P.J. Fleck's climb up the coaching ladder included stops at Ohio State and his alma mater, Northern Illinois.

But the architect of the unblemished Western Michigan program credits Rutgers for preparing him to be a head coach.

"The way I can describe Rutgers and (working under) Greg Schiano is 'I came to Rutgers as a boy and left a man,' '' said Fleck, who coached the wide receivers at Rutgers in 2010 and '11. "I went there as an assistant coach; I left ready to be a head coach.''

After his two-year stint working under Schiano at Rutgers, Fleck followed the ex-Scarlet Knights coach to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he coached the wide receivers for one season before taking over Western Michigan in 2013.

After a 1-11 start to his career, Fleck led the Broncos to consecutive 8-5 finishes before guiding the Mid-American Conference program to unparalleled heights this fall.

Western Michigan is 10-0, ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25, and the favorite to land the major New Year's Day bowl bid dedicated to the Group of Five schools.

It's why the 33-year old Fleck -- the second-youngest coach in the nation -- figures to hear his name mentioned with every major job opening this offseason. While his name was mentioned as a possible replacement for Kyle Flood last December, Fleck wasn't a candidate for the Rutgers vacancy as Athletics Director Pat Hobbs lured Chris Ash away from his Ohio State co-defensive coordinator post.

"It's going to take a while but we're creating that (culture),'' Fleck told NJ.com in an interview shortly after taking the Western Michigan post. "If I don't think that way, who else is going to? I'll just be a normal 'MAC coach' coming in here, leave in two years, go on and move somewhere else. I truly believe in this community and I'm going to invest in it.''

In that same interview, Fleck expressed his belief that Western Michigan could be the "Boise State of the Midwest.'' Less than three years later, his Broncos are two regular-season wins and a MAC conference-championship triumph away from stiff-arming Boise State for the plum Cotton Bowl berth.

"We're going to get everybody's A-plus game when you're a ranked team and you're at the top,'' Fleck said, pointing to losses by the No. 2- (Michigan), 3- (Clemson) and 4- (Washington) ranked teams this past weekend. "We just find ways to win games in different ways, and I'm proud of our football team to be where we're at.''

As one of two teams nationally still unbeaten after 11 weeks -- top-ranked Alabama is the other -- Western Michigan will gain more national attention this Saturday, as ESPN's College GameDay comes to Kalamazoo, Mich., to spotlight Fleck's program.

Two unbeatens left. We're coming to see one of them. Get hyped, @WMU_Football! pic.twitter.com/YuGqwwsdNE — College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) November 13, 2016

"That type of exposure at a university like 'GameDay' is going to (provide) would cost you $20 million just for the type of marketing that you're going to get throughout the entire week from the No. 1 sports brand in the country," Fleck said. "That type of exposure, not just for the football program, but for our engineering school, our business school, the fine arts, the city of Kalamazoo, our football players, our staff, our community, our restaurants, our hotels -- it's priceless.''

It's hard to get through a conversation with Fleck, 35, and not hear him say "Row the Boat,'' a three-word philosophy born out of personal tragedy he suffered while at Rutgers.

"Row The Boat first came to the forefront when my wife and I lost our second child,'' Fleck said in a video released by Western Michigan athletics in 2013. "Colt had a heart condition and we lost him shortly after birth. We knew toward the end of the pregnancy that we were going to lose him, it was just a matter of how long he'd be with us. We got to spend time with him, be with him, hold him. But to watch your son pass away in your wife's arms is an amazing experience in terms of the amount of sorrow and the amount of frustration.

"But it was something that I had in the back of my mind to say, 'Hey, no matter what happens, no matter what we're going to do here, we're just going to keep rowing. Whatever turns out, however it turns out, we're just going to keep rowing. Then when it does turn out, good or bad, we're just going to keep rowing, keep rowing and keep rowing.' So, it was able to, at least, help my method to get through some type of adversity.''

During the 2010 and '11 campaigns, Fleck was an energetic presence at Rutgers' practices, wearing cleats while mentoring a receiver corps that included future pros' Mohamed Sanu, Mark Harmon, Quron Pratt, Tim Wright and Brandon Coleman.

"Greg Schiano taught me so much about how to demand so much from myself and others. But I'm my own person,'' Fleck said. "I'm not Greg Schiano, I'm not (ex-Ohio State coach) Jim Tressel, I'm not (ex-49ers coach) Mike Nolan, I'm not (ex-Northern Illinois coach) Joe Novak, I'm not (ex-Northern Illinois coach) Jerry Kill. I'm a combination of all those people.''

Still, Fleck says, "if it wasn't for Greg Schiano and Rutgers, I wouldn't be a head coach right now.''

So what did he take from Ohio State's current co-defensive coordinator?

"The biggest thing I learned under Greg is never let the circumstance dictate your behavior and never sacrifice what you really want down the road for what you want right now,'' he said. "The blue-collar work ethic, family-type bond that New Jersey is about. I learned that from Greg, too. Greg's Italian upbringing, Greg's Italian family-type feel inside the football department, I wasn't necessarily accustomed to that. I watched us become a true family and I think that was really important in me becoming a head coach and not only that, raising my family.''

His coaching staff includes several other Rutgers ties: Kirk Ciarrocca, who served as Rutgers' offensive coordinator in 2010, holds the same title while also mentoring quarterback Zach Terrell, a senior grad student who is a dark-horse Heisman Trophy contender, and Ed Pinkham, who coached Rutgers' secondary and served as a co-defensive coordinator from 2008-10, calls the defensive plays for the unit that ranks 15th nationally in scoring defense.

"I really believed when you worked for Greg Schiano and you worked at Rutgers, you found out who was really tough -- tough in life, tough in football, tough as a man and there's no tougher guys than Ed Pinkham and Kirk Ciarrocca,'' Fleck said. "I've worked for both of them, and I watched it personally. I watched them go through great times, I watched them go through really, really hard times and I watched them handle that.

"I always said if I ever get a head coaching job, those are two guys I want to hire because I've watched them in very, very adverse situations never crack, never break and constantly do the right things. And that's the measure of a man.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.