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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 4, 2016

Tracy Claeys

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q. Coach, you had success against Iowa. Are there moments or memories that stand out at your time here?
COACH CLAEYS: No. Because every good one there's a bad one. It's one of those things where they go back and forth. That's how rivalries should be. You know, they're physical games, and so we've been on both ends of them, but obviously, like I said, there's good ones but there's some pretty bad ones, too.

Q. Tracy, when you went there last year your D-line was so beat up and you were really able to run the ball. How much better equipped do you think you're at right now especially on the D line?
COACH CLAEYS: We're healthy. We'll see. That's the good thing about playing on Saturday, so we have our guys back on the D-line. They're healthy, and, you know, on both sides of the ball, if you look at the game, that's who wins it, whoever controls the line of scrimmage, and so that's why you play the game, and it will be our best versus their best, and whoever wins, obviously, up front, will play a big part whether we win the game or not.

Q. How do you assess the offensive line through four games?
COACH CLAEYS: We've been very consistent. They played -- they're better than they were a year ago. I think they continue to improve; however, they will tell you this they are still leaving a few plays on the field that they can help us in the secondary if they would finish off a few more plays.

Q. Along those lines, what do you think the keys are -- you guys were so good against preventing the big play in recent years -- just to get back to that, preventing the play?
COACH CLAEYS: Here's the thing. The big play thing is that -- is -- you know, obviously, sometimes it's mistake, sometimes you just get out-athleted, you know, and sometimes it's not playing very smart. I mean, and then you throw in the fact it's not always the same person. It's somebody different every time. If it's the same person, it's easy to correct. You know what I mean? You find somebody else. But right now it's different people at different times in the game and it's that inconsistency that is driving it. So, we will continue to work on it. We've watched a lot more film as a team together this week just to point out the importance of doing your job on every play, because everybody in the room is relying on you. And, you know, hopefully that those things will start to go away the better we coach and address them.

Q. You got Winfield in camp. Did you anticipate he would have this kind of role so soon?
COACH CLAEYS: You know -- yes. He was one of the young freshman that we identified early. I wouldn't tell you necessarily this much, but each week, he's kind of went along as planned. We've increased his role as he gets more comfortable each week, because he's a good football player. He's got awfully good instincts and so, you know, we'll continue to increase his role up to the point that he can handle it. But at the same time, we got to remember he's still a freshman.

Q. Tracy, you rotate the running backs throughout the game. Is that your call as to who goes in, when or how is that decided?
COACH CLAEYS: No, I don't do that with any position. All of the position coaches decide who's in the game and when. They're with them all of the time in practice and meetings, so I don't tell anybody who they have to play then.

Q. Does that come from Jay then?
COACH CLAEYS: What's that? The position coaches are the ones that decide who's in the game.

Q. Tracy, the players were cleared of the charges from Hennepin County. Any update on their suspensions?
COACH CLAEYS: No. They're going to return to practice. We'll go there day by day, but they will return to practice today.

Q. Will this they have a chance to play Saturday?
COACH CLAEYS: We'll just see. We'll go day by day with it.

Q. Will there be any conditioning factor or is that something they should have taken care of while they were suspended?
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know. They haven't been involved in anything, so I'll know a lot more in practice how that's affected.

Q. Tracy, will Jay be here throughout the week or what's his status?
COACH CLAEYS: You know that he will. That's -- you know, I don't want to get into a lot of the details, but you know that is a true football family, and his dad is -- has been great for high school football in the State of Minnesota, and his mother understands football and, you know, for -- he passed before the game, but she also knew that -- not to call until after the game, and, you know, that's -- she knows how important football is to their family and is to Jay. So they're going to work around that schedule and all of that to allow Jay to be here as much as he wants to be here. You know, at the same time, he knows from me whatever time he needs to take care of family issues, he has that time, and we'll find a way to, well, get along, but he's a great person. That's -- that's a great football family, very -- I mean, terrific addition to our staff and feel bad, but, you know, a couple of these issues, timing has not been our thing this fall. But you just keep moving on, and it's a cruel world, as I said before. It doesn't slow down for you. And we'll get through it.

