Report: P.J. Fleck to accept Minnesota job

Western Michigan’s P.J. Fleck will reportedly take the University of Minnesota head coaching job.

P.J. Fleck, who is perhaps the hottest “Group of 5” coach, is reportedly accepting the Minnesota head coaching job. Fleck, who has been at Western Michigan the past four seasons, will sign a six-year deal in the $21 million range. Reportedly, some Western Michigan players are not happy with Fleck’s decision. Western Michigan players held a players-only meeting Thursday night to air out how they feel about Fleck’s pending departure. The words “used and betrayed”, were used to describe how they felt about the situation according to Jamal Spencer.

If the reports are true, Minnesota could be getting a true diamond in the rough. Fleck has most recently led Western Michigan to a 13-1 record in 2016. Their sole loss was to Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl. Although his record is 30-22 as Western Michigan’s coach, his last three seasons have been 29-11.

Fleck will bring a good offensive game, too, which will help Minnesota compete with the Ohio State’s and Michigan’s. SBNation’s Ian Boyd wrote on Fleck’s philosophy on the offensive side of the ball.

"The Broncos offense has a spread-option style not dissimilar to Dave Christensen’s old Missouri offenses. But Fleck uses it less as a distribution system and more to get the ball to the best players as many times as possible. If you’ve got good players, why not lean on them?The run game is the starting point for everything, and it’s based around zone blocking. You can, more or less, sum up the Broncos’ run game as inside zone and outside zone. They run inside zone a few different ways, often with a big H-back clearing out a defensive end:"

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Fleck will also bring a lot of pizzazz and charisma toward Minnesota. Fleck’s personality will help bring in recruits and also bring notoriety toward the program. If it worked for Penn State and Michigan, it can work for Minnesota.