P.J. Fleck is everything Rutgers needs as its head football coach, a CEO who knows how to sell his program, motivate his players and rev up his fan base. He has a middling Minnesota program off to its first 7-0 start since 1960, and based on the way the Golden Gophers stomped Rutgers, 42-7, despite a sloppy afternoon, they’ll have a chance to keep making history.

So maybe, if the testimonials from former players and prominent boosters and fans hoisting signs in the parking lot don’t get through, athletic director Patrick Hobbs will listen to Fleck. He turned his postgame press conference at SHI Stadium into a 15-minute-long infomercial for the man he calls “the greatest influence in my life.”

Fleck was lobbed a softball: Would Greg Schiano have success in a second act at Rutgers? He clearly was ready for the question.

“The one thing I learned from Greg Schiano a long time ago was this: ’Don’t ever talk for me. I don’t need you to,'” Fleck said after his Golden Gophers handed Rutgers its latest humbling loss to ruin Homecoming. "That was in a meeting room when I was a wide receivers coach for him. I will not start doing that now.

“But I will say is, he’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever seen, he’s the greatest coaching influence of my life, I learned more college football, I learned more business, I learned more (about) how to treat people, I learned more Xs and Os, I learned more discipline, I learned more work ethic from that man that I ever learned from anybody in my entire life.”

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Fleck joined the former Rutgers coach as wide receivers coach before following him from Piscataway to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and just a decade later, has Minnesota in a position to win the Big Ten West Division and -- don’t laugh -- compete for a spot in the four-team playoff.

So yeah, Fleck looks back on his days in Piscataway with a special fondness, and looks back on the man who gave him his first break in a reverential way.

“I came to Rutgers as a boy and I left a man because of Greg Schiano,” Fleck said, repeating a line he’s used hundreds of times before. “Rutgers does something to you. It changes you. It’s a special place that can make you a way better coach, and it did to me.”

Fleck knew exactly what he was doing. He knows what is happening -- and what is not happening -- in this coaching search in New Jersey. He mentioned Schiano’s name before anyone even asked him, during his opening statement, and brought up the former Rutgers coach again when talking about something completely unrelated.

But, well, that’s Fleck. He understands the moment. The man Sports Illustrated once described as “a human shot of espresso” managed to turn an otherwise forgettable trip to New Jersey for his team into a memory his players won’t soon forget.

He did that when he sent his third-string holder onto the field after Minnesota’s fourth touchdown. The kid is named Casey O’Brien, and he is a four-time cancer survivor. When the routine PAT sailed through the uprights, the Golden Gophers celebrated as if they had won the Rose Bowl.

That celebration included a long embrace between Fleck and O’Brien, one that left the head coach in tears on the sidelines. Fleck gets a lot of flack for some of his row-the-boat shtick, but that emotion is something you just can’t fake.

Only Coach in the country to give me a chance. Hard to describe what @Coach_Fleck means to me. Moment of a lifetime. Love this team and this program. #RTB https://t.co/iUEwPgCqEu — Casey O'Brien (@caseyob14) October 20, 2019

“It means the world to me,” O’Brien said. “There have been so many ups and downs, nights in the hospital and surgeries and everything like that, that have gone into this moment. This is what I dreamed about, and tonight it got to come true.”

Fleck was on the Rutgers coaching staff when Eric LeGrand suffered his devastating injury. He saw how Schiano made the long drive from Piscataway to his bedside in Hackensack each night to sit at his at his bedside as he recovered.

Now it’s Fleck, making sure the popular instate kid gets his moment to shine. Fleck bought a crate full of Eric LeGrand’s “Roll Model” T-shirts and had his players wear them in pregame warmups, a simple gesture that made a difference. He isn’t hiding where he learned how to lead a program like this. He announced it with a bullhorn.

“I owe my entire coaching career to (Schiano), and I text him every week to tell him that,” Fleck said. “I know he’s sick of hearing it because he just doesn’t text me back for weeks. He is a head football coach. I don’t think anybody could ever doubt that.”

Fleck, now a Big Ten rival, made as strong an argument for Schiano’s return as anyone. Will the man leading this coaching search finally listen?

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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.