	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2015

Tracy Claeys

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q. What have you been able to gather about the team's psyche coming off a pretty crushing loss and knowing you've got Ohio State this week?
COACH CLAEYS: We'll know if it's crushing how it goes this week. I thought our kids obviously were disappointed in the fact that we lost a football game and put a lot of time in. But when you play hard and play in a great football game like that where any play and that game can change, you invest some time, you're going to be a little bit disappointed.

But they'll bounce back. They're a great group of competitors. We have another great opportunity. So we'll be ready to go. We'll be ready to go. I believe that.

Q. Given the emotion of last week, how do you guard against a letdown, obviously, playing No. 1 Ohio State, but how do you guard against?
COACH CLAEYS: We won't have a letdown. I believe that. You're not very competitive at this game if you can't get ready to play this game. No. 1 team in the country. Going into a great stadium. They haven't been beaten in a regular season game yet. So there's no, no matter what happens, if something goes wrong, talk about a letdown.

I tell you, they're a good football team. They have a very small margin for error. That's what our kids have to be prepared for. We have to make sure we play our brand of football and not make a lot of mistakes. If we do that, I think we showed a year ago that we'll have an opportunity in the fourth quarter.

But, yeah, the difference to them is you're dealing with a team that the skill they have all over the field and the front seven they have on defense and their secondary, they're just not very big margin for error. But any time you play a good team, you don't have a very big margin for error.

Q. You go against all the skill guys they have. Does it still start with trying to stop Elliott?
COACH CLAEYS: No question, and I don't think he gets credit for the way he blocks. I think he's the best blocking tailback that there is. He's the best I've had to defend. So a lot of the lead plays, he does a tremendous job blocking. But we did a good job of limiting him a year ago, and I think that gave us an opportunity. It's easier said than done, but, yeah, we need to limit how many touches he gets.

Q. What is the toughest part about coaching this team right now knowing that you're being looked at as a potential successor to Coach Kill?
COACH CLAEYS: Doing all the media stuff, just timewise. I don't mean that to be funny. That is the one thing when Coach was still hanging around, he took some of that stuff off my plate, you know what I'm saying?

So, like I say, the football part is easy. I've been doing this a long time and love doing it. It's being able to do the other stuff. The other thing is as far as wanting to be -- I've said I want to be the next head football coach here. I think I can do it. But believe me, I'm not putting any pressure on my self as far as that goes. But that choice, I've learned to not worry about things I can't control, like I've said. I don't have control over that. All I can do is make sure the football team is prepared as well as I can, and I'll live with the results.

Q. You look at the way the defense played against Nebraska compared to Michigan, it just seemed like having De'Vondre and Cody at full-go made a huge difference for you guys. What did you think was the difference?
COACH CLAEYS: Right, that's the thing I said about the media. The hard thing too is you get to Tuesdays, and since last night I've been trying to look forward. And you've got to come in here and look backwards. But I think that just shows how bad I screwed up on the injuries in the practice rotation. That's what I talked about when they got hurt late in that week versus the Nebraska game. We had to move kids around in order to play, and they did it more comfortable and they played slower.

Here we practiced the groups we practiced. They had a lot of reps and those kids felt good and they played faster. So I think we were able to get through practice and with healthy people and I thought both sides of the ball played with more energy and that's all because I do believe knowledge is power and confidence and the kids felt good about what we were doing and played fast.

Q. What went into moving Jack to the middle?
COACH CLAEYS: Well, because we didn't know if Cody was going to be able to go still. So we had to make sure that we had -- I'm a big believer in at linebacker, if you've got a week to prepare, you put your best guys on the field. If your back-up at one place is better than who you're going to start in another place, then you're wrong.

So we just felt like we were going to play our best people on the field at that time. So we started our best three linebackers that were healthy at the time and work around that.

Q. Did you go back with Matt and sort of reevaluate the last sequence at the end of the game?
COACH CLAEYS: Sure, sure.

Q. Is there something in the game that you analyzed?
COACH CLAEYS: I talked about it, you know what I'm saying? That situation was taken care of between me and Coach in the past. I screwed up. I didn't designate -- as I said, I didn't designate a time management guy like what I did for Coach Kill. So that will be taken care of this week. We've still got the two opportunities that we thought we were going to get, and we've got to get the ball six inches. But there is no question.

If I had to do it all over again. We would have clocked the ball coming out of the play reversal, and we would have gotten one more opportunity. At the same time, we shouldn't have needed one more opportunity to get the ball six inches. So it is what it is. Moving on.

Q. Are you defensive coordinating or is Jay doing it?
COACH CLAEYS: Jay's doing an awful lot of it. He really is. I'm there to help him with the adjustments. I met with him this morning. That's all I did last week too. I helped with the adjustments when they were hurting us, so I'm in there during the game planning part of it, and I'll help him out with adjustments and that.

But our defensive staff has worked together a long time. We all believe in the same things, so we'll continue to work together, but he's taken over an awful lot of it, and then that allows me -- because I need to spend time. That situation of the game also would not have happened if I was more familiar with the plays on offense. So I need to spend more time in with offense just learning what they're doing and not necessarily being a bother to them, but knowing what the plays are.

