Everything that Minnesota HC P.J. Fleck said after the Gophers’ 23-10 win over Buffalo

Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck spoke with reporters following the Golden Gophers’ season-opening 23-10 win over the Buffalo Bulls.

As we previously wrote following Thursday’s game, P.J. Fleck started his press conference following the game with a poignant message regarding the tragic Annunciation Catholic School shooting on Wednesday.

You can find his full message on the tragedy here. Following his message, Fleck offered brief remarks on the game and opened the press conference up to questioning.

Statement on win

“”I’m really proud of our football team. That’s a really good Buffalo team. That’s a team that will probably go out and win the MAAC. And you’re going to have a lot of questions. But you look at the adversity we faced, and our back against the wall, and a lot of young players. And some of them didn’t play particularly well at the beginning or executed at a high level.

Because at halftime, I said, we’re playing pretty good football. We’re actually playing really good football. And then something would happen. And it set us back. Our guys would come right back. And so you’re talking about game one, finding out a lot about the character of your football team. That’s what game one’s about, finding the character of your football team. And I saw a lot of character with our football team tonight. That was a really good opponent we played to start game one. I played in the league. I’ve coached in that league. And you come in, this is their Super Bowl. And we got everything that they had. And they showed us all types of things they didn’t do before. They threw everything at us.

And for our young freshman quarterback to process that on offense, and for our defense to play as well as they did, that’s a credit to our team and our special teams. I thought our special teams played outstanding. So I’m sure you have a lot of questions. I’m really excited to be 1-0. Again, way more important things right now than football. And I want to make myself very clear. But I’ll answer your questions.”

On the Gophers’ 10-minute drive to end the game

“You’ve been around me a long time, Andy. 9-1-1-minute drive is in the first sense. Didn’t somebody say something? We didn’t have that one. I’m sorry. They’re throwing all these things on the radio at me. It must not have been one. 9-1-1-minute drive is go for football in four minutes. Now again, if we have a four minute one, at one point, you’re like, well, it was a 9-1-1-minute. That was go for football at the end.

And our line taking over, tight ends taking over, and Drake on third down throwing completions to keep moving the chains. It was all going to come down to three, four, four first downs in a row to end the game. And we ended the game on offense. That was a challenge to everybody up front. And I thought they accepted the challenge. So really proud of our offensive line. Coach Callahan, Darius Taylor ran his heart out tonight. But here’s the thing about Darius. Darius is a really good player. But Darius was sitting here. Darius is going to tell you, he’s going to have to get beat. He missed a few runs. And he’s going to get better at that. He’s only been playing tailback for about three years. And he’s going to keep getting better. But he’s made some huge plays for us. Love when the ball’s in his hand in four minutes.

The best play maybe of the day was after the ankle kick up, interception. After that, you’re sitting there going, wow. Is tonight our night? Because when things like that happen, you’re like, wow. As Garrett says, he goes, whoa. And Darius runs all the way down the field and tackles him. And what happens? Field goal. Instead of six, field goal. That’s how. That’s Gopher football. That’s the heart, the spirit, and the unconquerable will of this football team. And that was on display from an offensive player becoming a defensive player. So I’m really proud of our offensive line. I thought that drive was really, really key.”

On the Gophers’ defensive line setting the tone defensively

“”They sure did. I mean, they’re relentless. I mean, from Devin Eastern to Jalen Logan, Redding, Jackson, Howard, Anthony Smith, I mean, they’re relentless. I thought Rushawn Lawrence had some really big plays in there today. I thought our linebackers were flying all over the place. Our secondary did a really good job. The one play that got out, and I mean, Kerry just bites on a bender. It’s a double move. We knew they were going to run it at some point. Kerry Brown’s a phenomenal football player. And then he makes four plays out of the next eight after that. So I mean, that’s going to happen in football. But the response is what I’m concerned about. And I thought we did a tremendous job of that.””

Did Drake Lindsey’s compsure surprise him at all?

“No, it didn’t surprise me at all. His composure is the exact same as I saw in a state championship football game. When it’s a nail biter, it’s going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The only one that was a little anxious was Amy, his mom. And just every play was holding on for dear life. Not that kid. I mean, he is a cool customer. Wants the ball, understands the situation of football. He learned a lot of things that you can and cannot do today. You can’t take a sack in the green zone there. You got to throw the ball away. But he’s so coachable. Our best players are the most coachable people. And when we talk about developing talent, great people become really great players. I believe in that. And that’s what this program is. We’re going to create great people, recruit great people. And then they’ll become better players. And I think Drake Lindsey’s a great example of that. His composure and his poise. Not only that, his processing information was at a high level. He made some really good throws today. And then he made a throw or two. They were like, you’re not going to be able to throw that again.”

On using Darius Taylor in a wildcat formation

“”Yeah, I think you can see a lot more of that. You can see a lot of other things, too. What we have is there’s a lot of guys. Look at a guy like Jalen Smith tonight. He’s playing in his first football game. And some things went well. Some things didn’t go so well. And when you’re a guy, it’s different going out there for running four run plays to run out a game last year. We’re talking about real football. And there’s some things he’s going to keep getting better at. But I think he showed what he can do. And now we just got to continue to get better at those things. You look at like Javon Tracy, a new player on this team. We’re only going to keep getting better as the time goes on because of how hard these guys work. But you’re going to see a bunch of other stuff. I mean, Koi played some snaps on offense. But we needed him a lot on defense again today, too. And we were going to do some other things. But they did some other things on defense, which kind of changed that a little bit.”

