Earlier this year, I declared the Gophers loss to Mississippi State the most inexcusable loss of the P.J. Fleck era.
I take that back.
The Gophers loss to Purdue on Saturday was one of the most frustrating, disturbing, and inexcusable losses of the P.J. Fleck era. The Boilermakers won their first Big Ten game since 2023 last weekend against Illinois. You can see the progress Barry Odom has made in his second year as the Boilermakers coach. But Purdue is a program that Minnesota, in year ten of the P.J. Fleck era, should be able to handle.
Quite frankly, I’m not sure the Gophers ever showed up to play this game. Even worse, this has become a predictable pattern under P.J. Fleck.
The “One-Game Championship Season” Mantra is Broken
P.J. Fleck loves to preach his “one-game championship season” as a way to keep his players focused on the next game and not look ahead. Basically, they are supposed to treat their next game like it’s the National Championship.
P.J. preaches it over and over. You hear him reference it in his press conferences and interviews all the time. It makes total sense why he does it. “Don’t look ahead, focus on the east at hand.” But it’s not working, because every year the Gophers have one or two games that they come out completely flat and get blown out of the stadium. And these games have happened against opponents who are inferior, or at the very least are a similar caliber to the Gophers.
Let’s look back at some of these flat performances that have derailed promising Gopher seasons.
- 2021: Gophers lose at home to Bowling Green 14-10 as 30.5 point favorites.
- 2021: Gophers (6-2) lose 14-6 at home to 2-6 Illinois.
- 2022: Gophers (4-0) lose at home 20-10 to Purdue.
- 2023: Gophers blow 21-point 4th quarter lead at Northwestern, lose 37-34 in OT.
- 2023: Gophers lose by 19 points to 3-7 Purdue.
- 2025: Gophers lose by 38 points to Iowa, down 31-0 at halftime.
- 2026: Gophers lose 38-13 to Mississippi State, down 28-3 at halftime.
- 2026: Gophers lose by 28 points to Purdue, down 20-3 at halftime.
In just about every one of those games, with the exception of the 2023 Northwestern game which was a whole other issue in itself, the Gophers came out completely flat. They had no energy, no swag, and looked like they were waiting to see what the opponent did rather than go out and impose their will.
And in many of those seasons, had the Gophers just taken care of business against those inferior teams, it could have completely changed the trajectory of the season. For example, in 2021 the Gophers finished 8-4 in the regular season. If you had taken care of business against Illinois and Bowling Green, two bad teams at the time, you’re looking at a 10-win regular season. In 2022, had the Gophers beaten Purdue they would have won the Big Ten West and advanced to the Big Ten Championship game.
The “One-Game Championship Season” is not working and it needs to be fixed. These flat performances are holding the program back from having another breakthrough season, and as fans we shouldn’t accept it anymore.
P.J. Fleck Needs to Stop Being So Stubborn
P.J. Fleck enjoys his Tressel-ball. Dominate time-of-possession, take care of the ball, play good defense and special teams. We’ve seen the script over and over again.
I don’t necessarily criticize him for it. Just last week against Michigan we saw Tressel-ball in action and it was effective. As he has said, there are many ways to win football games, but you need to pick your strategy and go all-in on it.
My problem is, why are we still playing Tressel-ball when we’re down multiple touchdowns?
At some point, you need to play with some urgency when you fall behind. Yes, running the ball is important, but when you run for a total of 27 yards against one of the worst defense’s in the Big Ten, maybe let’s stop running the ball and try throwing the ball. Especially when you allegedly have one of the best passers in program history.
Case and point- the Gophers come out of halftime down 17 points and start with the ball. You’d think they’d get creative and show some urgency to move the ball and stop the bleeding. Instead? They run the ball three straight times, fail to get the first down, and punt.
What are we doing???
Or, why are we kicking field goals when we’re down 24 points late in the third quarter? Do you really think cutting the lead to 21 is going to make a huge difference when our defense can’t stop a thing?
