How do you recap something that just has to be seen? That’s the question that has plagued me since watching Coach Fleck’s first National Signing Day press conference at Minnesota. I’m honestly not sure it can be done. Sure, I can give you a sense what you witnessed if you were watching on BTN2Go this morning, but that wouldn’t capture the full experience of a press conference with a 48 minute introductory statement.

48 minutes? Oh yes. Forty eight minutes. Over three quarters of an hour of thoughts about the class, including many (MANY) excellent stories about the recruits and their families. 2,880 seconds of Fleck sharing things that made me laugh and one that almost made him cry.

You really should watch the whole thing for yourself via the embedded YouTube below, but we know some folks are very busy. Rather than have you miss out on the majesty of this presser right now we’re here to help you out.

In no particular order here are the Top Moments of Fleck’s presser according to the TDG staff:

• So much love for the Moms. A lot of the newest Gophers really love their moms y’all. And the Gophers are willing to show that same love in turn. For example, it turns out that not every school that was interested in Daniel Faalele was willing to fly his mom in from Australia for his official visit. Not Minnesota. Minnesota knows the importance of the moms.
• Nolan Edmonds spelling ELITE on his wall with all of his Gophers mail. In case you thought all the “Gopher Talk” lingo was just a gimmick that Fleck spouts for the cameras, you’ll be interested to know that they send recruits a lot of mail containing cards with the Gopher Talk vocab and inspirational sayings. Running back Nolan Edmonds took those cards and used them to spell ELITE on the wall of his bedroom. Nolan MIGHT be buying in.
• Speaking of bedrooms, Fleck apparently likes to see how recruits keep their bedrooms looking to get a sense for who they are. No, you’re not alone if you think that’s a little weird but Fleck seemed super serious about it.
• Fleck would like you to build a Zaxby’s in Minnesota ASAP. Rashod Bateman LOVES Zaxby’s. He loves it so much that his family just gives him Zaxby’s gift cards for his birthday and he’s super excited by it. According the the Zaxby’s website the nearest location to Minneapolis is in Kansas City. The market is wide open for a emerging tasty chicken conglomerate and something tells me a TDG reader is the person to make this happen!

• Fleck had to judge a pretty serious culinary competition at Jack York’s house. It was Green Egg versus gas grill in a steak grilling showdown and Fleck had a pretty frank assessment of who he’d be picking based on football eligibility.
• Stalled traffic landed Mayan Ahanotu. Mayan and his folks were on their way to a visit at P5 school in the south when their trip was stalled (literally) by a road closure up ahead. Mayan turned to his folks and said “I think it’s a sign that I should go to Minnesota.” And Minnesota is where he’s headed.
• Jornell Manns is the reason we know Fleck owns a zany bowling shirt. We learned today that A) Jornell is apparently a heck of a two handed bowler, B) Fleck knows a lot about bowling for a head football coach, C) he also owns what sounds to be a very loud bowling shirt that we can only assume has Goldy’s face all over it. We may be forced to put in a FOIA request with the U for proof of this shirt.
• Ending on a #SidBit. Fleck would gladly have kept answering questions, but “SID SAID WE’RE DONE.”

Those barely scratch the surface. Do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing!

GO GOPHERS!