October 6, 2025 • 42 mins
Pete Bercich joins to continue analyzing yesterday's Vikes win in London, followed by Gopher football coach PJ Fleck's weekly appearance!
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Pikes Spikes. Hey, what up? Nine to noon?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
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(00:27):
on their training table.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Check it out Thousand Hills.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
That talkback, that pressed me a little bit. Yeah, just
quick clitch Philadelphia Vikings, McCarthy and Wentz both healthy. I
think it's Wentz, do you? But is that what you
want it to be? I'm not asking for a prediction. Yeah,
see the want part for me or what I think
is right, And just I can't get there simply because
(00:51):
I just don't know enough about the whole thing. And
like the dedication to the McCarthy plan, which is a
dedicated plan, But like I said, does it have to
start in that one?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Well?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I so yes.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
My want is that McCarthy is healthy, McCarthy is ready
to work from a platform to build from and we
can finally get to see him. That's my want and
that's going to remain that while I continue to root
and appreciate what Carson's bringing, but the key for me
and while none of it to that Talkbacker's point, I
do agree McConnell's offered nothing definitive on it, but there's
(01:26):
so much that you can't be definitive on in terms
of the health of the O line, health of the kid.
Where I'm going with this now, and that's why I
was going more predictive than what I want is that
O'Connell from the beginning until the kid QB is going
through full weeks.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Of practice or a full week of practice.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That the rhythm is good, and that I believe I
can put him in a position to play his best
and that he's ready to do so. You know that's
going to be part of the recovery conversation, which is
not definitive.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Then that's what.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Leads me down a road of he was unable to
get a ton of a ton of quality reps in
practice in London this week. You do have the buy
so you're gonna be messing around a little bit on
the field and you're gonna find some stuff. But to
then just jump in he's fully healthy, fully practicing into
the Philly game. I have a hard time believing that
at this particular point. So I think he's mum on
(02:20):
it because it provides inflexibility because of this crazy turnstile
affair we've seen at the offensive line. Because wild Carson
Wentz has not quote unquote lit it up or gone
lights out per se. He's made mistakes along the way,
he's also provided that poison that calm at that spot.
So for me, when the kid is fully healthy and
(02:40):
he's fully practicing, best of luck to Carson Wentz. I
need to see number nine in there, and I love
how you laid that out.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I don't know if after San Francisco beat the La
Rams it was an upset to it's so vibe from
a point spreads down to give me mac Jones. By
the way, Yeah, remember remember what his real first name is, mccorkyl.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Is it mccorkyl. Remember he's mccorkyl. That's right, mccorkyl. Jells mccorkyl.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So mccorkyl, okay goes lights out like part of a
Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And I don't corkyl.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I don't recall anybody asking Carson this, and if they have,
I've missed it. But McCorkle was asked after the game
because Purdy, you know, with a toe like out out played. Yeah,
did his best, but his best was second best, sat out.
Mccorkyl plays. Mccorkyl goes lights out. I saw that quote
(03:33):
you're talking about. Yeah, I mean, how about that thing.
I mean that is so one or two of ten
of what everybody in this world says about situations like that.
He's pushed on it and he's like, I was brought
in here to be Rock Perdy's backup. And if I'm paraphrasing,
and if Nick level Shanny believes it's brought Brock's ready to.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Play, well, I'm his backgup. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So, and he even went on to praise Brock that
he tried to go and couldn't understand the physical nature
of the game and he's working through a lot, but
he's the guy.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, Carson Wentz is that guy. Carson is that guy?
Because that is the right authentic viy not I answer.
I was brought in here to back up the kid.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
If they feel the kids ready to go. I'm the
backup and I'm here to help him the best I can.
But if you need a little nine for nine to
win the game to the guy going from the outhouse
to the penthouse, I'm your hucklebar.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, I think, and I didn't hear his entire presser.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was living in clips, like I guess many of
us do on social media.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Was fad line along yesterday? It was long?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, yeah, because I listened early and then I mean
just it's so long to get everywhere in London. It
takes so long. And then we get to Stanstead, that's
the airport from which we departed.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I'm in the in this customs line. I'm like, hey,
I'm gonna listen to Fanler.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I'm gonna get to the listen line or the free
iHeart audio app and see what was going on. And
I think it was Ron talking about a brief encounter
he had with Quinn Shawn Judkins and pretty much taught
him everything he knew about running the ball. Ron, I'm
just kidding. Hopefully you smiled, but you guys were still on.
I'm like, damn, it's these boys are going long on
(05:17):
fan Line.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Well, there was there was a lot too.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
There was a lot to break down, and it is
into the bye week, so a couple of weeks, and
this this quarterback conversation, it was part of the kind
of dominating point.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
At least for a stretch. Yeah, where I kind of
put it to bed.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Carson Wentz said something I think very similar to what
you were talking about with Mac or mccorfury, where it
was just well, I think he sidestepped in where he's.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Like, why don't you just stop, Let's just play back
the entire press conference at ten at ten thirty three,
then replay it at eleven thirty three for those who
missed it, and then we can all hear it properly
for talkbacks tomorrow for the con.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I think I think his was I've spent so many
years looking forward. I'm not doing that anymore, that I'm
just living man.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
In this moment. Man's kind of what he said.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, he's really relishing and having a blast with with
this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
However short lived or long lived, it'll be Man. I
want you to meet him.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I'm gonna when we get back to the Tuesdays at
Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center, I'm gonna work hard with
Spearfish and that staff to see if we can get
Carson to stop buy he can do a little drive
by first.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Six to eight minutes to sit. You'll just love him.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I mean he's I mean, he grew up listening to
the fan in Bizmarck. He's got He's like one of
those hockey guys we come across at box in the
box where it's like, hey, why is that guy staring
at us like this? Oh, it's because when he was
seven and his dad was driving him to hockey, he
was listening to Vikings games on the radio or listening
to kfa N. Yeah, that's sweet. And Carson's one of them. Man,
(06:50):
He's just so genuine. You'll absolutely love him. McCarthy is too. McCarthy.
You haven't met JJ yet, have you? I haven't met JJ.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I think we're gonna do this.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
We're gonna be a twin Citi's Orthopedics Performance Center a
week from Tuesday. Well, QB Covenant, Yeah, let's I'm gonna
have Spearfish, we get bros.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
We're in there too. We're going to get all three
of them together.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And then what we're going to do is I'm going
to have you cut it up and we're individually going
to replay all of them. Oh, I love that very
next day nine five, ten o three, and I'm a
tweet about it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Bikes bites. Did you want to put did you want
to put a bow on? What you tease? Last segment?
Favorite play from yesterday? Bikes bites.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, the analyst is around the corner, so's let's include
him in the mix, because I know he's listening right now.
You have your favorite play, I do because you told
me off air. I have my favorite play and I
haven't told people what it was, but I've said I
have one on air. And we'll see what the analyst
has to say about a favorite play from yesterday because
(07:51):
my play is of the quirky nature. Okay, but it's
not Acres throwing to Oliver Now. Now that thing bears
conversation too, because again, when you're embedded with that covenant
the way we were for as long as we were,
just some of the greatest conversations privately, you know, with
the trust tree involved that maybe I've ever had in
(08:13):
a quarter century calling games for this team, but like
that Carson Schwssinger, So I probably went to that all
twenty two True media thing, laying in my bed fifteen
times to memorize numbers and body types, and man, I
watched so much brown stuff, and you know, just because
there really at times there was nothing to do, and
(08:33):
if there was time to do it, it was hard
to get there.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, and they got rookies all over the place trying
to make plays. Well, this schwssenger, So I'm gonna be
an elite football mind. So I'm gonna watch him.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I'm gonna go over to the facility and formulate an
opinion to somebody. And I did, and two people basically
looked at me and said the same thing. Nice player, fast,
quite good against the run. Next guy fast, pretty good
against the run. Nobody talked about his past coverage, as
(09:03):
has Jim Schwartz, defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, learned
with I think he's forty nine biting on that Acre's
wildcat to the right. Oh, did that rookie take anel
on that play? Oliver was his and that's why it
was wide open. Yeah, So you just learned little things
like that that we think are cool and they factor
(09:24):
into favor plays. Well, it's probably my favorite play. Do
you think, I mean, of all the things, I've been.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Waiting for that for three years. By the way, Well,
and that's what I was curious about.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Like, of course, Aaron Jones goes to IR, we need
help at the running back spot until three to three
in showtime. Is back in the mix come showtime. It
feels like at least half the reason that Ko brought
Cam Acres back is because he's had this play sitting.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
He need had to dust it off. But he's like,
at some point.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I swear together with the Rams, I swear to you, Cam,
I've been promising this to you, and you've been promising
this to me for half a decade. Yeah, we're gonna
pay this thing off at some point. Yeah, and we
got it in London yesterday. Well, God's cartoon character me.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
All you got to do three years ago is say,
at one time, go to YouTube and watch cam Akers
passing montage at Florida State. Oh okay really yeah, So
I've watched it three times over three years. So that's
why I've had memorized since then. He was five of
eight for ninety seven yards passing at Florida State. What
(10:31):
and that was the Vikings first running back passing touchdown
since two thousand and eight, Chester Taylor Tovessante Shanko.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
At New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I've had it memorized for a long time and they
finally did it. But it's not my favorite play. We
will share what our favorite plays from yesterday were when
we return.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
But first the fan along with two men in a
junk truck. They want to give you a chance to
win some bonus box with the National Cash Contest. Go
to cafe and dot com at the keyword bills you
mine when one thousand dollars in, pay some bills with
the keyword bills at KFA dot com.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Pete Bursuge, analyst for the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network. I
was in Doublin at Croke Park and in London at
Hanbury Manor and he Chris Hockey and your surely spent
a lot of time together last week and really really
enjoyed it the bonding of people we've known.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
We've known each other.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
For quite some time, but you know, when you're embedded,
it just goes to a new level and the analyst
joins us, Now what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Pete? How much?
