On a collective level, the team of Western Michigan upset Northwestern Wildcats today. On the individual level, a theme us media types love to over-exaggerate, P.J. Fleck bested Pat Fitzgerald.
It’s literally an example of apprentice taking out tutor, student besting teacher, padawan defeating Jedi master. No Fleck has never been an assistant under Fitzgerald, nor even coached on the same staff as him. However, Fitzgerald is Fleck’s role model, as he whole-heartedly expressed.
Fitzgerald, his program and his culture are exactly what Phillip John Fleck has modeled his Western Michigan program and culture after.
When P.J. Fleck was a wide receivers coach at his alma mater, Northern Illinois, he called up a few college football coaches, looking to take them out to lunch, and pick their brains about to establish oneself, and move up the coaching ladder. Fitzgerald was the only one who answered his request and took him out. According to Fleck today in the post game presser, Fitz even paid!
You can hear much more about how much Fleck looks up to Fitzgerald, and about all the things that the WMU head man learned from the Northwestern leader in the links below.
Trust me, it’s just better if you hear and see it in the P.J. Fleck audio and video links. You need to hear the ENTHUSIASM and ENERGY of it all. Just typing it out in ALL CAPS! does not do it justice. The first link below is YouTube of the P.J. Fleck opening statement from the postgame press conference.
The second file is the Sound Cloud of the entire P.J. Fleck press conference.
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/pj-fleck-post-victory-at-northwestern-press-conference
For more on P.J. Fleck and his whole life story, I suggest you watch the video below. It’s from the motivational talk Fleck gave to middle school students in Paw Paw, Michigan (yes, that’s the real name of the town).
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/772130808513589248
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.