P.J. Fleck
Followed Tracy Claeys. P.J. Fleck moved Minnesota from National Program III to National Program I in 10 seasons.
In his own words
Winning is really hard. You don’t ever take winning for granted. It doesn’t matter who you play
He didn’t want to do that, but moving forward, that can’t happen
Coach Lebby is a really good football coach, and you know we’re gonna have to make sure we’re at our best and learn from all the things we didn’t do particularly well, knowing this is going to be harder next week
A head coach is a direct reflection of the people who work for him
I’m not sure if we’ve ever had that type of buzz with a quarterback in a long, long time here, but it’s just that. It’s buzz
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached National Program in his 4th career season — faster than 19% of the 675 FBS coaches who have ever reached National Program (rank #505 of 675 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
11–13 against his rivals. Just 1–9 against Kirk Ferentz.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
5th-best Minnesota tenure of 15 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed Tracy Claeys (2015–2016).
| Season | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||||||
| Record | 5–7 | 7–6 | 11–2 | 3–4 | 9–4 | 9–4 | 6–7 | 8–5 | 8–5 | 0–0 | |
| Postseason | — | W bowl | W bowl | — | W bowl | W bowl | W bowl | W bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #59 | #38 | #45 | #38 | #37 | #49 | #45 | #37 | #49 | #28 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||||||||
| Pass rate | 30.6 | 39.9 | 36.6 | 38.2 | 29.8 | 32.6 | 38.2 | 50.6 | 51.6 | 60.4 | |
| Coordinators | |||||||||||
| OC | Kirk Ciarrocca | Kirk Ciarrocca | Kirk Ciarrocca | Matt Simon / Mike Sanford | Matt Simon / Mike Sanford | Kirk Ciarrocca / Matt Simon | Greg Harbaugh / Matt Simon | Greg Harbaugh / Matt Simon | Greg Harbaugh / Matt Simon | Greg Harbaugh | |
| DC | Robb Smith | Robb Smith | Joe Rossi | Joe Harasymiak / Joe Rossi | Joe Harasymiak / Joe Rossi | Joe Rossi / Paul Haynes | Joe Rossi / Nick Monroe | Corey Hetherman / Nick Monroe | Nick Monroe / Danny Collins | Nick Monroe / Danny Collins | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||||||
| Offense | 10 | 60 | 92 | 67 | 47 | 60 | 22 | 66 | 19 | 54 | |
| Defense | 29 | 41 | 71 | 10 | 80 | 71 | 15 | 97 | 31 | 98 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 29.6 | 40.5 | 36.0 | 25.8 | 23.2 | 35.9 | 36.0 | 54.4 | 58.1 | 65.9 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 25.0 | 27.5 | 34.4 | 24.0 | 23.2 | 21.6 | 30.8 | 48.2 | 52.5 | 66.7 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 14.7 | 28.6 | 33.3 | 47.4 | 23.8 | 17.9 | 24.4 | 20.0 | 23.3 | — | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
A typical class-year mix of incoming transfers.
21 NFL Draft picks: Jalen Myrick (2017), Blake Cashman (2019), Antoine Winfield Jr. (2020), Tyler Johnson (2020), Kamal Martin (2020), Carter Coughlin (2020), Chris Williamson (2020), Rashod Bateman (2021) + 13 more
4 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): John Michael Schmitz (2022), Tyler Nubin (2023), Anthony Smith (2026), Greg Johnson (2026)
AI Narratives — “Minnesota's Late-Season Surge” and 4 more on the team page.
1st-best Western Michigan tenure of 10 by the numbers.
Outperforms his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Bill Cubit (2005–2012) · succeeded by Tim Lester (2017–2022).
| Season | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 1–11 | 8–5 | 8–5 | 13–1 | |
| Postseason | — | L bowl | W bowl | L bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | — | #71 | #76 | #67 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||
| Pass rate | — | 42.5 | 43.4 | 37.4 | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | — | Kirk Ciarrocca | Kirk Ciarrocca | Kirk Ciarrocca | |
| DC | — | Ed Pinkham | Ed Pinkham | Ed Pinkham | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | — | 77 | 96 | 96 | |
| Defense | — | 78 | 32 | 35 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 38.4 | 40.2 | 39.2 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 29.9 | 37.0 | 26.3 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 28.6 | 35.9 | 28.2 | |
5 NFL Draft picks: Willie Beavers (2016), Daniel Braverman (2016), Corey Davis (2017), Taylor Moton (2017), Keion Adams (2017)