Here are my notes. I LOVED this Tracy Claeys. Just shows you before when he was interim HC, he was being so respectful of Kill and not stepping on his toes. This Claeys wants the job, and by all accounts, deserves it. Here are my notes, they are really NOT edited at all as I have another commitment, but you get the jist...
Tracy Claeys:
• It's kind of like getting kicked in the gut, I didn't know anything about it until last night. That's the hardest part. It's what's best for him. None of us are to blame, and we still have a lot of control of how the season goes. We have a lot of great kids that can play football. We definitely miss the guy. We have a great group of kids
• The kids did a hell of a job at practice
• We've been in touch with the recruits, I'll get home tonight and start calling them.
• I want to be the next head football coach here, that's all there is to it. I've told I'll be considered. Life's a challenge, every day is.
• As far as the staff goes, I'll have Paul do something tomorrow. I visit with the guys on defense. We'll have another one on the field coach. I want them to go home tonight and have them think about what I've talked to them about. Once we decide that, 1st thing in the morning, talk to Dan and Beth, we'll put something out. There will be a little adjustment in the staff, nothing major.
• After he came back and was doing so well for so long, since the 1st couple NC games, I haven't worried about it, things have been going great, and here it is. I feel like I've been trained well. Coach has always let me be involved in things, 21 years, we think an awful lot alike. I feel like I'm very well prepared. The last situation helped us, and that one went good.
• Every year, he's got a folder, where he's kept stuff to reference. He's been open with those things if someone take the job. This is going to bother him for a while, he's not someone that can let it go.
• The difference in personality is this…when I put my head to pillow at night I'm going to bed. I don't read anything locally once we start the season. That's how I get through football season. Coach is someone that can't just let things roll and go away, that's the way he's wired. When something starts to bother him, he has trouble sleeping. He loves coaching. If he can't give it his all, he ain't gonna do that. He's not gonna cheat the kids.
• All the kids went to class today, the class checkers checked back, that's hard to do. They got to class, and practice. The kids paid attention in meetings. We have a day or two to clean some things up, they did really good.
• The path won't change. Personality wise, there me different reactions to situations. I believe in what we're doing and how he treats kids and what he expects of kids. Expectations? We expect to win. This is a whole different place than when we took over.
• The kids on offense need to get to know me a little better. I'll probably get a little bit closer. The worst thing we can do is make a bunch of adjustments. They will be minimal.
• I'll go back down on the field, I hope it's not real cold. I used to joke that I could walk off the field during TV timeouts because it's too cold.
• I found out yesterday when Coach showed up at 3:30pm. We had a conversation for about 30 minutes. That's the 1st I knew of it. I knew he was having trouble sleeping. That's a family decision that needs to be made. He don't need anybody else in his ear. None of us would be here if it wasn't for him.
• Offense is pretty simple really, a simple idea, but extremely hard to execute, take care of the football.
• I will make sure I get a hold of all the recruits. The unknown is the scariest situation. That's the part that will change. The lifestyle is the lifestyle. The assistants have to live the same lifestyle as the HC. There's not a better job, what other job to you get to spend around kids every day?
• Today was a tough day. Coach V said a full day was laughing, being moved to tears…I've been moved to tears a few times today. The one things this game teaches you, is it's for tough people.
• Any part he's not looking forward to? The media part - answering the same question over and over. Coach didn't like when he had to leave a meeting to do media.
• I'm competitive, I don't like to lose. I think that most people that are successful deep down are competitive. I'll compete with anybody, I may not win, but I'll give her hell. There's no better feeling to go into a locker room and see all the kids smiling. There's no worse feeling than going in the locker room and seeing them after a loss, a piece of me dies.
• On being approached to be a HC - some smaller schools, we came up that way, we had a lot of fun, but the resources aren't there and what you can do for kids. This was a dream of ours when we started. I'm not willing to go back down, when I was working with Coach Kill at that time. That's nothing bad with their levels of football, I had a blast, probably the best time of my life. Nothing serious.
