LAS VEGAS — Over eight seasons, Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck has rarely — if ever — talked about measurable goals such as win totals or broad postseason expectations.

Heading into Year 9, that has changed.

Fleck said Wednesday at Big Ten football media days that the Gophers need to be “delusional” heading into the 2025 season. “It means no cap on the jar, no limitations, dreaming big,” he said at the Mandalay Bay Resort.

“With the College Football Playoff where it is, as Indiana showed last year, anybody can get there,” Fleck said. “If we are delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there.”

The Gophers went 8-5 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten play a year ago, with a 3-4 record in one-possession games.

Fleck pointed out a missed field goal that cost them in a 19-17 season-opening loss to North Carolina, as well as the controversial offsides call on an onside kick in the 27-24 defeat at Michigan and a failed fourth-down conversion in the 26-25 loss versus Penn State.

“How do you improve that?” Flecks said. “You’ve got to win situational football. You got to be better in two-minute (drill) and four-minute (situations). That is what we have been focusing on since January. If we can get a little bit more, and we can flip those just like we did in 2019 — 6-1 in one-possession games — that is how you win 11 games.”

Boosters along for trip

The Gophers brought key boosters along to Las Vegas this year, an important invite given the athletic department’s nearly $9 million budget shortfall amid the new $20.5 million expense in revenue sharing to players.

“Having our donors being able to come along with us was absolutely critical,” Fleck said.

The U was not bringing boosters along when media days were in Indianapolis in recent years. Fleck thanked the Big Ten for moving media days to one of his favorite cities, remarking, “Viva Las Vegas, baby!”

“We get to take our players to our favorite restrurant, Prime in Bellagio and with our favorite waiter, Howard, so we get to experience that Vegas with our players. … Nothing better than that.”

The Gophers’ contingent had dinner with former U center Greg Eslinger at Carversteak in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Eslinger will be will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December.

Briefly

The Gophers have no key injuries heading into the start of fall camp on Sunday. … Safety Koi Perich was one of 15 players named to the Big Ten Preseason Honors list on Monday. The sophomore from Esko, Minn., was all-Big Ten first team member with a conference-leading five interceptions in 2024.

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By STEPHEN GROVES and MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats launched a bid Wednesday to subpoena President Donald Trump’s Justice Department for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, goading GOP lawmakers to defy Trump and Republican leadership to support the action.

Democrats on a subcommittee of the powerful House Committee on Oversight made a motion for the subpoena Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the House was scheduled to end its July work session and depart Washington for a monthlong break.

The subcommittee’s Republican chairman, Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, postponed a vote on the matter until the end of the meeting. While several Republicans on the panel are members of a right-wing faction and have called for the release of the files, it was not clear whether they would vote for the subpoena.

During a brief break in the meeting, Higgins told reporters he expected the motion for the subpoena to pass with some changes.

“If the Republican Party, if our colleagues on this committee don’t join us in this vote, then what they’re essentially doing is joining President Donald Trump in complicity,” Rep. Summer Lee, the Pennsylvania Democrat who made the motion for the subpoena, told reporters outside the hearing room.

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The move by Democrats showed how they were doing practically everything in their power to force Republicans to act on the Epstein files. House Speaker Mike Johnson — caught between demands from Trump and clamoring from his own members for the House to act — has resisted calls for action and prepared to send the House home a day early.

Johnson told reporters earlier Wednesday there was no need to vote on legislation calling for the release of the Epstein files this week because the Trump administration is “already doing everything within their power to release them.”

Yet Democrats have delighted this week in pressing Republicans to support the release of the files. Their efforts halted the GOP’s legislative agenda for the week and turned attention to an issue that Trump has unsuccessfully implored his supporters to forget about.

“They’re fleeing our work, our job and sending us back home because they don’t want to vote to release these files. This is something that they ran on. This is something that they talked about: the importance of transparency, holding pedophiles accountable,” Lee said.

Democratic leaders are hoping to make the issue about much more than just Epstein, who died in his New York jail cell six years ago while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

“Why haven’t Republicans released the Epstein files to the American people? It’s reasonable to conclude that Republicans are continuing to protect the lifestyles of the rich and the shameless, even if that includes pedophiles,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a news conference. “So it’s all connected.”

