Minnesota head football coach P.J. Fleck met with the media on Monday to take questions on the Gophers 31-14 loss to Iowa on Saturday and preview their week five matchup against the Michigan Wolverines.
Obviously, we were disappointed with the outcome of the game last week. I loved how our players came in yesterday and had a great practice. We have another rivalry game this week, and 100% of our attention is already on that, especially with an elite opponent like Michigan. It’s another rivalry game, playing for the Little Brown Jug, and another opportunity. That’s what makes playing at Minnesota so great—you get so many opportunities, especially with this new Big Ten, playing a lot of teams, especially our rivals.
I'm sure you have a lot of questions about the game from last week, which was disappointing, particularly the second half, and I'm sure we’ll get to that. Ultimately, I’m responsible for how our team plays, and I think we’ve had two bad halves of football in four games. When you evaluate yourself constantly and reflect as a head coach, my job is to ensure our team plays its best for 60 minutes, and we haven’t done that in two games, in my opinion. That 100% falls on me. There are always reasons, not excuses, and you work on those reasons to get better. I thought our players had great focus last night to be able to do that.
Obviously, disappointed that Floyd went to Iowa. Congratulations to them. Now, we need to respond.
QUESTION: Looking at the run defense and potential adjustments
Yeah, I thought it was a tale of two halves. You're not going to stop Kaden Johnson. I think when somebody is that good and their o-line is so good. I don't think you're just going to stop them, I think you can slow them down and I think in the first half we were able to do that. But it was truly just a tackling issue. If you look at the second half, third-and-ten, right? touchdown becomes 14-14. Third-and-six, we can get off the field, but we got a PI. Next play, 40-yard touchdown run. We had four people right around it on a gap scheme, and we kind of knocked each other off the tackle. Instead of going in and shooting our gun, which means just going for it, we hesitated, broke down, and you can’t do that against them. We did it better in the first half than we did in the second half, so it became a tackling issue. We missed tackles or hesitated, didn’t shoot our gun, or broke down. You can coach that repeatedly, but you have to apply it, and while we did in the first half, we didn’t in the second half. It wasn’t that no one was there; we had people in the right places but didn’t make the plays. Sometimes, it came down to one-on-one tackles. They schemed it to get one-on-one tackles with the safety or the corner, and there were times we swarmed, but then we’d knock each other off like bowling pins. It just didn’t look good, and we have to coach it better. That’s what we focused on for 20 minutes last night. We also didn’t fit the crack replace well, and they got us on that a few times.
That’s the head coach’s responsibility—to make sure those things don’t happen—and unfortunately, they did. These are the reasons why it happened, as I told you I’d explain after reviewing the film.
When evaluating, you look at coaching, scheme, and personnel as three different buckets. In the second half—offense, defense, and special teams—all three needed to be better.
Everybody has to take responsibility and accountability. Coaching-wise, I didn’t do a good enough job adapting to the flow of the game. I wasn’t a very good head coach in the second half. When you review, you ask if this was the best play call for the situation. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes no. We could have put our players in better positions. There’s also the player aspect—they have to make plays when they present themselves, go through progressions, make tackles, break tackles, and keep their eyes in the right spot in pass protection. Everyone has to be accountable, but it starts with me.
In the second half, the game was much closer than the final score showed, and everyone in the building saw that. But when you give up three huge explosive plays because of missed tackles, it’s tough. Then you’re down, and our whole adjustment plan for the second half—down 14-7—was to get a stop on defense. But the big runs happened, and suddenly, we’re tied. Then we go three-and-out, go for it on fourth down and get it, but we don’t make any yards on the next drive, and we punt. Now we’re down 21-14, and it flips just like that.
Our second-half plan flipped from run-game adjustments to needing to throw the ball to get back into the game. Unfortunately, we had an interception and a critical error. That’s how Iowa gets you. It’s not just us; they play a steady game. Their run game was really good, especially in the third quarter.
We didn’t run the ball effectively, and we didn’t throw the ball effectively. I could have called better plays and been a better head coach. It just didn’t feel like we could get into a rhythm. As a head coach, you can sense things, and even though it was 14-14 and we went for it on fourth down and got it, they started running the ball well after that explosive play, and we had to adjust.
Again, it’s all about not executing at a high level. Whether it's coaching, going through progressions, missing blocks, or not being In Sync in the second half, we need to do better.
QUESTION: How do the Gophers get Jah Joyner going?
Well, I think he's played really hard. I mean, people are getting the ball out of their hands way quicker. You know, this isn't like we're playing a bunch of drop-back teams that just sit back there. I think he's been very disruptive. I think he's been very good in the 1st and 2nd down run game. He can always be better in the 1st and 2nd down run game, but people know who he is. Not only that, we've got other guys getting freed up and creating pressure on the quarterback. But we're not going to sit back there and drop back 25 times, so it's going to be more about that run-stopping skill set for him. I know he's going to continue to get better. He works his tail off. I think some of the interceptions we've had are because he's provided quarterback pressure. Instead of taking the sack, they've thrown it up, and we've got an interception. So I see it on both sides of what you're saying. He's getting better, playing his ass off, and working really hard. I know things will start breaking his way a little bit.
It should be a similar game, barely passing the ball and relying on two running backs, similar to how Patterson and Johnson had Edwards and Mullins torch that USC defense. How do you prepare for that, especially going into a hostile environment this time?
