Tracy Claeys' big challenge: Getting the skeptical Gophers fans to buy in

The Green Line train starts at Target Field in Minneapolis and ends at CHS Field in St. Paul. There is a stop at the Taj Ma Zygi, the new Vikings stadium, and then a stop across the street from the Gophers' home, TCF Bank Stadium.

The Gophers will be opening their eighth season in that on-campus stadium on Sept. 1. The opponent will be Oregon State, a sub-mediocre member of a Power Five conference, at 8 p.m. on that Thursday.

There will be some competition for squeezing into Green Line trains that night. The Vikings have an exhibition game with the Los Angeles Rams scheduled for 7 p.m. There are ballgames scheduled for that time at both ends of the line: Twins vs. White Sox and Saints vs. Winnipeg.

That also will be the second Thursday of the State Fair, which drew an attendance of 123,733 in 2015. "We have many people who like to ride the Green Line to Snelling Avenue, then get on our buses,'' a State Fair spokesperson said.

All of this could explain why the Gophers appear headed for attendance in the low 40,000s for Oregon State. A year ago, the Thursday night opener (on Sept. 3) drew 54,417, the biggest crowd in the stadium's history.

There also was the opponent, of course: No. 2-rated TCU.

Plus, the Vikings were a co-tenant at TCF Bank Stadium, and thus not competing for football fans in a $1.1 billion gift from the citizens of Minnesota that's located 1.4 miles away from the Gophers' opener.

More than anything, though — the opponent, a second straight surcharge added to season tickets, the Vikings' increased dominance with the new dome — I view the coaching change as the main reason for the Gophers' return to a far back burner on the local sports scene.

Jerry Kill had a couple of advantages when he arrived in December 2010: A) He was filling a very small pair of shoes from a coaching standpoint; and B) he had a down-home charm of the type to win over nearly all Minnesotans, other than English teachers.

I labeled him "Country Jer,'' not in derogatory fashion but in tribute to his aw-shucks, Kansas salesmanship that was a considerable contrast to Tim Brewster's Popeil Chop-o-Matic approach.

Kill's fourth season in 2014 was marked by good health, victories at Michigan and Nebraska, an energetic effort at home against Ohio State's national champions, and a trip to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando for a Jan. 1 game vs. Missouri.

There were estimates as high as 20,000 for the Gophers' fan turnout in Orlando. Reporters covering the game were impressed at both the show of enthusiasm and the demographic:

Not a majority being the familiar senior citizens in their maroon sweaters, but those professional couples with a moneyed look and a couple of kids, the folks you see in good seats at Wild games.

Twenty months later, where have they gone?

I don't buy that you can add a couple hundred bucks as a "scholarship fee'' and basically sell out six of seven home games with crowds of over 50,000 in 2015, and then have season-ticket sales plummet by more than 5,000 when the fee is increased again in 2016.

A weak home schedule. More competition than ever for the sports buck (or a train seat). A 5-7 regular season that was a step back.

Yeah, all those are factors, but the No. 1 reason for the nearly invisible status of Gophers football two weeks before the opener is this:

We miss the cornpone of Country Jer.

There's a good chance that Tracy Claeys is a better football coach than Kill, his boss for two decades.

For sure, the 2015 Gophers played better football for Claeys after he took over on Oct. 28 than they had for Kill before his resignation.

Kill was 4-3, but the only impressive game played by the Gophers was the entertaining 23-17 loss to TCU. And the unit that played extremely well for the U that night was Claeys' defense.

Claeys was 2-4, but the losses were Michigan (great effort with disastrous finish), Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin. The only no-show was vs. the Badgers in the season finale. The Gophers appeared to be well-spent by their tough road by then.

We've never had a coach here like Claeys (Big Country, in my parlance). In college football, you almost always get either get a hard-nosed guy or a salesman.

Claeys is neither. He's a guy with a big intellect who is going to try to beat you with a plan. He's not selling anything, except the possibility of winning games.

"Claeys deserves a chance,'' the Kill believers say, but if they really believed that, they would have renewed their tickets.

It's going to take 9-and-3 to win 'em over, Big Country. Go for it.

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