I know, I know, but this is so ironic for Claeys...

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The best percentage winning record for any coach since Bierman retired in 1950 is...Tracy Claeys. Officially he's 11-8 (.578). But it gets better if you look at the losses - in 2015 three close losses to teams that finished in the top 12 (Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan) plus a loss to Wisconsin, which finished 21st in final polls. In 2016, a very close loss to top ten finisher Penn State and to top ten Wisconsin, in which the Gophers were tied going into the final quarter, plus close losses to Nebraska and Iowa, both of which were ranked much of the season. Those are the eight losses. Compare to Wacker, Salem, Brewster, etc.

Also, I seem to remember that Claeys coached a few winning games from the sidelines when Kill was in the press box due to illness - Nebraska, 2013? That would make Claeys 12 or 13-8 against very tough competition. Nineteen games, officially, are not a lot, but Wes Fesler coached only 27 over three seasons.

Claeys was a good football coach, but I've heard nothing about him being hired anywhere for next year. Ideally, he and Kill would both be at Kansas.
 

I like TC.

I wouldn't have had a problem rolling forward with him.

Having said that:

It was one year.

He deserves lots of credit for his work.... but also shouldn't get all the credit for building that team.

I also don't think things would have been nearly as great this year without a QB and etc...

TC should be a DC somewhere, not a HC.
 

Tracy Claeys didn’t really beat anybody, couldn’t coach situational football, couldn’t recruit, and showed he had zero institutional control along with not being a marketable person.

Pair that with the fact that he probably wants to be a head coach and you aren’t going to get very far.

What Power 5 school would be excited about bringing him in in a head coaching role? I think every AD would rather have a more proven guy or a young up and coming guy than Tracy.


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How long do we have to go until these random tributes to TC can stop. Hey, we all appreciate what he did for the U, but we have moved on.


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Hopefully he's doing his X's and O's thing once again. Even for peewee football...

A great defensive mind.

I expect to watch the 1 hour version of last year's bowl game again before the end of the year.

Then I'll watch this year's Nebraska game again. Both good times with two different coaches.

Hopefully TC gets to pick his spot. Whoever that is will be blessed with good schemes whether the players can execute or not.
 

Personally I am boycotting this year's bowl game.
 

The best percentage winning record for any coach since Bierman retired in 1950 is...Tracy Claeys. Officially he's 11-8 (.578). But it gets better if you look at the losses - in 2015 three close losses to teams that finished in the top 12 (Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan) plus a loss to Wisconsin, which finished 21st in final polls. In 2016, a very close loss to top ten finisher Penn State and to top ten Wisconsin, in which the Gophers were tied going into the final quarter, plus close losses to Nebraska and Iowa, both of which were ranked much of the season. Those are the eight losses. Compare to Wacker, Salem, Brewster, etc.

Also, I seem to remember that Claeys coached a few winning games from the sidelines when Kill was in the press box due to illness - Nebraska, 2013? That would make Claeys 12 or 13-8 against very tough competition. Nineteen games, officially, are not a lot, but Wes Fesler coached only 27 over three seasons.

Claeys was a good football coach, but I've heard nothing about him being hired anywhere for next year. Ideally, he and Kill would both be at Kansas.

What is sample size?
 




If Clayes went to Kansas they wouldn't win more than 3 games in any the 3 years he would be there before he got fired.
 

I feel like Kill (if his health was ok) with Claeys as DC would be able to get Kansas to a bowl by year 3 or 4, which would be massive for that program.
 

But the way he lost the games to those ranked teams was terrible.
 



How long do we have to go until these random tributes to TC can stop. Hey, we all appreciate what he did for the U, but we have moved on.


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Until Fleck has some on field success at the U of M there will be a group of fans that pine for the good ole days of Kill/Claeys.

I get it to a degree with Kill, they loved his schtick and he did a solid job here before "retiring" for health reasons. I don't get it with Claeys, he was a great DC and did an adequate job filling in for Kill but he is just not cut out to be a power 5 Head Coach. I haven't been paying super close attention to the coaching carousel because we are not on it this year but I don't seem to be hearing his name come up much as a target for the open jobs out there.
 


Until Fleck has some on field success at the U of M there will be a group of fans that pine for the good ole days of Kill/Claeys.

I get it to a degree with Kill, they loved his schtick and he did a solid job here before "retiring" for health reasons. I don't get it with Claeys, he was a great DC and did an adequate job filling in for Kill but he is just not cut out to be a power 5 Head Coach. I haven't been paying super close attention to the coaching carousel because we are not on it this year but I don't seem to be hearing his name come up much as a target for the open jobs out there.

