PJ Fleck knows what he wants to do on Thursday at Huntington Bank Stadium.
Jerry Kill... not so much.
There's a simmering feud between the two college football head coaches, and many are interested if things will come to a head when Fleck's Gophers take on Kill's New Mexico State team on Sept. 1.
For Fleck, it's an easy call.
"I've been a head coach for ten years, I've never not shaken the hand of another football coach," said Fleck on Friday during the Gophers' game-week media avail in advance of their season opener.
"There's a tradition, a hundred years ago of coaches meeting at midfield," he said. " I might have had to go find a guy."
Who knows how long it'll take for Fleck to find Kill, a man he assisted when both were at Northern Illinois.
The negative feels appear to have begun two years after Kill stepped down from the Gophers because of continuing battles with epilepsy, a condition he now feels is under control.
After Kill left in the middle of the 2016 season, long-time assistant Tracy Claeys was promoted to head coach, a post he held through the following season.
Claeys was let go following a 9-4 season and a win in the Holiday Bowl, which came as Fleck was considered the hottest coaching prospect after leading Western Michigan to the Cotton Bowl.
U of M administrators said at the time a change was needed after Claeys backed a number of players who were caught up in a sexual assault case and threatened to boycott the bowl game unless they were given a hearing.
When Fleck came in, bringing along his high-spirited personality and "Row the Boat" mantra, he mentioned a plan to change the culture of the Gopher program.
Four players were ultimately kicked off the team.
It was a culture that Kill felt was in need of changing, a culture he built "Brick by Brick" and extended through Claeys' leadership.
Kill has been quoted in recent weeks that he wouldn't take Fleck out for dinner, suggesting they're not exactly friends off the field.
Whether Kill will be in any mood to talk to anybody after Thursday's game isn't a guarantee.
New Mexico State, which opens its season Saturday night against Nevada, is almost a five-touchdown underdog to the Gophers.
