When his crew started filming the four-part series "Being P.J. Fleck" this spring, co-executive producer Bo Mattingly had a simple question about the Gophers' new football coach: "Is this guy for real?"
"P.J. hates that," Mattingly said. "He's like, 'Who the heck else am I supposed to be?' Well, one of the things we wanted to do was unpack his story."
Mattingly's crew spent several weeks following Fleck, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the Gophers and Fleck's family.
ESPNU will show Part 1 at 8 p.m. Wednesday, with the next three parts airing on the same network in the same time slot the following three Wednesdays. Big Ten Network also plans to rebroadcast each episode.
Mattingly went to Fleck's hometown of Sugar Grove, Ill., tracing the 36-year-old coach's roots. Fleck's mother, Linda, worked as a teacher's assistant for 29 years. His father, Phil, climbed telephone poles as a technician and then worked as an exterminator.
"P.J. really gets his heart — his note-writing and his thoughtfulness and his dealing-with-people side — from his mom," Mattingly said. "And he really gets this grinder, driven, motivated mentality from his dad.
"He had this perfect set of parents to really give him these two sides that I think he possesses really well today. He's a great dad, he's great with the kids, but he doesn't really take it easy on them."
Mattingly said he was struck by how difficult things got for Fleck in 2013, his first year at Western Michigan. The Broncos went 1-11 that year, while Fleck was going through a divorce.
