Fleck motivates WMU with his enthusiasm, creativity
How are you doing? P.J. Fleck encountered a typical greeting to start the phone call.
“I’m doing elite,” the Western Michigan coach responded.
And he’s “rowing the boat,” and he’s “changing his best,” and he’s starting with the “how,” and he’s probably coming up with another catchy phrase to spring on his Broncos in advance of Friday’s season-opening event for the ages against No. 5 Michigan State at Kalamazoo’s Waldo Stadium.
The youngest coach in major college football (34) and the highest-paid coach in the Mid-American Conference ($800,000 a year), Fleck also arguably is the coach most likely to be confused with a motivational speaker. He walks on coals and snaps the tips of arrows on his throat, and he once got his team ready for a “heavyweight battle” of a game by bursting into the locker room in boxing shorts and a shiner painted around one of his eyes.
“You never really know what’s going to come through those doors,” junior quarterback Zach Terrell said of his coach’s creativity, which was the focal point of an article in the Feb. 9 issue of Sports Illustrated.
SI’s Pete Thamel wrote that Fleck “has changed WMU from a directional afterthought to a force on both the field and the recruiting trail,” citing the Broncos’ 2014 class — calling it the highest-ranked in MAC history — and adding: “The catalyst behind this transformation? His enthusiasm.”
CBSSports.com columnist Dennis Dodd listed Fleck first among possible replacements for the recently fired Tim Beckman at Illinois — after a previous feature on Fleck speculating that his “fascinating” journey from Northern Illinois star to elementary school teacher to two-year NFL receiver to Kalamazoo could end up with Fleck as the “next big thing” in coaching.
That’s a lot of hype and attention for a guy with nine victories in two head coaching seasons — “I’ve won 41/2 games a year; that gets coaches fired,” he said — and the obvious counter, especially from those who must recruit against him, is that he’s all flash and style. Smoke and mirrors over substance.
The counter to that: Look at the way Fleck handled his divorce this year from the mother of his three children, Tracie.
“He was very open with all of us about what was going on in his personal life, and he didn’t have to do that,” Terrell said. “He and I had a lot of talks about it. We all got through that together, and I truly believe it will make him a better coach and make us a better team.”
Fleck said his players set up prayer groups for him and were his sounding boards throughout the process. He also has discussed with them the child he and Tracie lost, Colton, who died of a heart condition shortly after birth in 2010 — the genesis of his trademarked “Row the Boat” mantra, three words that convey sticking together and moving forward.
“It was amazing, because then so many people came up to me and said, ‘Coach, my parents were divorced’ or ‘I’m going through this,’ and it opened up another line of communication that I can help educate them, another avenue to bring us closer together as a football team,” Fleck said. “As these guys continue to grow older, they know that, ‘Hey, coach Fleck has lost a son. If I ever lose a child, I’m calling him. If I ever get divorced, I can call him.’ And it just opens up another avenue for me to be able to educate and teach. That’s what I am. I’m an educator. And I’m very proud of my life. I’m very proud of my family life. I’m very proud of being a single father. I am. And it’s OK. And every day, we’re just changing our best.”
There were rough days in this process, though, tied in particular to the inevitable rumors that accompanied the divorce. Fleck also addressed those rumors with the team, Terrell said, and he added: “We believe what he told us, and everything else is just noise.”
“The most important thing in my life is my children,” Fleck said of son Carter and daughters Paisley and Harper. “And nothing would ever come in the way of me and my children. And my ex-wife and I have an amazing working relationship with those kids, and we co-parent and do an amazing job. And we’re raising three beautiful children.
“And the one thing I will say is that when you go through times like that, you’re a public figure and so people will say what they want to say and make up what they want to make up, and do different things like that. And that’s just part of being a public figure. You know those things are gonna come your way.”
Fleck also knows the questions about other jobs will keep coming his way, and he declined to talk specifically about Illinois with reporters Saturday. After a 1-11 debut season that started with a 26-13 loss at MSU, Fleck pulled off the second-largest turnaround in MAC history last season, improving the Broncos to 8-5.
