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NATIONAL FUNDING HOLIDAY BOWL: MINNESOTA VS WASHINGTON STATE

December 26, 2016

Tracy Claeys

San Diego, California

THE MODERATOR: Good morning everyone. I'm Gina Beckman welcome to the 2016 National Funding Holiday Bowl press conference. I have Coach Mike Leach from Washington State and Coach Tracy Claeys from Minnesota. We will start with Coach Claeys and then we will open it up for questions.

COACH CLAEYS: Appreciate everybody being here. Representing the Big 10 University of Minnesota, we're excited about being here for our first bowl game since 1962 and getting a chance to represent the Big Ten. I would like to thank Ted, Mark and all the red coats. We have had a great experience, very well organized and happy to see the best that San Diego and the area has to offer. The kids have had a great experience and now we're looking forward to getting to the game and hopefully we can have a game that is as competitive and exciting as the Holiday Bowl is known to have in the past. We would like to congratulate Coach Leach, his staff and players for a great season that they have also had and looking forward to getting to the game.

Q. How has your team responded without their teammates on the road?
COACH CLAEYS: We have practiced well, so that hasn't been an issue. At the same time you want them to have fun and enjoy the things that are here. As a staff we just ask that when we're on football time, and those three or four hours a day, that they concentrate and do their best to prepare for the game and we have a tremendous amount of respect for Washington State and we know that we need to be prepared to play. They've done a good job of separating that from the trips that we have been able to do as a team.

Q. Coach, tell us about the defensive backs that will be starting in place of your suspended starters. How do you prepare them for a couple weeks of practice?
COACH CLAEYS: Every week, whether it's injuries or whatever it is you play the best kids that you have available and I think as coaches it's important that you ask kids to do what they can do and play to their strengths. The worst thing you can do is take the kids that are available and ask them to do something they're not very good at.

You get a little younger and with the challenges comes opportunities for kids. They've done a great job of preparing and obviously the staff just keeps preaching that we're going to work to their strengths and if you're going to go down at least you're playing to kids' strength.

The worst thing we could do is ask a bunch of kids to do something they're not capable of. We have enough kids, they've worked hard and prepared hard and I'm excited to see them play.

Q. How would you compare the health of your offensive line now to like the end of the Wisconsin game. How important will that be?
COACH CLAEYS: That's the one place, obviously, when the season started that we were in real deep and we're basically in the same place that we were for the Wisconsin game. We've still got some people that are beat up one or two of them will be game time decisions on what happens, but at the same time usually you get three or four days to practice, so we have had ten days to practice and it allows Bart to work with different combinations, move kids around, so we have had plenty of time to the different groups that we may have to play with and it gives us a chance to move them around.

Q. Any shot on Jared?
COACH CLAEYS: That will be a game time decision, but it looks doubtful whether he will be back.

Q. How much did getting away from Minnesota help your team move on from the boycott and the things that happened in the past week in Minnesota?
COACH CLAEYS: I'm not for sure. All I know since we have been here they've done awfully good. They got on a plane, came out here, great area, the weather, even though some of them complain that are out here, the locals, it's been really nice for us and then when we left the Twin Cities. Like I say, they have done a great job in the meetings and in practice. They've really enjoyed the different experiences that have been provided to us.

Q. When you guys face passing offense you have had quite a bit of success with pressures. What have you seen from that unit? What's been most impressive about putting pressure on the quarterback this year for you guys?
COACH CLAEYS: If you look a lot of times, you know, the sacks do have a big impact on games, different times in games, but, you know, when you play a team that gets rid of the ball quick and gets the ball out and that's short and down the field. They do a good job of mixing it up. The screens, the draws, it's a challenge. We will just have to see how the game plays out and where the pressure part plays into it and where it goes.

Q. Kind of following up on that I was going to ask you about the offense, different from what you guys see on a regular basis and what has jumped out to you about that challenge?
COACH CLAEYS: Mike wasn't there with we played them a couple of years ago, we played Texas Tech and he does different things, but so far the speed, obviously the speed, that they work with and since he was in the Big 12 and how fast the Big 12 works is the one thing that we play spread offense and nothing huddle but that tempo is definitely different than what we've seen and the variety of plays obviously. A lot of the spread teams know how to, we see they're still a predominantly a run game. So that's what's neat about bowl games, you get to play people from different conferences that you usually wouldn't get to play and it's exciting to see how it all works out.

Q. Your senior receiver Drew Wolitarsky took a leadership role. Has that remained constant in San Diego? Talk about how important he is to the team.
COACH CLAEYS: All our seniors, they have done a great job. This is as close of a team as we have had. You go back to last summer and the positions and with different position groups the seniors did, so I'm proud of the fact that they worked on this since last summer, having a close football team. It's good to see them get rewarded with a great bowl like the Holiday Bowl.

Q. Coach, preparing for Luke Falk, what do you see from him? And is there anybody who he reminds you of?
COACH CLAEYS: Not many people complete over 70% of the footballs they throw. He's extremely accurate, knows where he's going with the ball, they do a great job of attacking the different space and the different zones. It will take a great effort, and part of that when it comes to it, is that hopefully they're having a little bit of an off day and whether that's through drops, or whatever, but it's hard to rely on him to be inaccurate because he's done such a good job all year long.

Q. I know the charters are coming in from Minnesota today and everything, but have fans pulled you aside? What are the things people are saying to you in terms of support for what the team has been through and all that this month?
COACH CLAEYS: They're excited about being here and excited about the team. Like I said, it's a good reward. We had opportunities to win more ball games and didn't. Just like every team in the country. Disappointed that we couldn't finish out a couple more of them, but at the same time this is a great bowl and they are excited to be here and come out to this area and they've been very supportive of all of us. Thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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