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The Scoop on P.J. Fleck to Western Michigan

Western Michigan has agreed to hire P.J. Fleck as its newest head coach.

At just 32 years old, Fleck will become the youngest head coach in FBS. Fleck comes to Western Michigan from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he served as the team's wide receivers coach. He played at Northern Illinois from 1999-03 and spent two years in the San Francisco 49ers organization. 

Fleck's coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 2006. In 2007, he was the wide receivers coach at his alma mater. Fleck added the role of recruiting coordinator in 2009. He then left to join Greg Schiano's staff at Rutgers in 2010 and followed him to Tampa Bay in 2012, working as the wide receivers coach at both spots. Before joining the Bucs (ten months ago), Fleck had agreed to become offensive coordinator at NIU; but changed his mind one day later stating he didn't "feel he's ready to be an offensive coordinator" according to Dave Doeren. 

SI.com's Pete Thamel reported that Western Michigan athletic director Kathy Beauregard cited "energy and enthusiasm" as reasons for tabbing Fleck as her next head football coach. Fleck takes over for Bill Cubit, whose coaching career started three years after Fleck's birth.

Fleck takes over a program that reached bowl eligibility five times between 2005 and 2011 but fell back to 4-8 this fall. The Broncos finished in the middle of the pack in the MAC in most statistics but lost five of its last six games to close the season. 

Update> WMU has confirmed the hiring...and alerted all of us to the fact that P.J.'s wife Tracie went into labor today. Holy smokes, what a day in their lives!

 

 

Author: Zach Barnett
Zach Barnett is a native of Denton, Texas and a graduate of the University of Texas. He comes to FootballScoop after two years at the National Football Foundation. His hobbies include watching college football, reading about college football and writing about college football.

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