Real reason Claeys was let go....

[bga1]

I will say this. The program was starting to build a rep of putting players, especially DBs in the pros. The bowl win alone should have gained them some traction recruiting wise starting with the class of 2018.

Totally correct: it should have. But Claeys already had an 8-4 season and the pro development track record to sell and so far it wasn't selling - if being ranked 77th in recruiting is any indication.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

DL's have gotten looks and or contracts as well. OL is what Miller was brought in for. We will never know, because Miller never had a chance to build "his" line. Agree with WRs and QBs.

Pass rush was better this year, but has been an issue. Who's going to play DT after next year? There's 1 DT underclassmen on the roster with one currently committed. I was going to throw in TE as well, but didn't because Maxx was great, and Lingen has been good when healthy. When Lingen went down though this year, there was very little talent to replace him.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

So why wait 3 months to do it? Didn't Coyle also make comments late in the season about extending Claeys?

Maybe because the police investigation didn't give them a leg to stand on, but the EEOA one did? I don't know.

 

[LakerFan]

[/B]

Pretty important issue that won't be taken care of. I think there is a better chance ticket prices go up before they go down.

No way. Coyle already reversed course on increase for next season BEFORE all this went down due to dropping sales. Literally no way this whole situation doesn't hurt sales further, and force some sort of concession on season ticket price, my guess is that they roll back to year one of the donation prices, maybe even wipe them out. IF they don't make a hire that excites the fan base, neither of those actions will be enough to increase season ticket sales.

 

[STPGopher]

Totally correct: it should have. But Claeys already had an 8-4 season and the pro development track record to sell and so far it wasn't selling - if being ranked 77th in recruiting is any indication.

8-4 wouldn't help him till 2018. That is unless they had a bunch of recruits that were on the fence for 2017. This class would have been helped by the Citrus Bowl win had Kill been healthy. Records and bowl wins take a season to really help.

 

[50PoundHead]

The real reason is that he inadequately responded to the initial crisis by not making a statement on how his team would be run. All involved should have been suspended by him for "violation of team rules" and representing the U of M in a crappy manner with a minor recruit. He lost the job when he didn't make a stand for appropriate behavior immediately after the event. That would have kept admin and EEOA off his back

I don't know if it's the real reason, but I was disappointed Claeys didn't take the bull by the horns after that event. I know this probably isn't the case, but it seemed like what we got from him was "we need to get these guys back on the field."

Going forward (and I know this is a lot to ask), I hope the AD and the head football coach can be if not on the same page, at least in the same chapter. Maybe it's the same at other schools, but it just seems that at Minnesota, it is an on-going tug-of-war.

 

[MennoSota]

Coyle wants a lap dog. It's that simple.

 

[FireBrewster]

Although nobody can be expected to keep 100 college students out of trouble all the time, I think the really condemning part of the scandal for Claeys was the involvement of a recruit. As an underage high school student visiting the university, they are (or should be) under the watch and responsibility of the coaching staff. To allow a minor to get involved in something like this requires a serious lack of judgment and leadership and IMO is a fire-able offense.

Football reasons are a bit more iffy, and if I'm being realistic I think Coyle's reasons were the low attendance and complete lack of excitement around the program. I'm not so sure those reasons are quite as justifiable coming off a 9-4 season but I think his mishandling of that recruiting trip at a minimum is enough to cut ties.

 

[lmh839]

Long-time reader, first-time poster.

This is a big business and it's more than just wins and losses. Sure, they won 9 games but they didn't beat one ranked team or rival. The Penn State loss has not gotten as much criticism as it should. The Gophers were 3-0 heading into that game which was the Big Ten opener. They led at halftime and totally threw the game away in the second half eventually losing in OT. That loss was devastating and killed all momentum heading into the Iowa game whether we want to admit it or not. And then the stadium was only 2/3 full at best for the biggest home game of the year? It was also early October so you can't use weather as an excuse.

They blew half-time leads against Michigan (2015), Penn State (2016), Wisconsin (2016) and Nebraska (2016). You need to win some of those games if you want to compete with the best. So yes, they won 9 games, but many other programs at or above Minnesota's level would have won 10 or 11 games with that same schedule.

