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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 25, 2016

Tracy Claeys

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q. Tracy, can you give us an update on Lingen and Richardson specifically?
COACH CLAEYS: Right now, I mean, their listed as out. I mean, Steve's on the concussion protocol, and so we'll have to get through that, and then Lingen, with his foot, he'll definitely be out this week.

Q. The word is that Lingen could be out the rest of the season.
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know that for a fact, so I'm not going to comment any more than that, you know?

Q. One thing that we've heard from the players is Sunday you addressed them and reminded them of Illinois a couple years ago. What was the point of that message?
COACH CLAEYS: You know, I just think that you try to learn from the past. You know? I thought we could have played better, and obviously they played better than we did, and -- you know, but again we compete hard, had a chance to win. But same thing, you know, we've proven that we could win there, too. Because a couple years back before that, we were able to win on the road so -- but I don't think it ever hurts to -- you know, you try to learn from the past and not repeat it.

Q. One thing you talked about was the 2012 game earlier this year there, about getting the bowl eligibility. Was that a particularly special one in your time here?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. I think so at that time, you know? To get -- I think that was our first bowl game that we were able to go to since we've been here, so -- but the specifics, I don't remember. I'm not very good about that, but I do remember that, getting bowl eligible.

Q. Tracy, Rutgers played you guys close. You lost to Penn State, Penn State beat Ohio State. There's examples all of the time about kind of the evenness or parity in the Big Ten and Power 5 conferences in college football, and it's been in place, it seems to me, for a number of years, but is it even trending more so in your opinion this year, the amount of parity?
COACH CLAEYS: I think it's been the last few years. I mean, I just think each weekend, you can look and there's going to be eight to ten games. It kind of surprises you what happens, if you go by all of the information that's out there before the game is played, and so I think that's a good thing, you know? And I do believe that whoever prepares the best and shows up and plays hard and makes the fewest mistakes will have a chance to win each week no matter who you play, and so, like this week, we'll have to make sure we're ready to go, and that's why it's -- and, you know, in college football, every game pretty much counts, you know, towards the end, so I think all that leads to all of the interest and excitement to it.

Q. What accounts for it more than anything? Are there just more good football players available to more people than there have been before?
COACH CLAEYS: That's a good question. I'm not for sure. I ready don't. I think sometimes all of the social media, sometimes kids read things and try to make up their mind of about the game is played who is going to win or lose and that can affect your preparation during the week, but I'm not for sure on all of it. I do think that kids are being trained better in high school, and stronger, and so I do think there's a good core of players out there coming out of high school, and everybody's getting their share of good ones.

Q. Tracy, you talked in the off-season about getting your best players on the field. With Shannon and Rodney in the same formation sometimes, just are you pleased with how you guys are integrating that and how it's worked out so far?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, yeah.

Q. When KiAnte plays what does he allow you guys to do schematically? Does he help in run support or maybe helps change coverage, maybe helps slant coverage one way or the other?
COACH CLAEYS: You just like to have your best players out there, and we always have built things around trying to get the D-line to where it can be better than most of the people that we play, and -- in the corners. It's not just him, but anybody. If you can take away that part of it, then you can obviously outnumber them in the box, and to help you on the run and worry about other pass people, so you just -- one of our 11 best players, and we count on him, and when he's available to us, then, you know, we can do all the things we want to do, and obviously when he's not, we can't force people to do things that they are not good at, so it changes a little bit in what we do.

Q. Illinois, by the way, has a standout pass rusher, is there anything you do differently with him, like in protection, you should go back, anything like that?
COACH CLAEYS: If there was, I wouldn't talk about it. So we just got to protect, which we've done a good job all year. I don't know. We haven't given up very many sacks this year, so -- but he creates a challenge.

Q. With Shannon and Rodney, I mean last year they were dynamic, too, but they were dealing with some injuries, too. Would you say that the numbers they put up last year could have been comparable to this year if they had been healthy?
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know. They're good. And you should get better each year, so, you know, they've been able to stay healthy, and they're good backs that run tough, you know? I don't know how it compared to last year as much.

