What did Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck have to say on Monday during his weekly press conference ahead of the Golden Gophers hosting No. 4 Penn State on Saturday? Find the full transcript below.

All right. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for being here. I'm sure you got a lot of questions coming off the bye week. So we'll just go right in for questions.

Yeah, very similar to the first bye week, pretty different for the coaches, but in general. One, you gotta be able to get healthy, you know. Two bye weeks is really beneficial for a football team mentally, physically, and emotionally for their health. Seasons are getting longer. I think our guys did a really good job. That not only that we had to get better at the things we need to get better at with some self scout, but it gave us a lot more time to work on Penn State as well and get a jump start on that. In terms of the recruiting piece last bye week, we were all out recruiting this by week, maybe one or two guys went out here and there. But other than that we kept everybody in the office and I thought we had a really productive week of not only, you know, working on Penn State, working ahead, working on ourselves. But, you know, having some of the coaches, you know, good thing they got, you know, Friday afternoon and Saturday be able to spend some time with their families and that's always really important to me. So I thought it was really productive week.

Well, I think it's a give and take. I think everybody wants consistency and their offense and defensive line and we're no different than anybody else. When you want that and then what's going to give when you go, you know on Saturday afternoon for three hours and. 20 minutes. I think what we have to be able to do is I think we're playing really well at times up front on both sides of the ball. But I think it's just the attention to detail within the fundamentals of the technique when we don't play our best football, it's our pad level. It's our first step. It's our hand placement. It's our eyes. If we can get that consistent over a long period of time. Their effort, how hard they play that is, it's so fun to watch our film, win or lose after a game because it has nothing to do with effort ever. It has to do with the smaller integral pieces of that. The margin for error is the winning and the Big 10 are real. Really small and they're going to continue to be really small. So we have to do a really good job of closing that gap every single week, but that's what I see.

Well, I think when we talk about the, the consistency is the truest measure of performance. I think that's what you see every single week really, really good player and you know that. We got our hands, we got our hands full. Put it that way. But it's the versatility to do so many things and I think that's when you're looking at Penn State, Penn State has the ability to do a lot of different things and they do it very consistently. So it's but it's a new wrinkle every single week too. So whether it's three different quarterbacks, whether it's unique formations. They're going to give you things you've never seen before and you're going to have to stop it, and you have to be really disciplined with your eyes. You have to be really good at tackling in space. You've got to play really good up front. But that's they have weapons everywhere. But that's why you're the 4th ranked team in the country and you're you're really, really good and you got people everywhere that can make plays, and what make them whole, like, really difficult to defend is they just rotate guys in and out. I mean, they got they they platoon the D line and when they bring in the next D line, it looks very similar to the D line that came in before that. They do that with a lot of positions. So, but it's the consistency of how they play. It's the creativity that they play with. But then it's the ability to to give you things you've never seen before and make you do in in-game adjustments more than probably any other team.

Well, I think last week we didn't have many explosive plays I think. But you look at Maryland, we had a ton of explosive plays and you know, I mean it's both. I think we've had a lot of explosive plays. This year, the way that we've redefined those and what fits us, I think our guys are doing a really good job of making the available plays. But on the other hand, when we don't win the game like you look at last week when we played, we didn't win some 5050 plays, 5050 balls and they did. That was a difference in the game. We did not win 78% last week and. That's how you lose games. Yeah, and we had the and with all that losing 78%, you still have the ball up. In your own zone, with eight minutes to go. But then when we fumble, you're gonna lose games in the Big 10 inside your own zone and we've done that twice inside our own zone. This year, Michigan got a touchdown. Rutgers got a touchdown. If you do that, you're not going to win many games, let alone that game.

I don't know if it was just that I think that, you know, they got the ball other hand really quickly in the first half by the time we got to them, the ball was already out. They did a lot of quick game stuff with him and then he had this one progression and took off, you know, and was on the run. So second-half, we were able to get to him a little bit more of some pressure, but they were still doing everything, kid, to get the ball out of his hand really quickly. They weren't going through a lot of reads and progressions and you know. Just, you know, we didn't play well enough on the deep ball too and that's what hurt us ultimately it's it's three huge plays down the field that we don't make plays on and they do and that flips the field, let alone points. It flips the field where now you're going 8090 yards on the other side. So a lot of things that were kind of inside that game but the margin for error is really small. When you don't make those plays, turns out to be at the end result you look back, say OK, those are the ones that got us.

