SBnation and others call P.J. Fleck the "Next Harbaugh"
Excerpt from SBnation's article:
He exudes more energy than anyone else in this high-energy profession.
Fleck’s path to this point calls another Big Ten coach to mind. It’s not only that Fleck and Jim Harbaugh are super-intense Midwesterners in a reserved Midwestern league.
Both are unapologetically unique in a rigid business, and there’s the irony.
When Harbaugh got to Michigan, he rattled SEC cages by pushing into the South with satellite camps. The NCAA briefly banned them, but they’ve survived in a limited form. Harbaugh took Michigan to Rome this year, and not coincidentally, the Power 5 conferences will ban such trips going forward.
That’s the Harbaugh Rule.
In Fleck’s first summer in the Twin Cities, his staff’s legal use of a loophole caused the NCAA to close it right up. Minnesota included a recruit in a video that marketed one of its camps, and it was allowed because the player was merely participating in camp activities. The NCAA issued an interpretation that recruits couldn’t be "celebritized" in such materials.
That’s the Fleck Rule.
"I’m just gonna be me," Fleck says.
Other Fleck-Harbaugh comparisons from the Minnesota Star Tribune:
Fleck will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Michigan's Jim Harbaugh. That is a mistake, however. Fleck is projecting to be better than Harbaugh, in almost every conceivable way. Where the antics of Michigan's coach are seen by the national media as gimmicky, annoying, almost child-like, Fleck's antics are something Harbaugh's are not - charming.
There is an image of new Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck sprinting down the sideline that has since gone viral on the internet. It reminds you of a Harbaugh-like intensity and enthusiasm. Yet, as everyone knows, Harbaugh's intensity and enthusiasm are largely fake, a by-product of Michigan's annual off-season hype machine.
You just can't help but like P.J. Fleck. His "Row the Boat" Mantra was born out of personal tragedy, and that makes him endearing. There are certainly coaches in the Big Ten who crave attention and like to make headlines - and even have a twitter account nearly as disliked as the President's - but Fleck is likeable and down to earth. He's no Harbaugh, thank heaven.
Watch P.J. Fleck take the Big Ten by storm. He'll be able to do something even the 'great' Jim Harbaugh hasn't done: win his division.
My goodness, those are some TAEKS. Michigan plays Minnesota on November 4.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:33 PM ^
In his dreams.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:34 PM ^
" Yet, as everyone knows, Harbaugh's intensity and enthusiasm are largely fake, a by-product of Michigan's annual off-season hype machine."
The calling card of the Don't Understand Harbaugh crowd. Oakland is still in play.
August 25th, 2017 at 6:57 AM ^
And also, "as everyone knows" is the calling card of writers who want to state a claim for which they can find no evidence.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:37 PM ^
won anything!
/BTN'd
August 24th, 2017 at 8:38 PM ^
Row the boat
August 24th, 2017 at 8:41 PM ^
The gopher is doing the rowing?
August 24th, 2017 at 8:39 PM ^
Double post
August 24th, 2017 at 8:40 PM ^
Thanks. This makes the game against Minny mildly interesting. Can't wait to sink the boat.
August 25th, 2017 at 11:58 AM ^
I love PJ. I don't want to sink his ship. I wouldn't mind, however, taking an ore away while they play Michigan, then kindly handing it back.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:42 PM ^
Row row row the boat gently through the league, merrily merrily merrily merrily Minnesota is going to get creamed.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:41 PM ^
Fleck is projecting to be better than Harbaugh, in almost every conceivable way.
LOL, "OK". Someone embed that gif...you know the one.
August 25th, 2017 at 8:06 AM ^
Well, he'll never win a Rose Bowl, be a Heisman Trophy candidate, or have over a decade long NFL career for starters.
August 25th, 2017 at 8:27 AM ^
Well of course, because every coach who is successful in the MAC goes on to have a long, sustained career rife with success.
August 25th, 2017 at 10:26 AM ^
Last I looked Fleck has yet to receive a commitment from anyone above a three star in both recruiting classes. Are you freakin kidding me with this delusional bullshit. Another problem I have is Harbaugh is just flat out a better coach and has a way better staff in every way. I was allready looking forward to crushing the boycotters, but know with this dribble I can't wait to see Fleck's reaction to losing by fifty. Will just see how elite Minnesota is when they enter the BIG HOUSE!!!.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:42 PM ^
What a bell end. Fuck him for thinking he knows anything about James Joseph Harbaugh.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:46 PM ^
While Fleck certainly seems to have a unique energy, I'm not sure how he can be the "next" Harbaugh, when Harbaugh is just getting started here at Michigan.