Speaker 5 (11:34):
I mean? We got to see a horse literally blow up.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It was amazing when that horse fell and we all
had several pounds on it to win'if and it's winning
by seven and we're fifty yards from the wire and
it falls. I've seen a lot probably called thirty two
thirty three thousand races in my life.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Can't say I've ever seen that one. Pete.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
By the way, as I put on Twitter last night
at about two thirty or this morning, it was the
line of the trip bro. I mean, we're all tired,
we can't get comfortable in our seats the flights. When
the FA, when the flight attendant came on and said
this is a nine hour three minute flight, I was
waiting for the punchline. I didn't get the math because
it was six twenty six fifteen, six twenty to Dublin,
(12:19):
an hour ten from Dublin to London. So you have
that thing up there and you don't have nine like okay,
So maybe we're as we could tell by the moderate
to severe chop. Yes, we were flying into a pretty
strong headwind specifically over the Atlantic, but I mean that
sucker added like two hours to it. I was like,
where is the punchline on this nine hour, three minute ordeal.
(12:43):
So it's all quiet, people are tired getting their bags
and you know from the overhead and stuff like that,
and Bursich sitting back in his chair just dead pans
I may never get on an airplane again.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I always loved that one.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
It's one of the great it was.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
It was epic.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
I mean it was a full moon, so you could
see out the window a window seat. Yeah, and I
swear to god, we never It's like the Atlantic Ocean
just kept going and going right and then you finally
get over land and you're like, oh, great of nova Scotia, Canada. Great,
we only got like six hours to go.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, yeah, so unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Let's let's pay something off that.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Donorda and I just just casually, out of nowhere kind
of threw into the set list and it involves yesterday's
game where there's a play from yesterday that I've watched
back a few times now, because on a nine hour,
three minute flight with Wi Fi available for two and
a half hours of it, still had the opportunity to
(13:44):
look at every box score oh three times, watch every
highlight from every game, oh two times, and and so
there were a lot of interesting things that transpired yesterday.
But from our game, if you were to identify one play,
a single play from the game that you're inn League
football mind quick twitch, it was your favorite play, what
(14:07):
would it be?
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Oh, oh my god, my favorite. That's a tough one.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
I'm just saying some of those, some of those throws,
the rapport that once and Justin Jefferson had yesterday, we
haven't seen in a while.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, okay, so.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
That was all those A couple of throws.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I mean that that's something that that really stands out
in my mind.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So like the Jefferson salad and getting to the creutons
and the cucumbers and then getting to the baby carrots
and all that. Okay, I'm with you on that. What
about unorda.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, I was gonna go to Justin Jefferson route as well.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Sadly, it ended in the missed field goal that hit
a wire that everyone missed and probably should have gotten
a second chance, the kid kicker from fifty one. But
that thirty eight yard pass where Justin's school is one one,
there's no tight end chipping, there's no motioning in. Although
I thought it was really cool. You saw at a
bunch yesterday where CJ. Hamm would start out wide or
(15:08):
almost in the slot as a receiver, you'd pre snap
motion him, maybe Josh Oliver inside, and then in the
end they're chipping on these guys. Justin school one v
one versus Miles. Garrett wins the rep. Carson Wentz does
not get jittery, does not anticipate a rush, stands in
the pocket, and fires over the middle to Jefferson for
(15:30):
thirty eight. He misses a tackle and adds on another
few yards in the mix. But that was one of
my favorite plays, just encompassing some of the moments and
maybe some of the chemistry that you were talking about. Pete,
the cohesion, Carson Wentz really dialing in on getting eighteen
the ball.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
All right, So let's pay off the Justin Jefferson related
trifectum because my favorite play involves Justin Jefferson, Pete and
Pete did a really good job, so did Ben Leber
because Ben saw it before we did and then shared
it with us. It was when Jefferson motioned to the backfield.
He was the tailback offset I Wright with Mason in
(16:10):
front of him, I believe, and Dara saw was the
right was the right tackle in which I didn't see
live during the call, and then the play they unfurled
off of it. Knowing the rookie Schwssinger, you know, had
some problems in the past coverage game, so do some
of these Browns linebackers. And the way O'Connell just absolutely
(16:31):
with a gotcha on Schwartz and the Browns defense that
played with Jefferson in the backfield.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I love that play. It was my favorite.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Pete.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Yeah, you have to you have to come away being
happy with with the game planning side of things. And
again this goes to when you know certain guys are
going to be out and you have time to gain
plan around it, you can do some things. And that's
evident on the first drive of the game and the
(17:01):
first drive of the second half. Right it did did
They were just things put together the cam Akers throw.
They had a plan and they went out and they
and they executed it. So I think that part, that
part is impressive. I mean to be missed, you know,
missing three starters on the offensive line and knowing it
(17:22):
and we knew it all week long, they had time
to put a plan together that would work against the
number one defense in the league, giving up two hundred
and twenty two yards a game, which by the way,
I think we ended up with three forty nine or
somewhere near three fifty altogether, so to be I mean
to put up minus in two turnovers, this game may
(17:45):
have been and probably would have been quite a bit different.
So minus those mistakes in the in the big the
big throw I think it was a justin that was
that was taken away because of penalty or Josh Oliver
Plat can't remember off the top of my head. But
minus those mistakes, this would have been This could have
been a completely different football game. So I thought the
(18:08):
level of planning and execution offensively especially was was excellent. Defensively,
you know, I just I'm just very impressed with Quinn
Shawn Judkins ball. Oh yeah good. He's a good football player, man,
and the starts and stops and his ability to read
and he's a tough kid to tackle. And yep, you know,
(18:30):
we missed a couple uh you know, kind of safety
or outlet type tackles on the outside with our cornerbacks,
and those led the big runs, big runs. And now
again the defensively, you know, not too bad, good enough,
didn't They didn't get to twenty and that was it.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Hey, Pete, I'm glad you mentioned Judkins because I, like you,
was really impressed by him. But I kind of looking
at it from our defensive side of things. I've been
asked this a lot, and I just like your take
on it, Hargrave and Allen in the middle from a
tackling perspective.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Is there anything that you're seeing where the.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Productivity of the pass rush is the w that's the
plus side of the equation. But a lot of people
just kind of summing up through five games watching whether
it was bijon week two, struggle with the run again
week four against the Steelers with Gainwell and then we
saw it a bit yesterday that limited our ability to
feast on this rookie Dylan Gabriel just couldn't stop Judkins
at times. Is there anything you've seen defensively where in
(19:34):
the buy coming out of it, whether it's getting healthy
with Van Ginkel or are we needing more from that
mix on the defensive interior.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, that's something that's gonna I'm hoping our plan on
taking a look at because just off the top of
my head or watching it the kind of the there's
a little bit that the Steelers took advantage of us
a little bit. I think off tackled on a know,
on the outside type of a play and then creating
(20:04):
space in between our defensive tackle and our outside linebackers.
Right and then Cleveland it was I don't want to
call it a cutback, but that's where Judkins was so
unique in He's taking this football and he's heading north
and south at the mesh point like he's had north
and south and then boom, he would literally just jump
(20:25):
cut or stop and then put that thing back and
it was putting like it was putting the backside defensive
tackle in a in a in a jam because he's
he's trying to hold off from getting cut off by
the by the offensive tackle. But at the same time,
if he goes into that, if he if he crashes
(20:46):
too much, Judkins is cutting it outside and if he
doesn't collapse HI stuff in there, then Judkins can just
take that thing north and south. So I think what
they did is they I mean it was, it was
the execution of it is what matters and why it's
so different. That's I'm so impressed again with Judkins is
we're able to kind of isolate that the backside tackle
(21:07):
and make some big plays. And what was interesting was
at the toward the end of the game, when we
knew they were going to run, we were able to
do some stunt send guys underneath, you know, crash Jonathan
Grenard and those things really worked. So it's not that
(21:29):
we don't have an adjustment to it, per se. It's
just a matter of I think they kind of got
us in a way that needs to be addressed either,
you know what I mean, in one way or another.
I don't know if every team can execute that and
pull that off. But you know, tip of the captain
the Cleveland Browns and the Steelers is that they both
typical AFC North. They both found kind of a way
(21:52):
to run on us. And and you know, again, I
gotta go look back and to see is it a
personnel things I'm gonna just get destroyed off the line
of scrimmage. I don't necessarily think that's the case, per se.
I think it's it's a tweak that technique wise or
alignment wise, or something that the defense is going to
(22:14):
have to do to, you know, to address that. But
then again, I mean, when our offense is where it's
supposed to be, we're putting up points, right teams, aren't
teams that right now have the patience and the time
and the scoreboard to be able to run the football.
