Watch: P.J. Fleck Addresses Media as Gophers Football Coach

The search for Tracy Claeys' replacement is over. Western Michigan's P.J. (Philip John) Fleck will be the next head coach of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football program.

University of Minnesota athletics director Mark Coyle announced Friday that Fleck has been named head football coach. The university and Fleck have agreed to a five-year contract.

Fleck comes to Minnesota after spending four years as the head coach at Western Michigan, where he was 30-22 overall and 21-11 in the Mid-American Conference. While leading the Broncos, Fleck managed one of the most impressive turnarounds in recent college football history.

The Broncos were 1-11 in his first year in 2013, but ended last season with a No. 12 ranking, a 13-1 record, a conference championship and a berth in the Cotton Bowl.

The hire comes just days after Coyle fired Claeys as the head football coach. The decision to fire Claeys was made after the Gophers football team became a source of national controversy when they planned a short-lived boycott of their Holiday Bowl game over the school's suspension of 10 players. The suspensions were the result of a university investigation into an alleged sexual assault.

After meeting with university officials, the team decided to end its boycott, but not before Claeys sent a controversial tweet in support of the players.

The Gophers went on to upset Washington in the Holiday Bowl, 17-12. The Gophers ended the 2016 season with a 9-4 record, the most wins for the program since 2003

Fleck arrived in the Twin Cities by plane Friday morning.

Image via YouTube