Those quotes from the Star Tribune are mind boggling though. How can anyone think Harbaugh is anything close to fake or doing thing simply for show or hype, especially compared to PJ? Let alone that Fleck will suddenly become some world beater, their resumes to date aren't even in the same solar system. I hope PJ goes on to do good things, except against Michigan, but that writing is some serious Brown Jug depreivation butthurt.
August 25th, 2017 at 1:37 AM ^
Seeking attention just for the sake of it is a fairly common misconception among those that do not follow M closely. That said I think some of the earliest stuff was clearly to get Michigan (not specifically Jim) back in the national conversation.
Now that it is, Jim is just being himself but any angle that the media can come up with leads to clicks which perpetuates the cycle.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:48 PM ^
I like P.J. Fleck. He clearly accomplished some good things at Western Michigan. He's young and energetic.
I wish him well at Minnesota. He's going to need it. It's going to be hard in Minnesota to fill out a roster with sufficient talent to get over the "pretty good" hump into "really good." Lou Holtz couldn't do it at Minnesota. Nick Saban couldn't do it at Michigan State. It's hard at off-the-radar schools that don't have a traditional of football excellence.
But I wish him well. Except when they play Michigan. Then I want that oar shoved you-know-where. :-)
August 25th, 2017 at 12:41 AM ^
Historically, Minnesota is a borderline "blood blue" program. From 1904-1960, Minnesota had 7 National Championships, and 18 B1G Conference Championships from 1900-1967.
So PJ Fleck has some "tradition" that he can try to tap and Market to recruits. Heck, even Michigan had the same amount of NCs in the same time span, so for 6 decades Minnesota was a comparable program.
August 25th, 2017 at 1:33 AM ^
Don't forget, Minnesota had a National Championship again in 1994 under coach Hayden Fox.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:38 AM ^
That was a great TV show! Craig T. Nelson was great in that role.
(I'll be that guy for a moment ... it was Minnesota State. There must not be a real Minnesota State, otherwise I doubt they'd have made it the show's team.)
August 25th, 2017 at 5:39 AM ^
Bronko Nagurski, 6'2" 226 lbs, Minnesota 1927 - 1929
23 Skidoo!
I understand what you're getting at ... but Minnesota's "blue blood" lineage is so far out of date it hardly matters any more. My opinion is a team can tout that long-ago stuff if they're doing good stuff today. Harvard and Yale have a bunch of NCs way back when as well, but if they made a thing of it today they'd be laughed at.
I actually like Minnesota. There are some B1G teams I hardly pay attention to (Illinois, Purdue), others I actively hate (OSU, PSU), and others I kinda like (Minnesota, Nebraska). I hope Minnesota does well under Fleck.
But as I said, he's got a tough row to hoe ... Wisconsin is the talent Hoover up in that neck of the woods. And if a really bright star emerges from the land of 10,000 lakes ... you can bet Harbaugh and Meyer will be knocking on the door as well.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:40 AM ^
No recruit is going to care about Minnesota's ancient history. Oh you guys were good about 60 years before I was born sure I'll play here.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:47 PM ^
Maybe I'm in the minority here but when harbaugh does pack it in I wouldn't mind looking at fleck. This is ten years from now but he's got some instate ties and the Bo prophecy of coming from an osu coaching tree
August 25th, 2017 at 11:44 AM ^
Seems to me we have a built in lineage in 20 years and a few NC's. I believe his name is Jay something or other...
August 25th, 2017 at 12:33 AM ^
We'll see. He's got quite a long way to row that boat yet.
August 25th, 2017 at 12:46 AM ^
I think Fleck has a great chance of being the next Harbaugh, and I'm rooting for him.
But seriously, fuck that Minnesota Star Tribune writer.
August 25th, 2017 at 12:50 AM ^
The dude was a WR coach for a couple years and openly admits that he doesn't involve himself in the Xs and Os of the game. That's the glaring difference between him and Harbaugh. CEO type coaches can be successful, but let's pump the brakes here.
Brady Hoke was also a good MAC coach fergodsake.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:25 AM ^
someone call me when he takes Minnesota to the CFP, at that point maybe it's fair to say Fleck is projecting to be better than Harbaugh. But how many 10 win MAC coaches have gone on to do nothing in the Big Ten? Most all of am
August 25th, 2017 at 8:06 AM ^
is the best coach Minny will ever have. Compare him to a former NFL qb and former NFL coach who almost won the Suberbowl. Does this dolt actually believe that if both Fleck and JH were in contention for the Minny job, they would pick Fleck??
August 25th, 2017 at 8:24 AM ^
Blueblood2991 nails it. Fleck isn't an X and O's coach, and will tell you that. Harbaugh, by contrast, is what I believe to be an X/O wizard, to the extent that we have probably only seen the tip of the iceberg in these past 2 years.
