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P.J. Fleck is a great coach, but he won’t turn Minnesota into a B1G contender overnight
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Jumping on the bandwagon was an easy thing to do. The head coach who took Western Michigan from the bottom of the MAC to the Cotton Bowl in four short years inherited a Minnesota team that won nine games in 2016.
All the energy and excitement swarming the P.J. Fleck era was, and still is, contagious. But as the Gophers survived a scare from Buffalo on Thursday night it became apparent — Minnesota didn’t become a B1G contender overnight.
The Gophers notched a 17-7 win over the Bulls in the season opener, a game in which they were favored by 24.5 points. It was sloppy, ugly and unexpected. That wasn’t the type of performance anyone anticipated to see from a Fleck-coached team.
Minnesota’s offensive line got pushed around too frequently. The offense couldn’t close out drives and failed to take advantage of key opportunities. Even kicker Emmit Carpenter had a forgettable evening, converting just one of his three field goal attempts.
Thanks to the Gophers’ defense, the Fleck era started off with a win. But it wasn’t evident that Minnesota was head-and-shoulders above Bufflo on Thursday.
What happened to the guy who led Western Michigan to an undefeated regular season? Where was the team that won nine games a year ago? Why didn’t that combination translate to a more dominating performance?
It’s possible that some of us (me included) had set the bar a little too high for Fleck in his first season. Rather than rationally dissect Minnesota’s situation, we were blinded by Western Michigan’s rise to fame and the Gophers’ unprecedented success last year. After Thursday, we all see a little clearer now.
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Fleck is a great, young coach. Most would agree that his ceiling at Minnesota is extremely high. But too much may have been expected too early. The Gophers aren’t as far along as some of us anticipated.
All of that was apparent against Buffalo.
Minnesota’s depth and talent on the offensive line is an issue right now. Rotating between quarterbacks usually isn’t a great recipe for success – even though Conor Rhoda and Demry Croft each played well in their own right. Learning a new offense, and one that’s incredibly different from the previous system, isn’t necessarily a quick process.
There are plenty of logical explanations for Minnesota’s underwhelming performance on Thursday. If we would’ve fought off all the Fleck hype and really explored this team, we could’ve anticipated a 10-point win rather than a 30-point shellacking.
One game is hardly a big enough sample size to predict which direction Minnesota’s season will go. The Gophers have a favorable schedule, at least through the first half of the year, and getting to the eight-win mark could still be accomplishment. But this isn’t a team ready to compete with Wisconsin for a B1G West crown, let alone a B1G title.
Fleck has the credentials to get Minnesota to the next level in the B1G, it just won’t be happening this year. Just because he was the hottest commodity in college coaching last winter doesn’t mean he’s a miracle worker.
We found that out on Thursday night.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB