Major Big Ten Coach Drawing NFL Interest
P.J. Fleck has been one of the fastest rising coaches in football over the last few years. Now, he’s reportedly garnering interest from at least one team at the NFL level.
Fleck is wrapping up his fourth year as head coach at Minnesota, where he’s done a pretty spectacular job overall. After a 5-7 season in 2017—his first in the Twin Cities—his Golden Gophers took a step forward to 7-6 the following year, winning the Quick Lane Bowl, followed by an 11-2 season with an Outback Bowl win in 2019.
This year was a step back, though. The team went 3-4 in the COVID-19-shortened season, though few are worried about what that means for Fleck long term. Going back a bit, he landed the Big Ten job after turning Western Michigan around from one of the worst programs in the MAC—1-11 in his first year—to a league champion playing in the Cotton Bowl three seasons later. He went 13-1 in his final year with the Broncos, with the only loss coming to Wisconsin in that New Year’s Six bowl game.
It is unclear if P.J. Fleck’s “Row the Boat” mentality would work at the next level. Some have compared him to a Jon Gruden/Sean McVay type, which has certainly had success, though you could also see it wearing on professional players. We may find out, as one team is reportedly interested in interviewing the Golden Gophers coach.
A handful of college coaches are drawing interest for NFL head coaching jobs, and here’s an interesting one: Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck.
I’m told at least one team wants to interview Fleck, 40, who’s one of the only current FBS head coaches to both play and coach in the NFL.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 30, 2020
Fleck, an Illinois native, played his college ball as a wide receiver at Northern Illinois. He would sign with the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2004, spending time on the practice squad before being promoted as a special teams player. He had to ultimately retire from playing after the 2005 season due to shoulder injuries, and began his coaching career.
He worked under Jim Tressel as a graduate assistant at Ohio State, before heading to his alma mater to work for his college coach Joe Novak, and then Jerry Kill, who was the coach at Minnesota a few years before Fleck landed that job. He then coached for Greg Schiano at Rutgers and then with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before landing his own head coaching job at WMU.
The college coaching carousel has calmed down a bit, with Boise State as the main school looking at the moment after Bryan Harsin was hired by Auburn. If the NFL comes calling for Fleck or other big college coaches, things could get very interesting this offseason.
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