|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 15, 2016Tracy ClaeysMinneapolis, Minnesota Q. Tracy. With your seniors, you know, on hearing them on Saturday, just, you know, what has this group meant to you, if you don't mind comparing them maybe to some of the classes you've had over the years? COACH CLAEYS: I mean, no different than last year's class. This year's class, same thing, when they got here, everything wasn't all rosy and going the right direction, and the culture had to change, and they were a big part of that, and, here they're setting there, and, you know, they have won 29 games, and -- which is tied for the third most of any senior class since 1937. We still have two games left for them to add to that total and have an opportunity, so, they've obviously had a good run here and done some good things, and so, hopefully we can close it out. Q. One thing that Mitch and those guys seem to really take pride in is their meeting before each week to kind of set the tone for practices. Do you see that kind of playing out during your practices, too? COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. I mean, sure. But we've practiced well, you know, so, you know, they've done a good job. I thought they did a good job in the summer with the leadership part and that, so they've -- they've done good, and we need to try to finish out the season and reward them. Q. How was the character in Demarius Travis benefited this team? COACH CLAEYS: I'm not sure -- Q. Given the way he carries himself, the way he -- COACH CLAEYS: He's a professional, complete professional. Trust him with my life. I mean, he's a good kid, been going to school, works with the younger kids and been involved in the community. He's a great person. Q. Coach, I had a reader ask me if I would ask you about Shannon and Rodney being on the field at the same time. I know you had that set at times on Saturday night. Is that something that you kind of think you kind of pick your spots with and mix in a little bit, or is it something maybe you see a little bit more of going forward? COACH CLAEYS: I think it's about the same, you know? We're going to keep doing what we're doing on the field together and whatever we think we need to do to move the ball. So, it's been good for us. And -- so we'll continue with what we've been doing. Q. Rodney is pretty good at catching the ball, isn't he, as a receiver? COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. Yep. Q. Tracy, what concerns you the most about your defense facing -- COACH CLAEYS: Well, it's control the running game part of it. We got to make sure that they don't have a big day running the football, and then keep the ball in front of us on the passing game. So, sounds like it's going to be a little windy and that, and so, we're definitely going to -- we're going to have to control Justin Jackson and keep him from having a big day, and if we do that, then I think we'll have an opportunity to win. Q. Have you seen Thorson make pretty big strides from last year? COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. Sure. He has, he has. As the season went on, they are playing to their strengths, and so they've -- he's definitely played better here as the season went on, you know, but it all starts with the running back. Q. With Mitch, I mean, you look at his numbers, and they're not where they were last year, and you guys have relied more on the run. How do you look at Mitch's season so far? COACH CLAEYS: I think offensively, when you look at them, we're better by far, and he's a big part of that. I mean, you sit here in the red zone, 31, 29 times we scored touchdowns, which was 80 percent. Last year 19 of 36. We're averaging almost 32 points a game. Last year, we averaged 22 and finished 106th in the -- so there's no comparison. We -- yeah, we're not where we want to be, but we're a lot better on offense, and so he has a lot to do with that. Q. Austin Carr for them has been real effective including on third downs. How do you go about trying to minimize him as much as possible? COACH CLAEYS: Yards after catch. I mean, again, it's going to come down to that. What you talk about, they're going to catch the ball. They're a no huddle, up tempo team. They're going to catch a few passes. You got to tackle them when they catch them. I know they won't have to throw to them when they stop the running back. That's where we'll concentrate first. Q. Has Drew made a lot of progress since last season? Seems like he's able to find kind of soft so the spots in the zone. COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, that has a little to do with the routes a little bit, yeah. Being a senior, he's played well and made a lot of catches for us. And so, you know, we're going to rely on him. Hopefully, he'll have another big day today, but more so than -- I mean, he's blocked well, too. I mean, he really has. And he's had a complete year, and so, you know, we'll need him to play well for us to have a chance to win on Saturday. Q. Is he right there with your most improved player? COACH CLAEYS: I don't know. I mean, he was pretty good a year ago. We just went to K.J. Maye more, it's one of those things, as seniors, to have a decent year, seniors have to play well, and he's played well. Q. Tracey, Tai'yon has been back for a while now. Is the explosiveness, is he's still coming back from that ankle, or -- COACH CLAEYS: No, no, no, no. Q. -- the impact he had early in the year? COACH CLAEYS: Right. Q. Are teams maybe finding him more, too? COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, I mean, it's -- we didn't generate any sacks this last week, I don't think, or we got one and no turnovers, so, you know, it's not about him. It's about everybody, so that's -- you know, we'll continue to work on getting pressure. Q. How much do you look at last year's film against Northwestern when using it to prepare for this year? COACH CLAEYS: I mean, we always -- we go back and watch the last two years. Any time we play a team, we go back and watch the last two years we've played them, and then we look at their stuff that they're doing this year, so that's part of our normal routine each week. Q. Is there any update on Lingen, or is it same as -- COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. I mean, for right now, he's still out, and, but like I say, I don't know how long for sure. We'll have to see if he'll have a chance to play in the Bowl or whatever, but right now he's still out. Q. Have defenses done anything to counter your guys' intermediate passing game, especially considering -- seems like lately it's either been a big play or a short play. There hasn't been a ton of teen to 20 yard game, in passing. Has there been adjustments you made since the Penn State/Iowa game? COACH CLAEYS: Don't know. You throw the balls that are there. Again, it's all about going through progressions and stuff like that. And according to the route, and throwing, and getting to the open guys, so, you know, I don't know that it -- you know, how much of it it's been, that it's been that much different, you know what I'm saying? So, we probably seen a little bit more man coverage and haven't created quite enough separation, and -- but at the same time, we've dropped a couple balls in there. But that's possibly the biggest adjustment. We've seen a little more man stuff. Q. Was last week kind of a concern, because you didn't get the turnovers you've been getting and offense couldn't sustain the opening drive early? Is that something that concerned you in the last two games? COACH CLAEYS: No, not -- you know, I mean, we got to get some pressure, and, Mitch, you know, we go back. Their last drive, we drop an interception. We have a chance to get out and we drop an interception. They're a good football team. Last I checked, I think they're ranked 17. You go on the road, 20,000 people, I think they won 19, 20 night games in a row at the University of Nebraska, and we're right there with them and have a chance and a few plays short. Pressure on the quarterback would have helped us, but they didn't drop back very much for the most part. They kept all of the things short and fast, but we do have to create more turnovers. Q. Tracy, did you feel like the crowd down there was a significant factor in their winning the game? COACH CLAEYS: No. I don't think so. I mean, I thought we handled the noise well. We didn't really have a lot of penalties, and -- you know, I think it helps them any time you're at home, you know, and you got a crowd like that. But, so home field advantage, it's hard to win on the road, and that's one of the better places to play. No different than Penn State with how many people they put in the stands each week, so it is a great game, great atmosphere and all that. We're disappointed we didn't win. I don't think it bothered us. Q. You got your offensive plays off okay? COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, we did. Q. Tracy, this is as good true freshman class as there's ever been. Your impact players are true freshman not redshirt freshmen? COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. As far as making plays and how you play them, Mike, you can say that. For how much they've played, they've also made their mistakes when you go back and watch it, but, again, for how much we put on their plate, we wouldn't be where we're at if a lot of those true freshman had not come through and played well, played well. Q. Coach, you talked a lot about the importance of cornerbacks in your defense. How have you seen Jalen Myrick progress during his time here? COACH CLAEYS: Same thing. He's grown up a lot. He's learned that you can't play on talent alone all of the time. I think he'd be the first to tell you he didn't have one of the best games and needs to play better from a tackling standpoint, but our whole secondary needed to tackle better. And we would have got off the field a little bit more, and so, it's really does, it comes down to those games. I thought we competed awfully hard but you got to block and tackle well, and when you go on the road, and to make a few of those plays. We didn't do that, and didn't make a couple plays that we needed to, or we would have had a better opportunity. Q. What's got into him not on the kickoff return team? COACH CLAEYS: On the kickoff return team. You know, you evaluate the film, I think KiAnte has done a better job. So, it's that simple. Q. You've had occasional games where the tackling wasn't there, but it always seems like it's maybe a one-game thing. What does it say about their bounceback ability? COACH CLAEYS: We'll be fine. We'll be fine. You know, that's -- you watch everybody spread the field. Every now and then they have a thing tackling, that's part of the reason people spread the field out and get the ball to people and say you're going to missing tackle. For the most part we've tackled very well. We do tackling drillings every week in practice so, you know, we'll bounce back and we'll be okay. Q. Against Northwestern, you guys were going back and forth a lot since you've been there. What is your identity as a football team? COACH CLAEYS: I mean now, you got to stop the run, you know. The Jackson kid is where it all starts. But you still have -- you have all of the up tempo teams. They possibly work faster than any of them also. And so being able to get in substitutions and all of that is a little bit of a concern for how much we've been substituting on defense and so -- but they've had their years when they really relied on the pass and scrambling around a lot more, and this year, without a doubt, it all starts with the running back and we got to take him away. Q. Do you feel like coach with Thorson and Jackson and Carr, that they are maybe about as balanced and good offensively as anybody you played this year? COACH CLAEYS: Yeah. You know, the only thing is -- we've played people that maybe had one or two better skill people, but, again, they do a nice job of getting those kids in space and getting them the ball, and that's what it's all about, getting your best kids to play their ball in space and were going to have to tackle well. Q. Tracy, now that Coach Fitzgerald rebounded from two losses to start the year to play competitive like they have? COACH CLAEYS: I mean -- like I said, their team, they've gotten better. You know what I'm saying? I didn't talk to him. I don't know what they changed. Q. Thank you. COACH CLAEYS: All right. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|