Q. With Rodney returning kicks, is that in all -- I mean, obviously, you saw what he could do, but do you have to balance that with trying to keep him healthy?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, yeah. That's why he's on a couple special teams things and that, but I don't think he's overly worked, and he wants to do those things. That's the good thing.

Q. Is Shannon going to take -- (indiscernible).
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know. We'll see how it goes in practice this week.

Q. Was the package with them, Rodney and Shannon, in the backfield together, was that something that Jay came up with? Where did that kind of originate, that package?
COACH CLAEYS: I mean, I said all along we were working on doing that, you know, so I don't -- so in that room somewhere, it came out.

Q. Is it one of those things where you guys have to -- last week have to prepare for unbalanced. Do you feel like that kind of allows other teams something they have to uniquely prepare for?
COACH CLAEYS: Oh, I think so. I think so, yep. You worry about all of a sudden one of them is out in the backfield and you get a linebacker on running back, and those guys run pretty good. So I think it's one thing that the -- you know, definitely they have to take time each week and prepare for.

Q. Tracy, we could get focused on statistics a lot with D-lineman. I don't know if it's always revealing, but Hank Ekpe's numbers are off the charts this year compared to previous years. Is that also a sign of how well he's playing?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. He's playing pretty good. You know, seniors, I keep telling you, seniors got to play well. If you're going to have good seasons, your seniors got to play well, and Hank's done awfully -- been his most productive year since he's been here for whatever reason, so it definitely helped us out.

Q. Coach, you have five guys who left the courthouse today fighting the Court-ordered restraining order. Has that at all become a distraction with your team, the judge putting off the decision for another week. Does that cloud the locker room or do anything to make your job more difficult?
COACH CLAEYS: No. No, it really doesn't. No. You know, we just prepare for the games and move on.

Q. But with putting Hardin back in as a starter, can you elaborate to at least our viewers at Fox 9 how that decision gets made?
COACH CLAEYS: We're going to play our best 11 who are eligible to play, period.

Q. Were you surprised at all about the turnout on Saturday considering it was homecoming, beautiful day, and seemed like there were a ton of empty seats?
COACH CLAEYS: No. I don't have any -- all I can worry about is how many games we win and how well we play. So that's the most important thing to me.

Q. Is it frustrating you?
COACH CLAEYS: No. No, not at all. Not at all.

Q. Coach, what does it say about Illinois on film?
COACH CLAEYS: Just the fact, you know, defensively, they are going to put a lot of guys in the box, and they're going to make you throw the ball, but at the same time we can't get one-handed, and that's all we do. We're going to have to execute in the throwing game and still be able to run the football. Offensively, it's just -- they do spread the field and they got two backs that are really good, a big physical receiver that played well, but each -- they played three different quarterbacks now because of injuries, so finding time in practice, they all do something a little bit different, so, it's finding enough time in practice to make sure we're prepared for all of them.

Q. How do you keep your guys focused with realizing without the fans in the stands, restraining orders, and even injuries, how do you keep your players that are playing focused on Illinois?
COACH CLAEYS: Just say when they show up in the building, it's time to do football, they concentrate on football. They've done that. We've practiced well last week. Our kids prepared well. I think they way we came out of the gate shows they were ready to go. It all comes down to controlling things you can control, and it's a tight group, and been very pleased with the way that when they show up here for the building to work on football, they've been extremely focused.

Q. Tracy, you have about a half dozen true freshman that really played quite a bit and made contributions. Are you surprised even to the extent that they've contributed, and is this freshman class, do you think, maybe going to turn out to be an exceptional one for you when some of the other guys play?
COACH CLAEYS: You know, they're going to stay healthy and that. Where they've helped us is in the special teams, you know, the most, and in special situations in the game, so, you know, I think any time you can do that. We've been able to take special teams reps off some of our older kids, I think that helps, as the season goes on, for wear and tear, and so, you know, we knew they had athletic ability and that, but you never know mentally how they'll handle it. So very pleased for them, and, you know, it's exciting this year and exciting for the future when you have kids that are that productive when they're that young.

Q. Coach, the players with the restraining order, have they come to you for support or questions? What is that dialogue?
COACH CLAEYS: I don't have anything to say about that. Okay.

Appreciate it.

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