This should be fun. Reusse interview with Tracy Claeys

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Bob_Loblaw said:
You, literally, have the oddest takes of anyone on this board.

You rip on Claeys as a recruiter, well his only class contains the lion's share of our better players:
Antoine Winfield
Carter Coughlin
Tyler Johnson
Thomas Barber
Kamal Martin
Donnell Green
Connor Olson

The class also had Kobe McCrary, Coney Durr, Kiondre Thomas, Ko Keift and Seth Green (who has been one of our better offensive players).

That's a heck of a class.

Oh, and by the way, so far the best player from the 2017 class (Andries) committed to Claeys.


Now you're saying the defense would have been worse with Claeys than it is now, you're delusional.
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And all of those MN players committed early to Kill. Green and McCrary are bit players. I like Andries a lot but Fleck was also able to keep him committed.

It’s funny how the some of the Fleck negatives like to give all the credit to Annexstad for recruiting the other 2 IMG players. Yet they won’t admit that Coughlin held that entire MN class together through the coaching change to Claeys.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
And all of those MN players committed early to Kill. Green and McCrary are bit players. I like Andries a lot but Fleck was also able to keep him committed.

It’s funny how the some of the Fleck negatives like to give all the credit to Annexstad for recruiting the other 2 IMG players. Yet they won’t admit that Coughlin held that entire MN class together through the coaching change to Claeys.
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This ^^^^^
 

His 9 wins were really 9* wins
His recruiting class was only good because of MN players
Attendance was dropping
He’s lucky he wasn’t fired mid-season


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GopherWeatherGuy said:
And all of those MN players committed early to Kill. Green and McCrary are bit players. I like Andries a lot but Fleck was also able to keep him committed.

It’s funny how the some of the Fleck negatives like to give all the credit to Annexstad for recruiting the other 2 IMG players. Yet they won’t admit that Coughlin held that entire MN class together through the coaching change to Claeys.
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In the same post you give PJ credit for keeping one MN kid commit yet refuse to do the same for Claeys with a bunch of MN kids that are here because “they committed to Kill” and because “Coughlin held it together”. Did Tracy kick your dog? You take a shot and this season’s top scorer before giving credit to the old staff?


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A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
ietacwe.gif
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+..., I mean Spot o..., eh Agr..., umm AGHHH! *Slams phone down in frustration.*
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
And all of those MN players committed early to Kill. Green and McCrary are bit players. I like Andries a lot but Fleck was also able to keep him committed.

It’s funny how the some of the Fleck negatives like to give all the credit to Annexstad for recruiting the other 2 IMG players. Yet they won’t admit that Coughlin held that entire MN class together through the coaching change to Claeys.
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Haha. The statement in bold, you can't make it up. You don't see the lunacy in that statement? C'mon, give it another whirl.

Green is a Sophomore who is essentially our entire red zone offense. I get that it kills you that Green is doing well for the Gophers, but try imaging our red zone offense without him. Without Green, what are the chances the Gophers are 2-4 (0-3) with their only wins coming against Miami of Ohio and New Mexico State? I get it, you won't admit it, but it's an odd hill to die on.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone deflect praise for PJ by saying Annexstad recruited the guys from IMG. Fleck should get all of the credit for recruiting those players, if people are deflecting that praise and saying that it was just because of Annexstad, it's an awful take. It's equally as awful as the take that Coughlin kept the MN class together through the coaching change to Claeys.

We get it, you hate Claeys and you'd really like to re-write history on all of this.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Haha. The statement in bold, you can't make it up. You don't see the lunacy in that statement? C'mon, give it another whirl.

Green is a Sophomore who is essentially our entire red zone offense. I get that it kills you that Green is doing well for the Gophers, but try imaging our red zone offense without him. Without Green, what are the chances the Gophers are 2-4 (0-3) with their only wins coming against Miami of Ohio and New Mexico State? I get it, you won't admit it, but it's an odd hill to die on.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone deflect praise for PJ by saying Annexstad recruited the guys from IMG. Fleck should get all of the credit for recruiting those players, if people are deflecting that praise and saying that it was just because of Annexstad, it's an awful take. It's equally as awful as the take that Coughlin kept the MN class together through the coaching change to Claeys.

We get it, you hate Claeys and you'd really like to re-write history on all of this.
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Why in the world would I have an issue if Green is doing well? And Green is our entire redzone offense? The same offense that struggles to score when in opponents territory? So that's a good thing? Yes I see some lunacy in your statement.
Green still only averages 3.4 yards per carry in spot duty. If he was our every down QB, that'd likely drop. He's not a good passer. Our offense would be in much bigger trouble if he was the every down QB. But he's carved out a nice niche that helps the team, which is great. McCrary was still the 3rd string RB.