It comes as both parties are gearing up to take their messaging to voters on Trump’s big multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill. For Republicans, it’s “beautiful” legislation that will spark economic growth; for Democrats, it’s an “ugly” gift mostly to the richest Americans that undermines health care for low-income people.

Yet as furor has grown on the right over the Trump administration’s reversal on promises related to Epstein, several Democrats have seized on the opportunity to divide Republicans on the issue.

“This goes to a fundamental sense of, ‘Is our government co-opted by rich and powerful people that isn’t looking out for ordinary Americans? Or can we have a government that looks out for ordinary Americans?’” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who has put forward a bipartisan bill meant to force release of the files.

Republican leaders accuse Democrats of caring about the issue purely for political gain. They point out that the Department of Justice held on to the Epstein investigation through the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump’s Justice Department is also seeking the release of testimony from secret grand jury proceedings in the Epstein case, though that effort is unlikely to produce new revelations.

The House Oversight Committee, with support from Republicans, also advanced Tuesday a subpoena for Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for a deposition.

However, those lawmakers who want Congress to take a stronger role in the Epstein files have cautioned that Maxwell, who is serving a prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, may be an unreliable witness.

“It’s a good idea, but it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has pushed the bipartisan bill to pry the records from the Justice Department.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former chairman of Walt Disney Television and head of 21st Century Fox has been hired to oversee the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics.

LA28 organizers said Wednesday that Peter Rice will serve as head of ceremonies and content and be responsible for the creative vision and physical production of the LA28 Games, which run July 14-30, and the Paralympics, which run Aug. 15-27.

“Peter is one of the rare individuals whose expertise seamlessly combines creativity, operational insight and production excellence to deliver Ceremonies that will captivate audiences around the world,” said LA28 president and chairperson Casey Wasserman, who will supervise Rice. ”He’s been a leading figure in shaping the modern television and film landscape and is the perfect asset to reimagining the delivery of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the digital age, leaving a legacy well beyond the Games.”

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The opening ceremony be held July 14 at 8 p.m. ET, with events at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. The closing ceremony will be July 30 at 9 p.m. ET at the Coliseum.

“I look forward to delivering Ceremonies that honor the legacy of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and celebrate the cutting-edge future of the 2028 Stadium,” Rice said. “These venues have hosted some of the most legendary moments in sports history, and I’m thrilled to deliver a powerful artistic experience that adds a new chapter to LA’s Olympic and Paralympic story.”

Rice, a British-American, began his career at 20th Century Fox in 1989, rising through the ranks before being promoted to president of 21st Century Fox in 2017. Following Disney’s acquisition of the company, Rice became chairman of Walt Disney Television and chairman of General Entertainment for The Walt Disney Co.

By BEN FINLEY, Associated Press

A federal judge in Maryland has prohibited the Trump administration from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immediate immigration custody if he’s released from jail in Tennessee while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, according to an order issued Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the U.S. government to provide notice of three business days if Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to initiate deportation proceedings against the Maryland construction worker.

The judge also ordered the government to restore the federal supervision that Abrego Garcia was under before he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That supervision had allowed Abrego Garcia to live and work in Maryland for years, while he periodically checked in with ICE.

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Abrego Garcia became a prominent face in the debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies following his wrongful explusion to El Salvador in March. Trump’s administration violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there.

The smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on.

U.S. officials have said they’ll try to deport Abrego Garcia to a country that isn’t El Salvador, such as Mexico or South Sudan, before his trial starts in January because they allege he’s a danger to the community.

A federal judge in Tennessee has been considering whether to release Abrego Garcia to await trial, prompting fears from his attorneys that he would be quickly expelled by ICE.

In an effort to prevent his deportation, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys asked the judge in Maryland to order the U.S. government to send him to that state to await his trial. Short of that, they asked for at least 72 hours notice if ICE planned to deport Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia’s American wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the Trump administration in Xinis’ Maryland court over his wrongful deportation in March and is trying to prevent another expulsion.

U.S. officials have argued that Abrego Garcia can be deported because he came to the U.S. illegally around 2011 and because a U.S. immigration judge deemed him eligible for expulsion in 2019, although not to his native El Salvador.

Following the immigration judge’s decision in 2019, Abrego Garcia was released under federal supervision, received a federal work permit and checked in with ICE each year, his attorneys have said.

The Trump administration recently stated in court documents that they revoked Abrego Garcia’s supervised release when they deemed him to be in the MS-13 gang and deported him in March.