What did Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck have to say in his weekly pres sconference following Minnesota's 48-0 win over Rhode Island? Find the full transcript below.

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All right, everybody, thank you for being here. Really excited about the win. Be 1-0 in the Rhode Island season, we're able to play a lot of guys. 71 participants actually got into that football game, which was well needed for our football team as we go through the next you know, 10 games we talked about how deep this team can be, but we needed a lot of guys to play. Our guys did what they needed to do and found a way to be 1-0 in the Rhode Island season. So we told them from the beginning that we're gonna play 60 minutes of football period. And I thought they did that from the start to the finish, there's 60 minutes of football and that was a whole objective, and I thought our guys did a really good job of that. So we'll talk about next week opponent here, I'm sure, in a little bit, but we'll open up for questions.

"I think he's one of the best players on this football team. Maybe in the country, you talk about importance to a certain team, how important as a player to their particular team. He's really important to our team, not only on the field, but off the field, type of person. He is the leader. How he's developing as a man. There's so many things that I love about Darius, but yeah, we missed them. You know, I mean, you can't sit there and say you don't miss your best players when they're not in there. We definitely missed them. I thought guys did a good job supplementing that in game one, but you could just feel his presence and the things he can do on the offensive side of the ball, for the backfield, split out wide, his balance, the way he runs the football, the way, what he could do with the ball in his hand. So of course, he was Miss game one, but that's, that's football. You felt good. Medical staff trainers gave him the ability to play in game two, and I thought he took advantage of that."

Yeah, I think you're always learning. This is the goal coach cliche, but I truly believe it. I think you're always learning, you know, you will be learning from game 10 to game 11 things about this football team. But, you know, I think as we keep going forward, if you ask specifically, you know, our offensive line, you know, just it kind of reminds me a little bit of the 2019 offensive line, where we played a lot of different players. And I think you can see that there's not going to be like, oh, there's some controversy. And who's the fifth we're going to play? It probably a lot of guys as the season goes through. And I think that might be what's best for this particular year. And that gives credit and says a lot about the development a lot of those other guys, the Ashton Beers and the Tony Nelsons and the Philip Daniels and guys like that have come along strong. Come on, strong. So I think you're going to see that, where I think it was until after the bye week of 19 that we actually kind of settled in and really six offensive linemen, and, you know, I think that's what's, that's what we're doing, that's, that's a good thing, that we could be able to do that with so many guys. And I think that's one thing. As we keep going forward, we're going to learn more about when it comes to the offensive line in the running game, average in this and three yards of carry. What's the emphasis there? Well, I think people doing everything they can to stop the run. I mean, everything they possibly can to stop the run. There's a reason. You know, we threw 200 max at 271 yards. I mean, there's nine guys in the box at a time, and there's two guys unblocked. You can block so many. I think also, when you play an opener, like you do against North Carolina, you were there, they have eight guys that are all rotating in that are all 300 pounds and really good players. I think those are two really good teams going at it. And I think this week they had to do a little bit more with more bodies, and we were going to take what the defense gave us, and we can sit there and be stubborn and say, You know what? What you just said, whatever, averaging, and we need that average or go up, or we can do what it takes to win the football game, right? So that's what I love about this football team, is you guys like to use the word balance, but whatever you have to do to win the football game, we're developing on becoming good at and I think that's what's fun about coaching this football team. It's not just a one dimensional it has to work. We want both to work. We want to be as balanced as possible. But really good teams find ways to win in different ways. And I think when you look at Game one versus Game Two, they were pretty different.

The key for us to have success is the ability to spread it around. I think we had forgot how many people actually touched the football 12? Was it 12? I think 12 people, 12 pass catchers. And when you throw the ball 30 time, Max threw it 30 times, right? Then you had 12 people catch the ball. I think that just answers the question, we have to be able to be that way. And you know, I told you afterwards, we were joking around with Daniels, and Daniel touched on today, and you know, he smiled. What my point of that was, is we're going to need other people to be involved in this, from the running back position to the wideout position tight ends. For this to work, the best it could work, everybody has to be reliable. You know, the best form of abilities, reliability and availability, but reliability is critical to be trusted in certain moments. And everybody's going to have their opportunities to make those plays, like they did this week, and they're going to have to be able to make them. And we're a better team if we can continue to distribute the ball like that, because it keeps defenses balanced, they're not able to take away one receiver, and then it takes away your whole offense, you know, or just take away the run game, and now you have nothing to do. So I mean that you're not very good at so we've got to be incredibly balanced. And this goes on to the defensive side. When we talk about the versatility and the depth, we've got to be just versatile and depth and deep on the offensive side of the ball as well.

