Minnesota HC Tracy Claeys fires Offensive brain trust

Claeys is a dietitian in the offseason.

What the next phone call between Claeys and Kill will sound like.

That's cold of Clayes. But, I can't fault him.

It was clear that Kill got Minnesota as far as they could go with that staff. Nebraska is at a historical low and despite finishing 9-3, this was a down year for Wisconsin. Minnesota couldn't beat either at home. You figure both will improve next year. Meanwhile, you have a resurgent Iowa to deal with. If you are Claeys and you want to give yourself a chance to succeed in the West in the next few years (he only has a three year contract), you probably needed to make this change. 

Geez, that's not a very nice thing to do this close to Christmas. What a Scrooge..

Minnesota's offense has been, frankly, horrible for a while. Their defense kept them in most of their games. There is no need to hold the program hostage to underpreforming coaches out of some loyalty to Kill. Claeys is the head coach now, and he needs to run the program as he knows best regardless of what Kill would do. 

When you take over for someone like that, sometimes it is hard for the old staff to respect their new boss, not because he is better or worse, but because he is different. If there was insubordination, then they had to go (no idea if that was the case or not).

so much for Minnesota Nice

You never know... This could have been something that came up in his interview

Who knows--he may have been told, "the job is yours on the condition that you do something to address the offense." This decision may have been predetermined by those in charge.

I'm legit shocked here. No idea what to make of this--is Claeys boldly making hard choices to win games? Is he under pressure to make changes already? Was he being undermined from beneath? The whole selling point with Claeys was continuity and the existing progress of the Kill regime. He pushed for a contract in season for recruiting purposes. Now, the staff is getting slashed. Honestly I think this could be a bold move by Claeys both to chart his own path and to correct known shortcomings with Kill's philosophy. It's possible. It's also possible that Minnesota is about to disintegrate in chaos. I really don't know.

Tracy Claeys settled all family business.

Clearly they have already locked up Mark Richt to be their new OC.

Minnesota likes destroying good things.

Chances Claeys has more success than Kill - 0.0000000012%

Claeys is a fat ass joke of a coach.  The fact that he was given the job midseason is a complete cop out.

Predictably, he was horrible the rest of the way.  

Instead of actually going out and getting someone innovative or fresh, Minnesota is content to be a joke for eternity.

This often happens among subordinates.  I once had a protege follow me in a position and within six months he had run off all my other proteges.  But I found them jobs.  Jerry will find these guys jobs too.

This happens all the time in the work world. It's a classic case of attrition, and the reason why so much of the working world nowadays follows the "up or out" principle.  Here, you had two guys, Claeys and Limegrover, who had nearly identical credentials, but with only one spot.  It's easy to see how Limegrover would feel slighted, even if the entire staff are close.  Another example of this is Orgeron, who refused to accept a position that would essentially make him a co-coach with Sark because Sark was hired over him even though he did well as an interim coach.  "Up or out" may sound harsh but it does reduce the internal strife that happens when people are chosen over others (and it's fine if the people who aren't selected are well qualified because they can simply find other jobs easily).

This is a gutsy and necessary move by Claeys.  Gutsy because everyone spoke of the staff consistency with Kill's staff; which is fine if it is producing results.  But, the offense in Minnesota was its problem.  Turning over the offensive staff was needed to at least try to improve itself. 

 He must have been wanting to do that for years.

Limegrover and Zebrowski might be haters. It'll be interesting to see who Claeys hires.