The UCLA Bruins saw Chip Kelly leave for the offensive coordinator job at Ohio State. Immediately, Minnesota’s PJ Fleck was linked as a possible candidate for the Bruins.
There were several names that floated around as options, but Fleck’s was one of the more intriguing given his experience.
However, Fleck quickly shut down those talks and reaffirmed his commitment to Minnesota.
With the Bruins hosting the Golden Gophers in Week 7, a new update has shown just how close Fleck was to leaving.
Earlier in the week leading up to the game during an episode of the Pair and a Spare Podcast, hosted by Gophers sideline reporter Justin Gaard (KFAN), Gopher Illustrated insider Ryan Burns (247Sports) and veteran Minnesota sports scribe Chip Scoggins (Star Tribune), Burns dropped quite a big revelation on the Fleck-UCLA link:
“I think this was as close as [PJ] Fleck has ever come, at this at this university, to leaving. I think there was so much smoke in the air and I think ultimately it comes down to UCLA [having] a $25-$27 million deficit in their athletic department. Martin Jarman is not exactly on steady footing there, as the athletic director. You have a chancellor who’s overseeing things and they’re not on steady ground and I just don’t think they had the money to pay a $5 million buyout” … “Then you gotta give [Fleck] a bump (raise). The other thing I also heard was UCLA gave all of their assistant [coaches] two-year deals so they would have had to buy out all of their assistants for that, which is multi millions of dollars.”
That sure changes a lot of things in regards to the previous rumors, especially with the way UCLA has begun this season with DeShaun Foster as the coach.
And, with Minnesota coming to town, it raises even more eyebrows.