Tracy Claeys Fired as Minnesota Football Coach

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Tracy Claeys has been fired as the University of Minnesota football coach. The decision to fire Claeys comes after the Gophers football team planned a short-lived boycott of their Holiday Bowl game over the school's suspension of 10 players. The suspensions were the result of a university investigation into an alleged sexual assault.

WCCO reported that Claeys was fired Tuesday afternoon. The Star Tribune reported that names expected to be tossed around as Claeys' potential replacement include Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck, former LSU coach Les Miles and Boise State coach Bryan Harsin.

Harsin was hired by current University of Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle back when Coyle worked at Boise State.

After a criminal investigation this fall resulted in no arrests or criminal charges in the alleged sexual assault case, the university's office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action investigated the case and eventually filed a report in December that recommended five football players be expelled, four suspended for a year and one placed on probation, the Pioneer Press reported.

Following the report, the Gopher football team retaliated and planned to boycott its scheduled Holiday Bowl game against the Washington State Cougars in protest.

After meeting with university officials, the team decided to end its boycott, but not before Claeys sent a controversial tweet in support of the players.

The Gophers went on to upset Washington in the Holiday Bowl, 17-12.

Claeys went 11-8 as Gophers head coach, going 2-0 in bowl games. Claeys replaced Jerry Kill head coach, who resigned for health reasons related to his epilepsy in 2015.

University of Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle released the following statement Tuesday on his decision to fire Claeys:

I made a difficult decision today on behalf of the University of Minnesota. With the support of Board of Regents’ leadership and President Eric Kaler, I have decided to take the Gophers football team in a different direction with new coaching leadership.

I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program. We need strong leadership to take Gopher football to the next level and address these challenges. This decision is about the future of Minnesota football.Moving forward, we need a leader who sets high expectations athletically, academically, and socially. I also want to address the unfortunate blurring of the football suspension decision.

On Dec. 13, 2016, Coach Claeys, Deputy Athletics Director John Cunningham and I met to discuss 10 student-athletes. I informed Coach Claeys of my judgment that athletic suspensions were appropriate. Without any objection, Coach Claeys said he understood that decision to bench student-athletes. Coach Claeys, Deputy Athletics Director John Cunningham, and I met with the student-athletes to advise them of our decision. Coach Claeys subsequently informed me that he agreed with the suspension decision. And let me be clear: this was the right thing to do.Coach Claeys’ Tweet later that week was not helpful.

I accept that Coach Claeys intended it to support the boycotting players.

Understandably others did not see it that way. I hope you will appreciate I cannot say more about the athletic suspensions in this case. I will say, as a general matter, athletic suspension decisions – essentially a decision to bench a player – are different from a prosecutor’s decision to charge someone with a crime. Different standards, different policies. An athletic suspension decision is also different from a panel decision whether there has been a student conduct code violation.

Different standards, different policies. For example, we suspend student-athletes for attitude problems. We suspend student-athletes while criminal investigations are ongoing. We suspend student-athletes when University investigators present credible evidence of inappropriate conduct. What happens in a student conduct process is not for me to say.

Like the U and all involved, I simply want a just and fair process. That is not determined by who prevails; if justice is done, then the University of Minnesota and the public win, no matter the outcome.Again, this has been a difficult decision. I thank Coach Claeys and his staff for their years of service.

Coaches Dan O’Brien and Mike Sherels have agreed to remain during the coaching transition to ensure that our student-athletes have strong and active leadership in the interim.

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