Hickey: A very prepared PJ Fleck offers his defense of Minnesota’s program

INDIANAPOLIS — In a makeshift lunch room inside the bowels of Lucas Oil Stadium, PJ Fleck huddled closely with his athletic director and sports information director, reviewing a stack of handwritten notes. The phrase “the article” could be overheard in passing.

There’s little question about the article in reference.

The day before Fleck was scheduled to speak at Big Ten Media Days, Front Office Sports published a story outlining allegations of a “toxic culture” at Minnesota.

Among the key allegations made by multiple unnamed players:

• Players built up goodwill that was stored in a so-called “Fleck Bank,” and with enough credit they could get out of violations such as a failed drug test.
• Rigorous workouts were used as a form of punishment.
• Players were pushed to return from injuries too quickly.
• Multiple players quoted referred to the program as a “cult.”

Fleck stemmed the tide as long as he could with a meandering opening statement that only left time for 3 questions — 1 fewer than Northwestern coach David Braun filibustered for the previous day.

Unlike Braun, Fleck had the benefit of an obvious prep session with his superiors. He had a thorough response for each allegation.

Fleck ties the dissent primarily to holdovers recruited by former coach Tracy Claeys who weren’t willing to get with his program.

“These allegations are baseless,” Fleck said. “We have full support of our athletic director, Mark Coyle, and our university leadership. This is a similar story that gets peddled every single year. And the majority of the players (quoted) have been dismissed or removed from our football team.”

That is one of the interesting elements of this storyline. Though the reporter who wrote the story did not reveal his sources, as he shouldn’t, Fleck and players currently in Minnesota’s program claim they know exactly who is doing the squawking.

“Players talk,” Fleck said. “Players have a lot of pride in how we do it. Sometimes the negative voices are the loudest voices. Everybody in the country is going to have a negative voice. But look at our team’s response.”

Wide receiver Chris Autman-Bell, who is entering his 7th and final season in the program, doesn’t think there’s much mystery.

“I can name exactly who said what. But it’s behind us now,” Autman-Bell said. “It’s been happening the last 3-4 years. Something comes up each year right before camp. I guess that’s how you know football is back.”

Last year’s brouhaha involved a former player who started a now-deleted Twitter thread of his negative Minnesota experience, which included a rather amusing detail about Fleck bragging about a $10,000 set of knives.

‘Either you get Fleck, or you don’t’

To a man, Fleck and his hand-picked players in Indianapolis say the noise is being made by guys who didn’t buy in.

“A lot of the allegations stem from 2017 and ’18, when you’re taking over a program,” Fleck said. “We have high standards for our players. With the transfer portal, there’s going to be a lot more student-athletes who leave who may have not had the best experience.

“For this story, it gets peddled every single year similarly: by players who have been removed from the program or may not have done the right things.

“I haven’t seen many players who are removed from the program who leave happy. College football doesn’t promise happiness.”

In the words of Autman-Bell: “Most of the guys you see in these anonymous posts and articles just didn’t buy in. They wanted to fight against it and not just believe and be part of the team.”

Senior safety Tyler Nubin says Minnesota isn’t for everybody.

“Do we have a tough program to play for? Yeah. That’s because we hold you accountable,” Nubin said. “You’re going to do the right thing. And if you don’t, we’re going to call you out for it. You’re going to have to pay for that, whether that’s cleaning up the weight room or doing extra community service.

“That’s what I feel people don’t like about the program – that it’s not just football. It’s everything.”

Fleck is the reason Minnesota isn’t for everybody. The program is his reflection. And that means it includes gimmicks that some will find ridiculously corny.

Row The Boat is a ubiquitous phrase at this point, but it goes beyond that. Fleck’s buzzword for this season is “poise.” And because he wants poise everywhere, he’s taken to playing music from the band Poison in the weight room all offseason long.

Get it — Poise? Poison?

Fleck’s like a Dad Joke who became a football coach.

But the guys who buy in really buy in, which is why guys like Autman-Bell and now-graduated quarterback Tanner Morgan stick around the program long enough to collect Social Security.

“Either you get Fleck, or you don’t,” Autman-Bell said. “If you get him, he can change your life and make you a better man. He’s done nothing but invest in me daily.”

Fleck Bank and Trust

The Fleck Bank did exist, but not as an actual bank. Maybe it was the first NFT.

“The Fleck Bank, mostly used in 2017 and ’18, was an analogy used in a team meeting talking about the more you invest into a program, the better experience you’re going to get out of it,” Fleck said. “There was no currency ever exchanged. There were no coins that ever existed.

“It was an analogy simply to explain investment for life, a life lesson of investment. Simply that.”

Fleck also explained that there are protocols in place that make it impossible to cheat drug testing or cut slack to star players who have failed tests. Tests are administered by a third-party company, Drug Free Sport.

“We’ve had starters miss games, even some that carried over through another season. We follow all university and NCAA testing policies that are all administered by Drug Free Sport,” Fleck said. “I don’t have the power to administer that or reduce any consequences that come from failing a drug test.”

Fleck denied that players have ever been given extra workouts as punishment, though there are consequences for doing things wrong.

“We do not use physical activity to discipline our players at the University of Minnesota. And we have never done that,” Fleck said. “Our players do things like wake up early and clean the weight room.

“Whatever you did, you watch a video on that. If you were late to class, you watch a video on tardiness, you write your professor a letter.

“Those are the disciplines we actually have within our program. Our athletic department changed their policies and made sure that no physical activity of any sport could be used as punishment based on what we created as a football team.”

Autman-Bell offered a colorful defense of his coach.

“Coach Fleck is a loving guy,” Autman-Bell said. “He’s not making guys do brutal workouts because they were late to something. No one is throwing up or pooping out shakes.”

Gopher football: An acquired taste

It’s naive to completely buy into the narrative that everyone who doesn’t like Fleck’s style is some malcontent who was run off. Or someone recruited by Claeys.

It’s pretty evident Fleck is a polarizing figure. A whopping 17 Gophers have transferred since the end of last season.

Though many left for clear playing opportunities at smaller programs, it’s still a big number for a program with this level of coaching stability. Big Ten West rival Illinois lost 9 players in the portal this offseason, and only 3 went to other Power 5 programs.

Those who stay have such enthusiasm for Fleck’s philosophies that you can understand the “cult” label applied by their former teammates. They are true believers. To them, all of his catch phrases and never-ending acronyms have deep meaning.

These Gophers know not everyone is up to that standard of zealousness.

Knowingly or not, Nubin used Fleck’s favorite word — elite — in painting that picture.

“You have to be elite in everything you do,” Nubin said. “If not, you’re going to be held accountable for it. There’s no room for slipups.

“If we’re trying to get to an elite level on the football field, we’re not going to get that way if you’re not elite in every single area of your life.

“You can’t be slacking off in the classroom, going out on the weekends, being late. If that’s what you’re doing, you’re going to have a terrible time in this program.

“The guys that are not able to have the maturity and bandwidth to hold up the standard are guys that don’t like the program. If you don’t do it, you’re going to hate the program. You’re going to hate it.”

Alex Hickey

Alex Hickey is an award-winning writer who has watched Big Ten sports since it was a numerically accurate description of league membership. Alex has covered college football and basketball since 2008, with stops on the McNeese State, LSU and West Virginia beats before being hired as Saturday Tradition's Big Ten columnist in 2021. He is an Illinois native and 2004 Indiana University graduate.