Tracy Claeys sat in his office last week and pronounced the Gopher football program as “very close” to competing for Big Ten titles every year.  Claeys believes that more than five years after head coach Jerry Kill and his assistant coaches arrived in Dinkytown, the resources are in place to challenge for championships in the West Division and advance to the conference’s title game in Indianapolis.

Claeys can look out his office window and see the construction of the Athletes Village project that will include much needed new football facilities.  Better places to practice indoors, train and develop players, and impress recruits with a state-of-the-art work place was the last impediment to overcome in rebuilding a program that hasn’t won a Big Ten title since 1967, Claeys said.

Officially known as the Football Development Center, there will be two buildings when construction is finished—the indoor practice facility and the performance center, with the latter offering locker room space, team meeting rooms, strength and conditioning equipment, and a recruiting room.

The Gophers already have other major resources in place, including one of college football’s newest stadiums.  The roster of players, Claeys said, has improved over the years because of better recruiting.  Recruiting resources include the vibrant Minneapolis-St. Paul area and fan loyalty because the University is the only major football program in the state.

Claeys joined up with Kill in 1995 as an assistant coach at Saginaw Valley State, handling the defensive line.  When Kill resigned for health reasons as Minnesota’s head coach during the 2015 season, Claeys was promoted from associate head coach-defensive coordinator to interim head coach.  Soon after that the University administration made him the permanent head man with a three-year contract.

With all those years working with Kill, it’s no surprise that when Claeys was asked by Sports Headliners about his vision for the program, he quickly referenced his former boss of more than two decades at various schools including Minnesota.

“Really, it’s just what we’ve been doing with coach Kill,” Claeys said.  “I think that’s why I was with him for so long, for 21 years.  We both had a lot of the same goals and the same principles.  We both wanted the opportunity to coach college football at the highest level that (it) was played, and so we got hired here at the University of Minnesota.  That was kind of both our goals.

“You can ask the kids now (about differences between Kill and him).  There’s a couple personality things they’d probably tell you is different, but for the most part we feel good on the base that we’ve set.  I believe in everything we’ve done with coach Kill.  We’re on the path of what we need to do to be able to compete for a Big Ten championship.  I believe that.

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to compete for the Big Ten championship, especially now with the new facility.  That’s the one piece I think we were missing, whether people understand that or not.  The Twin Cities are great.  The school—you  get a great education—and the stadium is tremendous.  We just didn’t have as good a facilities (in the past) where the kids spend 70 to 80 percent of their time day to day—and  we’re going to have that.

“Everybody can argue who has the best (facility) or is going to have the best.  At least we’ll be up there and we’ll have as good a facilities as anybody.  So that should pay huge dividends for us to consistently be able to compete for a Big Ten (title).”

The 2014 Gophers team had a 5-3 Big Ten record, the best at Minnesota since 2003.  Last season things got off track because of injuries and other factors.  The Gophers  were 2-6 in conference games (6-7 overall), but several prominent players return on offense and defense this year including Mitch Leidner who has drawn offseason mention as a senior quarterback prospect for the 2017 NFL Draft.

Claeys wants his teams, starting with the 2016 group, to be in the “discussion” at the end of November each year for a division title and path to Indy for the league’s championship game against the East Division.  “Eventually we gotta get it done, every now and then,” he said.  “Two years ago if we beat Wisconsin in the last game of the season, we go to Indianapolis and play Ohio State.

“I don’t think we’re that far off from where we want to be.  This last season there was a lot of strange things that happened.  I mean injuries were one of them, but then with what happened to coach Kill.  I mean I thought those kids did a tremendous job, and so we didn’t finish out the year in a position that we wanted to be, but you lose seven games and six of those teams win 10 games or more.  That’s a pretty good schedule that you played.  A lot of those games in the fourth quarter we still had opportunities…to win, and so we gotta finish some things better and play better at certain times. …”

Iowa and Wisconsin certainly stand between the Gophers and more success in the West Division.  The Hawkeyes won the division last season, the Badgers the year before.  Minnesota’s record against Iowa since 2000 is 5-11 and the Gophers are winless in Iowa City.  Dating back to 1990, the Gophers are a dismal 5-21 against Wisconsin including 12 consecutive losses beginning in 2004.

Visions of winning Paul Bunyan’s Axe back from the Badgers have turned into nightmares for Gophers fans.  The argument can be made the series between the two programs isn’t even a rivalry any more.  Claeys is annoyed too about all the losing to Wisconsin.

“They made decisions to advance their football program farther, earlier, than what the University of Minnesota did…but I feel like we’re making progress,” Claeys said.  “The first time we show up and play four quarters, and play better than they do for four quarters, than we’ll get that axe back and deserve to win.

“We haven’t been able to do that since we’ve been here.  It bothers the hell out of me.  We’re on our way to try to get that back to where it’s a rivalry.  We gotta win sooner or later for it even to be considered a rivalry anymore.”

There is one trade-off Claeys will make that would have the Gophers continuing to lose games against the Badgers.  “I can also tell you this…I’d sleep pretty good at night if that’s the one game we lose and we still go play for the Big Ten championship in Indianapolis.  But there’s no question that for the fans and everybody…it’s always fun to win the rivalry games, and we need to get back on top of that one.”

Worth Noting

Big Ten teams will each play nine conference games this season, not eight as in the past.  Schools in the West Division will play four at home, five on the road.  East Division teams have five at home, four on the road.  That scheduling flips next year, and Claeys suggests the unbalanced home and away games will factor into final results.

Almost all of the Gophers’ players had recruiting rankings of three stars or less coming out of high school.  “People think we don’t try and recruit four and five-star players,” Claeys said.  “That’s not true but there has to be an interest both ways.  You recruit the kids that want to be here.”

True Thompson, formerly of Armstrong High School, plans to play football this fall as a wide receiver for Iowa Western Community College.  True is the son of Gophers’ career leading rusher Darrell Thompson.

Race Thompson, who will be a junior this fall at Armstrong, is an outstanding 6-8 basketball player who has received scholarship offers from multiple schools including Minnesota and Marquette, according to his dad.

Former Gophers football player Jim Brunzell, who made a career as a professional wrestling star, will sign copies of his Matlands book at the St. Paul Saints baseball game July 17.  “I’m also throwing out the first pitch!” Brunzell wrote via email.  “I’ll do my best impression of Ryne Duren, flame-thrower from the Yankees, early 60’s.”