You look at the teams that we have coming up,
I don't know if we're going to see that as much.
(22:35):
We're going to start seeing some really good quarterbacks here
pretty soon, and they're gonna want to throw the football.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
So I think.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
That that part of the defense is really is going
to get flipped. Right now, we're a great pass defense
and run defense. We're struggling. I see that flipping just
out of just out of the fact that the teams
that we play coming up.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Very well laid out Pete Bersich, the analyst, the Vikings
win despite being minus two in the turnover differential minus
two and the take give. Teams that are minus two
generally win games about fifteen to twenty percent of the time.
The Vikings overcame that Carson wentz nine of nine in
the game winning drive, including the final three to Jordan Addison.
(23:15):
The veteran was at his best when his best was required. Now,
you being a former coach for nearly half decade as
a linebackers coach for the Bikes, Jordan Addison skips a
walkthrough and was bench the first quarter. What does that
indicate to a team when a coach disciplines one of
the very best players.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
That enough enough, you know what I'm saying. His suspension
the first three weeks of the season cost this team
quite a bit. And they they made some moves, they
did some things. There was there was It wasn't like
a situation where Addison just wasn't there and we just
went on with our you know, went on. You kind
(23:55):
of go on with your life, almost like if you're
missing a running back and you have a backup or
you know, or whatever it was. It made this team
do some things. It was a big deal. And I
don't know exactly. I haven't heard exactly or officially exactly
what went on, but it required it required that, it
(24:17):
required a public this like, I don't want to call
it it's discipline. I don't want to call it a
you know. I mean, obviously the entire world knew something
was up because he wasn't playing. He didn't play the
first quarter and then he gets back in, So that
is that's kind of like I got to embarrass you
(24:37):
a little bit. You know, I have to do it.
I have no choice but to, you know, embarrass you
here a little bit. And the thing with Jordan Aison
again is how he responded, and that's why I have
hope for him to be able to turn this thing
around and just stay out of trouble. Is what you know,
(24:58):
what he did and when he got out there, he
made a difference. And obviously at the end of that
game he made a difference. And I guess you can
look at that and have him say, well, that means
I'm gonna do something again, because when I go out there,
I make things happen. At the same time, I really,
I really hope that he got the message. Listening to
(25:19):
Justin Jefferson in his comments after the game, I mean,
that just proves to you how much Justin isnt matured
and how invested he is in being a leader on
this team and taking a guy under your wing.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Pete, give me your best forty five seconds on our
last question, is Isaiah Rodgers just amazing? I mean in
what not only in watch calling the when we call
it live, but then watching it back. You should do
an eye in the Sky YouTube bit on him, and
here's why he rarely, if ever, is on the wrong
side of a completion. What does the analyst think?
Speaker 5 (25:54):
He's playing unbelievably well and unless you're throwing, you know,
deep seven rounds a six foot six tight end, he's
pretty much made every play it to come his way. Yes,
I agree with you. He's playing very very well. Ball
skills meaning when the ball is the fifty to fifty
balls and those things, he's always right there. I think
(26:16):
Isaiah Rodgers he's playing more consistently than Byron Murphy Jr.
Is right now. And not that Byron Murphy Jr. Is
not playing well. He's playing. He's playing very well.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I got you just that.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Isaiah Rodgers is so steady, man, he's playing very well.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Your best fifteen seconds on this your YouTube channel I
in the Sky or Pete Bursage Eye in the Sky.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Pete Versage fifty six? Is that like the tag? Okay?
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Yeah, that's a tag yep?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
So via YouTube bind that because Pete does second to
none film breakdowns of some off the beaten Path Minnesota
Vikings related situations with the Eye in the Sky.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Does that return this week? You have anything up your sleeve.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
That I have to figure out. I got to figure
out what it's going to be. I think you just
gave me a good idea, so I might just have myself,
you know, a topic the next week. It'll be next week,
I'll have one definitely taking a deep deep dive on
the Philadelphia Eagle.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Sweet thank you the analyst. All right, thanks for the
fun for the last week and a half. Appreciate you
and we'll talk next week, all right. Yes, Pete Bursag,
chnalyst for the Vikings Audio Network at Pete Bursage via
x if you would like to learn more.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
PJ.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Fleck, coach of the Golden Gophers football team, joins us
a weekly and that'll be around the corner and there
will be a co host for that who just walked
into studio, Young Parker. Parker Fox is going to be
with us for a couple of segments, including with PJ.
And that's next your home for Golden Gophers football. And
we also welcome former Gophers basketball player Parker Fox into
(27:52):
the equation along with PJ. Flex, coach of the Golden
Gophers football team.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
PJ. It's Paul Allen.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
This is our second conversation during the year because of
Monday night football and European travel and everything, and man,
I just I miss chatting with you on a weekly basis,
and I'm sorry about Saturday.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Have you.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Have you ever been to Dublin or London, because I
bet you and Heather would love the action and diverse
culture and the food options.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Man.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Well, it's good to have you back in the States, PA,
So it's good to have you back, good to have
our conversations back, you know what. Heather and I've never
been to Dublin, but we've been to London. We love London, yeah,
And we've been in Paris and Italy and we absolutely
love Europe. And one of the things I love about
going out there is, you know, it's just a completely
different culture than America, as we know, but I think
(28:45):
it makes you feel really, really small, and I love
that piece. I think sometimes we get involved in our
lives and get caught up in our lives and we
think everybody's noticing and everybody's following, and that can put
you in this little corner. And when you go overseas,
I mean, besides the NFL, right, and a lot of
people know the NFL, but a lot of people don't
know college football over there as much, and so we
(29:08):
love to go over for the for the for the
soccer and for the culture. And really nobody knows really
who you are, and you start to see life in
a global form, and I think it really kind of
gives you perspective of your life and how big the
world really is and sometimes how insignificant, like our issues
and problems are. So but love going over there. And
(29:29):
that's all Browser has been talking about this morning. He's
actually over here in our building the day off. He's
over here.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Falcking ball with it.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
And your your your answer was awesome too, I mean,
authentic as usual. But my second question involved Max Brosmer,
who I've gotten to know quite well over the last
month and a half and I absolutely adore. But the
Ohio State game started at twelve thirty in the morning,
London time, and I couldn't stay up for it. Old
people got tired. But I sat by Max Brosmer on
(29:57):
the bus to the stadium Tottenham Hotspur yesterday and he
was quite saddened over the loss. And man, he just
really cares about your squad. But you know, I know
Ohio State ranked number one, bunch of a bunch of
draft picks to be all over the place. You guys
just ran into a buzz saw, didn't you.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Well a few things one our players went in there.
We had two penalties, we didn't turn the ball over.
We only gave up one sack. When I went back
to watch the film, PA, I wanted to see, like,
oh we beat ourselves, Oh we made this mistake. Oh
we blew that coverage. It wasn't that way. And there
are times you walk into and you play a really
(30:36):
good football team who plays exceptionally well that day, and
Ohio State did and unfortunately their ex was better than
our o and they played better than us that day.
But the score makes it. It covers all the other
stuff up. I mean, we had tight coverage in a
few instances where they made a big play. There were
times we just got beat in one on one coverage.
There were times that, like I said that, you know,
(30:58):
we weren't able to to play just man demand. Other
than that, though, when you look at the discipline of
our football team, you the culture of our football team, mamhard.
They played the last feel will block. You would have
thought it was for the for the game, and our
guys played incredibly hard all the way to the end.
There are no moral victories. We just played a really
good football team who played really well. And again I
(31:20):
wanted to go into that saying, you know what, we
beat ourselves and I'm not going to insult their intelligence
or insult their their ability to be really really good,
because I'm not going to do that to them because
they deserve that type of credit. I mean, they we
got into a fight, they beat us up, We'll lick
our wounds, we'll respond, we'll learn from it. But it
wasn't like we played horrifically bad. We just couldn't do
some things and it happened to be that night for
(31:41):
us unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Okay, Pjay so off that when when you say, quote,
we got our butt kicked and will be better for it,
end quote. My question would be, in what ways does
one find serendipity from that Saturday night at the horseshoe.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Well, it's iron sharpening iron. I mean, we played pretty
disciplined football, but then you look at the fundamentals and
the technique. Well, if we can do that fundamentals and
technique every single week, but we can do it again
competition that's not as good as Ohio State, then we're
going to be really good as we keep moving forward.
To be a great winner, Pa, you got to learn
how to lose, and you can hate losing, but you
(32:20):
got to be good at losing, because if you're really
good at losing, you'll respond to all the information that
comes your way and you'll want to get back out
there and you'll want to be able to respond. We
showed him that the Perira fight from UFC, the one
back in March where he gets beat and then the
one he just beat the guy up with elbows in
the first round after a minute and a half and
he got his title back. He could have wiled them
(32:42):
in a self pity and he could have cried about it,
couldn't touted about it, could have blamed complainant and deflected.
But he learned how to lose when he didn't lose much,
so he learned how to lose. He responded, got the
fight in October and went out there and beat him
in the first minute and a half. So you don't
have to like losing, nor should you like to lose
if you're competitor, but you've got to be good at it,
and you've got to know how to be able to
(33:03):
dissect that all that information, feel back the onion and
get better at the core things you can get better
at and control the controllable.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Love it.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
Hey, coach Parker Fox here, you know you always preach
the importance of response within your program. What does this
week look like leading up to an important homecoming Saturday
night game?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah, I mean, produce a really good football team. They've
played really three good Power four teams, so you can't
measure the score where at one point all three of
those are ranked and some of them still are ranked.
So you know, we've got to be We got to
play better than we did last week. But we've got
to take the information that came from Ohio State, right,
the attention to detail, the discipline. We got to take
the fundamentals and technique and really sharpen those things. And
(33:42):
then we your coaches, got to continue to put our
best our players in the best position so they can
be successful with the schemes and the game plans we
put forth, whether that special team's offense or defense, and
then allow our players to play really fast. It's gonna
be a great atmosphere produce a really really good football team.
Was really a tremendous quarterback who's playing at a very
high level and typical produce, score a lot of points,
(34:03):
score them often, and can be explosive of any point.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
You Know, one thing I greatly appreciate about you and
your recruiting strategy is how your program is a life program.
How important is homecoming to you? And roll the boat culture?
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Well, I think it's everything. You know, people make this
world go round, People set up where we're going to be.
We all need somebody to get to where we're need
to go. You know, we have forty players here when
we had our alumni homecoming week when we first got here,
and that was very low. We're over two hundred this
weekend of former players, not just over our last nine years,
(34:36):
but talking about from the two thousands. We're talking about
from the nineties and the eighties, and we're celebrating the
nineteen sixty national championship with Bobby Bell and have a
lot of those guys back. And I think that the
main thing of that was is when I first got
hired Mark Coyle. So what are we missing here at Minnesota.
It's a cultural sustainability, whether that was me or I
hired somebody else. That was my opinion. In Minnesota, seven
head coaches in fourteen years prior to us, where when
(34:58):
you're in alum you have a hard time. You're grasping
at straws because every time you grab a straw, that's
straw gone, then somebody leaves. So it's hard to have
this connection personally with former players when the VIAD coach
and the culture is changing all the time. Well now
over nine years, whether you played for us or not,
you know what you're getting when you come back into
the building. You know what you're getting when you come
back to games. You know what you're getting when you
(35:20):
come back for homecoming. And I think that attracts more
and more people by the years.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
PJ.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Plack, coach of the Golden Gophers football team. Nine to
noon Homecoming at Huntington Banks Stadium is Saturday. Go for
sports dot com for information and or tickets. And you know,
one of many things I appreciate I appreciate about you
PG on or off the microphone. If we're if we're
mixing it up, is you're not hyperbolic. I mean, there's
an authentic nature to your responses, whether it's good or bad.
(35:47):
That that I greatly appreciate. And you know, just last
one on something you said after the Buckeyees game when
this resonated with me on that nine hour flight from
from from London last night, when when you said Matt
Patricia's defense is the best you've seen in thirteen years.
Is it because they have NFL caliber players or is
(36:08):
it Matt mixing it up perfectly and in ways generally
college coaches don't do.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
It's both. It's both. I mean, after that first drive, Pa,
we didn't see it. We didn't see the same front
at all. Never saw it again, and we'd see, well, kids,
they never say it again. I never saw it like
within that drive. I had never seen somebody mix it
up as much as he mixed it up. And a
lot of times some people are maybe afraid to do
that because you want some consistency and maybe you're looking
(36:38):
at strengths of your team first weaknesses of their team.
I don't know if there's a weakness of that team.
And that's why I said it, because one, they're incredibly deep.
They have draft picks everywhere, offensive, defensively, and special teams.
But the way they schemed it on defense and the
way their scheme works with Patricia, it gives a lot
of the NFL defense into college football and you have
(36:59):
to have, i think the right personnel to do that,
and he's got a great combination of both of them.
And that was a very very difficult week to prepare,
and then not only that, it was a very difficult
week to respond as you're going through that game game
plan wise and adjustments, because you're adjusting the things that
when you get to the next drive, you're not going
to see it again. So you're somewhat preparing for ghosts,
(37:20):
even with the iPads, even with the film. Now we
knew we were getting man coverage. We just we just
couldn't create enough separation when we were getting that man coverage.
But proud of our team for only giving up one sack,
didn't turn the ball over against that defense, and only
had one penalty on offense, so and you know, we
didn't have any we didn't have any pre snap you
know when you look at a pre snaf pedalty and
that type of that type of atmosphere. To do that
(37:43):
have low amount of penalties is a credit to our
preparation and the silent staff cownt and our guys really
focusing and being disciplined.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Teaching is and always has been an a topic with you.
So what positives moving forward can you get with the
Red Shirt press Shman quarterback Drake Lindsay, who obviously is
important because he plays that position and he's good.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
His arm talent is terrific.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
But like like a loss like that in an atmosphere
like that, moving forward for him, what can you teach?
Speaker 4 (38:14):
It's donuts on a baseball bat, Pa, I mean, that's
really what it is. And the more donuts you can
put on that bat, swing it as hard as you
possibly can. When you get to other games, you're gonna
knock those donuts off and the bat's going to feel light.
He's going to constantly get challenged and push. We don't
treat them like a freshman. We don't treat them like
a rookie quarterback. We run an NFL system on offense.
(38:35):
And he's changing runs at the line, experiment's changing IDs,
double call and plays, and he's handling himself at an
elite level for what a freshman can do. And we're
going to keep challenging him and every week he's going
to get better and better doesn't mean the productivity where
the numbers will be better every single week. But what's good,
it's going to say, is the experience and the attention
to detail and the growth that he's going to have
(38:56):
in the run game, in the past game, and the
experience he's going to keep creating, going to continue to
be notches on his belt. And that's what we want
to continue to happen as we continue to move through
our future with Drake, lindsay, because he is a special talent.
We know that and it's our job to keep developing that.
And you know, him and Max are sitting in the
you know, the offensive meeting room right now, just sitting
in there, sitting in the back on their iPads. I mean,
(39:17):
it's just Max set the groundwork of what preparation looks like.
And I think the Drake is taking it to another
level here. And I think, shoot, I think Max is
here just because he doesn't want Great to outprepare him.
And look like that, Drake's out preparing Max throughout Max's
time here. But the relationship between those two is really
special and new one to breakfast this morning to Al's
(39:37):
right here on campus, and you know it's It's very
unique for sure that the NFL quarterback of the of
the hometown team is also from the university that's from
there and has a great relationship with the quarterback that's
actually playing for that team. So very unique.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Situation, beautifully said last one. And you know, and and
and watching back.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Your press conference on that flight last night, somebody hits
you think the guy's name might have been Andy with
you know, transfer Portal, nil A, Columbus, dinky Town, all that,
and you're like, it's a conversation for a different time,
which it is here too. But I really felt it,
you know, because after you said that, I got into
the Ohio State two and three deeps and those receivers
(40:18):
you said, you know who are going to be first
round pick? You, I mean, yeah, holy cow, members of
the offensive line, Holy cow. But I got to see
it firsthand yesterday at Tottenham Hotspur with this Quinn Shawn Judkins,
who I hadn't watched much of, and then in the
joint practices against the Patriots with Traveon Henderson. I mean,
it's just a it's a different world in certain places,
(40:40):
and you know, I'm not sure college football is doing
hisself any favors with the way the portal is is
skewing the game, so that really only a handful to
maybe a little more are starting to matter at a
high level.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
Well, I know what you mean, and I answered Andy
the way I felt that it isn't talk for a
different day and is for a different time in seasons,
not the time to talk about it. But you know,
I mean, look at our right tackle. You know our
right tackles at Ohio State, and you know we're doing
everything we can to solidify his replacement as we keep
going forward. But that's that's part of college football. And
(41:17):
if you're not willing to adapt or going to get
left behind, we don't change that. We're a life program.
Like Parker said, I'm never going to change that. We're
going to be a life program because I get paid
to win. We get paid to win. But I do
the job because I love to teach. I love to educate,
and sooner or later, like wins will come and go
and there won't be enough wins to keep coaches. Every
coach at some point doesn't make it right. So whether
(41:39):
that's NFL, whether that's college, but we're always going to
be a life program as we continue to look at
how we can adapt to college football. We've always got
to do what's great for University of Minnesota and what's
great for our players, and we'll continue to always do that,
and we'll always look for finding ways to make it
better every single week so and every single year. So
you've got to be willing to adapt, and we're we're
(42:00):
obviously willing to do that and have done that. But
you know that they handle Ohio State. Not speaking for them,
they've done it at a level that suits them, and
they can continue to adapt with the times like everybody else.
And they've done it at a very very high level,
that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Well, Stavid, thank you very much. Tear up Purdue and
we'll talk soon.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Okay, I appreciate it. Rose the book Sky and I'll
go go for school bytes. Congratulations this week. See you.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Cee a PJ. PJ Flag coach of the Golden go
Fers football team. Great to have him weekly each and
every Monday, nine to noon at about ten forty five
Parker Fox at Parker Fox two four via X. He
sticks around for another segment and we'll get into that
around the corner on KFAM,
Pikes Spikes. Hey, what up? Nine to noon?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome back Vike Spikes and Vike Spikes is always presented
by Thousand Hills lifetime grazed grass fed spearfish. You can
shop online. Box of Meat shows up at your doorstep.
