P.J. Fleck 'preparing for ghosts' against Virginia Tech in Mayo Bowl

The Gophers are going for an eighth straight bowl victory this Friday.

P.J. Fleck / University of Minnesota Athletics

It's officially game week as the Gophers will be playing in the Duke's Mayo Bowl on Friday, Jan. 3 against Virginia Tech. Both teams will look a lot different than their last regular season game in November, but P.J. Fleck and his staff are ready for the challenge.

The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff threw a wrench in the bowl calendar and the Duke's Mayo Bowl is now the seventh-to-last Division I football game of the season. Both Virginia Tech and Minnesota have had a handful of players enter the transfer portal since they last played, and a few players will likely opt out of the game entirely on both sides.

"When you watch bowl games on TV, I think that you when you watch and you sit there, going, wow, there's a lot of things that are happening that look way easier than they should be happening," Fleck said when talking with reporters Saturday. "There's a lot of guys playing that maybe didn't expect they were going to play. Schematics change. What a team looked like in November is very different than what they look like in January. And that is not a negative."

Virginia Tech has been hit hard by the transfer portal this cycle, losing 24 players. They've lost four starters, two on the offensive line and two more in the secondary.

"You're preparing for ghosts. You've got to have a plan for every single plan and to have a plan when that plan isn't that plan. A lot of contingency plans going on here, but you've got to take care of the ball and get takeaways," Fleck said. "You've got to tackle well and break tackles. And you've got to create explosive plays and eliminate the explosive plays, no matter who's on the field."

Fleck is a perfect 5-0 in bowl games since taking over the Gophers in 2017. The big changes to Virginia Tech's roster have resulted in Minnesota being a 7.5-point betting favorite on most outlets. Bowl games don't mean as much as they once did, but Fleck and his staff have fully leaned into the chaos.

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