MINNEAPOLIS — On a humid August morning inside the Glenn and Kay Hasse team meeting room, the Minnesota football team files in. Spiral notebooks in hand, the players quickly find their seats. At 10:05 a.m. sharp, silence falls. Then, applause — not for head coach P.J. Fleck, though he’s entering his eighth season at the helm — but for what the Gophers now see as routine: beginning each day with energy and purpose.
“That’s just how we do things,” said preseason All-American tackle Aireontae Ersery. “It gets the blood flowing.”
Fleck, ever punctual, opens the session by asking players and staff what they’re thankful for. Next comes a quote, then an image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa — a mistake turned masterpiece, he explains.
“Mistakes don’t define you,” Fleck tells the room. “They refine you.”
For Fleck, every interaction matters. Every moment must be meaningful. And as Minnesota prepares to navigate the uncharted waters of an 18-team Big Ten — now a chaotic collection of coast-to-coast powerhouses — Fleck’s meticulously built culture may be his most powerful tool.
A Program Transformed
In 2017, Minnesota football was adrift. Five head coaches had come and gone in 12 years. The Gophers hadn’t claimed even a share of the Big Ten title since 1967.
Enter Fleck: high-energy, relentlessly optimistic, and unapologetically himself. Now 50–34 overall and 5–0 in bowl games, he boasts the third-highest winning percentage in program history, trailing only legends Bernie Bierman and Henry Williams. But while his teams have earned respect, they haven’t quite conquered the Big Ten — his conference record sits at 29–32, and Minnesota never captured a West Division crown before divisions were disbanded.
Now, as the Big Ten expands and the path to the College Football Playoff narrows for middle-tier programs, Fleck faces his greatest challenge yet.
“This is a long-term play for us,” said Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle. “It takes time to build it.”
The Culture Keeper
Fleck’s famous mantra, Row The Boat, is more than a slogan — it’s personal. Born from the grief of losing his infant son, Colton, in 2011, the phrase is his life philosophy: resilience through hardship, always forward, together. Oars are mounted across the Minnesota athletic complex. Fans, hospital patients, and even rival schools in crisis have received one.
“Everybody can relate to it,” Fleck says. “It’s not just about football. It’s about how you live your life.”
His players buy in — fully. Quarterback Max Brosmer, a transfer from FCS New Hampshire, called his first few months a “culture shock.”
“But what Coach Fleck does with the culture,” Brosmer said, “you can’t recreate that anywhere else.”
Linebacker Cody Lindenberg sees it this way: “The oar is the energy you bring. The boat is your sacrifice. The compass is your direction. If one of those is missing, you’re going to drift.”
The Unapologetic Eccentric
Fleck’s critics are vocal — and frequent. His boundless energy, motivational slogans, and unconventional traditions draw eye-rolls across the Big Ten. He’s publicly feuded with former Gophers coach Jerry Kill. After beating Wisconsin in 2018, Fleck joked that Paul Bunyan’s Axe shared the bed with him and his wife. (It didn’t, he later clarified — but it was in the room.)
Yet, what some call gimmickry, his players see as authenticity. Fleck has never wavered from who he is.
“If this was an act, it would’ve cracked years ago,” Coyle said.
That authenticity fuels loyalty. Minnesota’s player retention rate is among the Big Ten’s best, and Fleck resisted at least one offer to jump to another Big Ten school this offseason. He and his wife, Heather, just moved into a home they spent two years building.
“I love where I’m at,” he said. “This life we’ve built — I don’t take that for granted.”
Beyond the Field
Fleck is a football coach, yes — but also a lecturer at Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and a stickler for academics. His players must wear collared shirts, sit in the front two rows of class, and ditch the earbuds.
“If I wear a collared shirt, I feel more important,” he said. “And if we dress up, it makes us more alert, more engaged.”
The academic standard is clear. In 2018, Fleck left multiple starters home for being late to class. In 2023, Minnesota made a bowl game despite a 5–7 record — thanks to its Academic Progress Rate.
“He’s old-fashioned values packaged in high-def,” said Coyle.
Building Memories, Not Just Wins
Fleck doesn’t just coach games — he crafts experiences. After beating Iowa last year for the first time in Kinnick Stadium since 1999, he posed for a photo smoking a cigar in the notoriously pink visitor locker room. The photo now hangs across from his desk.
“Iowa fans hate it,” he said. “I love it.”
After a win at Wisconsin in 2018, players filled the locker room with Axe Body Spray — a sensory memory Fleck orchestrated by handing out bottles on the bus.
“Everyone remembers the win,” he said. “But they also remember the smell.”
Eyes on the Horizon
Fleck’s reputation as a recruiter is filled with stories — some real, some embellished. Like the time at Western Michigan when he flipped an hourglass in front of a recruit and said the offer would expire when the sand ran out. It happened, he confirms.
Rumors about elevator ultimatums? Not true. “We don’t even use elevators,” he said, laughing.
Behind his desk sit two trophies: a pristine crystal football and a grimy wooden chalice — a nod to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
“One’s the destination,” Fleck says. “The other is the journey.”
His goals remain clear. In a bulging Franklin Covey planner, Fleck keeps a handwritten bucket list: become a Division I head coach, run a marathon, own a John Deere mower, take the family to Disney World. One by one, each has been checked off.
“These are dreams,” he said. “And I’ve always lived by chasing them.”
The New Big Ten Reality
The future of college football may not offer Fleck a path to national glory — not at Minnesota, not with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, USC, and Penn State all in the same expanded league. But in Fleck’s mind, success isn’t measured by championships alone.
“When you look at the new world of college football, what’s a successful season?” he asked. “Did I get the most out of my football team that year academically, athletically, socially and spiritually?”
Only one team gets to raise the trophy each year. The rest — Fleck included — define success their own way.
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