PHOENIX -- If the FBS’s youngest coach is ever tempted to become full of himself, humility lingers just around the corner.
Or, in one particular case, a hotel lobby.
Last month, Western Michigan’s P.J. Fleck was checking into the Arizona Biltmore resort for a relaxing few days of conference meetings.
“Someone asked me to grab their bag,” he recalled.
The Mid-American Conference’s highest-paid coach politely informed the fellow customer that he wasn’t a bellman, and he stopped right there. Someone with a more bloated ego would have reminded the offender he was in the presence of greatness. Namely, the architect of the conference’s best-ever one-year turnaround.
Or someone who had a six-year contract that gave Fleck more security -- if not money -- than Texas’ Charlie Strong.
Fleck could have recounted how he has pressed the tips of arrows against his throat until they snapped in two. He could have bragged of walking on coals and broken glass. All in the name of team motivation.
Fleck could have boasted about a short, but inspiring, NFL career. Or about the time he stayed up for days as an assistant coach -- days! -- to help fix a floundering offense at Rutgers.
In our me-first society, Fleck could have played the ultimate card: Do you know who I am? Wisely, he didn’t because obviously, they didn’t.
Largely, college football doesn’t know P.J. Fleck. That’s enough to dismiss a lobby misidentification. Fleck’s resume -- like that proverbial glass of optimism -- is only half full.
“I saw Bill Self here,” Fleck said of those meetings that included five FBS conferences. “I saw Shaka Smart here. I saw Chris Petersen. They look at me and probably say, ‘Who’s kid is that?’”
That is enough humility-in-the-moment for a 5-foot-10 human dilithium crystal (definition: pure energy). There are others …
Fleck is not the first divorced head coach in an incredibly time-demanding job. He is among the most candid.
“My wife hated my profession,” he said. “She didn’t marry into it. Hated it.”
Fleck does not cast blame. In fact, the split was an unfortunate result following a tragedy. The couple lost their second child -- a son, Colton -- shortly after he was born because of a heart condition. Stress built. Emotional crevices widened.
What is left is a 34-year old single father who has been six places in eight years as a coach in four different leagues. What separates him besides his youth? We’re about to find out.
The only reason Fleck was master of that turnaround -- 8-5 last season -- was it followed a 1-11 debut in 2013. There is a level of hotness regarding Fleck, but there’s also the possibility of a hot seat.
Western Michigan is paying big money ($800,000) for big results. The program hasn’t won a conference title since 1988.
We’ve discussed warm backsides a lot this week. Winning doesn’t necessarily guarantee job security. These five big-name coaches had better watch their backs.
Since 2009, more coaches have been fired in the MAC (11) than in any other FBS conference. The conference that boasts the cradle of coaches -- Miami (Ohio) -- is also a black hole of sorts for the profession at the moment.
Those 11 coaches lasted an average of less than four seasons and were a combined 155 games below .500.
“We really haven’t done anything,” Fleck said. “We’ve won nine games in two years. That’s an average of four-and-a-half per year. That gets coaches fired.”
Fleck knows he could be the next big thing or just passing through. The journey -- to this point -- has been fascinating.
“They way they recruit, as aggressive as they, some it turns them off,” said Greg Schiano who hired Fleck at Rutgers in 2010. “Who cares, right? You got hired by Western Michigan. You’ve got to do what’s best for Western Michigan.”
There is nothing dubious about Fleck’s recruiting methods. If the current rankings hold, Western Michigan would have the MAC’s No. 1 class for the third straight year.
Fleck is nothing but aggressive. It’s what got him here. He keeps describing himself as a “runt,” a label that suggests lack of football pedigree. That’s OK. He comes from a family of educators. The coach himself was briefly an elementary school instructor.
“Some of these coaches eat, sleep, breathe football,” he said. “I eat, sleep, breathe teaching … I don’t have a coaching background with a dad or uncle or anything. It’s just me being around elite people.”
People like Jim Tressel (“amazing”), who gave him his first coaching job. Former Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak both recruited and employed him. Schiano hired him in 2010 as a receivers coach on the advice of his agent.
“There’s something special about him,” Schiano said. “He’s contagious.”
As for those all-nighters during a frustrating 4-8 season in 2010? Fleck says a new offensive game plan was installed in the middle of one week. That’s akin to overhauling a 747 on a moment’s notice.
“The offensive staff worked long hours that year,” said Schiano, responsible for a huge turnaround himself at Rutgers. “P.J.’s not going to get a little exaggeration get in the way.”
From that Rutgers experience, Fleck developed the foresight to hire two veterans as coordinators “who could be head coaches tomorrow” in Ed Pinkham and Kirk Ciarrocca.
“Then a bunch of young assistants,” Fleck said, “who are just bulldogs.”
Western Michigan will at least be a curiosity, favored by some to win the MAC and from there -- who knows? The College Football Playoff reconfigured its postseason to accommodate Navy. Why can’t the Pride of Kalamazoo make a dent in the CFP?
Fleck doesn’t want to be the next Boise State; rather, he wants to establish a new frontier at Western Michigan. Michigan State opens the season at Kalamazoo on the back end of a three-for-one scheduling deal. The Broncos also travel to Ohio State.
“My job is to get the biggest names,” Fleck said. “If you do beat them, there’s substance behind it.”
For now, the Xs and Os are almost a bullet point. Fleck is an idea man, a self-made marketer. He has a staff for the football stuff. Meanwhile, he is almost more famous for his motivational tools. The internet is loaded with examples of his staff walking on glass and coals. He has jumped into a frozen lake. Some of it for charity. Some of it, just to prove it can be done.
“That’s the part of my profession I don’t really get,” Fleck said. “Winning defines you.”
At some point it has to be that way to keep you employed. But that’s what makes Fleck so refreshing. As part of the first BCS buster at Northern Illinois in 2003, he was a 1,000-year receiver. As an undrafted free agent, his career ended almost as soon as it started.
An early San Francisco 49ers mini-camp in 2004 concluded with Fleck basically becoming invisible. He had to win a series of 20-yard sprints just to make it back for Game 2.
“The only way I come back tomorrow,” Fleck thought to himself, “is I win this conditioning test.”
So he did win the springs, tying with former BYU quarterback Brandon Doman. Coach Dennis Erickson noticed.
“Next thing you know I go in and every reporter wants to interview me,” Fleck said. “The next mini-camp he uses me as an example (of hustle). … That’s how my life has always been. I’m a runt. I’m a hungry dog. I have to eat.”
After two seasons in San Francisco, Fleck’s pro career consisted of one punt return for 10 yards. The experience was invaluable.
They noticed at Western Michigan, too. Fleck talks of “rebranding” a program that hasn’t won the league in a quarter century. He talks of Kalamazoo, Michigan’s 16th largest city, and its possibilities.
“Ninety percent of my job has nothing to do with football,” Fleck said. “It’s being a CEO. It’s being a motivator. It’s an inspiration for the community.”
And if it all works out, the nation’s youngest coach will catch the next Big Ten job -- or something similar -- that comes his way. That’s the way these things work. For the good ones, MAC jobs are usually starter jobs.
At the other end of the scale: Of the 11 coaches from the league who have been fired since 2009, only one has an FBS head coaching job at the moment. (Doug Martin at New Mexico State.)
Fleck can’t wait for the experience to get experienced.
“I’m waiting for someone to take that over,” says FBS’ youngest head coach. “Trust me, that’s not exactly the thing you want.”