That's also, somebody asked the difference with Coach Kill was around, knowing he was going to come back, he stayed in with them. I never did that the last time. So this time I need to do that.

Q. (Indiscernible) a full-timer to staff yet?
COACH CLAEYS: Well, Jay Nunez was our special teams quality control. So we did add him. So he's helping Coach Sawvel with the special teams part of it. So he was promoted to fill that spot. So he's taken Jay's work with him also. But he's taken a lot of the paperwork and time consuming things and meeting and that. And then the other thing is I'm sitting in on special teams meetings, which is the first time in years that I've done that. But that's part of the transition and knowing what's going on. I need to know all of that.

Q. Are you (Indiscernible)?
COACH CLAEYS: No, the only thing we may get into it is whether run or pass. You know what I'm saying? Those guys have done a good job. Obviously, if you get into a situation where you see in the end of a game where sometimes on third downs you go, hey, do you run the ball at the end and make them use their last time out? Do you throw it and try to get the first? I'll be involved in those type of situations.

But as long as I know what's going on going into the game, which I will this week on offense, they've got a job to do just like all of us.

Q. Do you feel like going forward here as far as offense, do you think that you tend a little bit more toward maybe attack, more of an aggressive philosophy versus maybe a little more conservative, minimizing mistakes? What is your thought on that?
COACH CLAEYS: Move the chains. Take care of the ball, period. I mean, really, you don't turn the ball over. You move the chains. You ask kids to do things they're good at doing, which I think we've done a good job of that with Mitch at the last couple games. Put those kids in position to do plays they're comfortable doing, I think you'll have success.

So that's what I tell the guys. Get the ball to the best players we have in as much space as you can. Make somebody tackle them in space. So whatever fits in those parameters is what we're going to do.

Q. Ohio State's quarterback change play much into your plan?
COACH CLAEYS: No, in the off-season we went through and broke down from their games a year ago, and our quality control people have broken down the game this year when the different quarterbacks are in there. What changes, again, just like Michigan, they did a great job with the open week of taking Peppers and doing some different things with him out of different personnel that they had shown.

So it's the unknown of what Braxton's going to do is what's probably going to have a big impact on the game. So that's the thing. We'll prepare as well as we can for it, but that's where the adjustment is at. I'm sure he's going to take on a bigger role. I just don't know what that is.

Q. What are your thoughts on the way (Indiscernible)?
COACH CLAEYS: He's a good player. They went with awkward different formations. Like I said, they did it with all big personnel at one time and unbalanced. They did things like that. The other thing that they did a good job of is that the opening drive of the second half was three of those different formations on things that they did with him they saved until the second half. So they didn't just shoot all their bullets in the first half. So we had adjustments to do so.

They did a good job with him and offensively they needed an athlete like that. He's a very good football player. He can play on either side. He really could.

Q. You said you learned not to worry about things you can't control. Was there a time when you had a harder time?
COACH CLAEYS: I really did. I can remember when I learned it too because we were at Northern Illinois and we barely beat -- I think it was North Dakota, a 1AA school. We won a game. I don't know. To don't hold me to it. Sometimes I forget the scores, it was 21-17 or one of those deals, and I was going back to the locker room after we won, and I had three or four people hollering at me telling me I better not cash my paycheck that week. That I didn't earn it.

From the outside I don't think people -- some people don't understand is that we put a lot of hours into this to prepare for each game. Not every game goes the way we want it to. I did take it pretty personal, and it bothered me for a little while. I called a good friend that I had and he made me laugh a little bit, and another coach, and said, hey, your job is to control the things you can control, and you can't have control over that. From that point on I've really tried to live by that.

When I go to bed each night I try to put my head on the pillow knowing I did the best I can and made the right decision with the information I've had. I've slept pretty good since then. The only night I haven't since then in the last while is Tuesday night after talking with coach before practice, knowing that that decision was going to come down the next morning and not knowing what it was. I did not get a lot of sleep last Tuesday night.

Q. With the changes that happened last week and your mentality and the uncertainty for the rest of the staff, do you have to communicate that mindset to the rest of the guys? How is their psyche right now given the uncertainty?
COACH CLAEYS: They're doing good. We're all moving forward like we're going to be here. Anything else would be a cheat to the kids and to the University. I really feel good about things. So we're all in this together. We've been together a long time, and everybody's approaching it the exact same.

Q. I know you can't speak about specific recruits, but just in general, what was your sense of how it went with those kids here this weekend?
COACH CLAEYS: I think it went great. The hardest thing is the uncertainty part. But just ask them to hang in there as long as they could. Obviously there comes a point when I don't want some kid to end up with an option that they don't like. I think that's unfair to the kid. I just told them I hope they're open and honest with us. When that opportunity comes that they feel like they need to start looking at different options for them to be comfortable, then to just let us know and I understand.

I don't know what else to tell them. You know what I'm saying? But told them we would sure love to have them hanging there as long as possible. But it's a great university. There is no question, because of that we're able to hold some kids in. At the same time let's not fool anybody. The kids are going to school because of the people involved in the football program also and that weighs heavily on that trust. So all they can do is fight every day, and I'll fight every week on the phone to keep them in there as long as I can.

And, again, it's a situation from here I don't have any control over. I'll just do the best I can, and our staff will do a great job and do the best they can.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297