P.J. Fleck thinks there’s a problem in this country, and he doesn’t have a clue how correct he is.
As you may or may not have noticed, the NCAA transfer database is wide open and has been doing a significant amount of business. There’s not a day goes by where there aren’t multiple posts on CFT about Player X entering -- or reentering, as the case may be -- his name into the portal. And then there are high school prospects committing to one school while (gasp!) still taking visits to others.
The personnel movement both before and after entering the collegiate ranks has caused significant angst within the coaching profession, not the least of whom is the current Minnesota head coach. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:I have a rule: You commit to me, you can’t go see another place,” Fleck said. “Not because I’m insecure. But if you want to be committed, you’re going to be committed. Too many people teach young people to be committed but also one foot in and one foot out. ... You’ve got to be all in.”
Or as Fleck termed it: “We have a problem in our society. We don’t have a problem in our program.
The problem with that?
In December of 2014, Fleck signed a six-year contract extension as the head football coach at Western Michigan. Less than two years later, speculation was running rampant that he was the frontrunner for the Minnesota job; in January of 2017, Fleck was named the head coach of the Golden Gophers.
It’s easy to talk about loyalty and commitment when it’s somebody else’s, right coach? Coaches are free to move above the country at their leisure, while the vast majority of the very same profession will do anything and everything to restrict a player’s movement to a situation the student-athlete feels is better for his future.
Fleck is right about there being a problem in the sport, but it sure as hell isn’t limited to player movement.
(Tip O’ the Cap: @CFAAEliteClips)