Yes a number of people have had the Annexstad recruiting take on here. It is an awful take. Claeys does deserve credit for holding the MN class together. Coughlin helped out as well by inviting a bunch of the recruits to his family cabin, but it was still the coaching staff that sealed the deal.

And for the 100th time, I have no hatred for Claeys. I liked him as a defensive coordinator, but not as a head coach. I've laid out many reasons why I don't think he would have been successful here long term, and why I don't think last years or this years teams would have been any better with him still in charge.
 




STPGopher said:
Ha! to add on to your point, Claeys basically told him he may want to look elsewhere if he wanted to play. Fleck talked Rhoda into coming back last season.
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Well the Fleck and Rhoda thing was a bit different, they had I think one eligible QB at the time Fleck was bringing back Rhoda... had to get a warm body.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Why in the world would I have an issue if Green is doing well? And Green is our entire redzone offense? The same offense that struggles to score when in opponents territory? So that's a good thing? Yes I see some lunacy in your statement.
Green still only averages 3.4 yards per carry in spot duty. If he was our every down QB, that'd likely drop. He's not a good passer. Our offense would be in much bigger trouble if he was the every down QB. But he's carved out a nice niche that helps the team, which is great. McCrary was still the 3rd string RB.

Yes a number of people have had the Annexstad recruiting take on here. It is an awful take. Claeys does deserve credit for holding the MN class together. Coughlin helped out as well by inviting a bunch of the recruits to his family cabin, but it was still the coaching staff that sealed the deal.

And for the 100th time, I have no hatred for Claeys. I liked him as a defensive coordinator, but not as a head coach. I've laid out many reasons why I don't think he would have been successful here long term, and why I don't think last years or this years teams would have been any better with him still in charge.
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Hard to average much more when a lion's share of those carries are short yardage and goal line where Ds are stacking against it. Hell, if he scores from the 3 his average goes down.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Well the Fleck and Rhoda thing was a bit different, they had I think one eligible QB at the time Fleck was bringing back Rhoda... had to get a warm body.
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I do get your point, but like you said, he was a walk-on. To further your point, he was told he would be buried on the depth chart if he stayed.
 



OddStack said:
Hard to average much more when a lion's share of those carries are short yardage and goal line where Ds are stacking against it. Hell, if he scores from the 3 his average goes down.
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No kidding. The guy makes gains when they know EXACTLY what's going to happen.
 

John Galt said:
Any coach that wins 9 games in the B1G should have multiple P5 head coaching options, right? Why do you think he doesn’t, and why does he have no interest in being a head coach?
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Just like Glen Mason? Gene Chizik? Larry Coker? Lane Kiffin? Steve Sarkisian? Jim Mora, Jr.? And on and on and on.

Really, really stupid post.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
And all of those MN players committed early to Kill. Green and McCrary are bit players. I like Andries a lot but Fleck was also able to keep him committed.

It’s funny how the some of the Fleck negatives like to give all the credit to Annexstad for recruiting the other 2 IMG players. Yet they won’t admit that Coughlin held that entire MN class together through the coaching change to Claeys.
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Claeys was able to keep all of the MN players (multiple) who committed early to Kill, and gets zero credit. Obviously, Coughlin, a 17-year-old child, deserves all of the credit - not a long-time professional football coach with a 7-figure salary. Fleck keeps Andries, a MN player (singular) who committed early to Claeys, and gets all of the credit.

You're a real piece of work.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Claeys was able to keep all of the MN players (multiple) who committed early to Kill, and gets zero credit. Obviously, Coughlin, a 17-year-old child, deserves all of the credit - not a long-time professional football coach with a 7-figure salary. Fleck keeps Andries, a MN player (singular) who committed early to Claeys, and gets all of the credit.

You're a real piece of work.
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I clearly gave credit to Claeys in my next post.
 

Many of us said "Don't let the door hit ya on way out TC", many others whine about how awesome a guy TC was/is and how he got a raw deal, that TC is all class.
Yet from what I can see, TC is definitely not full of class to be throwing out BS aobut how he wins 9 games with the talentless dumpster fire he and his boy Kill left here.

If it wasn't clear then, it should be now, that the Kill/TC experiement was a total failure. It didn't do anything to move the needle on Gopher football. It stopped, for a short while, the Brewster slide (talk about low bar against which to compare yourself), but in the end, we were still an under talented and underperforming when it counted, an average at best B1G football team. Kill got there by throwing the Brewster era under the bus, he tried to back out of real non-con games to continue the narrative of low expectations- except unlike Fleck who is actually saying we should manage our expectations, Kill and co actively lowered the bar without the fanfare in hopes we wouldn't notice as to celebrate his mediocirty. Having only known coaching for Kill his entire career, TC is just as complicit in the game.

