A news conference this morning to announce Tracy Claeys as the Gophers new head football coach isn’t surprising. Multiple sources indicated his interim tag was to be removed last week or this week, and that the 46-year-old Claeys met with University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler on Monday.
Claeys worked for former Gophers head coach Jerry Kill as an assistant for 21 seasons including five at Minnesota as defensive coordinator. During that time Claeys demonstrated his football intelligence and ability as a teacher. He comes across as analytical and authentic. He can figure out schemes and game plans, but he is also personable. He deserves much of the credit for turning the Minnesota defense into the pride of the team.
Former Gophers captain Jim Carter told Sports Headliners this morning he thinks the hire is the “right choice” and the news likely is well received by most ex-players from the U. “I’d be really surprised if it’s not,” Carter said. “There maybe a couple naysayers.”
Carter was close to Kill and the program during the last several years. He’s been impressed with the ability of Claeys as a teacher, not just a coach. He sees a studious teacher in Claeys who watches things on both the field and film room, then instructs.
“They coach them up that way rather than hollering and screaming,” Carter said. “He’s an introvert, quiet but strong. I like him. I admire the way he works.”
Claeys might turn out to be a better head coach than Kill—and that’s saying a lot.
Here is the point: Claeys has never been a head coach before. Beware of anyone who tells you he will be a disappointment, or guarantees he will be a success.
No one can predict with certainty Claeys will shine as Minnesota’s coach. There are indications, though, this is a good hire. Although Kill gave Claeys the team’s better athletes, he got results as defensive coordinator. The Gophers were often an embarrassment defensively before Kill and Claeys arrived. In the last couple years highly ranked opponents like TCU and Ohio State have come to know Minnesota’s defense was going to challenge them.
He took over as interim coach for Kill in 2013 and impressed leading the Gophers to wins. Since Kill resigned on October 28 the Gophers have played with effort in losses to Michigan and Ohio State.
Claeys admits his mistakes and a lot of coaches aren’t willing to do that. He took responsibility for Minnesota’s out of position defense in a 48-25 loss to Nebraska last month. He blamed himself for the poor clock management at the end of the Michigan game.
What Claeys knows going forward is he will have the support of a staff already in place. New head coaches often have to assemble a staff of assistants but Claeys takes over a group that generally won praise working for Kill. Claeys also has the advantage of dialing up Kill any time he needs support or advice. No doubt he will.
Because Kill rebuilt the Gophers program and left Claeys all his assistants he will be compared to his mentor. It’s a fair comparison. Claeys needs to put his own mark on the program and there are a couple of areas that deserve to be at the head of the line.
Recruiting has to continue to improve at Minnesota. The Gophers will never become an annual threat to win the Big Ten title and play in New Year’s Day bowl games without better personnel than what this program has known for decades.
Claeys has the momentum of a program that nationally has a much better reputation than five years ago when Kill arrived. He has to show he and his staff can keep the promising 2016 recruiting class in place and make the 2017 class even better.
Carter doesn’t know a lot about Claeys as a recruiter but is optimistic he can be effective. “To me a good recruiter is a person that is sincere and tells the kids the truth and shows them how they can improve their lives by going to his school,” Carter said. “I think Tracy is very capable of doing that.”
The other area that needs major work is the offense. In five years Kill never stabilized the quarterback position to the point where the Gophers had a top performer who was on the roster for awhile and had a quality backup or two. The offense has also been characterized by inconsistent offensive lines. Those lines quickly became the heart of Wisconsin’s offensive success in the 1990s and continue to this day. The Gophers so far haven’t found that same success.
Hiring Claeys was the easy choice for interim athletic director Beth Goetz and Kaler. Finding a replacement outside the staff would have required more homework and perhaps more risk than promoting Claeys whose character is already vetted. Waiting a few or several weeks likely would have resulted in losing high school recruits who made verbal commitments for 2016.
Sometimes the simple way is the better one. The University chose to go with Claeys who will be compared in the seasons ahead with other Big Ten coaches and Kill. I suspect Kill is not only smiling but hoping that his former D-coordinator turns out to be a better head coach than he was.
Gophers & Vikings Notes
Gophers senior running back Rodrick Williams carried the ball five times for nine yards against Ohio State last Saturday. He also caught two passes for 44 yards. It was his first game appearance since Purdue on October 14. When Williams was in high school in Lewisville, Texas his college choices came down to the Gophers and Iowa. When a Hawkeyes recruiter was critical of the Gophers, it tipped his decision to attend Minnesota.
The Gophers, 4-5 overall and 1-4 in the Big Ten, play at Iowa, 9-0 and 5-0, on Saturday night. Despite both being in the Big Ten West Division, the teams so far have only one common opponent. Minnesota lost to Northwestern 27-0, while Iowa defeated the Wildcats 40-10.
With a win over the Gophers, Iowa can be 10-0 for the first time in school history, but head coach Kirk Ferentz was the target of criticism from Hawkeyes fans going into this season after his past four teams had records of 7-6, 8-5, 4-8 and 7-6.
On their two-deep offensive and defensive listings the Hawkeyes have 18 players from the state of Iowa. Seven of them are starters, with 11 others reserves among the 44 players on the two-deep roster. The Gophers don’t list two-deeps but of their 22 starters seven are Minnesota natives. It’s an interesting comparison since Iowa’s state population is about three million while Minnesota’s is over five million. Also, the Gophers are the only Division I school playing football in Minnesota while Iowa has to compete with Iowa State and Northern Iowa for high school players.
The Vikings haven’t played the Raiders since 2011 and the two franchises last met in Oakland in 2003. This Sunday in Oakland the Vikings will have to contend with second-year quarterback Derek Carr who ranks among NFL leaders in touchdown passes with 19 and QB rating at 104.3.
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer evaluated Carr prior to the 2014 NFL Draft, but Minnesota opted to use a first round pick on Teddy Bridgewater while the Raiders chose Carr in the second round. “I’ve watched three games on him (Carr) so far,” Zimmer said on Monday. “I think he’s playing very well—gets the ball out quick, seems like he has a good understanding of where the ball needs to go and how to get it out quickly. (Has a) strong arm, accurate. We did a lot of work on him when he came out.”
Adrian Peterson has rushed for 326 yards in his last three games. He leads the NFL in rushing with 758 yards. Zimmer said Peterson and the offensive line have made improvements lately.
“We’ve worked on some of the things with his footwork a little bit, but I think the offensive line is doing a better job of handling some of these run blitzes that we’ve been getting, and coming off and seeing things better,” Zimmer said. “Just something we’ve been working on. …”
The Vikings are the only team in the NFL to hold opponents to 23 points or fewer every game this season.