Not one to often become entangled in college football’s varying levels of pettiness among coaches, Kirk Ferentz joined the club late during Friday night’s 35-7 win at Minnesota. Trailing by six touchdowns in the final minute, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck called a timeout to draw something up and try to get on the score before the game ended.
Ferentz, whose team had three timeouts left, decided to use all three in the final 19 seconds to show he wasn’t pleased with Fleck’s decision.
“We figured we’d take Floyd with us and leave the timeouts here,” Ferentz said of the situation and his reasoning.
“Floyd” references the Floyd of Rosedale — the name of the trophy that goes to the winner of the Iowa-Minnesota annual rivalry.
“No idea. They called three timeouts. I have no idea what happened,” Fleck said after the game of Ferentz’s trolling.
Fleck avoided the fourth shutout of his coaching career, but the damage was done — a team ranked inside the preseason Top 25 continued its surprising stumble coming out of the gate in the Big Ten.
Fleck and Minnesota were torched after the game, the Gophers’ third loss in four contests this season coming off an 11-2 season.
Quarterback Tanner Morgan struggled again and the Gophers endured several critical penalties and execution errors that led to the blowout.
“Inconsistent. I think our whole football team was inconsistent,” Fleck said. “Offense, defense and special teams. I think there was way too many drops, and it’s not just on Tanner. Way too many drops as I think there were five or six drops and I don’t think the stats look any different, but who cares about the stats.
I think we were inconsistent as a football team, and take your pick. Take whatever player you want to pick, or whatever coach you want to pick on offense, defense or special teams. We were just really inconsistent.”