So now, 2 years later, TC demonstrates what we all knew him to be, not ready for primetime. Sure, he could coordinate some power 5 defenses, I think we'd all agree probably better than the guy we got now, but so that makes TC an expert on knowing what QB to start? On how to win games with even less talent than he had season before? TC was going to be just another go around with the failed Kill way, he isn't entitled to his own 3 -5 year plan, because he's litreally got nothing on his resume that says he'd even know how to do it different than Kill.

(Side note- I thought the most interesting shot TC took was at Kill, when he said Leach isn't so one-dimensional as to only be able to talk football)

I don't know if the Fleck experiment is going to work, I know he is trying to move the needle, by my measures he's doing what he needs to do to get us ready for next level, only left is the winning, which in the end is going to be the only measure or movement of the needle that matters.

I'd love to know how many other Power5 programs have to deal with endless sour grapes from preivous coaches? I'd guess it is uncommon, since most other Power5 coaches are able to actually find another head coaching job to focus on instead of the one they had and botched.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Just like Glen Mason? Gene Chizik? Larry Coker? Lane Kiffin? Steve Sarkisian? Jim Mora, Jr.? And on and on and on.

Really, really stupid post.
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Quit being so harsh! If only some of those guys had National Championship credibility as Head Coaches.....oh wait...nevermind.

(Chizik and Coker if some aren't sure)
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Why in the world would I have an issue if Green is doing well? And Green is our entire redzone offense? The same offense that struggles to score when in opponents territory? So that's a good thing? Yes I see some lunacy in your statement.
Green still only averages 3.4 yards per carry in spot duty. If he was our every down QB, that'd likely drop. He's not a good passer. Our offense would be in much bigger trouble if he was the every down QB. But he's carved out a nice niche that helps the team, which is great. McCrary was still the 3rd string RB.

Yes a number of people have had the Annexstad recruiting take on here. It is an awful take. Claeys does deserve credit for holding the MN class together. Coughlin helped out as well by inviting a bunch of the recruits to his family cabin, but it was still the coaching staff that sealed the deal.

And for the 100th time, I have no hatred for Claeys. I liked him as a defensive coordinator, but not as a head coach. I've laid out many reasons why I don't think he would have been successful here long term, and why I don't think last years or this years teams would have been any better with him still in charge.
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My statement? The one where I laughed at your hypocritical take. Ok.

Yeah, that Green that is our entire redzone offense. An offense that would absolutely abysmal without him. Can you honestly imagine our redzone offense without Seth Green? It would be incredibly bad. As far as Green, I never claimed he was a good QB and never made the argument that he should be our every down QB. It seems like maybe you see lunacy in my statement because you didn't read it.

As far as your Annexstand opinion, I agree it's an awful take. I don't know why you doubled down on it talking about Coughlin's cabin.
 

edma0012 said:
Many of us said "Don't let the door hit ya on way out TC", many others whine about how awesome a guy TC was/is and how he got a raw deal, that TC is all class.
Yet from what I can see, TC is definitely not full of class to be throwing out BS aobut how he wins 9 games with the talentless dumpster fire he and his boy Kill left here.

If it wasn't clear then, it should be now, that the Kill/TC experiement was a total failure. It didn't do anything to move the needle on Gopher football. It stopped, for a short while, the Brewster slide (talk about low bar against which to compare yourself), but in the end, we were still an under talented and underperforming when it counted, an average at best B1G football team. Kill got there by throwing the Brewster era under the bus, he tried to back out of real non-con games to continue the narrative of low expectations- except unlike Fleck who is actually saying we should manage our expectations, Kill and co actively lowered the bar without the fanfare in hopes we wouldn't notice as to celebrate his mediocirty. Having only known coaching for Kill his entire career, TC is just as complicit in the game.

So now, 2 years later, TC demonstrates what we all knew him to be, not ready for primetime. Sure, he could coordinate some power 5 defenses, I think we'd all agree probably better than the guy we got now, but so that makes TC an expert on knowing what QB to start? On how to win games with even less talent than he had season before? TC was going to be just another go around with the failed Kill way, he isn't entitled to his own 3 -5 year plan, because he's litreally got nothing on his resume that says he'd even know how to do it different than Kill.

