Author: David Shama

Presumably the Gophers will improve a lot in the seasons ahead but only if better players come to Dinkytown.  Claeys said recruiting is all about “relationships” including with high school coaches.  Kill surrounds himself with assistants who have been with him for many years and that means those coaches have ongoing successful relationships with prep coaches.  Those relationships are in various states, but Claeys emphasized recruiting will start in Minnesota where six assistants will be assigned to finding homegrown product.

If prep coaches like a college coach, Claeys stated, they will send you good players.  “You can’t make chicken out of chicken salad,” he said.

Kill and his staff have a reputation as exceptional teachers.  Maybe one day Gophers fans will make this comment about the staff:  “They could beat the other team not only with their players, but take the other team and beat the Gophers.”

Part of smart coaching is not asking players to do what they’re not capable of, Claeys said.  That could apply to the X’s and O’s of football or fundamentals.  Claeys quoted coach Bill Parcells:  “If they don’t tackle as puppies, they’re not going to tackle.”

At Northern Illinois the Huskies could play defense.  Last year Northern Illinois, a team with an 11-3 record, ranked 14^th in the country in scoring defense, giving up about 19 points per game.

The stat makes Claeys feel good but so too does a strength and conditioning program that at Northern Illinois seemed to keep players mostly on the field, not on the sidelines recovering from injuries.  The goal is to not only make players bigger, stronger and faster, but also healthier.  Kill’s strength and conditioning head coach, Eric Klein, has been with him for 17 years prior to coming to Minneapolis.

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.

A news story earlier this week reported Vikings executive Lester Bagley said the franchise doesn’t need a roof on a new facility, but Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission chairman Roy Terwilliger told Sports Headliners such a stadium won’t be politically popular.

“The fact is policy makers will look at this as a people’s facility,” Terwilliger said.  “It’s not just one (facility) that takes care of one tenant.”

Vikings spokesman Jeff Anderson said during an interview with Sports Headliners that a covered stadium is “clearly a statewide asset” and the Vikings are not “at odds” with supporters of such a facility.

Members of the commission, operators of the Metrodome, along with other stadium proponents have long advocated a new facility with a roof, a venue that can be used hundreds of days per year for activities ranging from low profile events like amateur sports to an NCAA Final Four basketball tournament.  Saying that a “roof takes care of the public,” Terwilliger said building an outdoor Vikings football stadium leaves the community without the sort of options the Metrodome has provided since 1982.

An antiquated facility with a collapsed roof, it’s not financially feasible to continue operation of the dome if the Vikings aren’t the major tenant.  In the future an open air Vikings stadium would mean the state has no large covered stadium since both TCF Bank Stadium and Target Field don’t have roofs.

“It’s not consistent with the needs across the state and region,” Terwilliger said.  “It’s just not going to work.”

Anderson said the franchise prefers an outdoor stadium because of the team’s legendary past of playing football in the elements at Met Stadium, and also because an outdoor venue is a less costly option.  An estimated price of an outdoor stadium is $750 million, while a covered facility (fixed roof, not retractable) might cost $200 million more.

The Vikings have publicly stated their willingness to pay for one-third the cost of an outdoor stadium.  Anderson said that estimated contribution of about $240 million would be available for payment toward a covered facility, too.