Box of Meat local Coverns and Kowalski's locations, your local
co ops. They're proud sponsors of Gophers athletics players of
marooning gold actually eating Thousand Hills delicious, nutrient dense beef
(00:27):
on their training table.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Check it out Thousand Hills.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
That talkback, that pressed me a little bit. Yeah, just
quick clitch Philadelphia Vikings, McCarthy and Wentz both healthy. I
think it's Wentz, do you? But is that what you
want it to be? I'm not asking for a prediction. Yeah,
see the want part for me or what I think
is right, And just I can't get there simply because
(00:51):
I just don't know enough about the whole thing. And
like the dedication to the McCarthy plan, which is a
dedicated plan, But like I said, does it have to
start in that one?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Well?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I so yes.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
My want is that McCarthy is healthy, McCarthy is ready
to work from a platform to build from and we
can finally get to see him. That's my want and
that's going to remain that while I continue to root
and appreciate what Carson's bringing, but the key for me
and while none of it to that Talkbacker's point, I
do agree McConnell's offered nothing definitive on it, but there's
(01:26):
so much that you can't be definitive on in terms
of the health of the O line, health of the kid.
Where I'm going with this now, and that's why I
was going more predictive than what I want is that
O'Connell from the beginning until the kid QB is going
through full weeks.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Of practice or a full week of practice.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That the rhythm is good, and that I believe I
can put him in a position to play his best
and that he's ready to do so. You know that's
going to be part of the recovery conversation, which is
not definitive.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Then that's what.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Leads me down a road of he was unable to
get a ton of a ton of quality reps in
practice in London this week. You do have the buy
so you're gonna be messing around a little bit on
the field and you're gonna find some stuff. But to
then just jump in he's fully healthy, fully practicing into
the Philly game. I have a hard time believing that
at this particular point. So I think he's mum on
(02:20):
it because it provides inflexibility because of this crazy turnstile
affair we've seen at the offensive line. Because wild Carson
Wentz has not quote unquote lit it up or gone
lights out per se. He's made mistakes along the way,
he's also provided that poison that calm at that spot.
So for me, when the kid is fully healthy and
(02:40):
he's fully practicing, best of luck to Carson Wentz. I
need to see number nine in there, and I love
how you laid that out.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I don't know if after San Francisco beat the La
Rams it was an upset to it's so vibe from
a point spreads down to give me mac Jones. By
the way, Yeah, remember remember what his real first name is, mccorkyl.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Is it mccorkyl. Remember he's mccorkyl. That's right, mccorkyl. Jells mccorkyl.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So mccorkyl, okay goes lights out like part of a
Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And I don't corkyl.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I don't recall anybody asking Carson this, and if they have,
I've missed it. But McCorkle was asked after the game
because Purdy, you know, with a toe like out out played. Yeah,
did his best, but his best was second best, sat out.
Mccorkyl plays. Mccorkyl goes lights out. I saw that quote
(03:33):
you're talking about. Yeah, I mean, how about that thing.
I mean that is so one or two of ten
of what everybody in this world says about situations like that.
He's pushed on it and he's like, I was brought
in here to be Rock Perdy's backup. And if I'm paraphrasing,
and if Nick level Shanny believes it's brought Brock's ready to.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Play, well, I'm his backgup. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So, and he even went on to praise Brock that
he tried to go and couldn't understand the physical nature
of the game and he's working through a lot, but
he's the guy.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, Carson Wentz is that guy. Carson is that guy?
Because that is the right authentic viy not I answer.
I was brought in here to back up the kid.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
If they feel the kids ready to go. I'm the
backup and I'm here to help him the best I can.
But if you need a little nine for nine to
win the game to the guy going from the outhouse
to the penthouse, I'm your hucklebar.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, I think, and I didn't hear his entire presser.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was living in clips, like I guess many of
us do on social media.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Was fad line along yesterday? It was long?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, yeah, because I listened early and then I mean
just it's so long to get everywhere in London. It
takes so long. And then we get to Stanstead, that's
the airport from which we departed.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I'm in the in this customs line. I'm like, hey,
I'm gonna listen to Fanler.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I'm gonna get to the listen line or the free
iHeart audio app and see what was going on. And
I think it was Ron talking about a brief encounter
he had with Quinn Shawn Judkins and pretty much taught
him everything he knew about running the ball. Ron, I'm
just kidding. Hopefully you smiled, but you guys were still on.
I'm like, damn, it's these boys are going long on
(05:17):
fan Line.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Well, there was there was a lot too.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
There was a lot to break down, and it is
into the bye week, so a couple of weeks, and
this this quarterback conversation, it was part of the kind
of dominating point.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
At least for a stretch. Yeah, where I kind of
put it to bed.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Carson Wentz said something I think very similar to what
you were talking about with Mac or mccorfury, where it
was just well, I think he sidestepped in where he's.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Like, why don't you just stop, Let's just play back
the entire press conference at ten at ten thirty three,
then replay it at eleven thirty three for those who
missed it, and then we can all hear it properly
for talkbacks tomorrow for the con.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I think I think his was I've spent so many
years looking forward. I'm not doing that anymore, that I'm
just living man.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
In this moment. Man's kind of what he said.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, he's really relishing and having a blast with with
this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
However short lived or long lived, it'll be Man. I
want you to meet him.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I'm gonna when we get back to the Tuesdays at
Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center, I'm gonna work hard with
Spearfish and that staff to see if we can get
Carson to stop buy he can do a little drive
by first.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Six to eight minutes to sit. You'll just love him.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I mean he's I mean, he grew up listening to
the fan in Bizmarck. He's got He's like one of
those hockey guys we come across at box in the
box where it's like, hey, why is that guy staring
at us like this? Oh, it's because when he was
seven and his dad was driving him to hockey, he
was listening to Vikings games on the radio or listening
to kfa N. Yeah, that's sweet. And Carson's one of them. Man,
(06:50):
He's just so genuine. You'll absolutely love him. McCarthy is too. McCarthy.
You haven't met JJ yet, have you? I haven't met JJ.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I think we're gonna do this.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
We're gonna be a twin Citi's Orthopedics Performance Center a
week from Tuesday. Well, QB Covenant, Yeah, let's I'm gonna
have Spearfish, we get bros.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
We're in there too. We're going to get all three
of them together.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And then what we're going to do is I'm going
to have you cut it up and we're individually going
to replay all of them. Oh, I love that very
next day nine five, ten o three, and I'm a
tweet about it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Bikes bites. Did you want to put did you want
to put a bow on? What you tease? Last segment?
Favorite play from yesterday? Bikes bites.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, the analyst is around the corner, so's let's include
him in the mix, because I know he's listening right now.
You have your favorite play, I do because you told
me off air. I have my favorite play and I
haven't told people what it was, but I've said I
have one on air. And we'll see what the analyst
has to say about a favorite play from yesterday because
(07:51):
my play is of the quirky nature. Okay, but it's
not Acres throwing to Oliver Now. Now that thing bears
conversation too, because again, when you're embedded with that covenant
the way we were for as long as we were,
just some of the greatest conversations privately, you know, with
the trust tree involved that maybe I've ever had in
(08:13):
a quarter century calling games for this team, but like
that Carson Schwssinger, So I probably went to that all
twenty two True media thing, laying in my bed fifteen
times to memorize numbers and body types, and man, I
watched so much brown stuff, and you know, just because
there really at times there was nothing to do, and
(08:33):
if there was time to do it, it was hard
to get there.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, and they got rookies all over the place trying
to make plays. Well, this schwssenger, So I'm gonna be
an elite football mind. So I'm gonna watch him.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I'm gonna go over to the facility and formulate an
opinion to somebody. And I did, and two people basically
looked at me and said the same thing. Nice player, fast,
quite good against the run. Next guy fast, pretty good
against the run. Nobody talked about his past coverage, as
(09:03):
has Jim Schwartz, defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, learned
with I think he's forty nine biting on that Acre's
wildcat to the right. Oh, did that rookie take anel
on that play? Oliver was his and that's why it
was wide open. Yeah, So you just learned little things
like that that we think are cool and they factor
(09:24):
into favor plays. Well, it's probably my favorite play. Do
you think, I mean, of all the things, I've been.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Waiting for that for three years. By the way, Well,
and that's what I was curious about.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Like, of course, Aaron Jones goes to IR, we need
help at the running back spot until three to three
in showtime. Is back in the mix come showtime. It
feels like at least half the reason that Ko brought
Cam Acres back is because he's had this play sitting.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
He need had to dust it off. But he's like,
at some point.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I swear together with the Rams, I swear to you, Cam,
I've been promising this to you, and you've been promising
this to me for half a decade. Yeah, we're gonna
pay this thing off at some point. Yeah, and we
got it in London yesterday. Well, God's cartoon character me.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
All you got to do three years ago is say,
at one time, go to YouTube and watch cam Akers
passing montage at Florida State. Oh okay really yeah, So
I've watched it three times over three years. So that's
why I've had memorized since then. He was five of
eight for ninety seven yards passing at Florida State. What
(10:31):
and that was the Vikings first running back passing touchdown
since two thousand and eight, Chester Taylor Tovessante Shanko.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
At New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I've had it memorized for a long time and they
finally did it. But it's not my favorite play. We
will share what our favorite plays from yesterday were when
we return.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
But first the fan along with two men in a
junk truck. They want to give you a chance to
win some bonus box with the National Cash Contest. Go
to cafe and dot com at the keyword bills you
mine when one thousand dollars in, pay some bills with
the keyword bills at KFA dot com.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Pete Bursuge, analyst for the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network. I
was in Doublin at Croke Park and in London at
Hanbury Manor and he Chris Hockey and your surely spent
a lot of time together last week and really really
enjoyed it the bonding of people we've known.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
We've known each other.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
For quite some time, but you know, when you're embedded,
it just goes to a new level and the analyst
joins us, Now what's going on there?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Pete? How much?
