Five takeaways from P.J. Fleck’s news conference: Coach blames himself for loss

Given two days to digest the film from the Gophers’ 41-3 loss at Iowa, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck on Monday didn’t blame the result on a mismatch in talent level between the teams. Nor did he see a lack of effort from his team leading to the blowout.

The culprit?

Execution. As in the Gophers didn’t do it well and the Hawkeyes did.

“I never, never question how hard we play and our toughness, but we executed very poorly,” Fleck said during his weekly news conference. “So, when you execute poorly, that comes down to the coaching staff, that comes down to me, and I take full responsibility for that.”

Fleck and his staff will try to quickly move on from the Iowa result and the way it happened as the Gophers (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) prepare for Saturday’s home game against Michigan State (3-5, 0-5).

Here are four other takeaways from Fleck’s media sessions Monday:

Junior running back Darius Taylor, the Gophers’ leading rusher with 354 yards on 80 carries, played only three snaps Saturday, gaining 1 yard on the first play from scrimmage, his only rushing attempt in the game. He left because of an undisclosed injury, and Fleck on Monday reiterated that Taylor will be tended to by the medical staff this week and that his status will be announced in the Big Ten availability report Saturday.

Saturday was a reminder that Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey is a redshirt freshman in his first season as the team’s starter and there will be some bumps in the road.

Saturday’s bump, though, was enormous as Lindsey completed 16 of 28 passes for 109 yards and threw three interceptions. His first interception was returned for a touchdown, and his third led to Iowa’s final TD.

“Did you see this coming? I mean, no, but you know that’s going to happen at some point,” Fleck said. “You know they’re going to have some hard times, some struggles. They’re going to be in an environment where they don’t play well.

“… One thing about him is he’s got a great failing mechanism where he can flush it, learn and move on,’’ Fleck said. “Nobody works harder than that young man.”

Getting off to a fast start on offense continues to be elusive for the Gophers.

Throw out the 35-point first quarter against Northwestern (La.) State, a struggling FCS school, and the Gophers have been outscored 48-3 in the first quarter this season.

“Identifying it is one thing and then going out there and executing it and making it better is another thing, and that’s what our team’s working on,” Fleck said. “It’s not being overlooked at all. It’s definitely something that’s being addressed.”

Fleck wasn’t happy with special teams, particularly the punting game.

Iowa’s Kaden Wetjen returned a Tom Weston punt 50 yards for a touchdown to make it 31-0 in the second quarter, and Fleck felt that should not have happened had the game plan been executed properly.

“The game plan was to [punt] it all out of bounds,” Fleck said of the punting strategy. “… So, I’m not doing a very good job of making sure that we do exactly what we call. That’s disappointing to me as the head football coach."

Mataalii Benjamin, a three-star offensive tackle from Lehi, Utah, who gave a verbal commitment the Gophers in June, announced on Instagram that he has decommitted from Minnesota for its 2026 class and reopened his recruiting.