About the senior group, you know, I said at beginning of year there this team is really, really fun to coach and the teams that are really fun to Coach, win or lose, have great leadership at the top. I have great senior mentorship. These guys love football and whether it's like Max Brosmer has been here one year. Or you look at guys like, you know, even you know, guys like Cody Lindbergh who's getting older, but you start to look at Danny struggles and you start to look at guys like that who have been here a while. They've seen a lot in this program and they've really been responsible for doing so much, you know, even since the 19th season of what they've been able to take and continue to uphold. So their leadership is really, really critical. Their their love for football and love and passion for their life has been really. Fun to be able to witness over these years their energy for each other and their connectivity, their willingness to do it for each other. I mean these are going to be incredible men, husbands and fathers, and I think that's what senior day's all about. It's not just the end of their football career here at the University of Minnesota at home. But it's really the next chapter in the beginning of whatever they choose to do and I told you before the two things, the job of a head coach is to get people to love their alma mater, create an experience that's unlike any other. So they want to come back and then to make sure that they get to become who they say they want to become and all these guys are just being held to a standard of what they said they wanted to become. That's the job of the of the coaches and the head coach and the culture. Hold them to a standard of what they said they want and a lot of that has to do with accountability. These guys did that and I'm really, really proud of them. They've seen a lot seeing a lot of football and still got a lot of football left to play, but they're a really fun group to coach.

Well, if you look at Arieontae it's the consistency of being able to start play practice and get better. It's simple. He's a really talented athlete. I mean, he's gonna blow up, you know, he he's gonna blow up the numbers at the combine at his pro day. I mean, this guy is a really, really talented athlete. He's a great person as a lot of you got a chance to know him through the media which I think you get a chance to get inside his personality a little bit. But I think it's a consistency. I mean, he started 30, you know, in the higher 30s and you know, straight games I think is that right 30 some straight games, 30 some what's the number do we know? Carl. That's alright. Anyway, in the 30s he never misses practice. I mean, he gets better every single day, but he's up. He's a product of just grinding every single day, changing your best. We saw met camp at Lindenwood. He's 245 pounds, 250 lbs and he really didn't know much. He didn't play football very long, but you could see where he was going to go and it's always a risk because you just never know. There are guys that 250 lbs end up being 270 and don't put the work in to gain the weight and the weight room and are dedicated to doing that he is and here he is 335 lbs. One of the best tackles in the country and he's gonna be drafted really high, but the great thing about him is you don't worry about that. You know, if he worried about that, there'd be things in throughout his Rd. that be like, well, yeah, you know, he had to deal with this and dealt with that and maybe didn't come back from that as fast, fast enough. I mean, he is. I mean, he's as durable as it gets. You know when you're talking that position and I'm really proud of him. He's worked really hard on that.

I think it's just his growth over the years you've been able to watch him in different games, you know, I mean, the fun thing about when you film studies, you cross over so much with everybody who plays each other, and especially in the new league, he's really, really poised in the pocket. He's big, strong, got a good arm, understands the system. He can run. That's the one thing that, you know, they've got three quarterbacks, one a high school quarterback, that's really a tight end who's just to do it all for them. They got another quarterback who can throw it and run it really, really well, and then Drew can do the exact same thing, but they all have different skill sets and they use him in very different ways, but he's really accurate. He's big, he's strong, he's physical. I think he processes at a higher level than he ever has. I think that's a critical characteristic of being an elite quarterback, is how you process, how you get through your reads, how you get to the decisions, how quickly you do that. I think even last night's NFL game showed a lot of that. Uh. You know from Herbert if you were watching some of that game and we get a chance to watch some of that in the background and how fast things were happening, meaning he's open the balls on him, the distance between somebody being open, the ball being to him that that's a measure of quarterback knowing what he's doing and I think that he has that trait. You could tell he's coachable and the the team rallies around him

Not only windows are going to get tighter, the pressure is going to be on them a little bit quicker. They're playing, you know, 9-10 guys on their defensive line and it's not this. I don't mean this in a bad way, meaning that they're all the same, but you can't tell what platoon group is in because they all are good and they all have special traits. It's not just about #11 and #15 or the guys inside. It's not about just all of them. It's about. It's about how they can rotate. Guys in you know this is one of the healthiest defenses we played. You look talk to the top to bottom. You look in that little injury box that we get at the beginning of the week and there's not many of them, but they're not playing, you know, 75 snaps a game. They're rotating and platooning and they're not missing a beat when they're platooning these guys in. Very, very aggressive, very good tacklers. You could talk about how athletic they are and how good of a recruiting job James has done over his tenure and he is very consistent in what he does. But what I love about watching his groups are they're really good at the small things. Yes, they have a ton of talent, but can you get that ton of talent to do the little things really well, the blocking the tackling, the way they tackle the situational football piece, understanding all that and they do a really good job of that. So that's a direct reflection of their coaching staff and James and what he's always got his got his group. To be able to do. But yeah, I mean we we've got to play really, really good sound football. Which we have throughout the year, we just gotta put it all together in all three areas for four quarters that that that's going to be critical for us. I don't think that's hard for anybody to understand. I know that we're going. To. Get their best shot is a top-four team fighting for a top-four spot in the College Football Playoff and a Big 10 championship. Like they're fighting for that. So we're going to get their best shot. We've got to play our best football the year. That's simple.

