The P.J. Fleck Show: Episode 2

P.J. Fleck and the Gophers spent Wednesday night together preparing for the season opener against Buffalo, so Fox 9’s Hobie Artigue caught up with the coach earlier in the morning.

THE NIGHT BEFORE

“Just last minute preparations. You constantly prepare all the way through the event. You don’t just stop and say, hey all the hay is in the barn. We constantly prepare all the way through the event, and you continue to go through the game. We just got done with our Fast Friday practice. They were sharp, I loved how they came out with the enthusiasm – I think everybody’s just really anxious to play. I wouldn’t even call it nerves”

TWO QUARTERBACKS

“They’re both going to play. I don’t know how much both of them will play, but they both will play. We have a set schedule of how we’re going to be able to do that, and then from there it’s going to be more of how the game plan is going and who does it not necessarily favor, but what plays we’re calling and what’s working, who runs some of the things better, and then we’ll make those adjustments as we go.”

BUT WHO IS QB1A AND WHO IS QB1B?

“We still haven’t made that decision. It just depends on how the first calls come out. Who runs the first two, three plays in terms of our scripted 10, 15 plays that we’re going to call. That’s how we’ve always done it. Script 10 plays and those are the first 10 plays we’re going to run.”

UPSET ALERT?

“We have to play our best football that we can possibly play tomorrow night. We have to be a culmination of all the things we’ve learned since January up until now. We have to be better tomorrow than we were today, because it’s the next right step in the program. It’s not about the opponents, and too many people focus in on opponents. It’s not about that. It’s about if we play really well, we should be able to beat a lot of teams. If we don’t play well, there’s a lot of teams that could beat us in the country. Buffalo is a team that returns pretty much everybody.”

MESSAGE TO GOPHERS PLAYERS

“I want them to have fun, I want them to enjoy it. You work so hard for 12 opportunities a year, and if you’re not enjoying those 12 opportunities, then you’re playing the wrong sport.  You could not enjoy 12 baseball games and still have 150 left.  Here that’s a little bit different. So they’ve got to really enjoy it. I’m going to tell them how proud of them I am, and then just tell them I can’t wait to watch them play.”