Val Martin News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/val-martin/ Minnesota sports, but different Fri, 01 Jul 2022 15:42:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=32,height=32,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-cropped-MSF-favicon-1.jpg Val Martin News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/val-martin/ 32 32 Players Past and Present Defend PJ Fleck, Gophers Culture https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/players-past-and-present-defend-pj-fleck-minnesota-gophers-culture-val-martin/ Fri, 01 Jul 2022 15:42:48 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=39562 Earlier this week, former Minnesota Gophers defensive tackle, Val Martin, took to Twitter and went hard at PJ Fleck and his Row The Boat program. He called his move to Dinkytown, via North Carolina State, the worst thing he’s ever done and dubbed PJ a car salesman.

When confronted by Minnesota fans or questioned by media, Martin doubled, tripled, quadrupled… (etc.) down. To his credit, Val never backed down from his original tweets. He even posted anonymous messages he was receiving from former Gophers under Fleck. Nobody else was willing to run the Gophers program down in a public space, but others clearly have many of the same animosity Martin does, regarding their former coach.

Fleck haters come out to hate (anonymously)

Minnesota Daily News sports editor and GopherHole.com contributor, Tony Liebert, reached out to an anonymous former Minnesota Gophers football player who had more of the same complaints.

Val Martin’s Twitter exchange with Minnesota fans, and some Gopher football players (see below), lasted about 48 hours. It included multiple screenshots, dozens of tweets, even more replies and a couple of live streams. Nobody else put their name on the hate they spewed for Fleck or his program. There’s obvious and legitimate reasons for their anonymity, but the fact is still worth noting.

But for every PJ Fleck hater, there’s a ‘row or die’ protege who points to the Minnesota Gophers’ culture as life changing. Over the hours and days that followed Martin’s Twitter barrage, we saw both former and current players come out in support of Fleck and his culture.

Former and current players defend Fleck’s culture

Current Gophers who came out publicly for Fleck, include (QB) Tanner Morgan, (K) Dragan Kesich, (LB) Mariano Sori-Marin, (EDGE) Thomas Rush and (DT) Trill Carter; who Martin claims punched him in the face at a practice last season.

Former players who voiced support include (LB) Carter Coughlin, (LS) Austin Sullivan (LB) and Jack Gibbens, who came in the same 2021 transfer class as Val Martin did.

But nobody came out of the Fleck support gates hotter than former backup punter, Matt Stephenson. He and Martin had a lengthy back and forth where Stephenson tried to debunk many narratives Val was trying to sell. One of those narratives is the idea that backups don’t matter to PJ Fleck, his assistants or his program.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

]]> Fri, 01 Jul 2022 10:42:52 +0000 Minnesota Gophers Football Former Transfer Val Martin Goes After PJ Fleck, Gophers Football https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/former-transfer-val-martin-goes-after-pj-fleck-minnesota-gophers-football-twitter/ Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:11:02 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=39497 PJ Fleck and the Minnesota Gophers, like much of college football, have a love/hate relationship with the NCAA Transfer Portal. We’ve seen some huge contributors pulled out of the portal, but they’ve lost some big time talent to it too. And even when the transfer portal works in your favor and spits talent out, the end result isn’t always a positive.

Val Martin Takes to Twitter to Slam PJ Fleck

Take Val Martin, a veteran defensive tackle from NC State, who landed in Minnesota prior to the 2021 season, for example. Martin landed in Dinkytown with a lot of prior on-field power-five experience and wound up hating it. Just ask him. Or even easier, check Twitter.

Val Martin was one of many defensive transfers brought in before the 2021 season. And he wasn’t the only defensive tackle. He spent three seasons at NC State, before transferring to Minnesota. He never played over 260 snaps while with North Carolina State.

Context

Like most upperclassmen who enter the portal, Val Martin came to Minnesota for more playing time. He didn’t get it (156 snaps). Is he mad about that? Obviously. Still, that doesn’t mean his Twitter accusations are false or should be immediately disregarded.

Martin is not the first player to go after PJ Fleck, on Twitter or elsewhere. Not only have I written blogs about public challengers, but I’ve often defended him. I can confirm through my own sources, however, that there are plenty of former Minnesota Gophers football players who loathed their experience at the University of Minnesota, under Fleck.

Others in Martin’s transfer class

The other players in Val Martin’s transfer class; Nyles Pinckney (Clemson), Jack Gibbens (Abilene Christian – FCS) and Dylan Wright (Texas A&M) all made, or are making, much larger impacts than Martin did while here.

Pinckney played nearly 500 snaps on the Gophers’ interior defensive line in 2021 and was last seen trying out for the Saints. Gibbens transferred from an FCS school and ended up as, arguably, the best defensive player on the Gophers roster in 2021. He is heading to Titans camp as an undrafted free agent.