WMU’s recruiting continues to soar because, Fleck said, “We’re real people. People want real, and there’s a lot of fake out there in 2015.” And whether or not his team can make a bid to upset an MSU team he said “has everything,” the Broncos appear stocked for a MAC title run.
“Here’s what I’ll say: One year ago from today, people said I was the worst head coach in America. That this was one of the worst teams and programs in America,” Fleck said. “We’ve got such a long way to go here in Kalamazoo. We’ve got people who have really invested in our program, to make it the best program it can possibly be and to really make it feel like a Power 5-type job. And that’s what I really love about it.”
He also loves the way Terrell has developed into a leader; the increased depth in the program that should cut true freshman usage from 18 last season to about six in 2015; and the fact that his program is now at the “multiplying stage” of culture change with so many players able to spread it.
He uses the term “elite” constantly because “anyone can be average,” he said, and he tells his players that maturity comes “when doing what you’re supposed to do becomes what you want to do.”
And now it’s time for Fleck to get back to being the next big thing.
“Keep rowing the boat,” he said. “Bye-bye.”
FLECK-ISMS
Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck on …
■Stressing “elite” to his players: “I mean, anyone can be average. And ‘good’ is just overused. And everyone strives for the standard of excellence. We want to be above that. There’s a reason why there are Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs. There’s a reason for that. They are the elite of the elite. They don’t think like other people. They don’t act like other people. They’re not normal. They’re elite. And that’s what I want our program to eventually be.”
■Western Michigan’s recruiting success under him: “Recruiting is an educated guess. It’s a hypothesis, really. You think you have all the knowledge, but at the end of the day it’s an educated guess. What we work on here is being very real. We’ve got guys that have played in the NFL, we’ve got guys that played the position they coach, we’ve got guys that played major college football. We’ve got guys with families and kids. We’re real. We’re real people. People want real, and there’s a lot of fake out there in 2015. We’ve got to work really, really hard to be able to compete with teams that maybe are way above us to get kids. But we want to be completely different. We just want to stand out. It starts with the ‘how.’ It starts with your character. It starts with those types of people. Are our players perfect? No. But I tell you what: Every single one of these guys is a talented person. So, it’s not just recruiting the football player. It’s recruiting the entire person and their families. And building relationships that are real.”
■Friday’s season-opening opponent, Michigan State: “They’re a top-five team. And there’s a difference between top-25 teams and then when you get to the top-five teams, they’ve got depth. They’ve got fifth-year leadership. They’re full of fifth-year seniors. They’ve got experience. They’ve been to incredible environments and games, and they’ve had all kinds of national pressure and playoff races to put in their cap. They’re very experienced. We’re still three years out from having a fifth-year senior go through our program, so we’re at a little bit different stages.”
■His motivational tactics: “It’s just, I love life. And I love to experience all fun things in life. And I’m all about finding new ways to motivate. That’s my job. I’ve got to find a way to bring it, to bring energy, to motivate, to stimulate. And that’s not a normal human reaction, a normal human attribute, that you just wake up like that. When you’re a former elementary school teacher … I’m not very smart, but I might be creative. That might be the only thing I am.”
MSU opener
Matchup: No. 5 Michigan State (11-2 in 2014) at WMU (8-5).
Where: Waldo Stadium,
Kalamazoo.
When: 7 p.m. Friday.
TV/radio: ESPNU; WJR-AM (760), WDFN-AM (1130).
Line: MSU by 18.
Meet P.J. Fleck
Who: Third-year Western Michigan coach.
Age: 34.
College: Northern Illinois.
Career record: 9-16.
Last season: Fleck was named MAC coach of the year after leading WMU to an 8-5 record.
Playing days: Third in career receptions and fourth in receiving yards at NIU. Spent two seasons with San Francisco 49ers.
As a coach before WMU: Ohio State grad assistant, 2006; NIU WR coach, 2007-09; NIU recruiting coordinator, 2009; Rutgers WR coach, 2010-11; Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR coach, 2012.