Well, it happened. You can take that it happened. You know, I think that when you talk about somebody trusting what you're doing and how you're doing it, you need time, consistency improve. You know, the win in 2019, they were ranked 4th in the country. But that has nothing to do with the 2024 season. It really doesn't, Randy. I mean, the things we take from it is a lot of them weren't even here. Some of them didn't even know that. Right, because there's somewhere else four years ago and so much has happened in their lives. But what you can do is you can pull from really, really, really big games of what playmakers have done and I think that's always critical is we need our best playmakers to play their best. Penn State is going to need their playmakers. To be their best, that's what happens in November football and when you can show your own playmakers over the years making plays in huge games, huge moments in November, you want to be able to show them that and we spent time doing that a little bit. Yesterday, but then we took from it what we needed to take from it and moved on and since then, you know, we've shoot. That's what five years ago done a lot in the program since then. So you know, but it's going to be one game season, it's going to be 60 minutes. We got to be at our best period.

I think it's incredibly important. I mean, I can't tell you how excited I am about. The outpouring of support we've had through IL, through Dinkytown, athletes, what they've done to be able to help you know our program, our donors, our fans, we've had a bunch of other donors step up and even hopefully continue to to to do other matches as we continue to go forward because that. That's critical and when you look at the top of where people are, I don't think it's any secret when people sit there and say, I mean, those guys spend a lot of money on their rosters. I mean that's that's true and you're still going to have the salary cap, which is fine. The salary cap is going to bring a little bit of parity through the salary cap amongst college football, at least the top 2 conferences. But there's still this NIL thing right that doesn't have a limit of parity or what you have to be able to spend on football. So you have the salary cap for next year, but the NIL this unlimited NIL, and I know they have the anything over $600.00 has to go through the clearing house. That's fine. That doesn't mean people can't be paid over $600.00 that that's just some now some rules and regulations. With it. But. That can go up to us. Whatever you want it to go up to and I'm just really proud of our fans and our donors and the people who support our program have seen, you know, what college football is becoming and how we can retain our players. That's going to be everything is retaining our players and we can do that and those those talks have already started to happen and then you've got to go out in the portal and get some holes that you're going to need to fill for the next 25 season, and then you have high school recruiting and those are the three buckets that you have to be able to keep pouring into and when you start looking at those numbers, they might seem big, but over 105 players and then you're looking at those $3. I mean, you look at the teams that are at the top and they're spending a lot of money, which is good. You know, that's that. That's what it's going to come down to.

Well, from from this year to last year, I mean it's. It's way more. It's way more now again way more is a it's a very subjective word of how you want to look at that, but it's way more and as we continue to go forward like. You know, we just have to continue to find ways to be able to fill those 3 buckets and for me, as we continue to get more we can, we can do more with more simple, but the the outreach and the support have been improving throughout the years and again, like I said, I can't. I can't thank our people enough for doing that. So it's. Especially with the gifts that we're getting that are the matching gifts and we'll continue to hopefully get some of those where we can, you know, hopefully, get around, you know, the double mark and then continue to double it every single year. I mean that's what you want to be able to do, but you need a lot of support for that to happen.

Yeah. I mean, I love our atmosphere in November here at Huntington Bank Stadium, the bank's going to be rocking. I know that this is a team we're playing that you know, and they playing white outs at home and you know, they're they have 107,000 people at home games, something like that. But we have to create an environment. That's that's like that. But the opposite side for them and you know, they played in hostile environments. We played in hostile environments, but we need our fans to be where everybody should be on Saturday afternoon and that's here at Huntington Bank Stadium. I mean, what a great environment with #14 coming into the country, the Gophers being eligible and already fighting for, for placements in that. It's supposed to be a beautiful day. Little crisp bite in the air. I think it'll be a wonderful environment for people come out and I think our our fan support is absolutely critical in this game and how exciting it is to be able to have that type of environment and that type of game. I know both teams aren't undefeated like 19, but it's a it's going to have that type of feel. You know, once we get in that stadium and. I know our fans will be there and they've done a great job all year. Our fans have. Been amazing all year and this is the last one coming out and supporting our seniors. That's going to be really, really important. The last time a lot of our fans at home get to watch some of the best players that ever play. Here and I think that's really, really important for our fans to know and and support. It's not just coming to that game with Penn State, it's it's really showing those seniors the support that they need and the appreciation that we've all had, not just fans, but coaches for all the work that they put in and over the last four years of making Minnesota. What it is? So I can't wait to see all of them there, that's for sure.

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