Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football program during Claeys' tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue). As you may notice, Minnesota was about average under his brief tenure. All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model. More details about the program under Claeys are after the chart below, including his original contract are linked below.
Tracy Claeys [2015-2016]
2015
Claeys took over as head football coach after Jerry Kill resigned due to health issues. At the time of coach Kill's resignation, the Golden Gophers were 4-3. Once Claeys took over, the Golden Gophers were 1-4 under his tenure for the rest of the regular season; finishing the regular season overall at 5-7 (bowl ineligible), but since there were not enough teams they were allowed to play in a bowl that season and defeated #45 ranked Central Michigan in their post-season bowl game by a score of (21-14) to finish the season at 6-7. Minnesota played against a "tougher" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was between one and two standard deviations lower than the average SOS for the "league". The Golden Gophers best game again was their victory over #58 ranked Illinois (32-23) and their worst loss was to #79 ranked Nebraska (25-48). Minnesota had the #66 ranked team in total production with the #90 ranked offense and the #37 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2016
At the end of the regular season the Golden Gophers were 8-4 (and were bowl eligible). Minnesota defeated #37 ranked Washington State in their bowl game by a score of (17-12). The Gophers played an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was plus or minus one standard deviation of the "league" average SOS. The Golden Gophers best win was over #46 ranked Northwestern (29-12) and their worst loss was to #58 ranked Nebraska by a score of (17-24). Minnesota had the #38 ranked team in total production with the #57 ranked offense and the #31 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.