Claeys pronounced program as “very close” to competing for BT titles every year

BleedGopher

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per Shama:

Tracy Claeys sat in his office last week and pronounced the Gopher football program as “very close” to competing for Big Ten titles every year. Claeys believes that more than five years after head coach Jerry Kill and his assistant coaches arrived in Dinkytown, the resources are in place to challenge for championships in the West Division and advance to the conference’s title game in Indianapolis.

Claeys can look out his office window and see the construction of the Athletes Village project that will include much needed new football facilities. Better places to practice indoors, train and develop players, and impress recruits with a state-of-the-art work place was the last impediment to overcome in rebuilding a program that hasn’t won a Big Ten title since 1967, Claeys said.

Officially known as the Football Development Center, there will be two buildings when construction is finished—the indoor practice facility and the performance center, with the latter offering locker room space, team meeting rooms, strength and conditioning equipment, and a recruiting room.

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Go Gophers!!
 



we'll build a statue for claeys if he can bring a title here, let along multiple titles.
 

Let's beat Wisconsin on occasion, then we'll think about titles.
 



Let's beat Wisconsin on occasion, then we'll think about titles.

Unless Wisc craps out entirely or we go on some epic run ... that's pretty much the same road as getting to the conference title game. Gotta do one to do the other.
 


The eyellow brick road goes through Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
 





Not sure what all this talk accomplishes. I see us being close to contending for titles every year
 




WARNING: RANT TO FOLLOW:

If a Gopher coach expresses optimism, he's criticized for being unrealistic. If a Gopher Coach does not express optimism, he's criticized for not supporting the team.

Being the Gopher FB coach is the ultimate no-win scenario.

I'm being dead serious here - this is not sarcasm. I don't know why anyone would want to coach a team where even the supposedly most dedicated or invested fans rip their own program at the drop of a hat.

Again - being serious - the Gophers could win the Division, and the "fans" will find something to complain about. The Gophers could win the Conference, and the "fans" will find something to complain about. The Gophers could win the freakin' National Title, and I am absolutely convinced that at least some "fans" would still find something to complain about.

I go into every season with the same goals for the team: play competitive games and don't suck. Sadly, there have been a lot of years that wasn't the case. At my age, I may be more realistic, or less needy, but just give me a competitive team and play in a decent bowl game. Division Titles or Conference titles are icing on the cake. (and I can't eat the damn cake anymore because of this new stinkin' diet I'm on.)

END OF RANT. we now return to regular programming.
 


WARNING: RANT TO FOLLOW:


Being the Gopher FB coach is the ultimate no-win scenario.

I'm being dead serious here - this is not sarcasm. I don't know why anyone would want to coach a team where even the supposedly most dedicated or invested fans rip their own program at the drop of a hat.
END OF RANT. we now return to regular programming.

Is that different than any other Big Ten program? I can't imagine that fans in other programs are any less critical. I would expect the OSU fans to be brutal. We know the Nebraska fans are hyper critical.
 

WARNING: RANT TO FOLLOW:

If a Gopher coach expresses optimism, he's criticized for being unrealistic. If a Gopher Coach does not express optimism, he's criticized for not supporting the team.

Being the Gopher FB coach is the ultimate no-win scenario.

I'm being dead serious here - this is not sarcasm. I don't know why anyone would want to coach a team where even the supposedly most dedicated or invested fans rip their own program at the drop of a hat.

Again - being serious - the Gophers could win the Division, and the "fans" will find something to complain about. The Gophers could win the Conference, and the "fans" will find something to complain about. The Gophers could win the freakin' National Title, and I am absolutely convinced that at least some "fans" would still find something to complain about.

I go into every season with the same goals for the team: play competitive games and don't suck. Sadly, there have been a lot of years that wasn't the case. At my age, I may be more realistic, or less needy, but just give me a competitive team and play in a decent bowl game. Division Titles or Conference titles are icing on the cake. (and I can't eat the damn cake anymore because of this new stinkin' diet I'm on.)

END OF RANT. we now return to regular programming.

True. There are a lot of bitter "just screw-um" people out there. Use to laugh out loud when Lou Holtz was at Notre Dame and they'd play Air Force, Rice, Navy etc., he'd go on and on about how terrified he was to play this guys. Probably would drop the line "They're so big we'll probably have to grease them up to get them into the stadium"

No wonder he was so popular around here.

Good for Claeys. Gotta trust he's telling the truth and hope he's right.
 

Is that different than any other Big Ten program? I can't imagine that fans in other programs are any less critical. I would expect the OSU fans to be brutal. We know the Nebraska fans are hyper critical.

Bet they don't have a lot of fans screaming "B.S.! Just us how bad they're gonna be!"
 

.....

Good for Claeys. Gotta trust he's telling the TRUTH and hope he's right.

You may want to rephrase that.... Of course, Claeys is saying what he believes, there is no way he would try to build up false hope by lying about his expectations!


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You may want to rephrase that.... Of course, Claeys is saying what he believes, there is no way he would try to build up false hope by lying about his expectations!

Nope and the capitalization is all yours. People should have no problem in thinking he's saying what he truly believes. Though looking at some of the posts, there are people who don't trust that he is or in a couple of cases, seem to fervently hope he isn't..
 

It's refreshing to think we have a coach who believes we are about to turn the corner. In 50-years, I don't think that has ever happened before.

image.jpg
 

I'm curious what he means. Does he mean we're close to being able to compete for the West most years? (and therefore make the BTT game) I'd agree with that. Does he mean we're close to actually winning the BTT? I don't agree at all.

The East is so much better than the West at the top it's silly. Michigan, Ohio State are recruiting at an unparalleled level in the rest of the conference. Not to mention they have the two best coaches. (2 of the best 3 if you want to throw in Dantonio).
 


Nope and the capitalization is all yours. People should have no problem in thinking he's saying what he truly believes. Though looking at some of the posts, there are people who don't trust that he is or in a couple of cases, seem to fervently hope he isn't..

I added the caps so you knew what part of the comment I was talking about.

So you are OK with casually inferring that Claeys could be lying?


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I added the caps so you knew what part of the comment I was talking about.

So you are OK with casually inferring that Claeys could be lying?

:rolleyes:

"People should have no problem in thinking he's saying what he truly believes. Though looking at some of the posts, there are people who don't trust that he is or in a couple of cases, seem to fervently hope he isn't.."
 

:rolleyes:

"People should have no problem in thinking he's saying what he truly believes. Though looking at some of the posts, there are people who don't trust that he is or in a couple of cases, seem to fervently hope he isn't.."

Sorry, I guessed that it was your opinion and not a characterization of others. My bad.


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I'm curious what he means. Does he mean we're close to being able to compete for the West most years? (and therefore make the BTT game) I'd agree with that. Does he mean we're close to actually winning the BTT? I don't agree at all.

The East is so much better than the West at the top it's silly. Michigan, Ohio State are recruiting at an unparalleled level in the rest of the conference. Not to mention they have the two best coaches. (2 of the best 3 if you want to throw in Dantonio).


Don't you think a team that is good enough to compete for the West most years is bound to win a few conference titles? I think if the Gophers are good enough to make the Big 10 title game every few years, they'll probably get by tOSU or Michigan one of those years. It takes a pretty good team to win the West. Granted, tOSU and Michigan will likely be better teams, decent teams beat really good teams quite often. Heck, we played tOSU tough last year in Ohio State and should have beaten Michigan. We weren't very good either.
 




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