Reports: PJ Fleck, Minnesota coach!

FINAL UPDATE 7:35 AM CT

PJ FLECK IS HEADED TO MINNESOTA!

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Several media organizations in the Twin Cities are reporting that the Gophers are very near to finalizing a deal with Western Michigan head coach PJ Fleck to become the next Gopher Football head coach. The rumors began earlier this afternoon that a deal was getting closer and closer, and the rumors got seriously hot and heavy about 6:00 PM when KSTP’s Joe Schmit tweeted the following:

Schmit was the media member who first reported that Mark Coyle and Eric Kaler among others had flown to Chicago yesterday to meet with at least Fleck’s agent, if not Fleck himself. Several people did question Schmit’s report, so to try and prove his credibility, he then tweeted out this:

Then approximately 9:00 PM Joe Christensen of the Star Tribute tweeted out a link to an article where he states that Minnesota was closing in on a deal with Fleck with a potential announcement on Friday, but that the contract was not yet finalized.

Then, just three minutes later at 9:03, Fox 9 dropped the most definitive tweet of the day/night.

Of course the word tentative is key in that tweet, but that is the strongest language we have seen from a Twin Cities media source that a deal is very very near.

We will keep an eye out for any other confirmation by any other Twin Cities sources, but it is looking more and more likely that PJ Fleck will be announced as the next coach of the Gopher Football program sometime on Friday.

UPDATE: 11:55 PM CT

Multiple western Michigan local news sources are also putting out reports that seem to suggest Fleck is coming to MN.

Two different national media sources disagree (Rittenburg and Bruce Feldman had tweets drop at the same minute saying they heard no deal yet) so we’re officially into MN/WI local media vs. national media.

This doesn’t have to mean one is wrong. The national media tweets being so well timed suggests a single leak to multiple outlets. Could be Fleck’s agent angling for a final piece to the deal or something else. Or it could be bad news. We won’t know until we know. For now though, I (GoAUpher) am feeling pretty good still.

UPDATE 12:01 AM CT

More from MN...

UPDATE 7:00 AM CT

Overnight there was some drama as Fleck’s wife tweeted out that the players hadn’t met. The tweet was deleted. A Detroit newspaper reporter also said he heard no deal overnight. Then this AM, Pete Thamel from SI had this:

And then KFAN had this:

According to KFAN, the announcement should come around 9am CT. Sooooooooo...we’ll see.