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NATIONAL FUNDING HOLIDAY BOWL: MINNESOTA VS WASHINGTON STATE

December 14, 2016

Tracy Claeys

San Diego, California

THE MODERATOR: All right, everyone, we are ready for the head coach of Minnesota, Tracy Claeys.

COACH CLAEYS: First off, I would like to thank Ted and Mark and the red coats for having us out here and being a part of the Holiday Bowl. We're extremely excited. It's the first time since 1962 that the University of Minnesota is back in California for a bowl game. Our fans are excited, our players are excited. Would like to congratulate Mike, Coach Mike Leach and Washington State for a great season they have had. As coaches, when you find out where you're going, you get on the phone right away and call other people who have been to those bowls, and nobody has had anything but great things to say about the way they've been treated here and the way the bowl is done. We're excited to be here. Hopefully we can make it a competitive and exciting game, like it's been known to be in the past.

Q. Do you see offenses like Washington State in the Big Ten? Is it completely different? Are there similarities?
COACH CLAEYS: You know, we see some spread and hurry-up but most of it is still run game based. So this will be the first one with the heavy throw base off of it and hurry-up. We played Texas Tech in a bowl game a few years ago and that's been our only real experience with this type of offense. It will be a challenge for us, a little different for us. That's one thing, at least with the bowl you have a few more practices to prepare for it rather than on a short week.

Q. Coach, can you say what affect the suspensions might have on bowl preparation and maybe the game itself? As I understand, two of them are starters and two were key reserves.
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know that, you know, due to obviously there are privacy laws and things, I cannot comment a lot but as far as bowl prep in football it's a team sport and next person has to step up and we'll be fine. We've got a competitive group of kids, and we'll get 'em ready to play and look forward to the game.

Q. Could this be a distraction, though, that many kids?
COACH CLAEYS: No, no, nope.

Q. Can you tell me how many of those ten players were contributors in the rotation?
COACH CLAEYS: I'm not going to answer anymore questions about them. This is about the game and the University of Minnesota versus Washington State. So we'll have enough guys to lineup and play, last I checked. Only takes 11 on each side of the ball, and a few more special teams, so we got enough left to do that, and we'll get 'em prepared to go, and our kids will play hard.

Q. How many prep days do you have for a game like this and how do you use them? Do you work young players in early on during the preparation period?
COACH CLAEYS: They give you 15, and to be honest we don't get 15 in, because those first two weeks and the week after the bowl is announced we spend all our time on recruiting. You only get to go out two weeks we make sure that we do that. We'll get in 12 or 13 practices, and what I like to do, and what we've done at the University of Minnesota is, on days we want to work the younger guys is we bring them out about forty minutes early, stretch 'em and have a 30 minute workout where they're in full pads and while they go in and change into what we're practicing, whether that's shells or whatever, it gives them a break, the older kids.

They stretch and get loosened up and that way you don't have to put your whole team in full pads for the whole time, if you don't want to when you are getting prepared for a bowl game. It's a fine line between how much hitting and being physical that you do as opposed to also having your best and healthy team on game day. I think that's the thing that all of us juggle around with and try to find that right formula.

Q. So 12, 13 days you're not going to put in a whole new offense?
COACH CLAEYS: No. It gives you a chance to practice your younger kids who have been scout team players all year and haven't had a chance to run your offense. You get 30 minutes a day to work with them, and that gives you a jump on spring ball. So when you get to spring ball, your younger players are farther head. Like Craig said, we watch too much film and sit around too long and drink too much coffee, and you come up with some stuff that you practice an awful lot and sometimes you run it and sometimes you don't.

What I like about the long amount of time is it lets our kids recover. For the two weeks after the season we did nothing but academics, lifting and conditioning, and it allows your kids body to recover before you jump into a bowl game.

Q. Could you talk about your quarterback? I heard before the season that he was a potential pro-type guy. Give us a background and strengths and weaknesses.
COACH CLAEYS: Mitch is one that has worked extremely hard. Three years now he's started for us and he definitely has the size and can make the throws.

He's a good threat on the running game, also. Just like any of them in college, and I don't know if it's like this in the pro's, but we spend all our Sundays watching film, getting ready for the next game, don't get a lot of chance to watch pro football. But I would say Mitch's biggest weakness is, if you want to call it that, is all quarterbacks in college get their favorite guy or guys that they want to throw it to, and rather than go through their progressions reads and throw what the defense gives them, and that's probably the only thing that's got us in trouble with him. But the at the same time he's throwing to our best guys and hoping they will make a play.

I'm just told those guys in the league that if you don't go through your progressions and do like you're supposed to, you will be on the next bus out of town. So that's something he is going to have to get more consistent at. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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