Where Does PJ Fleck Rank Among His Big Ten Peers?

The college football season is upon us. On Thursday, the Minnesota Gophers will play their first game of the season, at home, vs the North Carolina Tar Heels. It’s a crucial year for PJ Fleck, as he tries to bounce back from his most difficult full football season in Dinkytown since 2017, his first running the show.

Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck ranked vs his peers

He has a brand new quarterback, in Max Brosmer, and eleven upperclassmen who landed on the Reese’s Senior Bowl watch list. Sportsbooks have the Gophers over/under win total set at 5.5, up one full win from where it started. Most CFB experts are out on Minnesota too. PJ Fleck, on the other hand, seems more confident than ever.

What does that mean? We’ll soon find out. But no matter how this season turns out, the Minnesota Gophers football program has come a long way under Fleck. The Athletic agrees.

On Monday, the industry leader released a college football head coach tier rankings on Monday. Of the eight tiers available, Fleck landed squarely in the middle of tier three, right behind Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. James Franklin (Penn State) ranked right behind Fleck. Matt Campbell (Iowa State), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) and Steve Sarkisian (Texas) are other big name coaches in tier 3.

Tier III college football coaches (according to The Athletic)

• Mack Brown – North Carolina
• Matt Campbell – Iowa State
• Kirk Ferentz – Iowa
• PJ Fleck – Minnesota
• James Franklin – Penn State
• Hugh Freeze – Auburn
• Mike Gundy – Oklahoma State
• Lane Kiffin – Ole Miss
• Dan Lanning – Oregon
• Steve Sarkisian – Texas

Out of all the football coaches in the Big Ten, only Ryan Day (Ohio State), Luke Fickell (Wisconsin) and Lincoln Riley (USC) were ranked in tier two. Zero Big Ten coaches made it into Tier one. That means, according to this ranking, PJ fleck is a top-6 coach in a now 18-team Big Ten.

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PJ Fleck has now been at Minnesota for eight seasons (going on nine). He owns an overall record of 50-34, good for the 5th most wins in program history and the best win percentage (.595) since Bernie Bierman, who coached his final Gophers team in 1950.

Fleck isn’t getting fired from the U of M as long as Mark Coyle is around

Fleck and AD Mark Coyle are the most tenured football head coach + athletic director combination in the entire Big Ten. There is a reason for that. Yes, Fleck has plenty of flaws. His biggest one needs to go away, now that Max Brosmer is under center. Less run, more pass, more risks.

If PJ has as much belief in the grad transfer freshman out of New Hampshire as he claims, then he needs to show it by giving him more leash than he has any QB in his history as a head coach.

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But for the most part, this program has never seen the consistency, both on the field and off it, as what it has been under PJ Fleck. Yes, he almost left for UCLA in the offseason, and there’s no guarantee he will stick around beyond 2024. Welcome to present day college football, where nothing is guaranteed.

As long as PJ calls Minnesota home, the Gophers program has a chance because nobody on this planet is more thorough that Fleck. No stone ever goes unturned, that much you can always count on. That hasn’t been the case here forever. Whether we are talking football or other sports.