Why are we wasting timeouts to challenge the spot of the ball to make the field goal two yards closer, when it’s already well within our kickers range? Are those two yards really more valuable than a timeout?
Sometimes I think P.J. is watching a different game than the one everyone else is watching. I felt like yesterday he thought he was still playing against Michigan last week, who’s offense looked much more inept compared to Purdue.
The stubbornness in how we play football and not evolving with the game is a red-flag. They say the best leaders adapt and change with the times, and it feels like P.J. is refusing to do that.
Stop Blaming Money
I know what a lot of fans are going to say. That P.J. doesn’t have the assistant salary pool to hire quality coordinators. That the NIL funding is lacking. I get that and I agree that that’s a problem with Minnesota. The Gophers will never become a consistent 10+ win team until the University invests more into the program or the program finds a big donor.
But you don’t need money to motivate your players against an inferior team. You don’t need money to beat a bad Bowling Green team. Money isn’t needed to beat a three-win Purdue team, or to show up against Iowa, a program that you’re supposed to be on-par with.
Money doesn’t solve the issue of kicking field goals down multiple scores in the second half. It doesn’t solve the issue of being stubborn about running the ball when the run game just isn’t working.
Yes, the program needs more money if we want to become a more serious program. But we should not need money to beat Purdue.
Are We Stuck in P.J. Purgatory?
What I have appreciated about P.J. Fleck is he’s raised the floor of the program to the point where we can expect to make a bowl game every season (2026 is still TBD). A program like Minnesota can have a low, low floor when the wrong coach is in place. So the fact that we win 6-8 games, typically have one or two nice wins along the way, and usually bring home a rivalry trophy each season is something I appreciate.
And in regards to the program ceiling, I do think he has raised the ceiling a little. Yes, they had that 11-win season in 2019, but that was seven years ago now and feels like more of an outlier. But since 2021 they’ve had win totals of 9, 9, 6, 8, and 8. Historically, that’s pretty good at Minnesota.
But with a higher ceiling comes higher expectations. As fans, should we just be happy that the ceiling is higher and we’re seeing eight win seasons rather than six or seven win seasons? Should we just be happy that we’re making bowl games, even if they’re just the Duke’s Mayo Bowl or the Meineke Car Care Bowl? I would argue that many of Fleck’s teams had the potential to make a higher-tier bowl game, such as the Outback Bowl or Music City Bowl, but came up short because of an inexplicable loss along the way.
The true Gopher fans are smart and realistic about the program expectations. We know our program is never going to be Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State. We’re never going to be the juggernaut we were in the 1930’s. But I think it’s reasonable to expect that we win a rivalry trophy each year, make a bowl game each year, and have a “ceiling” type season every five years or so. A ceiling season as in you win 10+ games and are at least in the College Football conversation. And that last point is where P.J. Fleck has come up short at Minnesota, but many of his teams have certainly had the potential to reach that expectation.
The fact is P.J. Fleck is never going to be fired by the University of Minnesota, and I understand that and accept that. He’s also never going to be good enough to get hired away by another program. I think there are a lot of programs out there that would benefit from a P.J. Fleck, because he brings stability, runs a clean program, and can build a program to an average-to-above average program. I bet Michigan State or Arkansas wouldn’t mind being at Minnesota’s level right now. But many programs will not hire him because of his personality (which I think is ridiculous) and his style of play. I mean, could you imagine P.J. playing Tressel-ball in the SEC?
So it feels like we’re stuck with P.J. Fleck like we’re in some sort of arranged marriage. And as a true die-hard I can accept that. But as fans, we should no longer accept the fact that each season the program falls short of it’s potential because P.J. refuses to change.
P.J. Fleck always preaches to his players that they need to “change their best” as in they need to raise the ceiling of their own abilities. Well P.J., it’s now time for you to change your best as well.
