Kansas coaching search: Les Miles and 5 candidates (5. Tracy Claeys)


I am so sick and tired of people saying Tracy Claeys was not head coaching material and the best he can do in life is as a defensive coordinator. I am sorry but words don't meld with the facts. Yes, Tracy was still learning how to be fully charge on game day and that debacle against Michigan was unfortunate, but its better than losing 55-17 which would surely happen this year.

Totally agree, but I also hate when people lay the Michigan debacle on him. He wasn’t even the full time head coach then was he? If memory serves me correctly, and often it doesn’t. Kill just resigned during that week, and they fell into their normal Kill is out duties, Claeys was acting or interim head coach on the sideline but it was basically he ran the defense, Limegrover did the offense. I wouldn’t expect him to know in that situation that the play his O coordinator called was a 12 second (or so) multiple shifting pre snap play as time was winding down. He had to trust his O Coordinator there. I think that play sealed Limey’s fate when Claeys got the job.
 

Totally agree, but I also hate when people lay the Michigan debacle on him. He wasn’t even the full time head coach then was he? If memory serves me correctly, and often it doesn’t. Kill just resigned during that week, and they fell into their normal Kill is out duties, Claeys was acting or interim head coach on the sideline but it was basically he ran the defense, Limegrover did the offense. I wouldn’t expect him to know in that situation that the play his O coordinator called was a 12 second (or so) multiple shifting pre snap play as time was winding down. He had to trust his O Coordinator there. I think that play sealed Limey’s fate when Claeys got the job.

Claeys struggled a bit in game management, but man, it'd sure be nice if that were our problem now.
 

Totally agree, but I also hate when people lay the Michigan debacle on him. He wasn’t even the full time head coach then was he? If memory serves me correctly, and often it doesn’t. Kill just resigned during that week, and they fell into their normal Kill is out duties, Claeys was acting or interim head coach on the sideline but it was basically he ran the defense, Limegrover did the offense. I wouldn’t expect him to know in that situation that the play his O coordinator called was a 12 second (or so) multiple shifting pre snap play as time was winding down. He had to trust his O Coordinator there. I think that play sealed Limey’s fate when Claeys got the job.

I agree. I was also a fan of going for 2 to put us up 9 (failed, IIRC, and I don't recall who that was against). Ballsy though.
 

I agree. I was also a fan of going for 2 to put us up 9 (failed, IIRC, and I don't recall who that was against). Ballsy though.

Claeys did it against Illinois in 2015 (successfully) for his first conference win.
 



I agree. I was also a fan of going for 2 to put us up 9 (failed, IIRC, and I don't recall who that was against). Ballsy though.

I agree on that.
If you don't get it, you are still up 7 and the other team probably opts for the tie.
 






Claeys struggled a bit in game management, but man, it'd sure be nice if that were our problem now.
PJ has struggled with that too. Lots of time outs used when they could be avoided.

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I think most folks on the board (me included) would love to see Tracy get the head coaching job at Kansas. He could bring in Jay, and Mike and maybe Jim Carter would move to Lawrence.. Win/Win. I am on the side of he was a very good DC and part of a very good staff, I would like to see him get a chance, but I'm glad that he isn't our head coach. If Jerry didn't get sick, he would still be our head coach and Tracy would still be our DC. If he gets the job and does great, we will never hear the end of it from some folks on this board. If he gets the job is unable to sell the program to 18 year kids and the alumni, then the other half will feel vindicated in some way. The simple fact is that no matter what, he's never coming back here unless by some miracle we can schedule a game with Kansas and sell out the Bank..
 




The hated Tracy Claeys accomplished this monumental feat a mere two years ago. He only won by 23 points - probably not enough, I suppose.

I was at that game! Fun for us Gopher fans! Dick Butkus was honored at halftime as well.
 

The hated Tracy Claeys accomplished this monumental feat a mere two years ago. He only won by 23 points - probably not enough, I suppose.
No one can compare to TC.
 

Home game.
Senior Junior QB in the last or second last game of the season.

Makes a difference.

Are you for real? You are now justifying our lose at IL? Not as good as GWG’s posts explaining Purdue’s success away by age and completely abandoning the Talent Ranking drum he beat so hard last year - but still a true smh moment.

Never change FtF. You are precious.


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Are you for real? You are now justifying our lose at IL? Not as good as GWG’s posts explaining Purdue’s success away by age and completely abandoning the Talent Ranking drum he beat so hard last year - but still a true smh moment.

Never change FtF. You are precious.


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When did I do that?
 

When did I do that?

What are you getting at here...

And I'll never believe Fleck is actually purposely tanking games. Yes, he's building more for the future than today, and he has said that. <b>But when you inherit a gutted roster with little depth, it's not easy to win now.

This was also in the article: Freshmen in 2018 depth chart: Purdue - 11, Minnesota: 32</b>

They've both taken about the same number of JUCOs, so Brohm hasn't gone that route. <b>Fleck didn't run off a bunch of upperclassmen that are having success elsewhere. The rosters that each inherited were very different, and Purdue's was setup more to win now.</b>

You have neglected that Purdue was a steaming pile with that inherited roster and completely ignored the all mighty Talent Rankings.


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What are you getting at here...



You have neglected that Purdue was a steaming pile with that inherited roster and completely ignored the all mighty Talent Rankings.


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I was just making a true statement. Age plays a factor, but talent is still the number 1 factor. I've never once abandoned the talent argument. Stop making stuff up.
 

I was just making a true statement. Age plays a factor, but talent is still the number 1 factor. I've never once abandoned the talent argument. Stop making stuff up.

OK. Have a nice evening.


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For the Peter Principle to be invoked, he'd have had to have failed.

