P.J. Fleck claims he took pay cut to become coach at Minnesota
Taking a job in the Big Ten would seem to be a financial boon for a coach, but P.J. Fleck wants you to believe differently.
After leading turnaround at Western Michigan, from 1-11 in 2012 to 13-1 and a berth in the Cotton Bowl last year, P.J. Fleck was a top candidate to move up to a job in a Power 5 conference. But some notable jobs did not come open, and the early January firing of Tracy Claeys led to Fleck “rowing the boat” to Minnesota.
Say what you will about Fleck’s endless collection of catch phrases, but he has proven to be a good football coach and when it’s all said and done his enthusiasm only has to resonate with recruits. A television series profiling Fleck may also be coming, so he’s already raising the profile of the Golden Gophers football program.
Fleck appear on Jim Rome’s radio show Thursday, and offered this little nugget.
P.J. Fleck just said on Jim Rome that he took “a major pay cut” for the Minnesota job vs. possible WMU contract. “Which nobody knows."
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) April 6, 2017
Any successful football coach at least stretches the truth at times, but Fleck has reached a new level here. It was reported Western Michigan was working on a new contract for him, before he went to Minnesota, but he earned a $800,000 base salary (over $1 million in total) last season in Kalamazoo. Compare that to the five-year, $18 million deal he has at Minnesota and it’s hard to see Western Michigan even matching that kind of money, let alone exceeding it, if a new deal had been reached before Fleck left.
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If Fleck leads Minnesota to relevance in the Big Ten, and win over Wisconsin once in a while, fans and followers will let his public blabbing go without issue or great examination. But he did not take a major pay cut to come to the Twin Cities, that much is certain.