(Side note- I thought the most interesting shot TC took was at Kill, when he said Leach isn't so one-dimensional as to only be able to talk football)

I don't know if the Fleck experiment is going to work, I know he is trying to move the needle, by my measures he's doing what he needs to do to get us ready for next level, only left is the winning, which in the end is going to be the only measure or movement of the needle that matters.

I'd love to know how many other Power5 programs have to deal with endless sour grapes from preivous coaches? I'd guess it is uncommon, since most other Power5 coaches are able to actually find another head coaching job to focus on instead of the one they had and botched.
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If the program underperformed during the Kill/Claeys era, PJ better start winning in a hurry. He better start winning a lot.

As far as what TC demonstrated 2 years later, yeah, he's shown he's a good defensive coordinator. As far as not being ready for primetime, well, I don't know where you've drawn that conclusion. His successor is 8-11 (2-11 in the Big 10) and he was 9-4 (5-4 in the Big 10).

As far as PJ doing everything he needs to do to get us ready for the next level, what does that even mean? People get giddy about his recruiting (including me), so other than a spike in some recruiting rankings, what are you seeing that makes you think we are closer to winning now.
 

edma0012 said:
Many of us said "Don't let the door hit ya on way out TC", many others whine about how awesome a guy TC was/is and how he got a raw deal, that TC is all class.
Yet from what I can see, TC is definitely not full of class to be throwing out BS aobut how he wins 9 games with the talentless dumpster fire he and his boy Kill left here.

If it wasn't clear then, it should be now, that the Kill/TC experiement was a total failure. It didn't do anything to move the needle on Gopher football. It stopped, for a short while, the Brewster slide (talk about low bar against which to compare yourself), but in the end, we were still an under talented and underperforming when it counted, an average at best B1G football team. Kill got there by throwing the Brewster era under the bus, he tried to back out of real non-con games to continue the narrative of low expectations- except unlike Fleck who is actually saying we should manage our expectations, Kill and co actively lowered the bar without the fanfare in hopes we wouldn't notice as to celebrate his mediocirty. Having only known coaching for Kill his entire career, TC is just as complicit in the game.

So now, 2 years later, TC demonstrates what we all knew him to be, not ready for primetime. Sure, he could coordinate some power 5 defenses, I think we'd all agree probably better than the guy we got now, but so that makes TC an expert on knowing what QB to start? On how to win games with even less talent than he had season before? TC was going to be just another go around with the failed Kill way, he isn't entitled to his own 3 -5 year plan, because he's litreally got nothing on his resume that says he'd even know how to do it different than Kill.

(Side note- I thought the most interesting shot TC took was at Kill, when he said Leach isn't so one-dimensional as to only be able to talk football)

I don't know if the Fleck experiment is going to work, I know he is trying to move the needle, by my measures he's doing what he needs to do to get us ready for next level, only left is the winning, which in the end is going to be the only measure or movement of the needle that matters.

I'd love to know how many other Power5 programs have to deal with endless sour grapes from preivous coaches? I'd guess it is uncommon, since most other Power5 coaches are able to actually find another head coaching job to focus on instead of the one they had and botched.
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Blame Coyle! How Many AD's Go on the rant he did when firing Claeys?
 

I liked the Claeys/Kill era and am saddened by how it ended. That said, their recruiting got worse over the years. Barber, Martin, Durr, Thomas are a far cry from Campbell, Wilson, Murray, Myrick. Seth Green and Neil McClauren as QB's starting last year, with the former crop of WR's?

To think that Claeys would have had successful seasons last and this year is a big stretch, in my opinion.
 

balds said:
I liked the Claeys/Kill era and am saddened by how it ended. That said, their recruiting got worse over the years. <b>Barber, Martin, Durr, Thomas are a far cry from Campbell, Wilson, Murray, Myrick. </b>Seth Green and Neil McClauren as QB's starting last year, with the former crop of WR's?

To think that Claeys would have had successful seasons last and this year is a big stretch, in my opinion.
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Some truth in the bold, but not sure TB41 belongs. I think he has a good shot to play in the NFL.


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balds said:
I liked the Claeys/Kill era and am saddened by how it ended. That said, their recruiting got worse over the years. Barber, Martin, Durr, Thomas are a far cry from Campbell, Wilson, Murray, Myrick. Seth Green and Neil McClauren as QB's starting last year, with the former crop of WR's?

To think that Claeys would have had successful seasons last and this year is a big stretch, in my opinion.
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I think it is natural for recruiting to suffer a bit when the head coach quits in the middle of the year and the interim coach obviously never had the support of the AD and President of the University. Claeys was paid very little to be our head coach and never received the support he deserved. Any potential recruit could see that things at the U were unstable at best. I still think that one of the biggest reasons Claeys was fired was that Coyle didn't think Claeys appearance was how he wanted his head coach to present himself. I support Fleck, but I would be happy if TC was still here.
 

