BleedGopher
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per Sid:
Let’s face facts, if Tracy Claeys had coached the Gophers this season, there is no doubt that he would have been fired at the end of the season because the team’s tough schedule would have prevented him from winning enough games to keep his job.
While Claeys most likely would have won the first three games against Buffalo, Oregon State and Middle Tennessee, the rest of the year would have been tough.
The Gophers open the Big Ten against an improved Maryland team, then face Purdue, Michigan State, and Illinois, all winnable games as well.
But the Gophers face a brutal finish — with games at Iowa and Michigan, Nebraska at home, at Northwestern and Wisconsin at home.
That scheduled, coupled with inexperienced and thin lines on both sides of the ball and no established quarterback would have doomed Claeys.
Some good sources claim that even though athletic director Mark Coyle had assured Claeys at one time that he would be back in 2017, Coyle had decided that he had to change the image of the football coach and was already interviewing coaches before the Gophers bowl game. And Coyle already knew he was going to fire Claeys before the bowl game was over, and P.J. Fleck was going to be the man.
Winning the bowl game, even shorthanded, was not going to help Claeys.
And while some believe Fleck already was lined up as the coach, he said that under no circumstances was he hired before Jan. 6, when it was announced.
And as for the decision to remove Claeys, Coyle made it very clear that after everything that happened around the program last year he was willing to pay the price to change the program’s image, giving Fleck a five-year deal worth $3.5 million per season.
http://www.startribune.com/had-he-s...o-succeed-as-gophers-coach-in-2017/442311823/
Go Gophers!!
Let’s face facts, if Tracy Claeys had coached the Gophers this season, there is no doubt that he would have been fired at the end of the season because the team’s tough schedule would have prevented him from winning enough games to keep his job.
While Claeys most likely would have won the first three games against Buffalo, Oregon State and Middle Tennessee, the rest of the year would have been tough.
The Gophers open the Big Ten against an improved Maryland team, then face Purdue, Michigan State, and Illinois, all winnable games as well.
But the Gophers face a brutal finish — with games at Iowa and Michigan, Nebraska at home, at Northwestern and Wisconsin at home.
That scheduled, coupled with inexperienced and thin lines on both sides of the ball and no established quarterback would have doomed Claeys.
Some good sources claim that even though athletic director Mark Coyle had assured Claeys at one time that he would be back in 2017, Coyle had decided that he had to change the image of the football coach and was already interviewing coaches before the Gophers bowl game. And Coyle already knew he was going to fire Claeys before the bowl game was over, and P.J. Fleck was going to be the man.
Winning the bowl game, even shorthanded, was not going to help Claeys.
And while some believe Fleck already was lined up as the coach, he said that under no circumstances was he hired before Jan. 6, when it was announced.
And as for the decision to remove Claeys, Coyle made it very clear that after everything that happened around the program last year he was willing to pay the price to change the program’s image, giving Fleck a five-year deal worth $3.5 million per season.
http://www.startribune.com/had-he-s...o-succeed-as-gophers-coach-in-2017/442311823/
Go Gophers!!