Minnesota had 296 yards of total offense against UCLA, marking the fifth straight game in which it has failed to eclipse the 300-yard mark. The Gophers have now averaged 307.6 yards per game this season, which ranks 128th out of 138 FBS teams.

We’ve seen programs such as Oregon, Oklahoma and Michigan move on from their offensive coordinators midseason. Michigan has made a QB change, Oregon gave Brock Thomas an opportunity to beat out prized transfer Dylan Raiola, and Oklahoma strongly considered a change at QB1. P.J. Fleck sounds like a head coach who isn’t considering any of those things.

“It’s a combination of a lot of different things. It’s protection. It’s running the football. It’s having great balance. It’s being able to catch the ones they throw at us… But I think it holistically, as an offense, when you look at it, 17-17 against the No. 8 team, but they’re really, really, really talented. And I thought we did a really good job getting the ball down the field in some instances, made our own explosive plays. But they beat us in the explosive play category,” Fleck said Monday.

“But I thought we ran the football with efficiency. I thought [quarterback Drake Lindsey] had a really good day in a lot of areas. Much improved from the last two weeks. Still a lot to get better at, but lots of improvement in some of the things that he’s really working on. And when you see the last five defenses we played, four of them are top 10, top 15 defenses. And that’s not an excuse, but you go back and look at it, those are really good defenses for a reason.”

Minnesota ran the ball for 3.1 yards per carry against UCLA, below its season average of 3.3, which ranks 120th in the country. Calling that “efficiency” doesn’t make sense.

In a vacuum, Fleck saying that Lindsey improved from the last two weeks is true. His 205 passing yards were more than he had against Iowa and Indiana, but his 54.1 completion percentage was his lowest of the season.

“And I thought he showed a lot of improvement in the things that he could control,” Fleck continued about Lindsey. “So explosive plays are going to come off for our offense; they’re going to come off the same thing with them. It was off play action… They’re a sound defense. They didn’t have many busts, and we weren’t able to create enough of the explosive plays. I thought we created really efficient plays, but we didn’t create enough explosive plays. And some of ours didn’t count as explosive because they just didn’t get to the yardage that an explosive play counts for. But I thought they still had impact.”

There’s no firm rule for what’s considered an “explosive play.” But the Gophers had five completions of 15 or more yards against UCLA and two rushes of 10 or more yards. UCLA had six completions of 15 or more yards, including back-to-back 75-yard touchdowns, and six carries of 10-plus yards.

“But you look at it: 17-17 with 12 minutes to go, that’s right where you want to be. You look at the last two weeks with the top five teams. I mean, you’re right there with a chance to win both of them, and I couldn’t ask for anything more from my team, or my coaches, or the players. But now we have to respond. And there’s a proper way of doing that,” Fleck said.

After the loss on Saturday and during his press conference on Monday, he reiterated that the game was tied with 12 minutes to go. That makes the 34-20 result that much more frustrating.

If Minnesota’s offense performed at even an average level compared to the rest of the sport, the Gophers would probably be 7-2 right now and firmly in the College Football Playoff (CFP) race. Oregon’s decision to move on from offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer has sparked back-to-back ranked wins over Northwestern and Ohio State, and the Ducks are back in the conversation for some postseason fun.

Oklahoma’s decision to fire offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle sparked a 23-7 upset win on the road against No. 23 Florida last week, and quarterback John Mateer had one of his best games of the season.

Being a college football coach in 2026 feels a lot like being a politician: having a high approval rating among your fan base is key for long-term success. Fleck objectively lost a portion of the fan base because of how he coached the end of the loss to UCLA, deciding to punt while trailing by 14 points with 2:37 left in the game.

The easiest way to get some of those fans back is by making a change on offense. Whether that’s the QB or the OC, any serious power conference football program would consider both. Alas, there is no indication that Fleck is considering changes, not with offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. nor Lindsey.

Fleck has never been a coach who calls out his players or coaching staff, but Minnesota’s offensive struggles have become too much to ignore. This is not a one-game or even one-year sample size. The Gophers’ offense has been among the worst in the Big Ten for four years with Harbaugh Jr. calling plays, and Fleck’s decision to ignore that is becoming harder and harder to process every week.

Source: Yahoo Sports