As a WMU grad, I have followed Fleck's recent great run pretty closely. There was nothing exceptional about the football itself. He was simply able to get better players than MAC schools typically are able to get. Don't sleep on current WMU Sr RB Jarvion Franklin. That's an NFL player.
The best example is Corey Davis. The kid was ridiculous. Absolute man among boys and its almost a farce that he didn't instead become a great Big Ten receiver. Fleck is not going to be able to pull these kinds of advantages against Nebraska and Wisconsin. If anything, he is going to have to weaken those programs by simply nabbing some of the recruits that would have otherwise gone to those schools, which I think he will do some of.
Aside: the best example ever of MAC Man Among Boys phenomenon was Roethlisberger. It looked like a video game that wasn't fair.
Fleck will accomplish some things at Minnesota. He simply won't take over the league. He will annoy Wisconsin, Nebraska, etc and be a media darling. If he goes on a great run he will be gone in five years and try to settle at a ND, OSU or traditional powerhouse.
August 25th, 2017 at 8:51 AM ^
You know who else was a highly successful MAC coach?
Tim Beckman.
Harbaugh 2.0 PJ Fleck is not.
August 25th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^
Xs and Os? Harbaugh has Ys and Ps that Fleck can't even imagine.
August 25th, 2017 at 1:20 AM ^
I just made an account for this comment (hi, thank you). My cousin works in the athletic department at WMU and the people within were not that happy with PJ fleck. He's crazy, Harbaugh is crazy with genius. From what I know, the people within at U of M love Harbaugh.
August 25th, 2017 at 1:36 AM ^
Watch P.J. Fleck take the Big Ten by storm. He'll be able to do something even the 'great' Jim Harbaugh hasn't done: win his division.
August 25th, 2017 at 1:41 AM ^
Such a dumb take. Like, winning the whole goddamn NFC is easy. Something the 'great' Sabah has never done. (Which, Saban is a better college football coach than Harbaugh. Winning or not winning some very narrow divisional title in a very narrow period of time is not necessarily strong evidence of coaching quality one way or the other)
August 25th, 2017 at 1:38 AM ^
First of all, he's not. Second of all, fuck those guys (except Connelly). They openly trash Harbaugh and troll Michigan fans for no discernible reason and then write a complementary article about Fleck comparing him to Harbaugh? That site is also the likeliest to trot out crap like the laziest take in CFB about Harbaugh never finishing higher than 3rd in the B1G east. Which, coming from a site that openly espouses advanced stats which had Michigan ranked 6th and 3rd in 2015 and 2016 (IIRC), is ridiculous.
August 25th, 2017 at 1:54 AM ^
Two separate artciles. The first (totally normal part) is SBNation, the second (insane part) is from a local MN paper. I also made that mistake on first read.
August 25th, 2017 at 1:49 AM ^
which I think is wrong. It says:"Harbaugh took Michigan to Rome this year, and not coincidentally, the Power 5 conferences will ban such trips going forward."
I havn't heard anything about the P5 or NCAA banning foreign trips. Did this clown confuse this with the IMG spring week or is there smoke about banning foreign trips?
August 25th, 2017 at 7:49 AM ^
No smoke, just lazy writing. Plans are in the works for us to go to Paris and Normandy next year.
August 25th, 2017 at 2:20 AM ^
Two articles. The SB Nation one just grazes on Harbaugh to point out a couple of similarities (though it gets the trip rule wrong). It's not trying to demean Harbaugh, just to describe and elevate Fleck.
The Strib article, for which the links appeared not to work, sounds like a jealous hatchet job. From someone who despairs of the Brown Jug returning to Minneapolis in his lifetime.
August 25th, 2017 at 2:29 AM ^
I'm so glad I got on the anti-Fleck train last year for no good reason.
August 25th, 2017 at 3:02 AM ^
Win with aggression.
August 25th, 2017 at 5:09 AM ^
Thanks for extending your beating from 20 to 40 you moran
August 25th, 2017 at 11:08 AM ^
Moran?. Hmmm.
August 25th, 2017 at 12:04 PM ^
Yes, he meant "moran". Was this in the Mgoblogism thread?
August 25th, 2017 at 6:15 AM ^
It's a clickbait article.
August 25th, 2017 at 7:01 AM ^
at Harbaugh's intensity being fake. And Harbaugh's SEC satellite camp loophole is much better than having a recruit show up in a Minnesota promo.
August 25th, 2017 at 7:16 AM ^
Settle it on the field. Writer does not get it. There's nothing fake about Jimmy. People who should know better are clearly in error. Sad!