Am I the only one who sees a contradiction here:
fans say "Claeys would have failed." Same fans say "Fleck will succeed." Based on what? Speculation and hope, respectively.
We don't know what Claeys would have done with a year 2 or 3. We don't know what players he and his staff would have recruited, or how those players would have fit into their system. But people "know" he would have failed.
My gut feeling is that Claeys - given a chance - would have kept the Gopher program at a respectable if not great level - let's say averaging 7.5 wins a year over a 5-year period. Now, some will say "that's not good enough." fine. you have a right to your opinion.
but, I will point this out: Fleck won 5 games last year. he's heading for (maybe) a 5 or 6 win season this year. so, for Fleck to average that "not good enough" level of 7.5 wins a year, assuming he's at 10 or 11 wins after this year, then Fleck will have to win an average of 8.8 games a season for years 3 through 5.
we will see what happens.
