Philip John Fleck Jr., the veteran coach for the Minnesota Gophers, should be much in demand to lecture at summer clinics on a special element of football.
That would be the “prevent offense” at which his team excels in the fourth quarter of games already destined for the loss column.
Fleck offered another tutorial on this unique scheme late Saturday afternoon in Iowa City, as the Gophers were headed for what would have been Fleck’s ninth straight loss to Kirk Ferentz and Iowa — if not for a caffeinated replay official interfering where he had not been requested and nullifying a punt return touchdown by Hawkeyes great Cooper DeJean.
That was in Kinnick Stadium in 2023.
Hope for any such bailout for attending Gophers fans — including my granddaughter Abigail, 16, who said by text of her home-state team, “I didn’t know we were so bad!” — was long gone when the Gophers acquired the ball with 5 ½ minutes remaining and trailing 41-3.
At this point, Ferentz had gone to reserves on defense. Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey had endured his first horrendous game as a redshirt freshman, and it seemed a fine time to have the backup, Max Shikenjanski, come in and wing a few passes … you know, a tad of experience against a real opponent (not Northwestern State from Louisiana) in case Lindsey were to turn an ankle or some such thing.
Of course, you had to be as old and naive as me, and not completely in tune with Fleck’s white paper, “The Guide to Prevent Offense,” to contemplate the possibility of a few late aerials for Shikenjanski.
Rule No. 1 for Fleck, the guru of that attack practiced in blowout losses: Always keep the clock running — or, in this case, “Yes, a 41-3 loss to Iowa is embarrassing, but imagine how much worse it would be if Young Shik threw a pick and it became 48-3.”