I think our guys are really buying into it, and what they and what they can do. You know, we could have another one at North Carolina with the ball on the ground just didn't get out fast enough. Could also have probably three more picks in this one, but again, that you got to take advantage of those opportunities. And it's not about, you know, our players know what they do really well. And you go in there, and, you know, I told you this all before, we celebrate the win on Sunday, and we show them all the great plays that they had, and then we put our leather vests on, depending on what it looks like. We got put a lot of leather vests on, and there are a lot that we could have been able to have in the takeaway department that we didn't that maybe we got away with this week, but you won't get away with later on. We have to be an advantageous defense. I mean, we have to be a swarming defense that plays with legal football violence in everything that we do. And I think that's been the message from day one with our players, and I think they've responded really well in two games with that. And I think anybody who's watched our defense in the past or two games, and again, there's a I mean, like I said, there's North Carolina in game one. We're one of the only teams in our league that played a team like that. And then you look at Game Two, I wanted to see a complete I wanted to see it just about us in game two, I want to see us what we need to get better from Game one to game two. Those are hard games. Those are really hard games, especially when you're playing a good FCS team who's had a lot of success the last few years and really building that program up, you don't know how hard that is, to be able to get people to come off that loss, that we had to be able to get them refocused, and the type of team that takes and belief in each other as players and as a staff and collectively as a team to get that type of performance and but I think as you watch our defense, and you see a swarm and run around the run the ball, the fast reversal, the deep and they play really hard, it promises you nothing. You still got to be able to make the play. You still got to go find ways to win games. It's still the process to be able to get to that result. But I like the way they're playing, like how they're played, you know, how much the how it means to me, and that's all I can ask from our football team, is how hard they play offense, defense, special teams. And that's one thing that, you know, we take a lot of pride in. Two things that you saw from Max about how he played, versus like what he played from week one to week two. How did you see him improve? I thought he was really poised. I think right from the jump, he was poised again. He learned a lot from Game one to game two. He'll learn more now from Game Two to game three. And I thought he was in complete command. I thought his leadership on the sideline was even way better. You know? I thought his accuracy was where it needed to be. I thought he hung in the pocket really, really well and delivered the ball where it needed to go. His reads, decisive decision making was better overall, just better. I think he just felt more comfortable in game two. And it's not about comfort. I think quarterbacks, you're never just comfortable, right? Because you have to be, you have to be razor sharp in everything that you do. And I think that's kind of what he did, a little little surgical, you know, it's just it was precise. And that's what you want from your quarterback.

Well, they're very unique. They're much, much, much improved from what they were last year, maybe one of the most improved teams from last year. This year, went with a new head coach and staff. Lot of option. They keep you really sound. They make you play really sound, one gap type defense. I mean, I haven't had a chance to watch a ton of them, but looking at them, there's a lot of option involved. And then they run to the ball. They've got really good athletes on defense. They brought in some guys at the portal. They've got some guys who played a lot of football for them. They've had a bunch of games that have been really, really close. So, and you know that SMU teams really good, according to what people are saying, and shoot had to lead there, beating them for a while, and then weren't able to win in at the end. So really good football teams coming here into Huntington Bank and and we gotta have a great week of practice.

We know that and but we'll know more as we keep keep going through the week. But lot of option football, you deal with a few plays that commit on Saturday. Does that tell you? As a coach, I need to find more ways to get this kid on the field.

"I think that's always been why he's on the field. You know, from the start as a true freshman coming in June, I think no matter what we saw, what he did in training camp and even in the summer, and you're like, alright, we got to find ways to be able to get him on the field. And you know, I never put too much stock in just one thing. I never have done that or just one game. But I think we can all see from game one and he's on the field and does some really good things. Loves football where he's supposed to be, when he's supposed to be there, make some plays game, to make some plays. And again, as you keep doing that, you know, we'll continue to give you what you what you won, you've earned. And then two, what helps the football team, you know, and how much that is that's to be determined. But I love seeing him on that football field. He's a football player. I always, I never forget that he is a true freshman. He's a sponge. He loves to learn. He loves the game. So it's not like, oh well, yeah, he's a freshman. I can only spoon feed him. I mean, we can. We can give it to him by the shovels, if he can handle it. And as of right now, he can handle it by the shovels, and we're going to continue to do that and get to the bulldozer part. And you know, he just, he just absorbs it all. And I'm proud of him for that, because that's really difficult to do, and he's really humble, and I give him credit for that too. He knows how much he's got to learn and how far he needs to go, but, you know, he made some plays for us, hopefully continues to do that as the season goes on. But, you know, I trust him 100% and again, that's hard to earn.

