If you are a College Football fan,  you have heard the phrase “Row the boat” at least once. This mantra was started by now Minnesota Golden Gophers Head Coach PJ Fleck. For those who aren’t aware of the backstory of the saying, Coach Fleck started this mantra back in 2011 when he was the Rutgers WR coach. Fleck’s infant son tragically passed from a heart condition, and Fleck uses this mantra as his son’s “second life”.

There are three parts to this mantra: an oar, a boat, and a compass.

• The oar is the energy you bring to every aspect of life
• The boat represents sacrifice
• The compass represents the direction of where you’re traveling to and who you travel with

What a very meaningful mantra, especially in the context of the college football landscape.

Coach Fleck took his first CFB Head Coaching job at Western Michigan in December of 2012. In 2013 Fleck went 1-11. In the two years to follow, Fleck and the Broncos went 8-5 before finally breaking out in 2016 with a 13-1 record. After the Broncos breakout season, Fleck took the job to be the next HC at the University of Minnesota, where he still resides. He was hired on January 6, 2017, and about 6.5 years later Fleck is now under fire by former Minnesota players for creating a toxic team environment and putting the “cult” in culture within the Minnesota football program. 

This isn’t the first time something like this is happening to Fleck while at Minnesota. We won’t go into super detail about the other incidents, but will give the important points: 

• In 2018 a former employee came out and warned the Minnesota board of regents of a toxic culture within the program. Said employee went after the medical staff, alleging that they illegally prescribed a powerful anti-inflammatory/pain reliever called Toradol. The employee also made a significant claim saying that the “health and welfare of student-athletes was in jeopardy.”
• In 2021, there was a series of stories that came out alleging mistreatment of players under Coach Fleck
• Now, there are allegations of a mix of everything: toxicity, the program being described as a “cult”, issues with medical and general protocols, and mistreatment of players. 

The fact that there’s a history of allegations at Minnesota under Fleck is not a good look. Fleck has already come out in defense of himself, claiming that these allegations are “baseless”. The Minnesota AD has also come out in support of Coach PJ Fleck.

Fleck still has his job as of now, but from what we know there also hasn’t been talk of any kind of investigation into the allegations. When we look back at Fleck’s tenure at Western Michigan, the players seemed to love Coach Fleck and the “row the boat” mantra. From what we can recall there were no allegations of similar proportion, if at all, while at Western Michigan. 

The fact that Fleck has the AD’s support this early on and without any investigation could mean one of two things:

1. PJ Fleck is actually clean and the players speaking out are just disgruntled former players OR…
2. The issues are actually stemming from above Fleck. The AD could be afraid of any investigation because he could be involved.

We are not here to speculate on the truth, especially because it’s hard to guess on this particular set of allegations. When you look back at his WMU tenure it’s easy to say that he’s innocent and this is an effort to tarnish his name. However, it’s hard to say this when it’s his third set of allegations in his 6.5 year tenure at Minnesota. We personally like Fleck and hope this is all false.

We aren’t here to tell you whether Fleck is innocent or guilty. We are going to keep a close eye on the situation, and keep you updated as the situation develops. The Big 10 needs to get it together though. This is now the fourth conference team that has had to deal with some sort of allegation or violation this offseason.