Chip Scoggins: Sticking by Claeys isn’t a sign that Coyle is content with mediocrity.

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BleedGopher

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per Chip:

Sticking by Claeys isn’t a sign that Coyle is content with mediocrity. It just shows he believes Claeys can be successful here, presumably with better quarterback play and other improvements, including from the head coach himself.

Being patient is not a sign of weak leadership.

Now, Coyle and Claeys can’t ignore fan disinterest. I’m not sure how they fix that, but it’s a serious problem that must be addressed.

Fans seem to want Claeys to be something he’s not. He’s not fiery or emotional. He’s not a rah-rah salesman. He can’t whip a room of boosters into excitement the way Kill did. Claeys has a different personality than his former boss.

Any buzz for Gophers football is negligible right now. Their average attendance was 43,814, their lowest since 2002. The announced crowd for the Northwestern game in the home finale was the smallest in eight seasons at TCF Bank Stadium.

Some will argue that firing Claeys would solve their attendance problems, but that theory assumes they could hire a big-named, established coach, an unlikely possibility.

Coyle stayed quiet during the season, never publicly revealing his thoughts on Claeys’ job performance. His show of support Monday undoubtedly will receive mixed reviews within his fan base.

Time will tell if he made the right decision, but for now, Claeys deserves a shot to prove his new boss correct.

http://www.startribune.com/extending-tracy-claeys-contract-was-the-only-real-choice/403491166/

Go Gophers!!
 

It's impossible to really grade this decision without knowing what other guys were even interested in becoming HC here. I would hope that Coyle at least reached out to Miles or Fleck just to tab interest, but doubt they'd make the move to come here. Miles would be great, but would a 63 HC want to come to a place like MN when other places perhaps ND would go after him?
 

The attendance problem was due to the price increase, not Clayes.
 


DarrenTheGreek said:
The attendance problem was due to the price increase, not Clayes.
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Yes. As we know, Coyle smartly cancelled the third installment of this complete CF of a plan. It will be interesting to see if Coyle significantly dials it back further and closer to where prices were before this ludicrous price increase. Short of winning 10 or more games next year, slashing ticket prices is the only way to keep the fan base from becoming all but extinct.
 


MNGoldenGophers1 said:
Yes. As we know, Coyle smartly cancelled the third installment of this complete CF of a plan. It will be interesting to see if Coyle significantly dials it back further and closer to where prices were before this ludicrous price increase. Short of winning 10 or more games next year, slashing ticket prices is the only way to keep the fan base from becoming all but extinct.
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I'm interested in seeing what happens to attendance. We dropped our tickets due to the price increase. I've discovered that I like having my Saturday's free to do other things. It's nice being able to decide to go to a game later on in the week and just buying tickets off the street. Plus, we don't miss not having to beg someone to take tickets off our hands when we couldn't go. I have no idea how many people are in the same situation as we are but I know it is going to be harder to get us back than if they had just kept us.
 

zman said:
I'm interested in seeing what happens to attendance. We dropped our tickets due to the price increase. I've discovered that I like having my Saturday's free to do other things. It's nice being able to decide to go to a game later on in the week and just buying tickets off the street. Plus, we don't miss not having to beg someone to take tickets off our hands when we couldn't go. I have no idea how many people are in the same situation as we are but I know it is going to be harder to get us back than if they had just kept us.
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Thanks for your post. I've met a few people like you who have done the same thing and say it is liberating. Someone I met at the NW game, a long time season ticket holder who dropped their tickets, said all the same things as you. In addition to the many fine points you make, I've also heard things like they can make game day decisions based on the opponent and/or weather. People have figured out in addition to saving a lot of money (or forgoing the voluntary "donation"), they have the freedom to enjoy Gopher football more on their own terms. I think this is perhaps the biggest unintended consequences of this pricing scheme that is going to haunt the U for years to come.
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
Thanks for your post. I've met a few people like you who have done the same thing and say it is liberating. Someone I met at the NW game, a long time season ticket holder who dropped their tickets, said all the same things as you. In addition to the many fine points you make, I've also heard things like they can make game day decisions based on the opponent and/or weather. People have figured out in addition to saving a lot of money (or forgoing the voluntary "donation"), they have the freedom to enjoy Gopher football more on their own terms. I think this is perhaps the biggest unintended consequences of this pricing scheme that is going to haunt the U for years to come.
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+1. They teach you in business school it's a lot easier to retain a customer than it is to find a new one. Retention took a huge hit because of Mega's pricing hikes, and as such so did attendance.
 

