Former Gophers DC Tracy Claeys Announces Retirement

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Tommyboy said:
Kill and TC are the coaches that recruited all of last years players that are now in the pros, all were from Minnesota. Not bad.
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They recruited 4 of the 5, Fleck brought in the fifth and only non native, Chris Williamson. Also does anyone know how long AWjr even lived in MN? He wasn’t born here and didn’t play high school ball here.
 

btowngopher said:
They recruited 4 of the 5, Fleck brought in the fifth and only non native, Chris Williamson. Also does anyone know how long AWjr even lived in MN? He wasn’t born here and didn’t play high school ball here.
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I would think a good decade. Makes sense he was born in OH since Sr was a senior at OSU when Jr was born. I think they moved in 2013 from MN so he could play HS football there?
 

Too bad. He was an excellent DC who probably wasn't the greatest recruiter in a sense. Coach at the end of the fiasco a few years ago. Stuck up for his players and was criticized for it and then loss his job.

I would think he'd make an excellent consultant for any team needing help on defense.
 

Some guy said:
He for sure isn’t cut out for politics of big league coaching. He didn’t even understand the consequences of publicly going against his university president.

he also ran a terrible defense in his last stop (wazzu) quit in what appeared to be an immature way (wazzu)


not sure how anyone could give him a DC Jon unless they already knew him and liked him. If you don’t know him he doesn’t have a record that would make him worth hiring. He has only had success under one person.
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From what I remember it sounded like Leach sided with DB's coach and didn't demand that the position coach follow Claeys plan to change the defense. If you don't have the support of the head coach I think it makes sense to resign.
 



noamfromm said:
From what I remember it sounded like Leach sided with DB's coach and didn't demand that the position coach follow Claeys plan to change the defense. If you don't have the support of the head coach I think it makes sense to resign.
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That's my recollection as well. I don't blame him for leaving that situation.
 



btowngopher said:
They recruited 4 of the 5, Fleck brought in the fifth and only non native, Chris Williamson. Also does anyone know how long AWjr even lived in MN? He wasn’t born here and didn’t play high school ball here.
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He played one year at EP in 9th grade iirc and lived here from 6 to 14 which is pretty formative.
 



Claeys make it pretty clear in his own post that he would consider taking a DC job if one came open.

Sounds like he still wants to coach, but only in the right situation. I suspect that working for Leach was a bad experience, and sounds like he didn't like going back to being a position coach again.

that might be the difference between Kill and Claeys. Kill is a junkie. he can't stay away. Claeys is probably more willing or able to live without football.
 

Claeys no doubt invested his money properly and doesn't live a glamorous lifestyle where you spend a bunch of money to support it. Just an Midwestern guy who has values and lives a solid simple life. Retiring at 52 is not unheard of. I'm hoping he'll get another chance.
 

noamfromm said:
From what I remember it sounded like Leach sided with DB's coach and didn't demand that the position coach follow Claeys plan to change the defense. If you don't have the support of the head coach I think it makes sense to resign.
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From what I heard he just didn’t show up
 




Word said:
footballscoop.com

The real story behind Tracy Claeys' decision to leave the Washington State staff, per report

Tracy Claeys was brought to Washington State with big shoes to fill, coming in after (now Oklahoma defensive coordinator) Alex Grinch had just led the team to a
footballscoop.com footballscoop.com
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Yup, I’ve read that article.
He walked out on his team and never said a word to players before he left

unless he was instructed not to tell his players he was resigning it looks pretty immature to me
 

Some guy said:
Yup, I’ve read that article.
He walked out on his team and never said a word to players before he left

unless he was instructed not to tell his players he was resigning it looks pretty immature to me
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In a toxic environment like that, I don't blame him for leaving the way he did. If you had a situation where your superior wasn't supporting you and your subordinate was backstabbing you, it's a no-win situation. Probably best to just leave quietly. You can always talk to your players later.
 

Word said:
In a toxic environment like that, I don't blame him for leaving the way he did. If you had a situation where your superior wasn't supporting you and your subordinate was backstabbing you, it's a no-win situation. Probably best to just leave quietly. You can always talk to your players later.
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Has he? The impression the article gives is that he hasn’t and that’s poor

I don’t judge him too harshly for the reasons you stated. But if you don’t already have a personal relationship with TC the wazzu defense and wazzu exit would be a big reason not to give him a shot as a DC
 

Some guy said:
Has he? The impression the article gives is that he hasn’t and that’s poor

I don’t judge him too harshly for the reasons you stated. But if you don’t already have a personal relationship with TC the wazzu defense and wazzu exit would be a big reason not to give him a shot as a DC
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I would assume most coaches in the country wouldn't read too much into any situation that happened with Mike Leach as your boss.
 

