"Start fast, accelerate in the middle and finish strong,'' Fleck often says about a philosophy that can apply to both a game and an entire season.
Saturday at SHI Stadium, that mantra was put to the test in a 26-19 loss to Rutgers, a defeat that ended the Gophers' four-game winning streak and left them with a 6-4 overall record and 4-3 mark in the Big Ten entering this week's bye. Instead of sitting alone in fifth place in the conference -- not a bad place for this program to be, considering the Big Ten's top four likely will be in the College Football Playoff -- the Gophers are tied with Iowa for fifth and are a half-game ahead of Illinois and Wisconsin.