Scroggins.... one of our Twin Cities mediocre to poor sports writers.
Thanks for yet another negative spin....the easy way out.
 



Personally, I don't care about anything other than W/L's and I don't expect/need the head coach to have an outgoing friendly disposition or be physically fit or any other attribute that doesn't directly impact the product on the field. I saw this year as an extension of the Kill era which was supposedly pointing to this year to finally be the time they win some big games. I feel six years is more than enough time to put together a more notable resume than this staff has and I don't have any confidence in them winning division titles which I feel is a reasonable expectation this far in to the process (not every year...and no being 5-3 going in to the last game doesn't count... it's certainly going to take 7-2 or better to win the division). I see a program that has two wins over top 25 opponents in six years, just two wins against Iowa and a doughut against Wisconsin. With consistent bottom of the conference recruiting, it's tough for me to see where/how this program improves to become relevant. I would guess a lot of the people who are no longer going to games or buying tickets feel the same way. Improve the product on the field and there will be more people at the games.
 

EG#9 said:
Personally, I don't care about anything other than W/L's and I don't expect/need the head coach to have an outgoing friendly disposition or be physically fit or any other attribute that doesn't directly impact the product on the field. I saw this year as an extension of the Kill era which was supposedly pointing to this year to finally be the time they win some big games. I feel six years is more than enough time to put together a more notable resume than this staff has and I don't have any confidence in them winning division titles which I feel is a reasonable expectation this far in to the process (not every year...and no being 5-3 going in to the last game doesn't count... it's certainly going to take 7-2 or better to win the division). I see a program that has two wins over top 25 opponents in six years, just two wins against Iowa and a doughut against Wisconsin. With consistent bottom of the conference recruiting, it's tough for me to see where/how this program improves to become relevant. I would guess a lot of the people who are no longer going to games or buying tickets feel the same way. Improve the product on the field and there will be more people at the games.
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I couldn't say it better myself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


zman said:
I'm interested in seeing what happens to attendance. We dropped our tickets due to the price increase. I've discovered that I like having my Saturday's free to do other things. It's nice being able to decide to go to a game later on in the week and just buying tickets off the street. Plus, we don't miss not having to beg someone to take tickets off our hands when we couldn't go. I have no idea how many people are in the same situation as we are but I know it is going to be harder to get us back than if they had just kept us.
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Very interesting. I have four tickets and am going to drop down to two. The reason being I simply cannot find people to go to the game. I literally cannot give the tickets away.

I am a pretty big Gopher fan and often times find myself bored at the games - both the product on the field and atmosphere in the stadium kill the excitement.

I wish the U would take notes when our team travels to away games. In the second half of the game last Saturday they had the music in Camp Randall extremely loud and the fans were following suit and getting louder and louder as the game goes on. This is the opposite of what happens at TCF. As the game goes on it get quieter.
 



MNfootballfan said:
Very interesting. I have four tickets and am going to drop down to two. The reason being I simply cannot find people to go to the game. I literally cannot give the tickets away.

I am a pretty big Gopher fan and often times find myself bored at the games - both the product on the field and atmosphere in the stadium kill the excitement.

I wish the U would take notes when our team travels to away games. In the second half of the game last Saturday they had the music in Camp Randall extremely loud and the fans were following suit and getting louder and louder as the game goes on. This is the opposite of what happens at TCF. As the game goes on it get quieter.
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As far as comparing the game day at Neb or Wi to here it helps that they have had much more recent success and they pack the place. When TCF is packed (like the TCU game) I felt the energy was good in the stadium.
 

A lot of folks seemed to think Coyle just had some big magical hire in his back pocket he could pull out and surprise everyone..... I'm not sure that exists right now, nor does tossing Claeys after year one make that anymore likely later.
 

