Western Michigan head coach P.J. Fleck watches during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

Let me start with a disclaimer: When I write about potential fits for the Kansas University football coaching job, which might not even come open if Clint Bowen shows he’s the best man for the job, I’m not saying athletic director Sheahon Zenger is considering the coach. I’m just turning over every stone as would any AD searching for a coach.

Today, let’s consider the profile of the youngest of the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches.

His name is P.J. Fleck. He is 33. And his Western Michigan football team that went 1-11 in 2013, his first year, is 6-3 and in contention to win the Mid-American Conference title. Fleck is one of three former NFL players (South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, Texas Tech’s Kliff Kingsbury heading an FBS program.

A wide receiver at Northern Illinois, from which he graduated in 2004, Fleck compiled one statistic as an NFL player when he returned a punt 10 yards for the 2004 San Francisco 49ers.

Enough about his playing career, it’s his fast rise as a coach that has generated headlines.
He first worked as a graduate assistant for Jim Tressell at Ohio State in 2006. From there, he went to Northern Illinois and worked as wide receivers coach (2007-09) and recruiting coordinator (2009) and gained a reputation as an energetic, effective recruiter. Fleck spent the next two seasons working for Joe Novak for one season, current Minnesota coach Jerry Kill for two. Next, the ambitious Fleck went to work at Rutgers (2010-11) for Greg Schiano and followed Schiano to the NFL and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2012).

Western Michigan, a Mid-American Conference in Kalamazoo, hired Fleck on Dec. 18, 2012, charging him with the task of rebuilding the program. Nobody had any right to expect him to deliver this quickly.

Western Michigan ranks 37th in the nation with 457.1 yards of offense per game and 36th with 34.6 points per game.

Fleck turns 34 on Nov. 29, which seems awfully young to tackle a Big 12 job. Then again, Ara Parseghian was 32 when he left his MAC job at Miami of Ohio for Northwestern, Woody Hayes 36 when he left Miami for Ohio State and Glen Mason 37 when he left Kent State for Kansas.
A native of Sugar Grove, Illinois, Fleck’s recruiting contacts are in Big Ten country, not Big 12, which didn’t stop Mason from doing well at Kansas.

Turner Gill came to Kansas from Buffalo, a MAC school, and went 5-19 in two seasons.