For Gophers football, spring will be no break

Tracy Claeys has the spacious corner office at the Gophers football complex now, the one with the plush furniture, reserved for the head coach.

But with his team set to start spring practice Tuesday, Claeys hasn't been flaunting his status as the one in charge.

"I could've kept my same office for all I care," said Claeys, who worked down the hallway when he was Jerry Kill's defensive coordinator.

Claeys hasn't busied himself with redecorating. He's focused on recalibrating a Gophers team that finished 6-7 last season and has pinpointed several areas for improvement, especially the team's strength and tenacity along the offensive line.

On Monday, Claeys held a news conference to preview spring practice and stayed on point, showing little interest in going on tangents.

Asked about the recent news that Kill won't be working for the university full-time, Claeys said: "I wasn't involved in it. I talked to Coach every week, and it seems like he is doing good. So I really don't have anything to add to that."

Asked if he expects to be involved in the athletic director search, Claeys said, "That's a lot higher than my pay level, so my main concern is getting us ready to go football-wise."

Claeys chose not to retain Matt Limegrover, who served as Kill's longtime offensive coordinator, as well as offensive line coach. Claeys said he felt the Gophers were too committed to pass-blocking, as his goal is to find "road graders" for the running game.

"[If] we get our offensive line straightened out, then I think we'll score a lot more points than we did last year," said Claeys, who took over when Kill retired for health reasons Oct. 28 and was given a three-year contract two weeks later.

The new Gophers offensive line coach, Bart Miller, who had that same job for Wisconsin in 2012, has a philosophy that "everything should be demanding."

"We're going to hit at practice," Miller said in January. "We're going to pad it up and hit every day. And we're going to go inside drill and be in the cage, and we're going to live that life. And they're going to know when they take the field they're the most physical guy on the field, and they're going to win."

Claeys sounds convinced. Under NCAA rules, teams can't wear pads (just helmets) for three spring practices. Of the remaining 12 sessions in pads, they can tackle only eight times, though they can "thud" — hitting while remaining on their feet — in the other four practices.

But the focal point will be in the trenches.

"Even the defensive line," Claeys said. "We didn't stay healthy as much last year up front on the defensive line, so after we watched the film, we just felt like both sides needed to be more physical."

The Gophers ranked 105th in the nation in scoring last season, averaging 22.5 points per game. Quarterback Mitch Leidner will return as a senior this fall, but he will miss spring practice while recovering from ligament-repair surgery on his left foot.

Claeys said Leidner's recovery is going "really well," adding: "He'll be mad at me all spring because he thinks he should be able to do more. He's getting along that good, and moving around, but we're not going to take any chances with him."

Without Leidner, the Gophers plan to let sophomore Demry Croft and true freshman Seth Green take most of the reps this spring. That competition will help determine who emerges as the eventual backup, behind Leidner.

The Gophers will hold five practices and then pause for spring break, as they have the past two years. The spring game will be April 9 at TCF Bank Stadium.

The past two years, they have used an offense-vs.-defense format for their spring "game." Claeys wants something closer to the real thing.

"My intentions are to split the teams up and play a game," he said. "We've got to have enough healthy bodies when we get there. I think the kids enjoy that, and I think that's a good thing for everybody."