P.J. Fleck focused on beating Rutgers, not Athan Kaliakmanis reunion

MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota football team is at Rutgers on Saturday, which means a reunion of sorts in many ways between the two programs.

P.J. Fleck and Scarlet Knights’ coach Greg Schiano go back more than a decade. Offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca had multiple stretches with Fleck at Minnesota. Joe Harasymiak left Fleck to be the Rutgers defensive coordinator. Gophers’ defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman spent the previous two seasons at Rutgers.

Maybe most notably, Fleck’s starting quarterback last year, Athan Kaliakmanis, is now the quarterback for the Scarlet Knights. But Fleck doesn’t have much interest in a reunion.

"You look at both sides of the ball, there’s a lot of people who have a lot of connections. That can’t be the focus, that’s not going to be the focus," Fleck said "The focus is on going to get this football team better."

Why it matters

Kaliakmanis started 17 games and played in 23 over two seasons at Minnesota under Fleck. He was supposed to be the replacement to Tanner Morgan. In 12 starts last year, Kaliakmanis threw for 1,838 yards, 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions. After the Gophers lost to Wisconsin to end last season, Kaliakmanis reportedly wasn’t guaranteed the starting job in 2024 and entered the transfer portal.

He joined the Scarlet Knights and Ciarrocca. In eight starts, Kaliakmanis has 1,650 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions. Rutgers is 4-4 and has lost four straight.

Michigan loss drew a line in the sand

If not for a missed field goal against North Carolina and the onside kick controversy at Michigan, the Gophers could be 8-1 and 5-1 in Big Ten play. Fleck said the controversial loss to the Wolverines brought the team together, when it could’ve ripped them apart.

What’s followed is four straight wins over USC, UCLA, Maryland and Illinois. Fleck now has six wins over ranked teams at Minnesota, two this year in the Trojans and Illini.

"That was a choice by the players, they didn’t have to do that. They could’ve threw a pity party for themselves. That was the opposite of that locker room," Fleck said. "I can remember only a few locker rooms in 12 years being a head coach that were like that at Michigan. You could tell that we were going to take off from there."

Detailing Daniel Jackson’s big catch

One of the Gophers’ biggest offensive plays at Illinois was a 37-yard play from Max Brosmer to Daniel Jackson. He ran a go route, slowed up on the play to make the defensive back think the ball wasn’t coming to him, then contorted his body to make a catch down the sideline. The drive ended with Brosmer hitting Jameson Geers for the game-winning touchdown with 5:14 to play.

Jackson finished with five catches for 74 yards.

"It looks like such a simple, routine catch. Well it’s supposed to look simple and routine. The way he has the body control to do that in that moment, there’s a lot of things involved in that," Fleck said. "He put it all together on that, huge play in the game."

Dragan Kesich earns Special Teams honor

Gophers' kicker Dragan Kesich was named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday. He made field goals of 20, 45, 38 and 46 yards in Saturday's win at Illinois. It was his best game of the season, and a bounce back after missing a potential game-winning field goal in the season-opener against North Carolina.