PJ Fleck has one area he wants to neutralize this weekend playing Michigan football

Trent Knoop | Sep 24, 2024

Sep 23, 2023; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach PJ Fleck on the field before the game against the Northwestern Wildcats at Ryan Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images / David Banks-Imagn Images

The Gophers are leaving Minnesota and heading to Michigan to take on the Wolverines for a battle of the Little Brown Jug. Minnesota is coming off of a 31-14 loss to Iowa and dropped its record to 2-2 on the season. Michigan, on the other hand, is coming off of a crucial win over USC, 27-24. The Wolverines are riding a two-game win streak and Michigan does need to take care of business at home if it wants to contend for a fourth-straight Big Ten title.

Like most coaches, P.J. Fleck recently talked about playing in the Big House and seeing 110,000 people sitting in the stands. Fleck noted how loud Huntington Bank Stadium was this past weekend with the Gophers hosted Iowa and Fleck said Minnesota practices with very loud crowd noise during practice.

"So the environment, we create a lot of that," Fleck said of crowd noise. "You can't hear at our practice anyway, you guys have been there before. Our guys can't hear, but the Big House is not called the Little House. It's called the Big House for a reason. We can't let circumstance dictate our behavior." 

Minnesota just allowed Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson to run for 206 yards and three touchdowns against his Gophers' team. The Hawkeyes ran for 272 total yards as a team and four scores. Michigan is coming out of the USC win rushing for 290 yards and three scores and the Wolverines broke 300 yards on the ground the game before against Arkansas State.

Fleck said anytime you play a Michigan team you know it's going to be physical. Fleck believes you can't fully stop the Wolverines' run game but slowing it down is what will be needed to do in order to win the football game.

"You got to be able to play anywhere in the Big Ten and you've been prepared for that all off season in terms of their offense and they're going to run the football and did that with Jim Harbaugh," Fleck said of Michigan. "They're doing that with Sherrone Moore, and they're doing it in a lot of unique ways, especially with the quarterback change. They're big. They're strong.

"I mean, we've got to be able to stop the run and we know that. They're gonna have things off of that with the play action pass.

"Again, I don't know if you stop Michigan's run game, but you can slow it down. We got a lot of respect for them and what they do and how they do it and they do it at will. And that's the one thing that Michigan is Michigan. I mean, they're doing it. They run the football at will. That's what they do.""

Michigan leads the series with Minnesota 77-25-3 all-time. The Wolverines have won four games in a row against the Gophers. The two teams met last year and Michigan came away with a 52-10 win in Minnesota.

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