Iowa State Commit Jirehl Brock Says P.J. Fleck Would Text Him Every 30 Minutes
July 30, 2018
Minnesota head football coach P.J. Fleck might have found college football's line between flatteringly aggressive and overbearing.
Jirehl Brock, who committed to Iowa State over Fleck's Gophers, said the Minnesota coach would text him every half hour during his recruitment.
"When Coach Little says people were calling every hour, it was (Minnesota) calling," Brock told David Adam of the Herald Whig. "They would text every 30 minutes. It was a lot to take in. You don't want to be rude about it. You try to be as nice as possible. They were the hardest school to say no to.
"Before I took my visit, I heard they would put you in the office and lock the doors and put an hourglass upside down and say, 'You have this much time to commit.' Good thing they never did that to me. Talking to Coach Fleck in his office with my parents, it was really tempting to commit because of the approach he takes. He's a really good guy, don't get me wrong, but he knows how to make somebody intimidated."
No matter what you take away from Fleck's approach, a text every 30 minutes is...a lot. It's clear Brock was made uncomfortable by the situation; phrases like "you don't want to be rude" and "he knows how to make somebody intimidated" are far from ringing endorsements of Fleck's recruiting style.
Brock is a 4-star running back who is ranked No. 216 overall in the 2019 recruiting class by 247Sports. He rushed for 1,588 yards and 22 touchdowns as a junior.
Fleck, 37, is in his second year as Minnesota's head coach. One of the nation's youngest coaches at a Power Five conference, perhaps Fleck feels like he's relating to young players by blowing up their phones with texts—and taking advantage of the NCAA removing restrictions on text-message contact. After rebuilding Western Michigan in four years, perhaps the aggressive tactics are part of a similar push at Minnesota.
Either way, Fleck got a pretty clear "it's not me, it's you" from Brock for his handling of this recruitment.