Speaker 5 (11:34):
I mean? We got to see a horse literally blow up.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It was amazing when that horse fell and we all
had several pounds on it to win'if and it's winning
by seven and we're fifty yards from the wire and
it falls. I've seen a lot probably called thirty two
thirty three thousand races in my life.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Can't say I've ever seen that one. Pete.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
By the way, as I put on Twitter last night
at about two thirty or this morning, it was the
line of the trip bro. I mean, we're all tired,
we can't get comfortable in our seats the flights. When
the FA, when the flight attendant came on and said
this is a nine hour three minute flight, I was
waiting for the punchline. I didn't get the math because
it was six twenty six fifteen, six twenty to Dublin,
(12:19):
an hour ten from Dublin to London. So you have
that thing up there and you don't have nine like okay,
So maybe we're as we could tell by the moderate
to severe chop. Yes, we were flying into a pretty
strong headwind specifically over the Atlantic, but I mean that
sucker added like two hours to it. I was like,
where is the punchline on this nine hour, three minute ordeal.
(12:43):
So it's all quiet, people are tired getting their bags
and you know from the overhead and stuff like that,
and Bursich sitting back in his chair just dead pans
I may never get on an airplane again.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I always loved that one.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
It's one of the great it was.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
It was epic.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
I mean it was a full moon, so you could
see out the window a window seat. Yeah, and I
swear to god, we never It's like the Atlantic Ocean
just kept going and going right and then you finally
get over land and you're like, oh, great of nova Scotia, Canada. Great,
we only got like six hours to go.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, yeah, so unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Let's let's pay something off that.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Donorda and I just just casually, out of nowhere kind
of threw into the set list and it involves yesterday's
game where there's a play from yesterday that I've watched
back a few times now, because on a nine hour,
three minute flight with Wi Fi available for two and
a half hours of it, still had the opportunity to
(13:44):
look at every box score oh three times, watch every
highlight from every game, oh two times, and and so
there were a lot of interesting things that transpired yesterday.
But from our game, if you were to identify one play,
a single play from the game that you're inn League
football mind quick twitch, it was your favorite play, what
(14:07):
would it be?
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Oh, oh my god, my favorite. That's a tough one.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
I'm just saying some of those, some of those throws,
the rapport that once and Justin Jefferson had yesterday, we
haven't seen in a while.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, okay, so.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
That was all those A couple of throws.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I mean that that's something that that really stands out
in my mind.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So like the Jefferson salad and getting to the creutons
and the cucumbers and then getting to the baby carrots
and all that. Okay, I'm with you on that. What
about unorda.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, I was gonna go to Justin Jefferson route as well.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Sadly, it ended in the missed field goal that hit
a wire that everyone missed and probably should have gotten
a second chance, the kid kicker from fifty one. But
that thirty eight yard pass where Justin's school is one one,
there's no tight end chipping, there's no motioning in. Although
I thought it was really cool. You saw at a
bunch yesterday where CJ. Hamm would start out wide or
(15:08):
almost in the slot as a receiver, you'd pre snap
motion him, maybe Josh Oliver inside, and then in the
end they're chipping on these guys. Justin school one v
one versus Miles. Garrett wins the rep. Carson Wentz does
not get jittery, does not anticipate a rush, stands in
the pocket, and fires over the middle to Jefferson for
(15:30):
thirty eight. He misses a tackle and adds on another
few yards in the mix. But that was one of
my favorite plays, just encompassing some of the moments and
maybe some of the chemistry that you were talking about. Pete,
the cohesion, Carson Wentz really dialing in on getting eighteen
the ball.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
All right, So let's pay off the Justin Jefferson related
trifectum because my favorite play involves Justin Jefferson, Pete and
Pete did a really good job, so did Ben Leber
because Ben saw it before we did and then shared
it with us. It was when Jefferson motioned to the backfield.
He was the tailback offset I Wright with Mason in
(16:10):
front of him, I believe, and Dara saw was the
right was the right tackle in which I didn't see
live during the call, and then the play they unfurled
off of it. Knowing the rookie Schwssinger, you know, had
some problems in the past coverage game, so do some
of these Browns linebackers. And the way O'Connell just absolutely
(16:31):
with a gotcha on Schwartz and the Browns defense that
played with Jefferson in the backfield.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I love that play. It was my favorite.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Pete.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Yeah, you have to you have to come away being
happy with with the game planning side of things. And
again this goes to when you know certain guys are
going to be out and you have time to gain
plan around it, you can do some things. And that's
evident on the first drive of the game and the
(17:01):
first drive of the second half. Right it did did
They were just things put together the cam Akers throw.
They had a plan and they went out and they
and they executed it. So I think that part, that
part is impressive. I mean to be missed, you know,
missing three starters on the offensive line and knowing it
(17:22):
and we knew it all week long, they had time
to put a plan together that would work against the
number one defense in the league, giving up two hundred
and twenty two yards a game, which by the way,
I think we ended up with three forty nine or
somewhere near three fifty altogether, so to be I mean
to put up minus in two turnovers, this game may
(17:45):
have been and probably would have been quite a bit different.
So minus those mistakes in the in the big the
big throw I think it was a justin that was
that was taken away because of penalty or Josh Oliver
Plat can't remember off the top of my head. But
minus those mistakes, this would have been This could have
been a completely different football game. So I thought the
(18:08):
level of planning and execution offensively especially was was excellent. Defensively,
you know, I just I'm just very impressed with Quinn
Shawn Judkins ball. Oh yeah good. He's a good football player, man,
and the starts and stops and his ability to read
and he's a tough kid to tackle. And yep, you know,
(18:30):
we missed a couple uh you know, kind of safety
or outlet type tackles on the outside with our cornerbacks,
and those led the big runs, big runs. And now
again the defensively, you know, not too bad, good enough,
didn't They didn't get to twenty and that was it.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Hey, Pete, I'm glad you mentioned Judkins because I, like you,
was really impressed by him. But I kind of looking
at it from our defensive side of things. I've been
asked this a lot, and I just like your take
on it, Hargrave and Allen in the middle from a
tackling perspective.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Is there anything that you're seeing where the.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Productivity of the pass rush is the w that's the
plus side of the equation. But a lot of people
just kind of summing up through five games watching whether
it was bijon week two, struggle with the run again
week four against the Steelers with Gainwell and then we
saw it a bit yesterday that limited our ability to
feast on this rookie Dylan Gabriel just couldn't stop Judkins
at times. Is there anything you've seen defensively where in
(19:34):
the buy coming out of it, whether it's getting healthy
with Van Ginkel or are we needing more from that
mix on the defensive interior.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, that's something that's gonna I'm hoping our plan on
taking a look at because just off the top of
my head or watching it the kind of the there's
a little bit that the Steelers took advantage of us
a little bit. I think off tackled on a know,
on the outside type of a play and then creating
(20:04):
space in between our defensive tackle and our outside linebackers.
Right and then Cleveland it was I don't want to
call it a cutback, but that's where Judkins was so
unique in He's taking this football and he's heading north
and south at the mesh point like he's had north
and south and then boom, he would literally just jump
(20:25):
cut or stop and then put that thing back and
it was putting like it was putting the backside defensive
tackle in a in a in a jam because he's
he's trying to hold off from getting cut off by
the by the offensive tackle. But at the same time,
if he goes into that, if he if he crashes
(20:46):
too much, Judkins is cutting it outside and if he
doesn't collapse HI stuff in there, then Judkins can just
take that thing north and south. So I think what
they did is they I mean it was, it was
the execution of it is what matters and why it's
so different. That's I'm so impressed again with Judkins is
we're able to kind of isolate that the backside tackle
(21:07):
and make some big plays. And what was interesting was
at the toward the end of the game, when we
knew they were going to run, we were able to
do some stunt send guys underneath, you know, crash Jonathan
Grenard and those things really worked. So it's not that
(21:29):
we don't have an adjustment to it, per se. It's
just a matter of I think they kind of got
us in a way that needs to be addressed either,
you know what I mean, in one way or another.
I don't know if every team can execute that and
pull that off. But you know, tip of the captain
the Cleveland Browns and the Steelers is that they both
typical AFC North. They both found kind of a way
(21:52):
to run on us. And and you know, again, I
gotta go look back and to see is it a
personnel things I'm gonna just get destroyed off the line
of scrimmage. I don't necessarily think that's the case, per se.