Word said:
I would assume most coaches in the country wouldn't read too much into any situation that happened with Mike Leach as your boss.
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I would assume most coaches read into situations that would cause any program embarrassment and try not to emulate them at their own program.

Here are Claeys last 3 jobs
MN Head Coach: ends in program embarrassment whether it was his fault or not
Wazzu DC: ends in program embarrassment whether it was his fault or not
Va Tech: he retires because he doesn’t want to be an assistant, wants to have total control of a defense


doesn’t sound like a recipe for a great hire for a guy who doesn’t know him. If you can’t see that, on paper, he looks like a potential headache, I don’t know what to tell you.
 

Good luck to Coach Claeys! I was one to pick on him for his weight so I am very happy to hear that he has lost plenty. Football coaching is a cutthroat rat race and I think getting out early is probably the best move for most coaches. I'm jealous of his retirement situation. I'm 35 and probably wont be able to retire until I'm 70! He was a damn fine defensive mind.
 

Word said:
In a toxic environment like that, I don't blame him for leaving the way he did. If you had a situation where your superior wasn't supporting you and your subordinate was backstabbing you, it's a no-win situation. Probably best to just leave quietly. You can always talk to your players later.
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Sounds like the staff might've been a bunch of Leach guys who were with him a long time, and didn't treat Claeys as "one of us"?
 

PMWinSTP said:
I would think a good decade. Makes sense he was born in OH since Sr was a senior at OSU when Jr was born. I think they moved in 2013 from MN so he could play HS football there?
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noamfromm said:
He played one year at EP in 9th grade iirc and lived here from 6 to 14 which is pretty formative.
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Would be interested to know why they moved to an exurb of Houston. Must've had a connection there? Knew the HC, or had family (maybe his Mom's family? wild guess). Sr is from Akron.
 

I like how the OP calls him former Gophers DC and not former Gophers HC. :ROFLMAO:
 

Nokomis said:
I like how the OP calls him former Gophers DC and not former Gophers HC. :ROFLMAO:
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The original thread title was just "Claeys". So the mods might've changed it to be more descriptive.
 

Some guy said:
I would assume most coaches read into situations that would cause any program embarrassment and try not to emulate them at their own program.

Here are Claeys last 3 jobs
MN Head Coach: ends in program embarrassment whether it was his fault or not
Wazzu DC: ends in program embarrassment whether it was his fault or not
Va Tech: he retires because he doesn’t want to be an assistant, wants to have total control of a defense


doesn’t sound like a recipe for a great hire for a guy who doesn’t know him. If you can’t see that, on paper, he looks like a potential headache, I don’t know what to tell you.
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I wasn't talking about all 3 situations together, just the WSU situation.
 

Some guy said:
Has he? The impression the article gives is that he hasn’t and that’s poor
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I can't say if he has or hasn't. The article didn't address Claeys' follow up to the situation.

I do know a former player that played D for Claeys (was a 2 year starter under Claeys). He describes Claeys as a defensive genius and absolutely loved playing for him. So it appears Claeys had a great rapport with players here. Maybe he struggled to get that going under Leach - who knows.
 

Claeys is probably in the fortunate financial position to work or not work and if he works to decide for himself what kind of work environment he wants.
I do not see that he was embarrassed in any of the situations that he left or was asked to leave.
I admire a guy that says and acts that it is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
 

Plato said:
Claeys is probably in the fortunate financial position to work or not work and if he works to decide for himself what kind of work environment he wants.
I do not see that he was embarrassed in any of the situations that he left or was asked to leave.
I admire a guy that says and acts that it is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
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For once I agree with you.
 

Plato said:
Claeys is probably in the fortunate financial position to work or not work and if he works to decide for himself what kind of work environment he wants.
I do not see that he was embarrassed in any of the situations that he left or was asked to leave.
I admire a guy that says and acts that it is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
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Yeah TC really knows all about "living on your knees"... he's uh had it rough ...
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Yeah TC really knows all about "living on your knees"... he's uh had it rough ...
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I think he's saying Claeys has made choices so he didn't have to "live on his knees".
 

He would probably make a great high school coach.
 

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