Dylan Wright is a one-time 5-star wide receiver who transferred to the University of Minnesota with most of his eligibility still remaining. He’s made some highlight reel catches and has a lot of talent, but in his two seasons, has yet to reach his full potential. This year feels like a do or die season for his future.

What’s Next?

In the age of endless transfers and players gaining more of a voice in college athletics, I expect to see more of these reports around college football. None of the things that Val Martin tweeted were damning to the Minnesota Gophers program but they certainly don’t look good, nor will they help transfer portal recruiting in the future.

One current player has already come out and semi-defended Fleck’s honor. It’s the guy who Martin claims punched him at a Gophers practice. Trill Carter, who’s expected to play a large role on Minnesota’s interior defensive line in 2022.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

]]> Tue, 28 Jun 2022 19:30:18 +0000 Minnesota Gophers Football Fleck Changing His Thought Process on Transfers in 2021 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/fleck-changing-his-thought-process-on-transfers-in-2021/ https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/fleck-changing-his-thought-process-on-transfers-in-2021/#respond Thu, 24 Dec 2020 14:58:07 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=32331

In the past, Minnesota Gophers head football coach, PJ Fleck, has been very clear on his feelings as they pertain to the transfer portal. He’s rarely interested.

According to 247Sports, Fleck has taken just four transfers in his first four recruiting classes at Minnesota (not including JUCO). For those who struggle with mathematics, that’s one transfer for every class from 2017-2020. In the 2021 class so far, he’s taken three transfers, including two on Wednesday alone.

Times, they are a-changing…

There’s more than one reason why PJ Fleck is taking more transfers than usual in 2021. The biggest has to do with NCAA rule changes that are currently in the process of becoming official.

Sometime in the next few months, major NCAA student athletes will be allowed one transfer during their college career, without it making them ineligible for the following season. No waiver necessary.

That completely changes the landscape of major college athletics. It’s also the biggest reason why Fleck is warming to the transfer portal.

Immediate eligibility has been his biggest issue with recruiting transfers. Those that he has taken prior to the 2021, both standard and JUCO, have been of the immediately eligible variety.

New WR in town

In the bigger transfer portal splash Wednesday evening, Texas A&M transfer WR, Dylan Wright, committed to the Gophers. He’s hoping to be PJ Fleck’s next big thing at WR. Dylan has all four years of eligibility remaining and enough upside to be Fleck’s next 1st round WR draft pick.

How much upside you ask? Wright was a phenom prospect coming out of high school. Had he committed to the Gophers back then, Wright would have stood as the school’s 2nd-ranked commit in football internet history at .9678 (4-star).

That’s a huge influx of talent for a position group that hasn’t really had a star commit since Rashod Bateman in 2018. Hopefully, Dylan can learn the Gopher offense quickly because it needs a jolt of big play ability to pair next to Chris Autman-Bell, who had a huge 2020 coming out party.

Experience needed on defense ASAP…

The other major reason for these transfer portal takes, and Fleck would be less willing to admit this part publicly, is an immediate need for reinforcements at multiple positions.

If you keep close tabs on Minnesota Gophers football then you know they need immediate help at receiver, linebacker and defensive line. So it’s no surprise that those are the positions these transfers fill.

On defense, Minnesota BADLY needed an infusion of experience. Defensive coordinator, Joe Rossi, has plenty of young talent in guys like Tyler Nubin, Cody Lindenberg and DeAngelo Carter… but the lack of experience was glaring in 2020.

It led to A LOT of big plays from opposing offenses. Out of 130 teams ranked in 2020, the Gophers were #124 in opponent yards per play at 6.8. Only four of the teams ranked worse are power-5.

Meet the new guys on defense

If this team is to take a step forward in 2021, a huge improvement is a must in the big play department. More importantly, the jolt of experience is up the middle, where Minnesota often got beat up this season. Jack Gibbens is an inside linebacker and Val Martin is a defensive tackle.

We don’t know how much either of these guys will play. One (Gibbens) is coming from an FCS school where he posted really good numbers on the football field and even better numbers in the classroom.

The latest, NC State graduate transfer Val Martin, was a backup DT for most of his career with the Wolfpack. At <300 pounds, he seems like an odd fit for their 3-4 defense.

Hopefully he’ll be able to make more of an impact in his one year of the Minnesota 4-3. I can’t imagine he commits here if he isn’t promised a good chance to play significant snaps.

Strategy obvious

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what PJ Fleck and the Minnesota Gophers were trying to do with these transfer portal additions. They pinpointed their biggest areas of need and they addressed them with clear fits.

With PJ, person fit comes before player fit. He won’t throw a culture bomb into the middle of his locker room. We’ll see if these additions can help the Gophers row back to the front of the Big Ten West in 2021.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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