University of Minnesota Athletics
P.J. Fleck Postgame Quotes
Opening statement: First and foremost, congratulations to Ohio State, their fans, their state, their team and their coaches. They played a really good game. Would have wanted to have won the football game, made a lot of plays, have a lot of tremendous athletes. I thought our run defense was tremendous. It was the name of the game. We wanted to be able to stop the run and then mix the secondary coverages up because of the lack of depth we have back there. Terell Smith didn’t play today, obviously Antoine [Winfield Jr.] out, we were thin back there to begin with, then losing Coney [Durr], you know it’s pretty thin. We had to be able to mix up some coverages here and there and we executed that really well, at times, but they have just freak players, in a good way. They can just play and when they had an opportunity to make a play, they did. I thought our rush defense was tremendous. I give our defensive staff a ton of credit, holding them to 23 points for the game and that last one in down time, he threw a 40-some yard touchdown pass and I understand that.
The offensive side of the ball, I thought Zack Annexstad played outstanding. I just did an interview downstairs, and somebody asked me, ‘You know he threw three interceptions?’ First of all, the information is he threw two interceptions and both interceptions were way down the field. I thought he played outstanding. To do what he did in this environment as a true freshman, forget it. I’m not sure what we are expecting but everybody else picked us 12th out of 14 in the Big Ten, and they played outstanding. We had plenty of opportunities, now the opportunity that I thought we didn’t take advantage of was, we missed two field goals, we fumbled as we were going in to maybe score again and really go from 14-10 to 10-21, 10-17 at least, and we fumbled and gave the ball back. They go down and score, and that was tough. We throw two picks, but I don’t think—the safety was on the backside hash on the last one, Zack has pressure in his face, throws it up, floated the ball a little bit, but the backside safety comes all the way across the field and makes the play. That’s called speed. We have to keep recruiting speed which we have, we just can’t fix that in one class, we have to develop the players that are here.
Fourth down—I was asked about the fourth down spot. I mean, I didn’t think he got it, but I’m not the official and they are going to put the ball where they think it was. I was waiting for the booth review and they were saying, ‘No, no, no, we’re not doing it,’ and usually they buzz it if it’s close but that’s where it was, that’s kind of the name of the game. They are a really good football team. I thought our team played incredibly hard. I give them a lot of credit. Put the result on me. The loss is one hundred percent on me, one hundred percent. I just want our kids to focus on growing and getting better. That’s the number three ranked team in the country. No moral victories whatsoever in this program as long as I am the head football coach, that’s why the result is on me. I just want them focused on getting better, because they are getting better. I mean Big O [Esezi Otomewo], the redshirt freshman on defense, had I think two sacks or hurries. We saw a lot of people getting in the mix, O.J. Smith didn’t play today, or Terell Smith so you have to give them a lot of credit. They are a really good football team. They are well-coached. It’s a tremendous environment. We just didn’t get it done and we are going to get better. Halfway through the season, draw a line in the sand [between] season one and the start of season two. We will continue to get better.
The offensive side of the ball, I thought Zack Annexstad played outstanding. I just did an interview downstairs, and somebody asked me, ‘You know he threw three interceptions?’ First of all, the information is he threw two interceptions and both interceptions were way down the field. I thought he played outstanding. To do what he did in this environment as a true freshman, forget it. I’m not sure what we are expecting but everybody else picked us 12th out of 14 in the Big Ten, and they played outstanding. We had plenty of opportunities, now the opportunity that I thought we didn’t take advantage of was, we missed two field goals, we fumbled as we were going in to maybe score again and really go from 14-10 to 10-21, 10-17 at least, and we fumbled and gave the ball back. They go down and score, and that was tough. We throw two picks, but I don’t think—the safety was on the backside hash on the last one, Zack has pressure in his face, throws it up, floated the ball a little bit, but the backside safety comes all the way across the field and makes the play. That’s called speed. We have to keep recruiting speed which we have, we just can’t fix that in one class, we have to develop the players that are here.
Fourth down—I was asked about the fourth down spot. I mean, I didn’t think he got it, but I’m not the official and they are going to put the ball where they think it was. I was waiting for the booth review and they were saying, ‘No, no, no, we’re not doing it,’ and usually they buzz it if it’s close but that’s where it was, that’s kind of the name of the game. They are a really good football team. I thought our team played incredibly hard. I give them a lot of credit. Put the result on me. The loss is one hundred percent on me, one hundred percent. I just want our kids to focus on growing and getting better. That’s the number three ranked team in the country. No moral victories whatsoever in this program as long as I am the head football coach, that’s why the result is on me. I just want them focused on getting better, because they are getting better. I mean Big O [Esezi Otomewo], the redshirt freshman on defense, had I think two sacks or hurries. We saw a lot of people getting in the mix, O.J. Smith didn’t play today, or Terell Smith so you have to give them a lot of credit. They are a really good football team. They are well-coached. It’s a tremendous environment. We just didn’t get it done and we are going to get better. Halfway through the season, draw a line in the sand [between] season one and the start of season two. We will continue to get better.