Western Michigan didn’t have itself a great weekend, but a 38-24 loss to Air Force shouldn’t put a damper on what was an incredible turnaround in Kalamazoo.
Under the watch of its 34-year-old coach, P.J. Fleck, Western Michigan went from 1-11 to 8-5 and has built some strong recruiting momentum that should have fellow MAC schools on notice. He signed a six-year extension earlier this month and now is the conference’s highest paid coach.
Fleck, though, is probably most well known for a video during his first year as WMU’s coach that produced this gif.
But “Row Your Boat” is much more than a college football Twitter meme. ESPN.com’s Matt Fortuna, in his excellent feature on Fleck, has the coach explain it.
The story is loaded with observations and anecdotes that’ll endear you to Fleck -- like his three framed photos of John F. Kennedy hanging beneath the words “If only...” -- but this may be the best:A slide on the PowerPoint presentation behind him shows a mountain with the team’s 2014 opponents lined up in chronological order, from the bottom to the top. Another slide offers all of the weekly nicknames attached to 2014’s schedule, also known as “How Mountain.” Among them: HOWkies (Virginia Tech), ToLeadHOW (Toledo), HOWcoming (Homecoming vs. Ohio).
Fleck rattles them off, punctuating IdaHOW (Idaho) to his assembled audience: “You-da-how ...”
“WE-DA-HOW!” the players shout back in unison.
“It’s an active HOWcano,” Fleck says, and everyone cannot help but laugh. “What’s going to happen at 11 a.m. on Black Friday? The shoppers will hear what’s happening at Waldo Stadium.”Go read the story, and feel free to hope your Power Five program of choice hires Fleck in the next couple years.