Scott W

Football Coach

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@CoachWhite1820 Depends on how good the opponent offense is but generally run and make them use a time out. If I get to 4th and 1, I would long count / go for it or punt

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Minnesota's head coach just launched himself into a mob of his own players at full sprint. P.J. Fleck crowd-surfs after every win, today's was his 100th, and the mania took 15 years to build. It started with the worst thing that can happen to a person.

In February 2011, Fleck's infant son Colt died of a heart condition. Fleck was a 30-year-old receivers coach at the time. He came up with a phrase to get himself out of bed. Row the boat. Your back faces the future, you can't see what's coming, all you control is the oar.

Two years later Western Michigan made him the youngest head coach in the FBS. He went 1-11 his first season and people laughed at the boat stuff. By 2016 the same program went 13-0 and made the Cotton Bowl.

When Minnesota hired him away in 2017, there was a catch. Western Michigan had trademarked "Row the Boat." The school owned the legal rights to the phrase he created for his son. Fleck paid them $50,000 out of his own pocket, structured as a scholarship for a walk-on player, to take the words with him.

Nine years of rowing later, today happened. Minnesota beat #24 Michigan 20-14, took back the Little Brown Jug for the first time since 2014, and beat them at home for the first time in 49 years. 51,012 fans stormed the field.

So yes, the man flies into that pile looking slightly unhinged. He knows better than anyone in that locker room that you don't get to choose which days are the good ones. You just keep rowing until one shows up.

[Ryan Hawk @RyanHawk12]

This is awesome

[Minnesota Sports Fan @realmnsportsfan]

PJ Fleck was asked after the game how he's able shut out the haters and continue being himself despite the heat he takes publicly.

His message, per usual, is worth a listen no matter what you think of the Minnesota Gophers' head coach.

"We will never ever, ever, ever take winning for granted... I don't think there's any reason for anybody in this world, no matter who you are, to apologize for who you are. As long as you are being the best, most authentic, most real version of yourself every day, and you're changing your best, and you're doing good in the world. You do that, don't you ever change... Be yourself."

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@GopherFootball So happy for the Gophers

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@CoachTatum90 I've always been fortunate enough to get paid, but those early years grinding and learning with older tech, two a days for 2 weeks in fall camp, and no spring or summer stipend, worked out to about 5 or 10 cents an hour

[the Sports ON Tap @thesportsontap]

On the last play of the game in Seattle Saturday night, a cleat caught Maverick Baranowski in the mouth.

He came off the field bleeding. His head coach grabbed him and hugged him.

Then P.J. Fleck took both hands, wiped the blood off his player's mouth, and smeared it across his own left cheek.

"Blood brother."

Fleck, on why.

"Back in the day, I'm sure that's what they did, the frontiersman out West. Little blood on there I guess."

The Minnesota Golden Gophers had just beaten the 23rd ranked Washington Huskies 27-24 in Seattle. Their first road win in two years.

Drake Lindsey threw three touchdown passes in the first half. The defense had seven sacks and two interceptions. Washington came all the way back behind Demond Williams Jr. Minnesota sealed it with an onside kick recovery.

Baranowski is a senior linebacker. Five years in that program.

"It's a great moment. Winning's hard in the Big Ten, and when you get to win at a place like this, just so exciting. My head coach always having my back for the last five years. I love that guy more than anyone."

His teammate Javon Tracy watched the whole thing.

"I would never do that, but P.J., he's different, man. Like, he's crazy. He's very energetic."

Everybody knows Fleck for the other thing he says. Row the Boat. It is on the shirts and the walls and the oars they carry onto the field. Most people hear it and file it under rah rah coach stuff.

Here is where it actually comes from.

On February 9, 2011, P.J. Fleck's second son died shortly after he was born. A heart defect. His name was Colt.

Fleck was 30 years old, a position coach at Rutgers, nobody in particular.

"As you hold your son as he passes away, your whole life changes. What you believe in, how you've believed in it, all changes."

He built the whole thing out of that.

"Row the Boat is really my second son's life as I continue to live his life for him. It's his life."

He breaks it into three pieces. The oar is the energy you bring. The boat is the sacrifice. The compass is who you surround yourself with.

And it is worth knowing that Fleck barely made it himself. He was a receiver at Northern Illinois who caught 77 passes for 1,028 yards as a senior. Nobody drafted him. The San Francisco 49ers signed him anyway, and he spent 2004 mostly on the practice squad and all of 2005 on injured reserve with a bad shoulder. That was his NFL career.

He went to Western Michigan in 2013 and inherited a team that went 1-11. Three years later they went 13-1.

So when a 22 year old comes off the field with his mouth bleeding and the coach puts that blood on his own face and calls him his brother, people watch it and say he is crazy.

He is not crazy.

He is a man who held a son for the last time in 2011 and has spent fifteen years making sure nobody around him ever feels alone in a hard moment.

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@TuneintoD @MikekKuchar All I'm saying is that's an indictment of his college coaches.

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@RealJamesWoods There is a greatest hits of bad decisions when it comes to education, but closing schools for over a year during covid is at the top of the list

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@Footballholics2 The simple fix is your arm has to be ruled going forward before you're in the grasp. He wasn't throwing before the defender got there. The hit forced his arm forward

[Tim Brown @81TimBrown]

Control your ego when you’re winning.
Control your thoughts when you’re losing.
Stay humble in victory and faithful in defeat.
God’s lessons are in both.

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

Who dey!

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

Navy alum & Bengals DT Landon Robinson showed up in full Service Dress for his first NFL game 🇺🇸

[COACH PAYTON VERALDI @CoachVeraldi]

🗣️

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@MLFootball Unusual at best:
-Signal or shuttle in plays
-coaches pay attention (like we did before ipads)
-no homer announcing (its a Seminole fiiiiirrrrrssstttt doooowwwwnnnn)
-fans pay attention

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@BigDuke50 That's the problem - refs calling penalties on things they don't see. Maybe we should have an assumption of holding for just 5 yards...

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@CoachDanCasey Just like when a defender getting blocked backwards hip drops and pulls down the blocker and the refs call that holding too. Understanding physics would help with many of these calls.

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@RyanPaganetti A fake field goal would have sealed the game - CU had 1 person to the field to cover te and wing or qb keeper when they kicked the last FG. It's non conference week 1, take a risk. If you fail, it's a 90 yd field to score and a fg is OT

[Scott W @Coachsw72]

@BreidenFehoko @UVAFootball @beauprib It's a good concept but without a fast guy at the RB spot (even if it's a spot substitution) it's not going to hit like that

[Fletch17 @RealFletch17]

❤️❤️❤️❤️
ALL DAY LONG
THIS 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