You think that it's Claeys performance on the field that school's are concerned about? Seriously? After the nationwide discussion last year over the incident and in today's climate there were gonna be a lot of schools who were gonna take the heat and go out and hire Claeys? Make that any school. Are you unaware of the uproar in Tennessee over Schiano? You think it was just about his failure at Tampa Bay? You think that people are gonna look at the finals results of the investigation into what happened at the U and just forget all the falsehoods that were generated and repeated nationwide beforehand?

Must be because he's fat and only went 9-4 last season. That's why he hasn't been hired. At least on Gopher internet boards.
 

But the way he lost the games to those ranked teams was terrible.

True. Take a look at the P.J. Fleck job rumors thread. That's why nobody has been interested in Fleck since the start of the Big Ten season.
 

By the way, get use to seeing this topic and threads like it again and again and again. Sure it's tiresome reading all the b.s. in them and certainly nobody has to read or post in them, but they are not going to disappear. Why?

This thread already has over 1,100 looks. :D
 

I just can't help thinking about what could have been. We could be about to experience year two of Claeys' recruiting scheme whereby we wait for recruiting to be over and then select the players best suited to our system from the pool of kids who weren't good enough to go anywhere else. Think of all the energy we would save by not wasting it on recruiting kids that were impossible to get anyway.
 

Most assistant hires and movement will take place at December 20th and bowl season.
 

I thought Tracy was an awesome DC and filled in admirably as a HC. I appreciate all that he gave but I view his HC tenure in the same vein as Jeff Horton - interim/placeholder. His time was just longer than Horton's.
 

I feel like Kill (if his health was ok) with Claeys as DC would be able to get Kansas to a bowl by year 3 or 4, which would be massive for that program.

I agree, but who knows?

from Fredcox: "But the way he lost the games to those ranked teams was terrible."
Give me a break. How Mason repeatedly lost games was the worst! Although Claeys had things to prove over a longer period of time, from what I saw he could coach.
 

I liked Claeys, thought Coyle and Kaler did him dirty, but I am just sick and tired of being sick and tired when it comes to talking about this. Tracy took it like a man and moved on, the only positive about T.C now is we no longer talk about Mason
 

How long do we have to go until these random tributes to TC can stop. Hey, we all appreciate what he did for the U, but we have moved on.

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Why should we stop talking about our former head coach? Would you b*tch if somebody posted an appreciation of Gutekunst or Stoll? It doesn't harm you, so let it roll off your back, man.
 

Try finding out what Coach Claeys is up now, just go ahead and google it.

I think the results speak for themselves, on whether or not he was a legit Power 5 head coach material
 

My opinion has always been Claeys and staff got a raw deal from the U. It's over and done. Time to move on and turn the page. If I was a University AD I would absolutely consider hiring him as a DC. Maybe a HC If I'm a group of 5 school or FCS.
 

My opinion has always been Claeys and staff got a raw deal from the U. It's over and done. Time to move on and turn the page. If I was a University AD I would absolutely consider hiring him as a DC. Maybe a HC If I'm a group of 5 school or FCS.

Yup, I agree. I would definitely interview Tracy as a defensive coordinator at any program. If I have my choice of all the available candidates for a head coaching position...Tracy might get an interview at a lower profile school but I think I'm going a different direction. But, DC absolutely!
Having said that, was his tenure at the U handled really poorly by administration? 100% for certain.
 


Try finding out what Coach Claeys is up now, just go ahead and google it.

I think the results speak for themselves, on whether or not he was a legit Power 5 head coach material

For those that don't want to take the time:

What is Tracy Claeys Doing Now?
Tracy Claeys Hot Seat Status:
Fired from Minnesota on 1/3/2017
Tracy Claeys
Unemployed at Few Options
 

Yup, I agree. I would definitely interview Tracy as a defensive coordinator at any program. If I have my choice of all the available candidates for a head coaching position...Tracy might get an interview at a lower profile school but I think I'm going a different direction. But, DC absolutely!
Having said that, was his tenure at the U handled really poorly by administration? 100% for certain.

I am actually a little surprised he has not snagged a DC job already but I would think he will here at some point before this year's carousel stops spinning. I will be very surprised if he resurfaces as a head coach somewhere unless it is at a much lower level school (FCS, non power 5...). Won't surprise me one bit to see him pop up as a power 5 level DC somewhere, I think he clearly showed during his time here that he could get it done as a DC at this level.
 




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