I used to have 4 tickets for a group of 4. Two guys decided to drop out about 5 years ago and I dropped 1 ticket and tried to find friends to go to games. I did that for 3 years and after begging people to go and quite a few times, finding no one- my buddy and I who split the 3rd ticket decided it was not worth it and gave up the third ticket. We have another group of 5 we sit next to in games - lower deck- and this year- there were open seats all around us where Season Ticket holders used to be.

I had 2 games where I had friends in town and needed extra tickets. I bought a single to the Iowa game before kickoff for $20. I bought a single before the Northwestern game for $15- also before kickoff. This was pretty eye-opening for me. When you factor in the Donation, I am currently spending over $100 per game.

Why- when I can walk up to what should have been the Premium game (Iowa) of the year and spend 1/5th the price of my ticket- should I keep my season tickets? I know the faithful will say, 'to support the program', but what other 'perks' are there? I have been a Gopher apologist and to some degree salesman for a long time. This was the most unenthusiastic 8 win teams I could have imagined. A new Coach might have kept me on for a year or two more- but I'm done. I still plan on going to most of the games, but I certainly will not feel obligated to go next year.
 

zman said:
I'm interested in seeing what happens to attendance. We dropped our tickets due to the price increase. I've discovered that I like having my Saturday's free to do other things. It's nice being able to decide to go to a game later on in the week and just buying tickets off the street. Plus, we don't miss not having to beg someone to take tickets off our hands when we couldn't go. I have no idea how many people are in the same situation as we are but I know it is going to be harder to get us back than if they had just kept us.
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Agree, I think a lot of people who dropped will be tough to get back. Very seldom did we not use our tickets during the 27 years we had them. When we didn't use them , I had no problem selling them on the Gopher fan sites.( GopherHole, Rivals, etc.) Now, because of our living situations of 6 and 6 ( Ely and Arizona ) season tickets are out of the question. We do a couple of home games and a interesting away game, plus a bowl game.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Agree, I think a lot of people who dropped will be tough to get back. Very seldom did we not use our tickets during the 27 years we had them. When we didn't use them , I had no problem selling them on the Gopher fan sites.( GopherHole, Rivals, etc.) Now, because of our living situations of 6 and 6 ( Ely and Arizona ) season tickets are out of the question. We do a couple of home games and a interesting away game, plus a bowl game.
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Yeah but living somewhere else ... isn't a lot of people ;)

One play better vs Iowa and Neb and (or Penn St. for that matter) and I bet a lot would be back.

We saw with attendance and etc in 2015 that if the Gophes win people will come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ay5GqJwHF8
 

zman said:
I'm interested in seeing what happens to attendance. We dropped our tickets due to the price increase. I've discovered that I like having my Saturday's free to do other things. It's nice being able to decide to go to a game later on in the week and just buying tickets off the street. Plus, we don't miss not having to beg someone to take tickets off our hands when we couldn't go. I have no idea how many people are in the same situation as we are but I know it is going to be harder to get us back than if they had just kept us.
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This sums me up too. Dropped before last year after nearly 2 decades. I still go to games (went to 3 at home and 2 on the road this year), but now I go on my terms, when we don't have conflicts with youth sports, etc. and save $ to boot. I was told on here that doesn't make me a true fan tho.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

As long as the athletic department knows the limits to attendance, things will stay very similar. For 20 years attendance has been flat. Bumps for rivals and new stadium, but for the most part flat. This will continue. I fall in the group that dropped tickets and decides the week of whether to go to a game or not. That works in years like 2016. Those prices will go up a bit next year with Wisconsin and Nebraska being in town. It all comes down to perception as those games draw close, however. You could get into Iowa for $20 due to NDSU beating Iowa and PSU beating MN. Fringe fans give up in college football after 1-2 losses because they care only about Championships.

The Iowa game was $95 the week of through the ticket office. At some point demand on the street will get to a point where you won't find a $20 seat. Pay me $50 on the street or go buy one for $95 at the door.
 

Vandy said:
Scroggins.... one of our Twin Cities mediocre to poor sports writers.
Thanks for yet another negative spin....the easy way out.
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What the hell is negative about it? It analyzes the situation the program is in very well. Not sure if you mean "the easy way out" is referring to Coyle or Scoggins. Mega-Tongue's legacy is to have left us in sort of a limbo. Beth really didn't have many other reasonable options but to hire Claeys. No viable coach would have come here without knowing who the next AD would be.

