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P.J. Fleck wants Minnesota to ‘be delusional’ about College Football Playoff chances

P.J. Fleck wants Minnesota to ‘be delusional’ about College Football Playoff chances

If you believe something long enough, does it eventually become your reality? Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck sure hopes so because he has been preaching a “delusional” mentality to the Golden Gophers all offseason.

During Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday, Fleck took the podium and laid out some of the core tenants for this year’s team. One of them was “be delusional.”

Being delusional means holding a strong belief in something despite all evidence to the contrary. That may make it seem like an odd word choice on Fleck’s part, but while explaining the phrase, he pointed to last season’s Indiana team as an example of how he wants delusion to manifest within the Gophers.

“It means no cap on the jar,” Fleck said. “No limitations. Dreaming big. With the College Football Playoff where it is, as Indiana showed last year, anybody can get there. If we’re delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there. … Take the cap off the jar. Limitless.”

So, just how delusional would it be to have Minnesota in the College Football Playoff? Maybe a little. FanDuel has the Golden Gophers at +1300 to reach the playoff. Those are the 11th best odds in the Big Ten alone.

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When it comes to Minnesota’s schedule, Michigan and Penn State are notably absent. However, the Golden Gophers do have to face a pair of national championship contenders in Ohio State and Oregon with both games coming on the road. Assuming those two games are losses, Minnesota has little room for error elsewhere, and it also faces Iowa at Kinnick Stadium.

If there is reason to believe that Fleck could take Minnesota to its first College Football Playoff berth, it’s that he’s led the team to a top-12 ranking before. In 2019, Fleck coached the Golden Gophers to an 11-2 record, and that team finished 12th in the AP Top 25 Poll. That would be good enough for a fringe playoff team now.

Beyond that, Minnesota is coming off a 9-5 season that could have been 10-3 if a couple more one-score losses had gone its way. The big question will be whether redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Lindsey can fill the shoes of Max Brosmer, who played very well in his only season with the program.




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