PJ Fleck could probably fill a dictionary with unique words, acronyms, and phrases to describe the culture he and his staff aim to build.
After sucessfully instilling that culture at Western Michigan - where he took over the Broncos program as the youngest head coach in FBS history, and transformed them from a 1-11 program in year one to back-to-back 8-5 seasons before a breakout 13-1 season and New Years Six bowl appearance in the Cotton Bowl following the 2016 season - he's now tasked with doing the same at Minnesota.
Entering year two at Minnesota, Fleck's second head coaching job, means another transition from year one to year two at a new program, and when as spring practice gets ready to start for the Gophers, Fleck was asked what the biggest difference is when building a program from year one to year two, and he shared the following;
"The biggest difference, I think, between year one and year two, from the experience that I've had as a head football coach, is year one all you're doing is learning and everything is brand new. In year two, now it's about doing the culture. It was learning the culture in year one, and everything - academically, athletically, socially, spiritually - you have new rules, you have new expectations, you have this new culture, you have this new Gopher talk words. You just have a new era, and it's hard for young people to be able to adapt to that."
"That type of change for young people is really difficult, so it's nice to be able to have that same type of culture in year two, but now they can start to work on mastering that, whether that's our schematics on offense, defense, special teams, or that's relationship building, and them building their own confidence in terms of the things they do and how they do it."
That's really interesting insight from a coach who prides himself so much on creating the ideal culture within his program.
Hear more from Fleck in the clip.
https://youtu.be/Yms5gXRyjQA?t=79