams, Joey Gerlach and Ryan Selig. You saw a lot of guys out there ready for their opportunity and we were able to play better.
But you saw a lot of guys ready and willing to get going and that’s what makes a team. There will be adversity and injuries, that’s just part of it. This is not an “if,” but a “when.” And one thing I’m not worried about with Coach Rossi’s linebackers is how hard they play. Now we have to do better. We need to approach our angles more efficiently and push the hips. In some of those areas we weren’t as good as we needed to be. Too many ankle tackles and jumping instead of running through the hips. And one of the things we did last night was utilize our tackling circuit.”
Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck: “With this team? No.”
I’m not saying you want to live there, but if we have to do it all year round, we have to do it all year round. Once again, we challenged our football team to get better across the board. These are special teams with kickoff, kickoff return, punt and punt return. On offense it’s about running the ball, throwing the ball efficiently and consistently. In defense, it’s all about tackling and explosive plays on defense.
But with this team it wouldn’t surprise me. If you had told me that last year, it would be like this. Because we have a lot more playmakers than us. And again, this is the first opportunity for Greg (Harbaugh) and Matt (Simon) to try out the guns. Since you don’t know what you’ll actually see on defense, here’s an idea. You never really know until the first game. Now everyone in the country has some data and can act on that data. The more data you get, the better you can be.
But it wouldn’t surprise me at all, especially playing at Nebraska. I feel like, at least in the last few years, we’ve had to play with the ball a little bit more, especially towards the end of the game, to find a way to win. And we will do that all the time.
Would I have liked to have started faster with three touchdowns on three drives? Absolutely.”