Gophers Name Tracy Claeys Permanent Head Coach
November 11th, 2015 at 10:31 AM ^
All I'm saying is that we had a head coach who won a NC yet also had seasons that did not meet expectations. For Minnesota, 8-5 each year would be solid for them. They will never get a top tier coach.
November 11th, 2015 at 11:19 AM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 9:42 AM ^
They gave him 19 seconds to decide whether he wanted to accept the job or not.
November 11th, 2015 at 9:48 AM ^
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November 11th, 2015 at 10:11 AM ^
It's Minnesota. Anything they do has a small chance of working out.
November 11th, 2015 at 9:56 AM ^
I support this hire with the idea that staff has been together a long time and as we have seen here it is not just the HC but the coordinators and position coaches. Good HCs are not just good coaches themselves but identifiers of other good coaches. They are a well coached team and that goes to position coaches that have been together under Kill.
If you start from scratch you just are flipping a coin nowadays esp at a program like Minn whic his not going to get the top tier of candidates.
Further with so many open jobs this year your coin flip even becomes more difficult. This makes a lot of sense - this is prob the best staff they have had in decades and they are not the type that is looking to go to USC or the SEC when they have success etc. Minn is a good destination for them and they have done well for Minn.
If they go downhill next 2 yrs and somehow this was all Kill and not the entire staff working in concert you cut bait and then enter the cycle Minn as been in for 4 decades which is just guess and lose most of the time.
November 11th, 2015 at 10:02 AM ^
Sure, dude started out 0-2, but he probably shoulda beat us and hung in with the #3 team in the country. The last 2-3 years, Minnesota had been one of the few non-blueblood Big Ten programs where you could say "Hey, not a raging tire fire!" and that merits sticking with the horse (gopher?) that got you there.
November 11th, 2015 at 10:04 AM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 10:25 AM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
If it's not a year in which everyone is looking for a coach, it's a year like last year when there was NO one out there.
Last year's coaching carousel was Harbaugh - end of list. And Minnesota isn't getting a Harbaugh level candidate.
IMO, you're better off in a year like this when there's bound to be a ton of movement.
Michigan was #BLESSED that they got Harbaugh, because I can't tell you who would've been next up if we hadn't. No one even half as good, that's for sure.
Even this year Michigan would've had better options at realistic secondary candidates after Harbaugh. Last year it was like Dan Mullen and...yuck.
November 11th, 2015 at 11:28 AM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 10:41 AM ^
Well, this should help keep the jug safely in Ann Arbor. Of course, he may be out of a job by the time Michigan and Minnesota actually play again... Big Ten!!!
November 11th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^
Well let's hope he can keep them competive, especially with us having a few years off from playing them. The west division needs to get better
November 11th, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^
Given how beloved Kill is up there now, and given how long Claeys has been with him, there is no way that Minnesota was going to shove him and the rest of the staff out the door at the end of the year—that would have been a slap in the face to Kill, since all those guys are his guys.
The only thing I question is the length—seems like four years would have been smarter from a recruiting standpoint.
November 11th, 2015 at 11:19 AM ^
The Star Tribune, as you might expect, is all over it - LINK
From the interim AD:
"I admire his dedication to their development on the field and in the classroom. Given the improvement of this program, both academically and athletically, and Coach Claeys’ integral leadership role, we have great confidence that he is the right coach to lead this program and our student-athletes."
They went with internal consistency in leadership, which is probably the right move for now at Minnesota as they try to take some tenuous but tangible steps in the right direction as a program. Of course, we've no clue if this will ultimately work, but for the short term it seems like the best thing to do.
November 11th, 2015 at 11:46 AM ^
This was a payroll reducing decision that happened to have support so they jumped on it.
Minnesota was surprisingly "up there" when it comes to pay, and this lets the admins scale it back down a bit. I don't think Tracy Claeys gets the same 2.5m that Kill did and I dont think Claeys replacement will get the same 600k that he got, nor will have "assistant head coach" in title.
I'm guessing they just saved close to 1mil a year.
EDIT: I guess I should have read the damn article. Yes, he is getting 1.4m, so with the reduction at the HC level and the reduction at Cleay's replacement, its almots 1.5m less in payroll costs.
November 11th, 2015 at 11:53 AM ^
Well, I don't know. It may save them some money now but if he pans out, I imagine he'll get a richer contract. Right now he's a rookie head coach so he doesn't have a lot of leverage in negotations.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:13 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 1:39 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 3:32 PM ^
If they look up in 2 years and things seem to be falling apart, make a move. It's not the same as firing a normal new coach after 2 years. Claeys' whole selling point is "I'm not going to have to blow everything up and start from scratch." If after 2 years it looks like things have been blown up, there's no obligation to keep him.
There's too many good jobs open this year to try to hire from the outside with no AD at a place like Minnesota.
November 11th, 2015 at 4:12 PM ^
With the exception of clock management (which he will improve) I think this guy has the potential to be a pretty decent FB coach for Minnesota. He will retain the staff and keep doing what Kiill has been doing. Smart choice.
November 11th, 2015 at 4:45 PM ^
but I suppose sometimes that's the wise thing to do. Knowing your limitations has its benefits.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^
I'm still waiting for a B1G school to take a Big 12 style approach. Indiana is the only school that does it in the B1G and under Wilson they are the most competitive they have been in my lifetime (I was too young to remember the Mallory era).
Since Minnesota and Purdue are not making changes, Illinois is going to be the only West school on the market. Perhaps they make a run at Dino Babers? He is an Art Briles disciple and his offenses have lit up Maryland, Purdue and Tennessee, among others. Prior to Bowling Green, he coached at Eastern Illinois so he's familiar with the territory.