With success, it's natural to start asking the question that is on the mind of fans. Does P.J. Fleck want to stay in Minnesota?
The Gophers have rolled to 8-0, their best start since winning a national championship in 1941. They're ranked 13th in the AP poll, their highest ranking since 1999. They're 5-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 1961. They've now won 10 games in a row going back to last year, the longest winning streak since those pre-WWII teams.
RELATED: Gophers run by Maryland 52-10 to stay unbeaten.
And now the team is getting national attention, with a very public pitch coming from the coach to have ESPN's College Gameday (a true marker of success) in Minneapolis for the November 9th game vs. Penn State. The Nittany Lions are also undefeated and ranked #5 in the country. Both the Gophers and Penn State have a bye week going into the Nov. 9 tilt, which has an 11:00 a.m. kickoff.
"My future at Minnesota is to make sure that Minnesota is getting the attention Minnesota is getting on a national level," Fleck said. "For our team, for our coaches, for our state, for our Twin Cities area. That is my responsibility. I know Heather (Fleck's wife) and I absolutely love it here. We're very grateful to our fans, grateful to our administration and very grateful to our community that has accepted us with open arms. You know, we have a lot of things to finish here this year."
Following Penn State, the Gophers have games against #19 Iowa on the road, at Northwestern, and then finish the season against #18 Wisconsin at TCF Bank Stadium. Currently, the Gophers have a 2-game lead in the Big Ten West. Should they win the West, it would be the first time the program advances to the Big Ten Championship game.
Gopher Athletic Director Mark Coyle also talked about Coach Fleck's future on the Sports Huddle Sunday.
"You can imagine the comments I get from our great fans about Coach Fleck," said Coyle. "You know, we made a very difficult decision a few of years ago (letting Tracy Claeys go), and I knew when we brought in Coach Fleck, this would be something we're dealing with each year. We sit down after each season. And we extended Coach after his first year, we extended Coach after last year, and there's no doubt our goal is to keep P.J. here long term. I can tell you P.J. and Heather are phenomenal to work with. People ask me all the time, he can't be like that all the time. I tell people what you see is what you get. He's the most genuine person I've been around in how he acts and how he cares for people. Our goal is to keep P.J and Heather here long term because what they're doing here is just magical, not just for our football program but our athletic department and our community."
Currently, Fleck is paid $3.6 million by the University, which ranks him 11th out of 14 coaches in the league. Michigan's Jim Harbaugh is the highest paid at $7.5 million.
Now with a bye coming up, Fleck addressed how the Gophers will handle the extra time off, noting that they will be out recruiting Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.
"You got two weeks," Fleck said. "We're going to gameplan like a normal game. We're going to find every advantage we possibly can no matter what that entails. It's a normal gameplan week. We're going to do everything we can to get better as us this week, and then towards the end of the week we'll start working towards Penn State."
Former Gopher coach Glen Mason, now an analyst with the Big Ten Network, joined Sports Huddle Sunday and also sang the praises of Minnesota.
"They've gotten better, and better, and better. The only knock on the Gophers right now, those first couple of games, they didn't play very well against very weak competition. Ever since then, they haven't just beaten Big Ten teams, they've absolutely manhandled them. They're on a roll, they're playing good offense, they're playing good defense."
Referring to the Penn State game in two weeks, Mason said, "That's going to be one heck of a showdown at TCF Bank Stadium."
Gopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 1
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 2
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 3
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 4
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 5
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 6
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 7
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 8
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 9
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 10
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 11
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsGopher Coach P.J. Fleck talks about his future in Minnesota: "We love it here" 12
© Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
