Gopher Football
Claeys opened his talk with the group by talking about head coach Jerry Kill and his staff’s philosophy on how they plan to turn things around for Gopher football. On average, Kill’s assistant coaches have been with him for nearly 10 years. Claeys has been with Coach Kill for 16 years. The group has been through this before. Every school where Coach Kill has taken over a program, the football team had a losing record the year before he took over. In every stop, he had the team winning in three years or less.
“How are we going to get it done?” Claeys asked, rhetorically. “Winning takes place in small stages before it takes places in big stages. It’s all about discipline. You’ve got to be disciplined and work hard. If you can get those two things done every day, you have an opportunity to win on the football field.”
The mantra of working hard and stressing fundamentals went over well with the group, according to former high school football coach and CORES member Paul Ehrhard of Hastings.
“I was very encouraged because of the emphasis on fundamentals,” Ehrhard said. “The fact that football position and hitting position is important to him and the staff was impressive. Those are fundamentals that I taught for years. That really made me enthused. That’s the way you win football games, with fundamentals.
“This talk today is another major step in people re-connecting with the program,” Ehrhard added. “These are a lot of old Gopher players and fans here. It really helps to get everybody, not only the younger guys, but the older ex-coaches and everyone else behind the program. It means a lot.”
When it comes to discipline and working hard, Claeys gave the CORES group a little insight into what things are going to be like for Gopher football players when they arrive back on campus next week.
“The kids are going to be in for a little bit of a shock,” the defensive coordinator said. “They get back on Monday and Monday night we’ll have our first meeting with them. It doesn’t matter how good a player they are, it all starts with discipline. If you’re going to win consistently you’ve got to have discipline.
“The other thing we look for is for kids to play their tails off on Saturday,” Claeys added. “You can win a lot of football games just by playing hard. That’s why when they get back on Monday, they will start working out with Coach Klein, our strength and conditioning coach. Eric’s job is teaching them to compete and work hard in the off-season. A lot of the workouts they will do, they will compete against each other every day. Every day is win-loss. Those kids have to learn how to compete consistently every day, every play.”
Once the Gopher football players get through a couple months of conditioning, Kill, Claeys and the rest of the staff will get them for 15 workouts in spring ball. The hard work and competition that is going to take place in the weight room will be expected to carry over onto the practice field.
“There are a lot of you in here who know football and been around the game a long time,” Claeys said. “We’ve jumped each level and at each level the football gets better. But as Coach said the other day, football is football. When it comes down to it, the team that tackles the best, the team that blocks the best and the team that takes care of the football is going to win 90 percent of the time.
“If you come watch us practice, you’re going to see fundamentals and you’re going to see us moving around,” Claeys continued. “We will be very big on fundamentals. If you don’t have the basics of fundamentals, you have no chance to win consistently. A blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. Everybody can pull off a win every now and then. We want to be consistent in everything we do.”
Claeys and the coaching staff will start building that consistency early next week.
Notes:
– National Signing Day, the first day student-athletes can sign a National Letter of Intent to attend an institution to play college football is coming up on Wednesday, Feb. 2. Stay tuned to GopherSports.com for more information about coverage of signing day, the Signing Day ‘Sota Social, etc.
– Spring practice is scheduled for late March through late April, with the spring game tentatively set for April 23 at TCF Bank Stadium.
– A Gaol Line Club meet and greet with Coach Kill and his staff is scheduled for Jan. 22 in the DQ Club Room at TCF Bank Stadium. This event is for Goal Line Club members and their guests only. To become a member of the Goal Line Club, visit www.goallineclub.com.
– Head coach Jerry Kill will be the Grand Marshal of the St. Paul Winter Carnival Torchlight Parade on Feb. 5. More information about the Winter Carnival parade will be coming soon on GopherSports.com.