I think it's it's a tweak that technique wise or
alignment wise, or something that the defense is going to
(22:14):
have to do to, you know, to address that. But
then again, I mean, when our offense is where it's
supposed to be, we're putting up points, right teams, aren't
teams that right now have the patience and the time
and the scoreboard to be able to run the football.
You look at the teams that we have coming up,
I don't know if we're going to see that as much.
(22:35):
We're going to start seeing some really good quarterbacks here
pretty soon, and they're gonna want to throw the football.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
So I think.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
That that part of the defense is really is going
to get flipped. Right now, we're a great pass defense
and run defense. We're struggling. I see that flipping just
out of just out of the fact that the teams
that we play coming up.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Very well laid out Pete Bersich, the analyst, the Vikings
win despite being minus two in the turnover differential minus
two and the take give. Teams that are minus two
generally win games about fifteen to twenty percent of the time.
The Vikings overcame that Carson wentz nine of nine in
the game winning drive, including the final three to Jordan Addison.
(23:15):
The veteran was at his best when his best was required. Now,
you being a former coach for nearly half decade as
a linebackers coach for the Bikes, Jordan Addison skips a
walkthrough and was bench the first quarter. What does that
indicate to a team when a coach disciplines one of
the very best players.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
That enough enough, you know what I'm saying. His suspension
the first three weeks of the season cost this team
quite a bit. And they they made some moves, they
did some things. There was there was It wasn't like
a situation where Addison just wasn't there and we just
went on with our you know, went on. You kind
(23:55):
of go on with your life, almost like if you're
missing a running back and you have a backup or
you know, or whatever it was. It made this team
do some things. It was a big deal. And I
don't know exactly. I haven't heard exactly or officially exactly
what went on, but it required it required that, it
(24:17):
required a public this like, I don't want to call
it it's discipline. I don't want to call it a
you know. I mean, obviously the entire world knew something
was up because he wasn't playing. He didn't play the
first quarter and then he gets back in, So that
is that's kind of like I got to embarrass you
(24:37):
a little bit. You know, I have to do it.
I have no choice but to, you know, embarrass you
here a little bit. And the thing with Jordan Aison
again is how he responded, and that's why I have
hope for him to be able to turn this thing
around and just stay out of trouble. Is what you know,
(24:58):
what he did and when he got out there, he
made a difference. And obviously at the end of that
game he made a difference. And I guess you can
look at that and have him say, well, that means
I'm gonna do something again, because when I go out there,
I make things happen. At the same time, I really,
I really hope that he got the message. Listening to
(25:19):
Justin Jefferson in his comments after the game, I mean,
that just proves to you how much Justin isnt matured
and how invested he is in being a leader on
this team and taking a guy under your wing.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Pete, give me your best forty five seconds on our
last question, is Isaiah Rodgers just amazing? I mean in
what not only in watch calling the when we call
it live, but then watching it back. You should do
an eye in the Sky YouTube bit on him, and
here's why he rarely, if ever, is on the wrong
side of a completion. What does the analyst think?
Speaker 5 (25:54):
He's playing unbelievably well and unless you're throwing, you know,
deep seven rounds a six foot six tight end, he's
pretty much made every play it to come his way. Yes,
I agree with you. He's playing very very well. Ball
skills meaning when the ball is the fifty to fifty
balls and those things, he's always right there. I think
(26:16):
Isaiah Rodgers he's playing more consistently than Byron Murphy Jr.
Is right now. And not that Byron Murphy Jr. Is
not playing well. He's playing. He's playing very well.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I got you just that.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Isaiah Rodgers is so steady, man, he's playing very well.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Your best fifteen seconds on this your YouTube channel I
in the Sky or Pete Bursage Eye in the Sky.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Pete Versage fifty six? Is that like the tag? Okay?
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Yeah, that's a tag yep?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
So via YouTube bind that because Pete does second to
none film breakdowns of some off the beaten Path Minnesota
Vikings related situations with the Eye in the Sky.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Does that return this week? You have anything up your sleeve.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
That I have to figure out. I got to figure
out what it's going to be. I think you just
gave me a good idea, so I might just have myself,
you know, a topic the next week. It'll be next week,
I'll have one definitely taking a deep deep dive on
the Philadelphia Eagle.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Sweet thank you the analyst. All right, thanks for the
fun for the last week and a half. Appreciate you
and we'll talk next week, all right. Yes, Pete Bursag,
chnalyst for the Vikings Audio Network at Pete Bursage via
x if you would like to learn more.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
PJ.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Fleck, coach of the Golden Gophers football team, joins us
a weekly and that'll be around the corner and there
will be a co host for that who just walked
into studio, Young Parker. Parker Fox is going to be
with us for a couple of segments, including with PJ.
And that's next your home for Golden Gophers football. And
we also welcome former Gophers basketball player Parker Fox into
(27:52):
the equation along with PJ. Flex, coach of the Golden
Gophers football team.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
PJ. It's Paul Allen.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
This is our second conversation during the year because of
Monday night football and European travel and everything, and man,
I just I miss chatting with you on a weekly basis,
and I'm sorry about Saturday.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Have you.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Have you ever been to Dublin or London, because I
bet you and Heather would love the action and diverse
culture and the food options.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Man.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Well, it's good to have you back in the States, PA,
So it's good to have you back, good to have
our conversations back, you know what. Heather and I've never
been to Dublin, but we've been to London. We love London, yeah,
And we've been in Paris and Italy and we absolutely
love Europe. And one of the things I love about
going out there is, you know, it's just a completely
different culture than America, as we know, but I think
(28:45):
it makes you feel really, really small, and I love
that piece. I think sometimes we get involved in our
lives and get caught up in our lives and we
think everybody's noticing and everybody's following, and that can put
you in this little corner. And when you go overseas,
I mean, besides the NFL, right, and a lot of
people know the NFL, but a lot of people don't
know college football over there as much, and so we
(29:08):
love to go over for the for the for the
soccer and for the culture. And really nobody knows really
who you are, and you start to see life in
a global form, and I think it really kind of
gives you perspective of your life and how big the
world really is and sometimes how insignificant, like our issues
and problems are. So but love going over there. And
(29:29):
that's all Browser has been talking about this morning. He's
actually over here in our building the day off. He's
over here.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Falcking ball with it.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
And your your your answer was awesome too, I mean,
authentic as usual. But my second question involved Max Brosmer,
who I've gotten to know quite well over the last
month and a half and I absolutely adore. But the
Ohio State game started at twelve thirty in the morning,
London time, and I couldn't stay up for it. Old
people got tired. But I sat by Max Brosmer on
(29:57):
the bus to the stadium Tottenham Hotspur yesterday and he
was quite saddened over the loss. And man, he just
really cares about your squad. But you know, I know
Ohio State ranked number one, bunch of a bunch of
draft picks to be all over the place. You guys
just ran into a buzz saw, didn't you.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Well a few things one our players went in there.
We had two penalties, we didn't turn the ball over.
We only gave up one sack. When I went back
to watch the film, PA, I wanted to see, like,
oh we beat ourselves, Oh we made this mistake. Oh
we blew that coverage. It wasn't that way. And there
are times you walk into and you play a really
(30:36):
good football team who plays exceptionally well that day, and
Ohio State did and unfortunately their ex was better than
our o and they played better than us that day.
But the score makes it. It covers all the other
stuff up. I mean, we had tight coverage in a
few instances where they made a big play. There were
times we just got beat in one on one coverage.
There were times that, like I said that, you know,
(30:58):
we weren't able to to play just man demand. Other
than that, though, when you look at the discipline of
our football team, you the culture of our football team, mamhard.
They played the last feel will block. You would have
thought it was for the for the game, and our
guys played incredibly hard all the way to the end.
There are no moral victories. We just played a really
good football team who played really well. And again I
(31:20):
wanted to go into that saying, you know what, we
beat ourselves and I'm not going to insult their intelligence
or insult their their ability to be really really good,
because I'm not going to do that to them because
they deserve that type of credit. I mean, they we
got into a fight, they beat us up, We'll lick
our wounds, we'll respond, we'll learn from it. But it
wasn't like we played horrifically bad. We just couldn't do
some things and it happened to be that night for
(31:41):
us unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Okay, Pjay so off that when when you say, quote,
we got our butt kicked and will be better for it,
end quote. My question would be, in what ways does
one find serendipity from that Saturday night at the horseshoe.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Well, it's iron sharpening iron. I mean, we played pretty
disciplined football, but then you look at the fundamentals and
the technique. Well, if we can do that fundamentals and
technique every single week, but we can do it again
competition that's not as good as Ohio State, then we're
going to be really good as we keep moving forward.
To be a great winner, Pa, you got to learn
how to lose, and you can hate losing, but you
(32:20):
got to be good at losing, because if you're really
good at losing, you'll respond to all the information that
comes your way and you'll want to get back out
there and you'll want to be able to respond. We
showed him that the Perira fight from UFC, the one
back in March where he gets beat and then the
one he just beat the guy up with elbows in
the first round after a minute and a half and
he got his title back. He could have wiled them
(32:42):
in a self pity and he could have cried about it,
couldn't touted about it, could have blamed complainant and deflected.