Tracy Claeys was an excellent X's and O's guy for defense, but he struggled with many other aspects of being a head coach and I think he didn't realize the magnitude of the job. He was essentially handed the job by default when Jerry Kill abruptly resigned and the interim AD really had no choice but to extend him with a low buyout option knowing very well that a new AD could come in and want to hire his own coach.

When Claeys learned of the boycott, he should have been in Minneapolis meeting with his team and the AD and not at the Bowl press conference in San Diego. He should not have tweeted what he did. There is a reason why so many coaches ban Twitter during the season. I just feel like he was over his head at times with the head coach role and that ultimately cost him his job.

There is a reason why so many coaches start out at smaller schools and lower levels before they move up to big-time Division I/Power 5 jobs. If Claeys would have done this at Western Kentucky, he would probably still be the coach.

I feel bad for Tracy, but Mark Coyle was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. We can only hope he had a plan in place and one or two people in mind before he made the decision.

 

[Ewert86PC]

This was an internal fight between the head of the EOAA and Jerry Kill. When Kill left Claeys got put in the cross hairs. It became a struggle to oust the relatively successful coaching staff that did not acquiesce to their demands.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

 

[gopher7]

As was mentioned, Claeys essentially got the job by default. Let's not forget that because of this, he signed a contract that made it REALLY easy for him to be let go. He was essentially given a year-long audition as a head coach, until such a time when a new AD was hired, and they would presumably made a long term decision on him. I'm sure Tracy knew that getting a quick axe was a possibility all along. He did a nice job under the circumstances, but he was far from perfect. I can't fault Coyle for wanting to bring in his guy here. I also don't fault the players for being really pissed at the way the process was handled.

 

[caliGopher]

When Claeys tweeted what he did, my instant reaction was that he had just gotten himself fired. If you didn't think the same thing, I don't know what to say.

I don't know 10% of what Claeys knows about football, but I know better than to publicly undercut my employer. If Claeys had known that, he wouldn't have given Coyle a reason (or a pretext) for firing him.

Claeys was going to be fired for one thing or another because as the thread implies, Coyle wanted his guy. Kaler put him in a situation where he's fired if he does one thing or fired if he does another. The tweet, although poorly written, was Claeys making a decision not to cow-tow to a couple of slimy bastards who have no spine, courage or integrity.

I'm pissed Claeys got fired, but not surprised. If Coyle and Kaler are not both gone in the next 12 months for the extremely poor handling of this situation to the roles both of them played in letting the players be reinstated - make no mistake, Tracy Claeys didn't have the power or control to reinstate those kids on his own -- then we know what we'll get in terms of athletics going forward, and should not expect anything more.

 

[NotAFanOfBecky]

Personally if ticket sales and recruiting are two of the main reasons he's fired I would be beyond shocked.

We just had one of our most successful seasons in many years. What does Coyle know about these recruits? Does he go to camps? Follow their game tapes? Make late night phone calls to understand these young guys' hopes, goals, etc.? Besides, we haven't exactly been a top 3 recruiting team in the Big Ten recently and our win totals are very respectable. Outside of win totals we've been in just about every game including Ohio St twice. If the coaches can get wins with lower ranked guys so what? Of course we all want 10 5 star guys per class but come on.

As far as attendance goes I would rather have 8 and 9 win seasons with the stadium at lower attendance than a 6-6 team that has higher attendance with a new flashy coach every few years.

Fantastic post, agree with everything you said 100%. I think you have to remember that they recruited to their system. They are getting guys that fit what they are trying to do. I respect that. I think there were/are higher ranked recruits that fit our system that we didn't get, but new facilities and more wins would have made more of them come here. Look at Wisky, they constantly finish in the the top 20, maybe even top 15 and win the West almost every year. Rankings of their classes are...typically in the 30's and sometimes much lower even up to the 60's!

 

[CentralGopher]

Because Coyle was too much in a hurry to hire his guy and didnt want to give Claeys a chance with an extension and keep a low buyout as insurance. He didnt want to give Claeys a chance to tell recruits he would be here until they graduate and the opportunity to clean the mess up. Dbag move.