Recruiting and Claeys

I would love to give Claeys more time. I see red flags already, however. He's not a CEO, He doesn't seem to do anything to sell the program, the buzz Coach Kill built is gone, they have new facilities going in and are 13 of 14 in recruiting for 2017. They are 6-2 with meaningful games in November and having to beg people to buy tickets to the two remaining games. I got a call from the ticket office yesterday. I still consider a new coach if we don't win 9 games.

He's not a CEO... so now we don't want CEOs?

Wasn't Mason's issue that he was too much of a CEOish guy?
 

I would love to give Claeys more time. I see red flags already, however. He's not a CEO, He doesn't seem to do anything to sell the program, the buzz Coach Kill built is gone, they have new facilities going in and are 13 of 14 in recruiting for 2017. They are 6-2 with meaningful games in November and having to beg people to buy tickets to the two remaining games. I got a call from the ticket office yesterday. I still consider a new coach if we don't win 9 games.

There isn't a coveted candidate that would come to a school with our history that fired an 8-4 coach- glad you're not an AD


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He can only play the schools that are scheduled. What is he supposed to do? You're giving him sh1t for beating those schools. Imagine what you'd say had he lost.

Well...He could start another thread about how this offense sucks and then totally dip from the thread and hide until he takes another BS shot at the program.
 

He's not a CEO... so now we don't want CEOs?

Wasn't Mason's issue that he was too much of a CEOish guy?

Mason was 10-20 years ago. It's 2016. Maybe it will work out. They need to realize that only wins will get people in the seats. He's needs a 5 year deal to prove it then. Either we need a new coach or he needs a new deal.


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There isn't a coveted candidate that would come to a school with our history that fired an 8-4 coach- glad you're not an AD


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You can believe that if you want.


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I'm not recommending we go out and blow a season and I think you know that I am not saying that. What I'm saying is that Kill rushed things before the foundation was laid. Did making it to a Bowl Game in Year 2 make any difference in the big scheme of things other than to say in some odd macro sense that "we had turned it around" when we hadn't?

Alvarez didn't break .500 until Year 4 of his regime. Ferentz didn't until Year 3. One of the reasons for that is that they both took a measured approach and made sure the foundation was laid and the system was fully adopted before pretending they were contenders. Both of those programs have been successful and durable with a couple of hiccups since then. And I've always thought the prime reason for those programs' success has been the high number of quality juniors and seniors on those teams.

And one should have an idea of what the roster will look like five years out. Sure, there will be injuries and some guys will not come back to play a redshirt senior year, but Kill's teams have always been strong academically and as a supposed master motivator, one would think he would have gotten most everyone to stick around.

I think going to a bowl game in year 2 was a positive step that showed we were moving in the right direction. You can blow it off, but how many recruits wouldn't have considered or signed with us that did if we had gone 3-9 for a second consecutive year? It's impossible to know for sure, but I bet the answer is 1 or more.

Recruiting is a zero sum game. If you tell me you want guys here for a 5th year, you have to reduce the size of your recruiting class. Or to put it another way, if KJ and AJ were on the squad this year, we would have had 1 less WR and DB in the 2016 class. AJ was a nice college player, but if he's back, we likely wouldn't have Winfield Jr on the roster right now. Part of the reason we're seeing so many young players this year is that our recruiting at some positions didn't pan out that well after the 2012 class.

As for predicting the roster 5 years, just 3 years ago most people would have thought Phil Nelson, Jeff Jones, Maxx Williams and Andre McDonald would be the key offensive contributors on the 2016 Gopher team. It didn't quite pan out that way.
 

Mason was 10-20 years ago. It's 2016. Maybe it will work out. They need to realize that only wins will get people in the seats. He's needs a 5 year deal to prove it then. Either we need a new coach or he needs a new deal.


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We should go with the really young guy recruiter type....
 

The thread (I thought) was supposed to be about recruiting, and quickly went to a different track.

On that front: the jury is still out on whether Claeys and this staff can recruit at a high-enough level to help the Gopher program take a step forward. As others have said, Claeys is not a dynamic personality. In some situations, you can get by with a head coach like that - as long as you have some really dynamic recruiters on the staff.

But, all things being equal - especially in today's media-driven, twitter and Facebook culture - I would much rather prefer to have a head coach who is better situated to "sell" the program to today's high school students. sorry, but I just don't see your average 17-year-old being impressed with Claeys. I'm sure there is more to the man than the skin-deep 1st impressions, but 1st impressions matter, and when you're coaching and recruiting against B1G coaches like Meyer, Harbaugh, etc, I'm afraid that Claeys just doesn't pass the eye test.

If Claeys wants to stay at MN, he needs to win big, and win quickly. Otherwise, I don't think he lasts.
 




I think going to a bowl game in year 2 was a positive step that showed we were moving in the right direction. You can blow it off, but how many recruits wouldn't have considered or signed with us that did if we had gone 3-9 for a second consecutive year? It's impossible to know for sure, but I bet the answer is 1 or more.

Recruiting is a zero sum game. If you tell me you want guys here for a 5th year, you have to reduce the size of your recruiting class. Or to put it another way, if KJ and AJ were on the squad this year, we would have had 1 less WR and DB in the 2016 class. AJ was a nice college player, but if he's back, we likely wouldn't have Winfield Jr on the roster right now. Part of the reason we're seeing so many young players this year is that our recruiting at some positions didn't pan out that well after the 2012 class.

As for predicting the roster 5 years, just 3 years ago most people would have thought Phil Nelson, Jeff Jones, Maxx Williams and Andre McDonald would be the key offensive contributors on the 2016 Gopher team. It didn't quite pan out that way.

I guess I'm wrong to have an opinion. I don't expect a lot of folks to agree with me and you obviously don't, so just back away from the keyboard and let it go. As for the zero-sum game part of the deal, if you have 85 scholarships, mete them out at 17 per year as your baseline, moving up or down a notch or two depending on the level of confidence you have in the recruits you want and how many guys leave. Don't fill out classes for the sake of filling out classes (which makes a walk-on program extremely important and ours has only been okay to date). I fully realize that it's not this nice and neat in the real world.

It wasn't me who brought up Antonio Johnson, so I don't know why you're throwing that my way. But if you state that Winfield is starting because the other guys we drafted at that position haven't turned out so well, don't you think that's an indication that Kill and Claeys have a ways to go in the recruiting department. If it were one or two freshmen a year, it would be one thing, but we've got at least a half dozen playing serious snaps. I, and let me stress I, don't think that's the way to achieve long-term success. I also realize that times have change and with more and more guys heading to the pros, freshmen are going to be relied upon more than in the past.
 

I would love to give Claeys more time. I see red flags already, however. He's not a CEO, He doesn't seem to do anything to sell the program, the buzz Coach Kill built is gone, they have new facilities going in and are 13 of 14 in recruiting for 2017. They are 6-2 with meaningful games in November and having to beg people to buy tickets to the two remaining games. I got a call from the ticket office yesterday. I still consider a new coach if we don't win 9 games.

The buzz went away with 5-7 last year, Kill's last year. That, combined with another idiotic price increase, decimated season ticket sales. Season tickets are what help keep the seats more full for games against other buzzless teams, such as Purdue. Can't blame Claeys too much for a lack of buzz (although the loss to Penn State didn't help).

There will be buzz if we beat Nebraska.
 




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