Could P.J. Fleck turn Minnesota into the next Clemson?

P.J. Fleck has things rowing in the right direction at Minnesota, but a famous alum thinks big things are coming.

In P.J. Fleck’s three seasons as head coach, the Minnesota Golden Gophers have gone from 5-7 to 7-6 to 11-2. They’ve won back-to-back bowl games, including a win over top-10 ranked Auburn in the Outback Bowl to end last season.

The next step for the Gophers is to overtake rival Wisconsin and win the Big Ten West. Then some doors to national notoriety will be opened. Former NFL head coach, and Minnesota alum, Tony Dungy sees very big things in the future for Fleck and the Gophers.

Speaking with Big Ten Radio on Sirius XM, via 247 Sports, here’s a key punchline of what Dungy had to say about Fleck and the program at Minnesota.

“Clemson, I visited with Dabo Swinney a lot. It was not a place where you say automatically, hey if I take this Clemson job, we’re going to be national championship contenders in three years. It wasn’t looked at that way. The fact that it can happen at Clemson, the fact that it can happen at Minnesota, that makes college football great.”

Could P.J. Fleck really turn Minnesota into the next Clemson?

Clemson went 4-3 under Swinney in 2008, then 9-5 (2009) and 6-7 (2010) in his first two full seasons. They’ve won at least 10 games every season since then, with four national title game appearances in the last five seasons and two national titles (2016 and 2018). Alongside Alabama, Clemson is a perennial national title contender until further notice.

Fleck has things on a great track at Minnesota, with top-notch upcoming recruiting classes to keep the boat rowing right along. But that invites the typical local fear he’ll inevitably leave for greener pastures (Notre Dame? USC?).

Fleck has raised the expectations around the Minnesota football program, which is just fine. But even casually being mentioned as the next Clemson is pretty aggressive right now. First on the agenda is beating the chief rival to the east regularly and/or winning the Big Ten West, then aspirations to be a national power can be on firmer ground.