I thought he played one of his best games he's played since he's been here. And it's not about that opponent. It's about, you know, we take the opponent out of it, no matter who we play, big, 10 opponents out of conference opponents, we look at what is our expectation of how we play that particular position, within the particular scheme, particular fundamentals and technique, and that's how we evaluate all of our players. It's not, Hey, how'd you do against this guy? It's really a battle within yourself. Because if you're really good at what you do, and you keep getting better at that. You know, it doesn't matter who we put in front of you. I thought he played really hard swarm to the ball. I thought his technique was probably better than it's ever been. And I think that's one thing that's held Devin back, just just a tiny bit has been, he's always been Ultra athletic and tough, but it's, it's the technique that's got him at times. And I thought that he trusted his training and trusted his technique better than he probably has in the past. And hopefully he can take that next step and that next right step in his development, which I know that he can.

"Well, I think that anytime you lose, and somebody asked, man, one of you, like, what's harder, you know, getting blown out or or in a loss or lose on a last second field goal, I said they're all hard. I said they all feel pretty much the same, but it's what you do with that loss that I think is incredibly important for life and football, I've always believed that we all have our own loss. Every day. There's something that we lose or somebody that we lose. I happen to be coaching 117 young men that there's somebody in every single one of their families that sick, that they lost, almost on a daily basis. You're constantly dealing with loss, and then you play a game which you might not win. Every single game you're not going to do everything right? So the hardest thing to overcome is expectation of other people, and let alone the expectation of yourself. And the way that we put these expectations on these young people, it's so hard when they don't meet that. And then we tell them they don't meet that. You tell them they don't meet that. So I think it's all about how you process that. How do you process the loss, and what is the culture inside the walls to take that loss and turn it into positives? Because the loss can just deteriorate you if you let, if you let it, and we can all have an excuse and a reason why the loss is deteriorating. Every single one of us, in our personal lives, in the football life and our work life, we can all have that. We can all have that and that, and that's that's you. That's actually human nature to feel that way. But for us, we do everything we did do to turn it into fertilizer, where it's there to help. It's dirt. It's not good. It's it's, it's, it's something that you gotta go through your life, that it's that that's probably really, really bad and hard to overcome, but you might not see it now, but if you handle that the right way, and you keep working and you have a great, positive attitude and a positive mindset, which sounds corny, but it's true, our bodies are meant. You can, you can get through that with that, and I think that's why we talk about the fertilizer with our players. When you're coming off a loss like that, that's only going to make us a better football team. And I feel like that had made us a better football team. And I'm not saying it just in one game, in a score and a performance, and their opponent we played. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how hard they played from after that loss and then had to wait 10 days to play again, and how they came out and played. I think that shows the example of what that fertilizer was. When it wasn't mud, it was fertilizer. And you get to pick which one that is. You want to be fertilize. You want to be mud, because at the time when that happens, it all looks the same, and one's going to help something grow and one's going to just stay mud. So I mean, that's, I thought, That's what our players did that week."