Coyle is also in a tough spot just as Scoggins very ably lays it out. Love all the pompous "I'm not settling for mediocrity" crowd like they're the only ones who badly want to beat Wisconsin. Like throwing another hissy fit is going to change the situation. They have no idea what Coyle has actually been doing. Pretty sure he's examined the situation and knows what options he had with money, timing, interested candidates, boosters, etc. Really established coaches are too old to want to go through a building program and probably too expensive. The up and comers probably don't want to take the chance of scuttling their career in Minnesota and there isn't enough money to change their minds. Then it becomes a total crap shoot. Or even more of a crap shoot because who thought Charlie Strong would crash and burn when he left Louisville?

Replacing Claeys now would mean the 5th head coach in a little over a decade. Ya, hell, let's go for it after giving him one full year because, after all, some of us won't settle for losing any more.
 

We play big ten teams so attendance is what it is until fans get more excited by those. Head coach will not change that.
 

I dropped my season tickets a few years ago before the price increases. I've been to a few games since but not once has going made me want to renew again. For me, I can't stand the non-stop feed of advertising, promotions, piped in music, etc. It is a constant bombardment that apparently is now the norm in our ADD society. It's like they're afraid people will get bored and leave if they shut the sound off for 5 seconds. This isn't a gripe at the U specifically as I know that most stadiums are like this now, but I just hate it.

As for Claeys, the concerns I have are the poor performance in our biggest games and clock management issues. However, let's look at the big picture here. Claeys went 5-4 in his first full season. This year's conference record ranks among our top 5 in the last 25 years. Are we really going to fire a coach under these circumstances? We don't have any meaningful history to fall back on (Like Michigan or even Penn State did during their struggles) and we can't just assume that any coaching change will be good when we don't have $5 million a year to throw at a coach. Getting rid of him at this point would be a huge risk when you look at our history.
 

If the administration and (apparently) the majority of fans are more than happy with 8 win seasons and middle-of-the-pack conference finishes, why did we fire Mason?
 

theTurning said:
If the administration and (apparently) the majority of fans are more than happy with 8 win seasons and middle-of-the-pack conference finishes, why did we fire Mason?
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Different administration....

Also Mason had a lot of time, Claeys 1 year.
 

theTurning said:
If the administration and (apparently) the majority of fans are more than happy with 8 win seasons and middle-of-the-pack conference finishes, why did we fire Mason?
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Because he won 8 games or more just 3 times in 10 years.
 

Ticket price increases, weak home schedule; these are not Claeys fault. Paul Chryst is not People Mag's sexiest man alive, nor will he ever draw a huge crowd for his motivational speeches. Claeys is in the same mold. If players like Claeys and come to play for him, we will win games. Winning games will draw more people to games. If rivalry games are at TCF, we will draw better in a given year; if we play Rutgers instead of Iowa, you won't see a sellout. I am jazzed to see what this very young defense can do in the coming years- I hope the new OC can bring in QBs and WRs to keep the Offense from dragging down what could be a top 25 defense for the next 2-3 years.
 

Mason had the benefit of playing 4, not 3 cupcake noncons. Then he would go 3-5 or 2-6 in the conference and still make a bowl.
 

theTurning said:
If the administration and (apparently) the majority of fans are more than happy with 8 win seasons and middle-of-the-pack conference finishes, why did we fire Mason?
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Because he went 3 years without doing that (beginning with his EIGHTH year as head coach, not his first), and his 8th, 9th and 10th seasons were each worse than the one before it.
 

$3.43 Million. That was Tracy Claeys' buyout. Everyone was talking 500k and so focused on that, but in reality it was $3.43 Million.

It's something that nobody talked about or even mentioned until it was in the paper the other day. The assistants are guaranteed through 2017 for $2.93 Million. This should have been reported much sooner, terrible job by the media not pointing this out and factoring it in.

Coyle's decision makes more sense when you combine the 8 wins with the $3.43 Million buyout. Today an article said he told Claeys a month ago he would be back. Claeys hit Coyle's win total a month ago and that was it. It would have taken 6 wins or less for Coyle to have the capital (both literally and figuratively) to make a change. Easier to understand when it's 3.5 million vs 500k.
 

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