The guy has been successful as a DC and was made a HC and went 9-4. You might want to re-read that book.

Our situation was so unique, I'm not entirely sure if Claeys would make a good HC. I do know that from all of the evidence, he did a nice job in the one season he was here. I know, I know, the 9 wins were easy. But his successor has a total of 9 wins in two seasons (3 Big 10 wins compared to the 5 in 2016).

He got fired due to poor recruiting, awful ticket sales, and a scandal that spun out of control right under his nose.
That's not a "good job." He failed at everything except for football. It's like hiring a secretary that keeps the office in order, but turns around and embezzles all your money.

Keeping the office in order might be their core function, but when they **** up everything else then they're not still a good secretary.

I do think Tracy deserves another chance somewhere, but he needs a ton of grooming and someone to hold his hand while he figures out the whole 'leadership' aspect of coaching.

He's a good strategist and a really really bad leader.
 
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He got fired due to poor recruiting, awful ticket sales, and a scandal that spun out of control right under his nose.
That's not a "good job." He failed at everything except for football. It's like hiring a secretary that keeps the office in order, but turns around and embezzles all your money.

Keeping the office in order might be their core function, but when they **** up everything else then they're not still a good secretary.

I do think Tracy deserves another chance somewhere, but he needs a ton of grooming and someone to hold his hand while he figures out the whole 'leadership' aspect of coaching.

He's a good strategist and a really really bad leader.

Or a really good leader for doing what was right and standing up for falsely accused and wrongly punished players even though he knew it might cost him his job...all a matter of perspective.
 

He got fired due to poor recruiting, awful ticket sales, and a scandal that spun out of control right under his nose.
That's not a "good job." He failed at everything except for football.

Careful now. TC had only one complete class and it was ranked higher than PJ’s first and virtually the same as PJ’s second. Attendance was also higher under TC than it is now. As you mentioned, TC didn’t fail at football so he has that edge as well. If I didn’t know better I would think you are calling for PJ to be fired?


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Careful now. TC had only one complete class and it was ranked higher than PJ’s first and virtually the same as PJ’s second. Attendance was also higher under TC than it is now. As you mentioned, TC didn’t fail at football so he has that edge as well. If I didn’t know better I would think you are calling for PJ to be fired?

They never like to mention the F word when they talk about the reasons he was fired. But we all know it mattered to Coyle.
 

I really wish we would stop posting these things. We get to hear from the same 3 or 4 guys that wins are an outdated measure of success. There are some of us that want PJ to succeed and the Gophers to succeed, but realize that talking bad about Claeys and his nine wins is pointless. At the end of the day PJ isn't going to choose any of you fellas in the rose ceremony, so just support him like regular fans and respect Gophers who came before him.
 

Careful now. TC had only one complete class and it was ranked higher than PJ’s first and virtually the same as PJ’s second. Attendance was also higher under TC than it is now. As you mentioned, TC didn’t fail at football so he has that edge as well. If I didn’t know better I would think you are calling for PJ to be fired?


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I have no patience for PJ's performance this year, but that has no meaning when evaluating Claeys' HC potential.
I don't think Claeys is a good candidate. I think he's a slightly below average candidate with a lot of upside.

I think Kansas would be a good fit for him, but after watching his mismanagement at Minnesota, I don't know that I would feel comfortable with his preparedness at another P5 school.

Whether you think he should have supported the boycott or not, he handled it horribly.

A clumsy Tweet did nothing to advance the players' interest and cost him his own job.

He could have talked the players down, helped them come up with a strategy to address Coyle and the media, and acted like a true head coach, but instead, he Tweeted out an insubordinate and poorly thought out message that escalated the situation.

That was stupid and if you think that was the correct thing to do then I question your judgement as well.

He deserved to get fired and given his clumsy media campaign to recover from it, I don't think he learned much from that situation.

If he ever learns how to lead in crisis then he'll be a great head coach, but, if I was an AD, I would never, ever, take a shot on him.
 
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I have no patience for PJ's performance this year, but that has no meaning when evaluating Claeys' HC potential.
I don't think Claeys is a good candidate. I think he's a slightly below average candidate with a lot of upside.

I think Kansas would be a good fit for him, but after watching his mismanagement at Minnesota, I don't know that I would feel comfortable with his preparedness at another P5 school.

Whether you think he should have supported the boycott or not, he handled it horribly.

A clumsy Tweet did nothing to advance the players' interest and cost him his own job.

He could have talked the players down, helped them come up with a strategy to address Coyle and the media, and acted like a true head coach, but instead, he Tweeted out an insubordinate and poorly thought out message that escalated the situation.

That was stupid and <b>if you think that was the correct thing to do then I question your judgement as well.</b>

Well, I don’t so.........


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He got fired due to poor recruiting, awful ticket sales, and a scandal that spun out of control right under his nose.
That's not a "good job." He failed at everything except for football. It's like hiring a secretary that keeps the office in order, but turns around and embezzles all your money.

Keeping the office in order might be their core function, but when they **** up everything else then they're not still a good secretary.

I do think Tracy deserves another chance somewhere, but he needs a ton of grooming and someone to hold his hand while he figures out the whole 'leadership' aspect of coaching.

He's a good strategist and a really really bad leader.

It's absolutely nothing like your example.
It's like a secretary who does a good job but then gets fired because she won't take a bribe. Tracy was right to stand by his players, what more proof do you need? The President who threw him under the bus was run out of town. The head of the EOAA was run out of town.
Tracy Claeys was right to stand by his players, the fact that you think standing up for what is right makes someone a "really really bad leader" says quite a bit about you.

As far as football, yeah, we agreed on something. He did a much better job than Fleck, so far.
 




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