Q&A with wide receivers coach PJ Fleck

PJ Fleck begins his first season as the Rutgers football team's wide receiver's coach this year. (Sam Hellman)

Sam Hellman: You made a pretty quick impression among the beat writers with the energy you brought during spring practice. Is that just who you are?

PJ Fleck: I definitely have a lot of energy. I think that’s one of the reasons Coach Schiano maybe hired me. I’ve got a lot of energy and it feels like I can bring that to the football team. Energy has been one of our big words the whole season and when the players feel it from you, they’ll respond with the same thing.

SH: Many recruits have sung your praises when I talk to them. What do you think allows you to relate to them so well?

PJ: I think it helps being young. I have a small family right now and I’m able to do a lot of things and go different places. I’m not too far away from them either. I’m only 29 years old and I was recruited just like them a few years back so I think I can relate to them a little bit more as well and kind of know what they’re in tuned to. I just love life, love being around these guys and love being around young people. That makes me continue to enjoy my job is the recruiting part.

SH: When Coach Schiano announced your hiring, your name sounded really familiar to me. Then I remembered playing as you in Madden.

PJ: I was not very good. I think my attributes were like 50 across the board. I was as average as you can be in that game. Actually, I was probably one of the worst players.

SH: How does that NFL experience help you now?

PJ: Just because you played in the National Football League, doesn’t make you a good coach. The one thing with the National Football League, I didn’t play a whole bunch, but when I did, I got around great coaches. … When I got to the National Football League and I learned from a guy by the name of Jerry Sullivan, everything was ‘why.’ He answered all my questions and taught me the game and now I can bring that part to my players. I was never a 4.3 guy or 6-foot-4, so I had to be technically sound in everything I did. Nothing ever came natural. For everything that we do and I had to learn it inside and out and I had to be a perfectionist at it.

SH: When you took this job, how happy were you to see that the two best offensive weapons were just freshmen?

PJ Fleck spent the last three years as the wide receivers coach of his alma mater - Northern Illinois. (Sam Hellman)

PJ: I was excited that everybody was a freshman. I looked at that roster and I said ‘Holy cow, I’m gonna have guys that are so young.’ When they’re young they do make a lot of mistakes, but the thing is that they don’t know anything right now so they’re a blank slate. What you teach them is what they’re going to know. A lot of times you get a kid that’s a senior or a junior and it’s tough to break some old habits and that kid will never perfect everything you teach in that one year. Now they get to go through stages and continue to build themselves up so that by the time Mo and the rest of the wide receivers are leaving here, hopefully they’ve perfected everything. From when they’re freshmen to when they’re seniors, they keep things consistent and that’s what we’re trying to do as an offensive staff.

SH: What do you like about working with these five true freshman wideouts?

PJ: They all have stuff to prove and learn, but the one thing I love about every single one of those kids is that they’re hungry. They want to be coached. They’re here for the right reasons and they’re very humble players. They know they have a lot to learn and the shell is very thin where you can break through it very easy and coach. They’re being very coachable. Every time a freshman is like that, they’re going to grow so much faster than a freshman who thinks they know it all.

SH: What did you know about New Jersey when you took the job?

PJ : I’m a Midwest guy and I lived on the West Coast and this is my first trip to the East Coast. I said to my wife, ‘Well what do we know about New Jersey?’ And I said we know a few things. We know Housewives of New Jersey, we know The Sopranos, which is my favorite show — still the reruns — and the Jersey Shore.

SH: I hope your impression has improved since then?

PJ: We got here and obviously it’s a wonderful place. People from New Jersey and the people of Rutgers have been wonderful. Coach Schiano and the staff have treated my family very well. We really enjoy the people out here.