Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck: Joe Milton ‘once in a decade’ QB talent for Michigan

Calling him ‘a once in a decade talent,’ the Golden Gophers head coach shares the struggle of trying to prepare for a new starter at QB.

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We’ve heard from a veritable chorus of voices out there — whether it be in Ann Arbor or in the national media — who have sung the praises of Michigan quarterback Joe Milton.

Milton has only taken 47 snaps at the college level, yet his first opponent as the Wolverines presumed starting QB, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, are already on high alert for what the third-year signal caller brings to the table.

With it finally being game week, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck was more than effusive in his praise of Milton, and shared his evaluation of what the Wolverines quarterback brings to the table.

Essentially — the Gophers need to watch out.

“Basically, you know they have the same coordinator, right?” Fleck said. “I’m sure things have changed for them, but the personnel’s changed. Anybody who looks at Milton knows what kind of talent he is. He’s ‘once in a decade’ type talent when you talk about his skill set.

“He can throw the ball far, he can run, he’s big, he’s strong. Again, there’s not a ton of data on him based on what we’ve been able to watch, but he’s played in some games, we’ve watched some of his high school recruiting film, we’ve done a lot of those things. And pulled from basically wherever we can to be able to evaluate him as a skillful player. And he’s very talented.”

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As Fleck alluded to, there’s something of a difficulty in preparing for an enigmatic talent as the Milton hype suggests, and especially so when you have little to go on, film-wise.

But it’s not just Milton that has the capability of hurting you in the new-look Michigan offense.

Fleck acknowledges that the Wolverines have lost their share of talented players at wideout, but like the saying goes, ‘next man up.’ Therefore, the Gophers will likely have their hands quite full defensively on Saturday.

“We know that Milton presents a huge challenge,” Fleck said. “One — because there’s not a lot of film on him. We know what type of player he is and it’s a very, very skillful player. And the weapons around him can really run. They’ve lost some wideouts, but it’s Michigan — they’ve got 44 four-stars and two five-stars on their team. So they’ve got plenty of talent and skill that could fill a lot of the positions that they’ve lost. But again, that’s part of game one. That’s the challenge ahead of all of us, the sideline and game-time adjustments during the game are gonna be critical for us. And we’ve got a lot of question marks on our team as well that need to be answered.”

Watch Fleck’s comments on Milton below:

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