But he learned how to lose when he didn't lose much,
so he learned how to lose. He responded, got the
fight in October and went out there and beat him
in the first minute and a half. So you don't
have to like losing, nor should you like to lose
if you're competitor, but you've got to be good at it,
and you've got to know how to be able to
(33:03):
dissect that all that information, feel back the onion and
get better at the core things you can get better
at and control the controllable.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Love it.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
Hey, coach Parker Fox here, you know you always preach
the importance of response within your program. What does this
week look like leading up to an important homecoming Saturday
night game?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah, I mean, produce a really good football team. They've
played really three good Power four teams, so you can't
measure the score where at one point all three of
those are ranked and some of them still are ranked.
So you know, we've got to be We got to
play better than we did last week. But we've got
to take the information that came from Ohio State, right,
the attention to detail, the discipline. We got to take
the fundamentals and technique and really sharpen those things. And
(33:42):
then we your coaches, got to continue to put our
best our players in the best position so they can
be successful with the schemes and the game plans we
put forth, whether that special team's offense or defense, and
then allow our players to play really fast. It's gonna
be a great atmosphere produce a really really good football team.
Was really a tremendous quarterback who's playing at a very
high level and typical produce, score a lot of points,
(34:03):
score them often, and can be explosive of any point.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
You Know, one thing I greatly appreciate about you and
your recruiting strategy is how your program is a life program.
How important is homecoming to you? And roll the boat culture?
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Well, I think it's everything. You know, people make this
world go round, People set up where we're going to be.
We all need somebody to get to where we're need
to go. You know, we have forty players here when
we had our alumni homecoming week when we first got here,
and that was very low. We're over two hundred this
weekend of former players, not just over our last nine years,
(34:36):
but talking about from the two thousands. We're talking about
from the nineties and the eighties, and we're celebrating the
nineteen sixty national championship with Bobby Bell and have a
lot of those guys back. And I think that the
main thing of that was is when I first got
hired Mark Coyle. So what are we missing here at Minnesota.
It's a cultural sustainability, whether that was me or I
hired somebody else. That was my opinion. In Minnesota, seven
head coaches in fourteen years prior to us, where when
(34:58):
you're in alum you have a hard time. You're grasping
at straws because every time you grab a straw, that's
straw gone, then somebody leaves. So it's hard to have
this connection personally with former players when the VIAD coach
and the culture is changing all the time. Well now
over nine years, whether you played for us or not,
you know what you're getting when you come back into
the building. You know what you're getting when you come
back to games. You know what you're getting when you
(35:20):
come back for homecoming. And I think that attracts more
and more people by the years.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
PJ.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Plack, coach of the Golden Gophers football team. Nine to
noon Homecoming at Huntington Banks Stadium is Saturday. Go for
sports dot com for information and or tickets. And you know,
one of many things I appreciate I appreciate about you
PG on or off the microphone. If we're if we're
mixing it up, is you're not hyperbolic. I mean, there's
an authentic nature to your responses, whether it's good or bad.
(35:47):
That that I greatly appreciate. And you know, just last
one on something you said after the Buckeyees game when
this resonated with me on that nine hour flight from
from from London last night, when when you said Matt
Patricia's defense is the best you've seen in thirteen years.
Is it because they have NFL caliber players or is
(36:08):
it Matt mixing it up perfectly and in ways generally
college coaches don't do.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
It's both. It's both. I mean, after that first drive, Pa,
we didn't see it. We didn't see the same front
at all. Never saw it again, and we'd see, well, kids,
they never say it again. I never saw it like
within that drive. I had never seen somebody mix it
up as much as he mixed it up. And a
lot of times some people are maybe afraid to do
that because you want some consistency and maybe you're looking
(36:38):
at strengths of your team first weaknesses of their team.
I don't know if there's a weakness of that team.
And that's why I said it, because one, they're incredibly deep.
They have draft picks everywhere, offensive, defensively, and special teams.
But the way they schemed it on defense and the
way their scheme works with Patricia, it gives a lot
of the NFL defense into college football and you have
(36:59):
to have, i think the right personnel to do that,
and he's got a great combination of both of them.
And that was a very very difficult week to prepare,
and then not only that, it was a very difficult
week to respond as you're going through that game game
plan wise and adjustments, because you're adjusting the things that
when you get to the next drive, you're not going
to see it again. So you're somewhat preparing for ghosts,
(37:20):
even with the iPads, even with the film. Now we
knew we were getting man coverage. We just we just
couldn't create enough separation when we were getting that man coverage.
But proud of our team for only giving up one sack,
didn't turn the ball over against that defense, and only
had one penalty on offense, so and you know, we
didn't have any we didn't have any pre snap you
know when you look at a pre snaf pedalty and
that type of that type of atmosphere. To do that
(37:43):
have low amount of penalties is a credit to our
preparation and the silent staff cownt and our guys really
focusing and being disciplined.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Teaching is and always has been an a topic with you.
So what positives moving forward can you get with the
Red Shirt press Shman quarterback Drake Lindsay, who obviously is
important because he plays that position and he's good.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
His arm talent is terrific.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
But like like a loss like that in an atmosphere
like that, moving forward for him, what can you teach?
Speaker 4 (38:14):
It's donuts on a baseball bat, Pa, I mean, that's
really what it is. And the more donuts you can
put on that bat, swing it as hard as you
possibly can. When you get to other games, you're gonna
knock those donuts off and the bat's going to feel light.
He's going to constantly get challenged and push. We don't
treat them like a freshman. We don't treat them like
a rookie quarterback. We run an NFL system on offense.
(38:35):
And he's changing runs at the line, experiment's changing IDs,
double call and plays, and he's handling himself at an
elite level for what a freshman can do. And we're
going to keep challenging him and every week he's going
to get better and better doesn't mean the productivity where
the numbers will be better every single week. But what's good,
it's going to say, is the experience and the attention
to detail and the growth that he's going to have
(38:56):
in the run game, in the past game, and the
experience he's going to keep creating, going to continue to
be notches on his belt. And that's what we want
to continue to happen as we continue to move through
our future with Drake, lindsay, because he is a special talent.
We know that and it's our job to keep developing that.
And you know, him and Max are sitting in the
you know, the offensive meeting room right now, just sitting
in there, sitting in the back on their iPads. I mean,
(39:17):
it's just Max set the groundwork of what preparation looks like.
And I think the Drake is taking it to another
level here. And I think, shoot, I think Max is
here just because he doesn't want Great to outprepare him.
And look like that, Drake's out preparing Max throughout Max's
time here. But the relationship between those two is really
special and new one to breakfast this morning to Al's
(39:37):
right here on campus, and you know it's It's very
unique for sure that the NFL quarterback of the of
the hometown team is also from the university that's from
there and has a great relationship with the quarterback that's
actually playing for that team. So very unique.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Situation, beautifully said last one. And you know, and and
and watching back.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Your press conference on that flight last night, somebody hits
you think the guy's name might have been Andy with
you know, transfer Portal, nil A, Columbus, dinky Town, all that,
and you're like, it's a conversation for a different time,
which it is here too. But I really felt it,
you know, because after you said that, I got into
the Ohio State two and three deeps and those receivers
(40:18):
you said, you know who are going to be first
round pick? You, I mean, yeah, holy cow, members of
the offensive line, Holy cow. But I got to see
it firsthand yesterday at Tottenham Hotspur with this Quinn Shawn Judkins,
who I hadn't watched much of, and then in the
joint practices against the Patriots with Traveon Henderson. I mean,
it's just a it's a different world in certain places,
(40:40):
and you know, I'm not sure college football is doing
hisself any favors with the way the portal is is
skewing the game, so that really only a handful to
maybe a little more are starting to matter at a
high level.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
Well, I know what you mean, and I answered Andy
the way I felt that it isn't talk for a
different day and is for a different time in seasons,
not the time to talk about it. But you know,
I mean, look at our right tackle. You know our
right tackles at Ohio State, and you know we're doing
everything we can to solidify his replacement as we keep
going forward. But that's that's part of college football. And
(41:17):
if you're not willing to adapt or going to get
left behind, we don't change that. We're a life program.
Like Parker said, I'm never going to change that. We're
going to be a life program because I get paid
to win. We get paid to win. But I do
the job because I love to teach. I love to educate,
and sooner or later, like wins will come and go
and there won't be enough wins to keep coaches. Every
coach at some point doesn't make it right. So whether
(41:39):
that's NFL, whether that's college, but we're always going to
be a life program as we continue to look at
how we can adapt to college football. We've always got
to do what's great for University of Minnesota and what's
great for our players, and we'll continue to always do that,
and we'll always look for finding ways to make it
better every single week so and every single year. So
you've got to be willing to adapt, and we're we're
(42:00):
obviously willing to do that and have done that. But
you know that they handle Ohio State. Not speaking for them,
they've done it at a level that suits them, and
they can continue to adapt with the times like everybody else.
And they've done it at a very very high level,
that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Well, Stavid, thank you very much. Tear up Purdue and
we'll talk soon.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Okay, I appreciate it. Rose the book Sky and I'll
go go for school bytes. Congratulations this week. See you.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Cee a PJ. PJ Flag coach of the Golden go
Fers football team. Great to have him weekly each and
every Monday, nine to noon at about ten forty five
Parker Fox at Parker Fox two four via X. He
sticks around for another segment and we'll get into that
around the corner on KFAM,
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