Spoofin said:
In the same post you give PJ credit for keeping one MN kid commit yet refuse to do the same for Claeys with a bunch of MN kids that are here because “they committed to Kill” and because “Coughlin held it together”. Did Tracy kick your dog? You take a shot and this season’s top scorer before giving credit to the old staff?


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So glad you are back Spoofin
 

The Brewster regime was an absolute malignancy on this program and the Kill/Claeys/Leidner era was the metastatic disease. Fans were so shell shocked by the absolute ineptitude of Brewster that the slightest competence made them giddy. But Kill/Claeys/Leidner were losers too. They never beat a team that finished the season ranked. They beat bad teams and altered the schedule to find more. They lost to mediocre to good teams. One win over Washington State (Washington State!) is not a signature victory or any hallmark of success. They were losers and it is good they are gone.

This is in no way related to Fleck. He may or may not also be a loser. I think he will be better but that is only hope. His success or failure doesn’t change that Kill and Claeys were complete duds - boring football, zero signature wins. If Fleck proves incompetent then we change again. When you don’t see the success you want, you make a change. You make your best guess but that change may bring in a loser. You still have to make the change, even if you go from one loser to another. Change until you find a winner. And not a 5-3 weak B1G and win over WSU cat. A legit winner.
 

By those standards, the Gophers have not been a legit winner since 1961.

Since 1905 - yes, I said 1905 - the Gophers have had 1 10-win season (under Mason) and 1 9-win season (under Claeys).

Yes - I know they play more games in a season now. But the numbers are what they are. Since the last National Title in 1961, the best four-year stretch for Gopher football is 2002-2005, with 32 wins (under Mason). The second best four-year stretch was 2013-2016 with 31 wins (under Kill and Claeys).

The Gophers have not been a college football "power" in almost 60 years. So, by Sam's standards, every Gopher team since then have been "losers."

You can say I'm settling for mediocrity, or that I'm not striving for greatness. But 8 wins for me is a good season by Gopher standards. And those are the only standards we can measure them by. It's like some guy comes up to you on the street and hands you 10 bucks, and you throw it back at him, because you say you will only take 50 bucks. Me, I'll take the 10 bucks and be happy.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
My statement? The one where I laughed at your hypocritical take. Ok.

Yeah, that Green that is our entire redzone offense. An offense that would absolutely abysmal without him. Can you honestly imagine our redzone offense without Seth Green? It would be incredibly bad. As far as Green, I never claimed he was a good QB and never made the argument that he should be our every down QB. It seems like maybe you see lunacy in my statement because you didn't read it.

As far as your Annexstand opinion, I agree it's an awful take. I don't know why you doubled down on it talking about Coughlin's cabin.
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How do you know that? They put Green in nearly every time they are in the redzone. We've barely seen them stick to their normal offense in the redzone, I'd actually like to see more of that. The offense becomes too predictable with Green at QB. I'd like to see Green catch more balls too.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
By those standards, the Gophers have not been a legit winner since 1961.

Since 1905 - yes, I said 1905 - the Gophers have had 1 10-win season (under Mason) and 1 9-win season (under Claeys).

Yes - I know they play more games in a season now. But the numbers are what they are. Since the last National Title in 1961, the best four-year stretch for Gopher football is 2002-2005, with 32 wins (under Mason). The second best four-year stretch was 2013-2016 with 31 wins (under Kill and Claeys).

The Gophers have not been a college football "power" in almost 60 years. So, by Sam's standards, every Gopher team since then have been "losers."

You can say I'm settling for mediocrity, or that I'm not striving for greatness. But 8 wins for me is a good season by Gopher standards. And those are the only standards we can measure them by. It's like some guy comes up to you on the street and hands you 10 bucks, and you throw it back at him, because you say you will only take 50 bucks. Me, I'll take the 10 bucks and be happy.
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No it isn’t like some guy giving you money. That analogy doesn’t work here.

8 wins can absolutely be a good season - it depends on who you beat. Those are standards to measure also.

You’re right when you say the program has not been a winner for a long time. They have been losers. I was not satisfied with the lack of success against more highly ranked teams. Even by random chance it seems we should have won some. But we didn’t. Not good enough. I don’t care if you’re Kill or Claeys or Fleck, have to get some wins against ranked squads.

In those games against more highly touted squads under Kill/Claeys, did you ever have sincere confidence we could pull some out? You shouldn’t have, because a pattern quickly developed that showed exactly the opposite.

Again, that analogy about receiving free money is not applicable.
 

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