Gophers coach P.J. Fleck adjusts philosophy for QBs recruiting by going after transfers

When it comes to quarterbacks, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck's modus operandi has been to identify a high school prospect, have him compete for the starting job early in his career and reap the rewards later.

It's worked well for Fleck at Western Michigan, where Zach Terrell led the Broncos to a 13-1 record and Cotton Bowl berth in 2016, and at Minnesota, where Tanner Morgan threw 30 touchdown passes as the Gophers went 11-2 with a top-10 national finish in 2019.

In 2023, though, transfer quarterbacks are all the rage as teams look for plug-and-play replacements who can make an immediate impact.

Count Fleck among the converts. A 5-7 record this season and a passing game that ranked among the nation's least productive will convince a coach to at least alter his approach.

Since the regular season-ending loss to Wisconsin, which employed transfer QB Tanner Mordecai, Fleck has received commitments from two transfers — highly regarded Max Brosmer of FCS level New Hampshire and Logan Fife, a backup at Fresno State who has started a handful of games.

"That's just the reality of the situation,'' said Allen Trieu, a national recruiting analyst for 247Sports. "You see so many schools bringing in transfer quarterbacks. They almost have to in order to keep up with every other program.''

The reality for the Gophers in 2023 was that they weren't getting good enough play at football's most important position. They rank 126^th among the 133 FBS teams in passing yards (153.2 per game) and 118^th in points (20.2). While the team's pass-catchers dropped 25 passes for a drop rate of 13.9% — up from last year's 6.3% — Athan Kaliakmanis' 53.1 completion percentage ranked 104^th nationally and was the lowest for a Gophers starter since true freshman Zack Annexstad's 51.9% in 2018.

"College football is all about response," Fleck said Monday during an appearance on KFXN-FM radio. "… There's no use sitting there dwelling on the past or looking about the past or thinking about something that's a negative."

Change comes quickly

The Gophers jumped into the transfer market as soon as the regular season ended, with Fleck telling his quarterback group that the starting job would be an open competition with transfers on the way. Kaliakmanis, who started all 12 regular-season games but could not match the promise he showed in 2022, entered the transfer portal on Nov. 28.

"At the quarterback position, everybody's looking at the portal, and you can see around the country how fast it moves," Fleck said on KFXN. "When you have a spot open, and you look at the depth chart next year and there's nobody on it, it's attractive quickly for the right fit. We had a lot of guys interested."

Fleck and his staff quickly identified Brosmer, a veteran standout at the FCS level, as their top target. Brosmer announced on Dec. 3 that he would be joining the Gophers for his final year of eligibility in 2024. He'll practice with the Gophers later this week in preparation for the Quick Lane Bowl but isn't eligible to play.

"We're very, very, very, very excited about Max,'' Fleck said. "… They were looking for all the right things. It wasn't about who was the highest bidder.''

With name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for standout FBS quarterbacks ranging from $1 million to $2 million per year, Fleck couldn't shop in the same aisles as, say, Oregon, which just landed Oklahoma starter Dillon Gabriel and UCLA five-star prospect Dante Moore. Instead, the Gophers were looking for the right fit, and Fleck believes they found it in Brosmer.

Brosmer's accomplishments at the FCS level are impressive. He's been a three-year starter for New Hampshire, passing for 8,713 yards and 70 touchdowns with 25 interceptions in his career. This season, he leads FCS in passing yards per game (313.6), ranks second in TD passes (29) and has completed 64% of his passes. Brosmer is one of three finalists for the Walter Payton Award, which will be presented to the top FCS player on Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas.

He has a fan in Trieu, whose focus includes Big Ten recruiting.

"He was heavily recruited as soon as he got into the portal,'' Trieu said. "And he's obviously been extremely productive at the FCS level. The good thing is when you look at his log against some of the better programs on their schedule, he played extremely well.

"… When you look at the quarterbacks that went into the portal, outside of the very, very top, I think he's a really good pickup,'' Trieu added.

With Gophers true freshman Drew Viotto also entering the portal, Fleck added Fife last weekend. Fife, who has two years of eligibility remaining, appears to be in line to back up Brosmer.

Fleck isn't abandoning the traditional developmental route, though. He landed Fayetteville (Ark.) High School's Drake Lindsey, who led his team to the Class 7A state championship while passing for 3,916 yards and 52 TDs with two interceptions.

"That's a really good pickup for a lot of reasons," Trieu said. "… You want those guys to have good senior years, and obviously he validated all the confidence they had in him."

From Vic to Max

Before the national transfer frenzy started, the only other time Fleck added a transfer QB happened in the 2018 recruiting class, when Vic Viramontes of Riverside (Calif.) City College landed in Dinkytown with a résumé that included 2,100 passing yards, 1,868 rushing yards and a combined 49 touchdowns in the 2017 season.

Turns out, Viramontes was more junior college sizzle than Big Ten steak. He was third on the depth chart behind Annexstad and Morgan during spring practice in 2018, then transferred back to Riverside to play linebacker, finished his collegiate career at UNLV and now plays QB in a Japanese pro league.

Fleck believes he has a polished quarterback in the 6-2, 221-pound Brosmer, a Roswell, Ga., native.

"He's got a great feel for the pocket and moves really well," Fleck said. "He's very accurate. He's an unbelievable leader and is infectious."

When looking at Brosmer's tape, Fleck wanted to see how Brosmer handled pressure and how he responded to scramble situations.

"Show me the 'second plays,'" Fleck said on KFXN. "Show me what happens when everything else breaks down. He was really, really good at that."

That ability to improvise and change with the circumstances — both by Brosmer during games and Fleck while assembling his roster — will put a new stamp on the Gophers' quarterback situation in 2024.