Don't look far for next Gophers coach, give Claeys a chance

The University of Minnesota lost its football coach suddenly and not of its own doing back in 1985, when Lou Holtz left for Notre Dame four days after a 6-5 regular season ended and the Gophers accepted a bid to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

There had been four head coaches fired over the next 25 years: John Gutekunst, Jim Wacker, Glen Mason and Tim Brewster.

There were rumors flying for quite some time before Holtz's introductory news conference was held on Thanksgiving Eve in South Bend, Ind.

There was no advance warning before Wednesday when Jerry Kill became the first head coach in three decades to leave the Gophers at his own volition. It wasn't for a better job, because Minnesota is now a good one that's going to get better.

Kill, only 54 and under contract at big dollars through 2019, retired — conceding to his belief that he couldn't coach football in the full-bore style that was his trademark, and simultaneously follow his doctor's plan for dealing with his epilepsy.

I will be surprised if it doesn't come to pass that Kill accepts a position as the chief fundraiser for the $170 million athletic complex for which the groundbreaking is scheduled for Friday.

Kill already had been a mighty influence in gaining donations, and his popularity among Minnesotans will be heightened — not lessened — by Wednesday's from-the-heart sign-off from football coaching.

In 1985, the same boosters who had helped arrange the hiring of Holtz two years earlier were pushing for Bobby Ross, the coach at Maryland. A campaign got under way among the players and a couple of Twin Cities media types to give the job to John Gutekunst, Holtz's well-regarded defensive coordinator.

Ross was said to be turned off by what he was seeing and hearing from the Twin Cities media and said, "Forget it.'' Soon thereafter, he moved to Georgia Tech and won a co-national championship.

Gutekunst carried the interim label into the Independence Bowl, a victory over Clemson, and then athletic director Paul Giel gave him a contract. Gutey had one lousy season among his first five, then went 2-9 in 1991 and was fired.

The comparison to current events is obvious: Kill has retired, and Tracy Claeys, a well-regarded defensive coordinator, has been named as the interim head coach with five games remaining in the regular season.

Except, the main task held with the coaching staff is all that Gutekunst in 1985 and Claeys today have in common.

The Gophers still are using the football building that Holtz insisted upon, but construction is about to begin on the two modern, high-tech football buildings that Kill has insisted upon.

We all loved Gutey as a guy, and he did OK for a while, but there's more substance to Claeys … and I'm not talking about physical mass.

Claeys was fantastic when Kill's seizures knocked him out of action briefly and then moved him to the press box in 2013. He has been Kill's right hand, a strong recruiter and has made defense the strength of this program's improvement.

The clichéd angle is that the Gophers will risk losing a strong recruiting class if they go outside to find a head coach. That was also the pitch from Gutekunst's boosters three decades ago.

That's not why I'm saying give the job to him. I'm saying it because I don't think that Minnesota could hire a better coach and leader of the program than Claeys.

Claeys is worth a shot for a couple of years to see if he can build on the Kill foundation. After the Nebraska episode earlier this month, it's hard to call Claeys a defensive savant, but when you remember the defense played by Brewster's and Mason's last several teams, Claeys has been close to that.

I gave the title "Country Jer'' to Kill out of fondness for that Kansas twang and ability to pronounce the word ''tour'' the same way as me: ''tuurr.''

The Gophers are being advised here to stick with that same background and promptly take away the interim title for Claeys. I even have the nickname, stolen though it is, for the new coach:

"Big Country."

Patrick Reusse can be heard 3-6 p.m. weekdays on AM-1500. preusse@startribune.com