Well, injuries are a part of football. Dave, you know, I mean, that's the one thing about our profession that there's things that you can control and there's things you cannot control. I remember, even as a player, I mean, I took care of my body, I would think, is probably as good as anybody, and I dealt with hamstring issues my entire career, hamstring and shoulders. No, my knees were fine, but it wasn't because I took care of my knees different than my shoulders. It just happens. And I think everybody's feels physiologically different. You know, whether it comes people are tighter hipped or have tighter glutes, maybe somebody has more of a quad issue than a hamstring issue, our medical team, our trainers, our doctors, our Sports Science Department, the technology that's out there to help student athletes that we listen to all that. And the great thing about college athletics, and I think a lot of people don't really get, is for the only time really in their life, this time in Big 10 football in college, everybody in the building is there for their need to make sure they're doing well, mentally, physically, emotionally, for mental health specialists to the trainers, to the doctors, to the coaches, to the strength staff, to the nutritionists, right to the academic advisors. Everybody's making sure you're good. Think about that. Who's making sure you're good in your life right now, your wife. There you go, Dave, that's it. And listen, some of them are married, some of them, some have girlfriends. I keep going, but it's really their only time in their life. When you go to the NFL, there's one thing, but in the off season, you're you have your own trainers, you have your own people, you have your own team that's taking care of you. We're giving them, you know, tax classes and financial classes, and we're doing societal classes. And the here initiative, think about all these things off the field pouring into individuals, and it's the same thing when it comes into their body. You've been in our facility, and then you take them as they come. It's football, it's a violent game, it's a contact sport. People get hurt, but the sport science is what we're listening to a lot in the medical field and the training field training department. So our people are doing a great job. Can't avoid them. You can do everything you can to prevent them, but if they do happen, then it comes down to listening to the trainers and the sport science and the doctors of how we can get the player back as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible, to maximize what what players all want that's to be on the field. You're about to utilize tight ends more this week in the passing game. Just how important is that position in the passing game? I think it's just everybody's got to touch the football for us to be a really good offense, everybody's got to be able to touch it. And I think there's years where you say that you want that to happen, and you're like, all right, maybe that's not going to happen as much, and we're going to have to take this piece and put it over here and move this piece to put it over here, because that's the only piece we got. And so that piece has to continue to move so nobody can get a beat on it. But defenses are really good these days. They can find ways to take one or two guys out of a game like that. So as a whole, I think that's what I love about this team the most is, you know, you know some of the players, but for the most part, you know, people go down our roster and you know they would know there's, this is our deepest draft this could be our deepest draft class, but nobody's sitting there talking about just one superstar, and that one superstar is making all the plays. It's, it's a collective distribution of talent that people are have a responsibility to do and a job to do, and everybody's excited to do that for each other. What did you hear from the Northern Illinois

It was tremendous. You know, Coach Hammock and I were college roommates. You know, you're at your alma mater. So once a husky, always a husky, you know. And it was so good to see because, you know, Joe Novak started this a long time ago, and the boneyard victories. And I remember when we first got there, and we were being recruited around, like a 2526 game losing streak, something like that. And it wasn't very good, and here's how bad it was. I was recruited and I was selected as a scholarship athlete. That's how bad it was. But I remember him talking about his vision of what Northern Illinois could become, and he did it with a lot of area players, you know, the Nick Duffy's of the world, and Thomas Hammack was from Indiana, but you know, we were all these, you know, crack on the shoulder, blue collar kids just hungry, have an opportunity. Now, many of us had a lot of offers and and then it didn't go well the first few years. And all sudden it turned and our senior year, we beat Alabama. At Alabama, we beat Maryland, who was ranked at home, beat Iowa State The same year, wait for it to think the year before that. And we started, started collecting these boneyard victories, and that's always been a tradition in Northern Illinois. And, you know, Joe Novak started that, and he put that in all of us that you can and, and I think that's where that that come. And you start to look at, you know, Thomas hammock of what he's doing at Northern Illinois. And you've looked at where Joe Novak's tree has gone and moved on to there's a lot of hard jobs and a lot of blue collar jobs and and there's a lot of blue collar people working at those jobs and and putting people in position to believe in themselves. And I think he taught all of us to believe in ourselves, that anything's possible if you work hard enough. I know that's corny and cliche, but and we came up with the hard way. Nothing for us was ever going to come easy. It was going to be the hard way. And so we created the hard way as players, and to this day, they still use it. And I'm so glad coach hammocks back our alma mater, representing the NIU Huskies. And I'll say this to everybody, if you got a chance to watch it, which I think it's gone viral. That is Thomas Hammond. That is his post game speech. I mean, he loves Northern Illinois. I had to watch Thomas in his senior year get told he can't play because of a medical condition, and him and I were both sidelined. I had a hamstring Dave and he had his medical condition, and our first senior year, we went through on the sideline together. My mom has a picture to this day called the sideline season. My mom still sends him notes, and he just text me yesterday. Your mom just sent me a note. Make sure I have her address under you know, thank you, because they moved so but a sideline season, we sat there together, and he's got incredible emotional intelligence, and he knows what kind of football team he always has, and that wasn't just for that team. That was for all the things that, you know, we were told in recruiting of what could happen in Northern Illinois and what a win for the Huskies. And sorry to ramble on about it, but it's fun to watch your alma mater do a lot of really good things. And, you know, when I was at Western Michigan, I was hated by them all of a sudden, because you kind of switch and you're in the same conference, and now you're at a rival and and, but I think we've all moved on from that, you know, obviously eight years being here and now, you know, it's just so good to see him have success, and the players have success. And so many guys that even on a staff that we know and just really happy for them, that's a huge win in program history, for sure."

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