Q. You do a lot of things other than coaching. How do you prepare for that as a head coach to deal with all of the stuff, administrative that -- off the field stuff that you have to deal with?
COACH CLAEYS: You know, that's a good question. Personality, I still think plays a big part in some of that, you know? It rattles you for a little bit, good and bad, when things like that happen, and I'm usually the type that, you know, give me 30 minutes or so, and I can get things back in perspective a little bit again, an then it truly does come back to address them one at a time, you know, you have to put an importance level of them, and go one at a time. And we talk about a lot of things very openly as a team when we do our team meetings, when these things come up. Just like I told our kids, if there's something that Coach Johnson needs, they need to help him, take care of him and no different. Coach Sabella's father passed away during fall camp, and I thought the kids did a good job of handling it there, but somewhere, you got to put it all in perspective, and it's like Coach, he says, take care of the kids, well, in general, take care of the people in general. That's where it has to go. At the same time, you have to realize the game's still going to be played. So, while you're here, we ask our kids and coaches, when things like that happen while they're here in the building, we're working on football, and then concentrate on it and then we make sure that there's time during the day to think about those other things that happen.

Q. Coach, you were very serious about handling the Jalen Waters hit. Can you shed light on what you're going to do there?
COACH CLAEYS: It's been taken care of in my opinion. The Big Ten is -- it was not an illegal hit. It was not targeting. It was late, you know? But it wasn't like five seconds late, you know? But it was illegal, because it was late after the whistle, but it was to the shoulder. It was not to the head. You know, he's paid his penalty, and we're going to move on.

Q. Do you see Brian Smith taking on a bigger role after the game against Penn State?
COACH CLAEYS: No, I don't. I just see him keep doing the same thing. That's -- our receivers are catching the ball, and, you know, who's ever open, that's who we want Mitch to throw it to and catch it, and, you know, Brian has grown up and matured a lot and played a lot more consistently. I'm glad to see good things happening for him, but we just need to keep catching the ball the way we're catching it when it's thrown to you, but, you know, Mitch, at the same time, needs to keep going through his progressions and throwing to the guy that's open.

Q. Tracy, in the first half, when you're in those situations, are you always going to err on the side of being aggressive and trying to go get points?
COACH CLAEYS: "Always" is a bad, bad word just, like "never" is a bad word. My philosophy in general on that, if you can get to the 20, 25 yard line, I'm not afraid to go try to get something, if you have a time-out or two left. And if you don't, and -- there's no sense in it, but I -- a lot of that has to do if we have a senior quarterback who controls things very well and -- so this year, yeah, you know? But if you get down inside that 20, usually like to get a first down first, and then try to roll with it.

Q. Tracy. The injury report added some guys, Zo Creighton, Cody --
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. Zo's got a foot injury. Cody's a shoulder injury.

Q. Duke?
COACH CLAEYS: And Duke is a concussion.

Q. Coney is still --
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. I mean, he's still injured. Anybody else, they're -- I am not going to change anybody else. I will tell you, Carter Coughlin, Rashad Still, Vince Calhoun, they're going to practice this week again. I thought Vince would play last week, and he didn't. So we'll have to see how those guys get through practice.

Q. Obviously you, don't know with Duke, with a concussion, what happens there --
COACH CLAEYS: It's out of my control.

Q. Right. The other guys like Zo, Cody, are they long term or --
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know. Week to week. It's one of those deals. I know they're out this week.

Q. Coach, with your decision you went so well switching Santos around and Carpenter. Coming in, has that kicking game exceeded your expectations even?
COACH CLAEYS: No, I tell people all of the time, they got one job to do: Kick it through the uprights. How can you not do that? You practice it all of the time. I don't care how many people are there. I don't care what down and distance it is. The yardage makes the difference, obviously. But we get down to the 30 yard line, that's what you do five, six days a week. That's your job. No different than Mitch is to throw to people. They've done a good job. You know, Herbie is the one that gets a little bit left out of all that. Here's a redshirt freshman doing the holding. That's the probably tougher than the kicker's job us, making sure the snap is down and all that.

No. If we wouldn't have seen things in practice, we wouldn't have made that switch. He missing them all of the time, we would never have made that switch. Like I say, we thought that was best for the team, and he does a great job. We have to keep the occasional kickoff from going out of bounds. Like I say, we practice that every day. There's no reason for that to happen, and he knows that. Special teams-wise, I thought he did better.

Q. A little bit down from last year where they were so successful stopping the run. Is it important to get off early, get Shannon and Rodney going early, especially knowing they want to do the same thing with their offense?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, I think -- I'm not, but everybody wants to get started early. Nobody has intentions of starting slow and building up as it goes. We all want to get out of the gate early. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't, you know? But definitely, I think that, you know, playing with the lead is important, and you're not able to get the lead, you got to get started early, no question. So, that's our intentions every week, and hopefully we can do that. But at the same time, they know who those two backs are, and so that's why I say it will be physical and tough, and they're going to make you earn every yard.

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