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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 11, 2016

Tracy Claeys

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q. Tracy, Mitch is listed out on injury report. What can you tell us about how he's doing?
COACH CLAEYS: He just -- he's on the concussion protocol. So, whenever he gets through that, then he'll be cleared to play.

Q. I asked about that the other day. What was, you know, the concussion thing, that it had come up, how did that come about?
COACH CLAEYS: I found about at 2:00 on Sunday. To be honest, this is my schedule. What I do on weekends, is I try to be available on Sunday for the media. I'm not going talk about injuries on Sunday. So for me to avoid that and for me to be honest, I don't go see the doctors until 2:00 Sunday, and them or Kammy, is something after the game is a critical injury and a big, then they let me know. Otherwise I find out on Sundays at 2:00. That's when I found out Mitch's situation, and he was doing much better, so -- but there's a protocol there that we go through, and I think it's right to do it. It's the safest thing to do. When he gets through that, then he'll return to play.

Q. Do anyone have any knowledge of it on Saturday?
COACH CLAEYS: After the game there was, but I didn't have any knowledge of it. They didn't think it was that serious, or, you know what I mean? Concussion's concussion, and I have had other times when Kammy and the doctors have called me after games and told me about things, you know what I'm saying? But, no, there wasn't. He didn't show any symptoms until after the game in the locker room, until after we practiced. The time I got through the media stuff and showered, everybody was gone from the locker room, so that's -- so I found out yesterday afternoon, and so he's in that protocol that they -- I know that there's a spotter, a spotter in the booth, white hats. All of the officials have the authority to stop the game, if they notice anything. Nobody on our sidelines, so he ended up having the symptoms after the game. Even after I talked to him as a team and that, I guess, after he went over and sat down.

Q. Has Mitch lost playing time in the past here due to concussion protocol?
COACH CLAEYS: Not that I'm aware of. I don't have very good memory but not that I recall he has. Not that I know of. We can check on that, but I don't know that.

Q. Obviously, Conner ran the back-up job in camp. What did you see from him in camp?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. He does a good job. He understands what we're trying do and, you know, so he did a nice job. And then the other thing was, with Demry, we like to get the redshirt back on him. Obviously that will be re-evaluated now this week. And so we'll practice and Connor will start, and we'll do what he can do best along with everybody else, and their strong points. That's what we'll emphasize and go to battle.

Q. What wold do you say the strengths are?
COACH CLAEYS: I'm not going say them here, you know what I mean? We'll see when he gets done at the end of the week practicing, you know, what parts we think we need to do to win the ball game and what he does best. That's what we'll do.

Q. Tracy, Connor was the team player of the year a couple years ago. What did you see from him when he was running the scout offense?
COACH CLAEYS: You just asked the same question he did in another way. You know, I'm just -- he's a good football player, you know, and he has control of the offense. Whatever parts of the game plan they feel like they need to do, we're going to do what he does best. It's going to take us a couple days in practice and everything else. It's no different than the NFL. Backup quarterbacks don't get very any reps during the week as well. But he's more than capable and we'll find things that he does well.

Q. Jonah Pirsig was listed as out -- (indiscernible).
COACH CLAEYS: Probably a couple weeks, you know, two, three weeks would be my guess. It's a high ankle sprain.

Q. Is Brandon Lingen close now?
COACH CLAEYS: He's been cleared to play. We'll have to see. He hasn't played in a while. So, how many reps he gets or what, we'll have to see.

Q. Offensive line depth was a concern coming into the year. Do you feel like you guys are coming along a little bit there? I mean, a couple guys have to step in now?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. I still feel, you know, okay. You know? And Jonas played awfully well this year, but, you know, we're still there where we can put a good group out on the field, you know, in it's -- obviously, we're down one, you know, now, but, yeah, I feel okay about it.

Q. For what it's worth, last week, a couple guys who were listed out, Devers and Still, ended up --
COACH CLAEYS: Right.

Q. -- coming around. Is that a possibility with Mitch, do you think?
COACH CLAEYS: What's that? I don't know.

Q. Yeah. Okay.
COACH CLAEYS: I mean, I don't control that. Once they go in the concussion protocol, is that the doctors, University doctors, handle that, and I don't get involved with that, so, I don't know. You know, they'll tell me when he clears. And everybody's different.

Q. Can you recap what the steps are? How long he needs to be without symptoms?
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know all of the details, I really don't, you know? The less I know about it the better. I don't want him to play until he's healthy. I'll rely on the doctors to tell me that.

Q. What have you seen from Maryland on film so far, just in general?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. They're a one back spread offense that does a lot of quarterback running game, a lot of different stuff, and so they're very athletic, and they've done it by committee. They list quite a few running backs and quarterbacks, and somehow, you have to keep an extra guy close to the box, because with the quarterback running game, you pick up an extra blocker that you usually don't have to deal with, and at the same time, they're extremely athletic. If you don't tackle well, they're going to put a lot of points on the board, you know? So we'll definitely have to tackle well and account for that quarterback running game.

Q. Any update on Winfield?
COACH CLAEYS: On Winfield? He's set to practice, I know that. Okay?

Q. They've given up a lot of sacks, is that going to be even more of an emphasis this week for your guys, being you struggled getting the quarterback on the ground?
COACH CLAEYS: If we can get into those situations. The hard part of the quarterback is getting people in to third and long. They usually manage the downs pretty good, so, yeah, we'll do everything we can to try to get them in third and long situations, and try to take advantage of that.

Q. Appreciate it.
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