On how Max Brosmer rubbed off on Drake last season

“They became really, really good friends. And I think there’s a difference between being cool and working. Max never led by being cool. Max led by the work, the sacrifice, the discipline, the dedication, the leadership. That was his deal. And I think that showed Drake what it looked like. And Drake’s a really young player. Drake’s mature for his age, but he’s still a freshman. But that showed, and I think that helped speed up his maturity level. I mean, Max Brosmer got a game ball in the locker room. He shows up in a Drake-Lindsey jersey. Nobody’s happier for Drake than Max. And you can see, whether it was New Hampshire or whether it was the University of Minnesota and what’s going to happen with the Minnesota Vikings, that kid leaves his imprint. And he leaves his legacy everywhere he goes. And that’s not, it’s going to keep happening in his life. And I think we all got a chance to watch that over the six-week training camp at the Vikings. And everybody who covers us, you know, I told you this kid’s going to play a long time in the NFL. And the longer he sticks around, the more they’re going to like him. And what did he do? Longer he stuck around, made the team. But him celebrating that locker room with us, that’s what this whole thing’s about. Dragans back. Crawford was back today in the locker room. Just our alum, Cody Durr, was in our facility the other day. I mean, just this is what it’s all about. This is what that cultural sustainability can create. And really, really proud of Max and what he’s accomplished. Because he’s been doubted his entire life. And there’s one thing I would never, ever do is doubt that young man.””

On their roster, different formations, and the opportunities that it could present going forward

“”Well, we knew we wanted to do a lot of different things tonight and see what we’re good at, see what we’re not so good at, see what needs to be cleaned up. But Buffalo was pretty standard on film. Tonight, they were not standard. Blitzing from everywhere, playing bare fronts. I mean, they’re moving all over the place. Their stunt game was crazy. Coverages, they were mixing up more than they normally did. They usually kind of sit and cover three. It was very, very different. And I thought our coaches did a really good job adjusting to it. It just felt like we can never put the game away. We were one play away from putting it away one time, then another play from putting it away, and then another play. And I think that was so maybe the disappointing piece of it was we were that close from making that a different game, but I’m glad it didn’t go that way. Because as coaches, you got so much to coach from.”

What stood out about Danny Collins’s first game as defensive coordinator

“Like, he’s done it for 50 years. He’s so poised on the headsets. He knows what he wants. He’s a great communicator. He’s a great teacher. He’s really good with the staff. When you’re on the headset and you’re listening to Danny when they’re over on the benches, I mean, it’s a clinic. It’s a clinic. And he’s a phenomenal football coach. And I’m glad he’s our defensive coordinator. And just to be able to have it happen, the defense running out there after that interception and, I mean, just making them lose yardage, that’s impressive. We got a lot to get better at. We’re going to get some guys back. We have some guys that are out right now. We’re going to get some guys back. But I’m glad we have a few extra days as we keep going forward here. So rest up and go at it again.”

His assessment on the Gophers’ special teams unit

“Sorry, I’m maybe a little dehydrated. Bob Ligashesky got a game ball in our team room, in the locker room. Because new kickers, new punters, special teams played tremendous. We weren’t able to return many punts. I thought their punter did a really good job of flipping some stuff. We flipped field position. I thought that was really critical. But I thought that, you know, I mean, 3 for 3 in field goals, which are absolutely huge with a new kicker, only builds his confidence as he moves forward, new holder. Just watch. I watch Bob work. And I watch how the kids respond to Bob. They love Bob. We do our senior speeches. And when the specialists get out there, the relationship is really deep with Bob Ligashesky. He’s been around. He’s been to so many NFL teams. He’s got so much experience. He’s a wonderful human being. And, you know, he definitely deserved one tonight.”

On the importance of a young roster fighting through adversity

“That’s what rowing the boat is all about. It’s a great question. It’s the response, the response, the response. You can’t do anything about the result of the last play. You’ve got to respond. No plays will beat, no two plays, or no play will beat you twice. You can’t allow that to happen. And that’s what I saw in the young players today. But the poise on their face. Nobody ever had bad body language. Nobody was ever discouraged. There’s a difference between being disappointed. I want you to be disappointed. You don’t catch a ball and you drop it. I want you to be disappointed. But I want you to want to get the next one. I want to see that in your body language. I want to see that in your eyes. I want to see it. I want to feel it. And I felt it in all of them today. You know, I felt that feeling, whether it was Jalen Smith, whether it was Javon Tracy. We talked at halftime like we had to go attack that football in the second half, whether it was our tight ends. And I thought they responded to that. We’re only going to keep getting better that way. You know, our teams get better as the season goes through because we just continue to practice and develop. We’re very transparent with our players. And I expect nothing less than us to continue to improve in those areas. And they’re going to, you know, you won’t be able to tell whether we won or lost when we go over this film tomorrow. That’s for sure. And we’ll get better at it. And those guys will see what they have to continue to improve on.”

How do you treat the first game of data?

“Yeah, it’s one game. It’s not just, I don’t look at it, Ryan, as like the first game versus the seventh game. I don’t look at it versus like 14th versus the sixth. You have one game of complete proof data in a game. You take it exactly for what it’s worth. What I tell our coaches when we watch film as a staff, I said, listen, data is jumping off the screen of what this team can and what they’re not capable of doing yet. We as coaches have to listen to that. We got to highlight more of what they can do. And then we got to make the things that we’re not so good at way better. And then it’s sometimes if we’re not, if they’re not really good at all, yeah, throw it out. And then you just continue to funnel that as the season goes on. But it’s game one. We were 1-0. That game is over. We were going to dissect it as best we possibly can. And then we’ll flush it. We’ll take all that data. We’ll learn from our past to create our future. We’ll plug it in and we’ll go to game two and play hopefully play a way better game in game two than we did game one.”

Join Gophers Nation now for $1 your first week and enjoy a complimentary year of The Athletic – included with your membership.

Like our page on Facebook

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Talk about it inside Inside Gophers Nation