Several current and former Minnesota football players are throwing support behind P.J. Fleck after a Minneapolis news station ran a story alleging the head coach of player mistreatment during practices.

Monday night, WCCO-CBS in Minnesota ran a story investigating allegations of “unnecessary roughness” within the Golden Gophers’ football program. A former professor at the university and a handful of ex-players accused of Fleck and the staff of running unnecessarily intense practices which resulted in serious injuries.

“Lots of guys coming in casts, braces, out of nowhere,” former professor Jason Stahl told WCCO. “Physical and mental health degradation. I saw it in the classroom.”

In the story, WCCO said Fleck, as well as athletic director Mark Coyle, declined the opportunity to be interviewed for the story.

After the story ran on WCCO’s website and television, a number of current and former members of the Minnesota football program voiced their support for Fleck. Here are some of the responses:

Fleck will be entering his fifth season as the leader at Minnesota in 2021. In his first four years, the Golden Gophers are 26-19 with a 15-19 record in B1G play.

Minnesota played in back-to-back bowl games in 2018 and 2019, defeating Georgia Tech in the Quick Lane Bowl in 2018 to finish 7-6 and beating Auburn in the Outback Bowl the following season to end with an impressive 11-2 mark, the best year under Fleck.

Last season, the Gophers finished with a 3-4 record.