Yeah, well, I think, you know, shoot, we've played in hostile environments before. I tell you what, our fans at Huntington Bank Stadium and our student body were unbelievable the other night. That was rocking—loudest I've heard in a long time, and it was tremendous. The environment they create is something we replicate in practice. You guys have been there before—our players can't hear anything. The Big House isn’t called the Little House for a reason, you know? But we can't let circumstances dictate our behavior. You have to be able to play anywhere in the Big 10, and you've been preparing for that all offseason. In terms of their offense, they're going to run the football. That's what you've heard, right? They’re doing it with their own style, especially with the quarterback change. They're big and strong, so we've got to stop the run. We know that. They're going to have things off of that with play-action passes. But again, if it were a big schematic issue, I'd be worried. People are where they need to be—we just need to make the play.
Last week, we wouldn’t fire our gun and shoot tackle, which we were pretty good at in the first two games. But for whatever reason, we weren't doing that well in the second half. That will be a big emphasis: to slow their run game down. I don’t know if you stop Michigan’s run game, but you can slow it down with different strategies, and that’s what we’re working on. We respect what they do and how they do it—they run the football at will.
QUESTION: How did your players come out physically?
I know they're disappointed. Some bumps and bruises, but we came out pretty healthy. We went into the game missing some key guys in the secondary, and others who we could have used. But it gives valuable experience to young players, like Zaquan Bryan, who's playing at a high level as a redshirt freshman. Probably playing earlier than expected, but he's learning and improving every game. Some guys who hadn’t played all year are getting acclimated again, but you've got to perform from the start. Besides the disappointment after the game, I thought they were pretty good health-wise. But they were disappointed. The good thing is, as I said before, there’s a difference between disappointment and discouragement. They were disappointed but came out fired up and ready to practice.
We know our schedule, we know the Big 10—it’s a battle every week, and that’s exciting. Unfortunately, we've played two inconsistent halves of football in four games, and it’s cost us two games. We’ve got to fix that, and that falls on my shoulders. We have to make sure we play the way we start a game throughout—start fast, accelerate in the middle, and finish strong. If we can do that, this is a really good football team. I really like this team. We’ve played some really good opponents, which brings out the best in us, but those two bad halves caught up with us.
QUESTION: You guys have been good at flushing results, win or lose. Is it easier this week?
I love your questions because they're very similar, right? We talked about not letting circumstances dictate our behavior. After a loss, which hurts worse—a close loss or a blowout? They all hurt the same. A loss is a loss. Each game is its own entity, and you have to be trained to let it go like a goldfish—flush it and move on. Our team is really good at that. After the North Carolina game, they responded well against Rhode Island. Then with back-to-back shutouts, they responded again. The first half of football last week was really good, responding to being down 7-0 with 14 straight points. I don’t worry about that with this team. You're constantly training and looking for it, though. You’re always trying to tie things to the past week. But we don’t let the circumstances change our behavior.
They’re disappointed, but it’s not like they’re saying, "Oh, we lost, let’s move on." That game means a lot to a lot of people—our fans, our state, our alumni, players, university, student body, staff—everyone. It's hard to go through that, but they’ve been really good at flushing it and moving on, just like they did yesterday. Sunday night practice is great for getting a vibe of where we’re at, and then I can adjust things as we go through the week. You're constantly listening to your team—watching how they respond, how they react, what the training room is like, the team meeting, the position meetings, their body language in practice. You get a good vibe for the coming week, and then you adapt accordingly.
QUESTION: There's been some personnel change on the offensive line, but you've got three seniors starting. How do you get them to be consistent, especially now that you're a third of the way through the season?
That’s a good question, Ryan. I don’t think it’s all their fault. Everything starts with me. We need to stick with it a little more. They've played really well at times, but there are moments we haven't. We’re also playing some pretty good defenses that do a lot of different things. Starting with game one, with Jeff Collins as a new coordinator, there was a lot of new stuff thrown in. I thought the line responded well and got better as the game went on. You’ve got to give credit to the competition, too. We're playing at the highest level against some of the best teams in the country.
For the most part, I thought we held up really well in protection last week. But the consistency in the run game needs to improve. That’s where we need to be better. As coaches, we need to continue investing in it. And when we throw it, we have to make the plays. Our margin for error is small—it always has been. When you miss, you better miss small. To stay balanced, you have to establish a good run game. Those body blows have to pay off in the third and fourth quarters. It’s the same in the passing game—if you throw an incompletion on 1st down, it’s 2nd and 10, and we’re playing really good defenses. We’re not playing elementary school defenses. But we want to stay balanced. Sticking with it will help them, and I think they’ve been good in pass protection. It’s not just about making changes; it’s about finding the best five to play together.
Guys are getting better. Look at the opponents we've had—North Carolina is a really good football team, especially when we played them. Iowa is another great team. The other two games, we took care of business. Nobody talked about issues then because there weren't many. But the two games we lost were against good competition. We need to stick with it and be more consistent, whether it’s pass protection or the run game, and execute at a higher level. I know our guys will keep pouring into it.
QUESTION: What did Iowa's defense do in the second half that eliminated the space created by the offensive line?
Well, I think the space was a little bit more. I meant that a little bit on the defensive side and Andy's question. It was, we left too much space. You know, we didn’t shoot tackle, we didn’t close the space, we didn’t attack, we didn’t shoot our gun. We did in the first half, we didn’t in the second half, which created more space, which allowed Kaden to be Kaden, right? Which allowed holes to be a little bit bigger. And that’s where we got beat on the space category.
You know, on the offensive side, it was just, you know, we wouldn’t hang on to reads long enough, we’d get off them too quick, and there’d be an open guy, but we had already moved on. So we didn’t have many opportunities in that third quarter, right? And we weren’t very efficient. And when you're not very efficient in the run game or the pass game, and the other team is, and you're creating space on the defensive side of the ball, it’s going to be a long half for you. It happened really quick.
But the space category for me was more on the defensive side. On the offensive side, it wasn’t like we weren’t creating space, it was just that we didn’t make enough plays that I felt we could have made in the first few possessions of the second half. If we did, I think it’s a different story."
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