Gophers’ coach reflects on tough Indiana loss and 5th-ranked UCLA.

Gophers Football coach P.J. Fleck met with the media today to discuss the heartbreaking 23-16 loss to the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday night. He also talked about the Gophers’ growth and their preparation for the 5th-ranked UCLA Bruins. Below are some excerpts from that Q & A session.

Gophers’ Coach P.J.’s Opening Comments

Minnesota Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck: “Obviously really disappointing with the outcome. We fully expected to win that football game. Thought our guys played incredibly hard. Going back, watching the film, got a lot to get better. But now we face another top five defense and a top five team. So, we’re going to have to learn from that very quickly. But loved our fight. Did everything we possibly could to win that football game.

“And you’d like to be able to have that where there are no seconds as you kick that field goal. We weren’t able to do it, but we were able to get the clock down to 19 seconds. They got a really good quarterback. First-round pick wideout. Makes a heck of a play. Then they go kick a 60-yarder.

“Everything that they’re going to get, they’re going to have to earn, including the win. But so proud of our team, so proud of our Gophers players. All coming together for one common goal and made it really, really hard on them. Just wasn’t able to get the victory, which is disappointing. But anytime you’re going to defeat the defending national champions, you cannot give them that opportunity. Unfortunately, they had that opportunity in the end and executed and then beat us.

“We’re going to move on. And, you know, we’ve talked: sports are not kind. Sports are amazing. Sports are elite. Sports teach you so much about life, but they are not kind. You don’t get into sport for the kindness of it. The mentality this week: Who’s next? What’s next? That’s it. And our guys did a really good job of moving on.”

Questions from the Media About Gopher’s Season

Media: PJ, you talk about the difficult nature of losing that game. What emotionally do you try to do uniquely to get your Gophers team to bounce back?

PJF: “We’ve had a lot of emotional wins. We’ve had some emotional games, whether really good or on the opposite side of that. We’ve had, you know, four one-possession games. I think we’re 3-1 now in one-possession games. It’s just the kind of game we knew this year going into it.

“That’s why I said from day one, complementary football is going to be everything for this Gophers football team. One-possession games are going to be everything for this football team. You’re taking a top-four team down to the wire. You have the lead with 19 seconds left. It says a lot about the resolve, resiliency, and the toughness of this Gophers football team. Coaches, team, everybody involved. And I’m really proud of them for that. They made one more play than us. And that’s why they did it the last two weeks as well.”

Media: If the offense is going to find more consistency, what needs to improve?

PJF: “Well, we all have to be better. Right? We all have to be better coaches, players. They all have to look within to what we can do, which we did yesterday at practice. What are things that we have to get better at each position? And then within the position, the individual. What can that person truly work on to get better? Focus on these two things. You’re doing all this other stuff well, but these two things we’ve got to get better at. You give two or three things; they can handle that. That’s what we do every week consistently, win or lose.

“We’re playing really good defenses. And we’re a really good defense. You look around the Big Ten. There’s a lot of really good defenses. You want to win 42 to nothing. It’s probably not going to happen against Indiana. How are you going to manage the game? How are you going to deal with the field position? What calls are we going to make that benefit our team? What are we doing well right now? What are we not doing well right now? You go back and look at those things. It starts with me.”

Media: UCLA’s speed and versatility really stand out on defense. What have you noticed about that unit and just their team as a whole?

PJF: “Up front, they’re incredibly aggressive. They’re long. They do a great job with their hands. Violent disengage. Their players love playing in that defense. Linebackers do a really good job at keying and diagnosing. You can see that they move really well with the movements, whether it’s power, counter, or zone. They’re usually one step ahead. And then on the back end, they keep everything in front of them.

“They’re a very difficult defense to play against. Again, another top ten defense for a reason. One of the only undefeated teams left in the country. Top five team in the country. So, we’ve got to be at our best. And the only thing we get to control is us. The only thing we get to control is the improvement this Gophers team makes from last week to this week. And that’s what we’re going to focus on.

“But Coach Chesney (Bruins head coach Bob) deserves a lot of credit. He’s done a really good job with that football team. And they’re really good at what they do, especially defensively. And then offensively, they haven’t missed a beat. Their new quarterback has seamlessly gone in there and executed at a high level.

