Claeys has been an assistant to Kill for 16 years. They started together when Kill first became a head coach at Saginaw Valley State (38-14 record), then on to Emporia State (11-11), Southern Illinois (55-32) and Northern Illinois (23-16).
Those were sometimes difficult places to win. “We’ve never complained about what we didn’t have,” Claeys said. “Every place we’ve been, they stayed successful.”
Claeys is a bachelor, married to his job. When Kill is on the road, he likes to have his defensive coordinator in the office, or nearby.
“He’s the most demanding person I’ve ever been around,” Claeys said. “He’s (also) the most caring person I’ve ever been around.”
Claeys was contacted about an NFL job awhile back but prefers college football and is loyal to Kill. “He’s taken care of us,” Claeys said. “He’s not a guy that thinks of himself first. We’ve enjoyed it (the coaching experience). Part of it is he enjoys being a part of us. You have so many head coaches that, I don’t know, say put up theirselves on a pedestal. He’s not like that. One of the first things he did in Minnesota, he wants his locker right down in the locker room with us (other coaches) because he enjoys being one of the guys. So that’s one of the privileges of getting to work with him.”
After Claeys finished his talk to the C.O.R.E.S group, a writer asked about the likelihood of Minnesota (3-9 last year) being a winning team in 2011. “There’s a lot on the coaches to find out what those kids do well and try to get them in those situations to improve our chances to win,” he said. “There’s no guarantees until you take care of the little things. …As the process goes by, (and) we move closer through spring ball and all that we’ll have a better idea how competitive we’re going to be in the fall.”
Then the writer remembered something Claeys said to all those former coaches and others in the audience during his talk. “We’ve got to play our…(tails) off on Saturdays,” Claeys told them.