MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — It’s common in college football for players to be on the move. After all, we are in the Transfer Portal era, but it’s always been that way for college coaches. They essentially live a transient lifestyle, as many assistant coaches aren’t in one place for more than a few seasons. Many are working their way up the ladder from division two/three to the FCS, then the group of five, and finally, power four.
One place historically the University of Minnesota football program hasn’t seen its coaches poached from is the National Football League, but that happened not just once, but twice here this off-season as Winston DeLattiboudere is now the defensive line coach of the Arizona Cardinals, teaming up with former Gopher Nick Rallis, who is the defensive coordinator there. And then the Gophers running back coach of the last two seasons, Nic McKissic-Luke, took that same job with the New York Jets. Going from coaching Darius Taylor to Breece Hall ain’t a bad deal.
On Thursday, I asked head football coach P.J. Fleck how he views his coaching tree, which continues to expand every year, adding a couple of NFL branches to it for the first time.
“I take a lot of pride in the NFL,” Fleck said on Thursday. “I’ve played in it. I coached in it. I have a lot of respect for everybody in that league. Working with the shield, and once you play for the shield, it changes your life. And I know what that did for me as a young coach, and there were so many people who helped me along the way that got me to where I am.
And I want to do that for our coaches. As I told all of you before, I do not want our guys sticking around. If they want to stick around? Great, but if they’ve got big hopes, dreams, and aspirations of being a head coach, or coaching in the NFL, or being coordinators, you got to move on to do that at times.
And when you sit down with your coaches, how can I help you get to where you want to go? What is your dream? You won’t offend me if it’s not just Minnesota…part of the interview process is, where do you want to go? I haven’t even hired the guy yet, and I’m asking where you want to go after here. How can I help you? What are your dreams, hopes and aspirations? I know a lot of our guys who have that aspiration of that league.”
As someone who remembers covering Winston DeLattiboudere out of high school, it’s not common to see a 27-year-old get a position coaching job in the NFL where he’s going to be younger than some of the guys he’s coaching. But Fleck knew that’s where Winston wanted to get a chance at.
“Winston always said he wanted to go to the NFL, and we’re gonna help you get there, “Fleck explained. “We’re gonna do everything we can to play really good defense, but you got to do “X,” “Y,” and “Z” to get there, and he’s willing to do all of that. When you get rewarded, you go.
Nic McKissic-Luke is a really good running back coach, and we got him for two years, and we were grateful to have him. But when the Jets call, you gotta go. This isn’t an assistant running back job, it’s the running back job. These are some really young, talented coaches that in a decade from now, they’re going to be head coaches or coordinators. They’re gonna be household names.”
Fleck is also not surprised that the NFL is now taking harder and harder looks at his coaching staff.
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