“They love to run the football. They’ve got weapons on the outside. They’re a well-balanced offense, and very efficient on special teams. It’s not shocking. He’s a really good football coach. He’s got a great pedigree, a great reputation. And they’re 8-0 and top five in the country.”

Media: For Drake specifically, what are the biggest keys for him to find more consistency?

PJF: “It takes everybody. It’s not one player. It takes everybody. The same thing I talked to him about: the trust in the pocket, standing in that pocket, trusting your technique, trusting your fundamentals, trusting your reads, trusting the people that are in front of you. I think trust is just really key for any really good football team to have success, and every player trusting each other.

“And it just needs to be better. Then just you’ve got to be able to stand in the pocket and deliver, and that doesn’t mean be reckless. There’s a fine line in there, and that’s one thing. We have to keep improving, and just because you say you want to improve on something that it’s fixed. You’ve got to keep improving on that.

“The one thing I love about him is he has no problem identifying something. You can be very transparent with our quarterback. You can have open, honest conversations with him just like you can have open, honest conversations with me. We’re working collectively together to make sure that we can put the best product forward every single game on offense, defense, and special teams that we possibly can.”

Media: PJ, from the start of the Gophers fall camp until now, tell me about the improvements you’re most pleased about and where are the growing edges?

PJF: “I’m really proud of the toughness and resolve and the resiliency and the fight of this Gophers football team. I said before that complementary football is going to have to show. Whether it’s pretty or not. Even if you’re not able to score a lot of points or able to move the football, flipping field position is critical. It’s getting blocks on field goal, blocks on punts, great returns, defense getting the ball back in plus territory. If you don’t score, pinning them down inside the 10. It all comes together. That’s what I’m most proud of this football team for.

“Because when you identify what kind of team you have, I think it’s up to our Gophers coaching staff to determine that. How are we going to have to create an identity? What’s that identity going to look like? Not just our Gophers offense, defense, special teams, but philosophy-wise of what is going to benefit this team. But as much complementary football team this team can have, the better we’re off being. I think that showed in a lot of our close wins, and it showed in this last game. We just weren’t able to finish the last few plays there.

“But what I loved about it was you walk in that locker room; they’re not a dry eye. And I’m not saying that’s what you expect. Those kids care, man. They care. And they walked into Indiana thinking they’re going to win that football game. They prepared all week like they were going to win that football game. This Gophers team is not going to back down to a challenge; I know that. And we’ve had plenty of them. We’ve got to have it all come together and keep coming together, but be better than we were the week before. That’s the biggest challenge.”

Media: PJ, I think one of the highlights of this Gophers team is sort of the next man up mentality. You see it in the backs, linebackers all over. Can you speak to that a little bit?

PJF: “Yeah, I said earlier already that who’s next, what’s next. It kind of fits the Gophers’ depth chart piece. Some years you’re a little less banged up than other years. This year, at some positions we’ve got really banged up and weren’t able to get a lot of those guys back. Who’s next, what’s next? And they just kind of slide in there and go. We had defensive back Garrison Monroe out last game, and we had to move everybody up and switch some people around late. I thought our guys did a really good job of that.

“Depth’s critical in college athletics, especially as we start cutting down the rosters to true 105. We get to that point. I think some people forget the NFL: you have a 53-man roster that makes the team, 46-dress, plus you have a practice squad. But you could add to your team throughout the entire year. In college football, you have 105 when you go into it. And remember, you have a salary cap budget of whatever that is, and that’s what you have. And if you’re not that deep in a position for a lot of different reasons, and then you get banged up, that depth’s got to go play.

“So, development of that depth is more critical now than it’s ever been, not just buying the depth, but the development. In this program, we’ve got to develop the depth. There’s a lot of guys who are playing maybe faster than we wanted them to play, and there’s some guys who probably are going to play next year that might not be playing as much just because guys in front of them are healthier.

“I know it’s hard to marry and mesh the old football with the new football, but the resources make you do that. And I think that our coaches do a really good job of developing players. Our Gophers players want to be developed. I think that’s a blessing as a coach. They want to grow for the most part. And when you have that, it makes coming to work really exciting.”

Gophers Next Game

The Gophers play the 5th-ranked UCLA Bruins this Saturday at Huntington Bank Stadium. The game is scheduled for an 11:00 am CDT kickoff.