P.J. Fleck gives initial feelings on Nebraska, Matt Rhule

P.J. Fleck and Minnesota won’t waste any time getting into Big Ten play when the Gophers take on Nebraska and Matt Rhule Thursday.

Rhule enters his first year at the helm and is welcomed to the Big Ten in a hurry when the Huskers travel to Minnesota. But Fleck isn’t overlooking the head coach who returned to the college game.

In fact, Minnesota better be ready for Nebraska based on Fleck’s words.

“They’re very talented, they’re big, they’re strong,” Fleck said of Nebraska. “A lot of guys have played a lot of years for him. They’re a very experienced team. And then they’ve added a lot of players from the transfer portal that have played a lot of football elsewhere. They present a lot of challenges and like I said, you know that I have a ton of respect for Matt and what he’s been able to accomplish in his career and, and he always gets the most out of his team, no matter what year it is.”

Nebraska’s defense creates a lot of challenges, based on the scheme Rhule and staff want to run. The Huskers use a lot of 3-3-5 and Fleck assessed what he thought of his offense’s chances.

“What they do in a 3-3-5 creates a lot of issues because you can be in a three down front before the snap, and a five down front when the ball is snapped,’ Fleck said. “You can do that with double barrel. You can create all types of fronts…and you can blitz to it to get to a certain front. You can start to get to a certain front, you can create angles constantly. So it’s a very complex defense and without any game film to know exactly how they’re going to run it. Again,  that’s what it means by preparing for ghosts.

“We have a sense and there’s so many ways you can do that. But there’s a lot of ways you can do that. Which ones are they going to use? How often are they going to use it? What are the tendencies? You can go back to different places that coordinators have been or head coaches have been, but it’s still not 100% accurate.”

Fleck and the Gophers might be predicted to do a little more in the Big Ten West this season, but a loss to Nebraska to open the year could vastly change things.

Generally, the Big Ten West is a little more unpredictable compared to the East. But at least the Gophers head coach knows what’s coming, at least on paper.