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Claeys

Regardless of the details on why this happened, it really isn’t that surprising.

Maybe Claeys was burned out? Maybe there was friction between him and Leach? Maybe Pullman isn’t for him? Maybe he did get asked to resign?

Either way, Leach has a nice coaching tree and is well connected. I suspect he’ll make a good hire or hires. Personally, I like younger defensive coaches, especially with our offensive system. Someone on the ground, teaching technique. Coaching with fire.
 
Just talked to a friend who has sibling In the program. Said it was a shock to everyone and that Claeys simply walked in and resigned. Supposedly most the assistants are not happy at Claeys and called him a weak person. Wasn’t specified if that was unanimous etc.
 
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seems like a nice guy, tough to work a miracle with a defense this undermanned-but after the ucla meltdown, a lot of comments about the dc falling on his sword.

Burnout wouldn't surprise me-who knows what family personal issues the guy has
 
chugspig said:
Just talked to a friend who has sibling In the program. Said it was a shock to everyone and that Claeys simply walked in and resigned. Supposedly most the assistants are not happy at Claeys and called him a weak person. Wasn’t specified if that was unanimous etc.
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I heard it caught people off guard . Something to consider he comes from a old traditional conference where strong running games and defense. He might not like coaching in a conference and coach that is ok with 52-42 scores .
 
I like TC and thought he did a very good job during his time in Pullman.

To me, the guy is a rock-solid old school football coach and deserves a significant share of the credit for WSU being a Top 25 mainstay during his tenure,

I certainly have no insider info, so I'll just wait to see what Scott Hood reports once he gets to the bottom of things in the next 24-48 hours.
 
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Thompson and Sivels may have been the straws that broke the camels back. A lot of good coaches would struggle with this group.
 
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The defense was in a tailspin from a talent, scheme and execution standpoint and there were no answers, with things getting worse by the week. There was no other option and I guess we have to be glad Claeys got the chance to give the appearance of having left on his own terms. It had to happen.

Still, don't know what his personal situation is, but I recall listening to an NFL scout discuss the tumult you put your family in with that profession. Moving across the country every few years, pulling the kids out of school and everything they're familiar with, wife looking for a new job (this scout's worked just to stay busy), tons of life-shortening stress having to prove yourself every few years... it's tough. I hope he lands on his feet but his trajectory from Minnesota on is just not positive. Don't see how he recovers.
 
well, I didn't agree with some of the personnel choices and the slants and stunts that gambled and left players out of position-usually with a bad payoff...….But, Claeys was pretty much in a no win situation with an undermanned defense that lost Sivels and Thompson, cant really judge him as a lot of good coaches would struggle in the same situation.
 
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I will never be on board with college coaches quitting or being fired mid-way through the season. When things aren't going well the players are expected to overcome adversity, but the coaches walk away or fire an assistant? It kind of goes back to this growing body of evidence that on both sides of the ball we are becoming more and more predictable and seemingly unable to evolve as other teams in the conference have studied what we are doing and adapted their offenses and defenses accordingly.
 
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Agree. Any solid coach with a reputation for maintaining a legit program sticks it out for the whole year. This mid season ejection speaks of something much bigger. I don't think Cougs are getting the whole story here. At least not yet. Hope to god the players don't feel betrayed and somehow find a way to turn this into something to rally behind. Unlikely but damn. Fingers crossed.
 
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Since we’re all shotgunning theories, maybe his goal is to be the head guy again, and he realizes that Leach is here for the long haul. Rather than coach in a pass crazy, offensive conference, he’d rather hit the reset button and get back to a more traditional brand of football.
 
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CougPatrol said:
Since we’re all shotgunning theories, maybe his goal is to be the head guy again, and he realizes that Leach is here for the long haul. Rather than coach in a pass crazy, offensive conference, he’d rather hit the reset button and get back to a more traditional brand of football.
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If his goal is to be a head coach again, the dumbest thing he could do is resign mid season after his defense has failed miserably.
 
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All sarcasm aside, I’d be willing to bet that it’s related to his growing frustration about working in an offense first system. Where the defensive emphasis, including the recruitment of players, is an afterthought compared to the offensive side of the ball.

That’s the only thing that makes sense to me, apart from a personal issue between him and Leach.
 
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Well, Claeys just tweeted “we” disagreed on how to fix the defense, so I resigned.”

The plot thickens.
 
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This all reminds me of Gary Anderson quitting on his team a few games into the season at Oregon State. Anderson was frustrated with his inability to get the team to play better. It's certainly more dramatic when it's a head coach that quits and leaves millions of dollars on the table, but there could be similar factors in play. Without knowing more details, I also think Claeys should be sticking it out for the season....which is what coaches expect of the players. Not a good lesson on how to deal with adversity, IMO.

Glad Cougar
 
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My theory on Claeys is that Leach probably gave him a little bit of the ol' "DO YOUR JOB" speech and Claeys, as a former head coach and 50 years old, went full blown lethal weapon and said, "I'm too old for this sh!t" and decided it was time to move on.

The "We couldn't agree on solutions" comment by Claeys is really intriguing. As mentioned by someone else, HBO has picked a great time to be featuring WSU in terms of intrigue and drama. Should be fascinating to see what comes out there.
 
CougEd said:
He put the reason in all caps. He wasn't a speed D guy and probably wanted to move away from it.Probably wasn't excited to coach it.
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This .

He made it obvious with that one post. If you noticed Clareys never used the team "speed d" and was actually gradually moving away from it. Less gambling sell outs for the sake of Turn Overs etc.. The fact he used the term in his tweet almost sarcastically tells the whole story.

Like any HC, I think Leach was fine to let CLareys do whatever he wanted to do as long as it was working , which was the case last year. This year when they were not stopping anyone , Leach was probably calling for him to gamble more to create turnovers which went against Clareys natural inclinations.
 
When you are the D coordinator and your troops are not playing well, and your staff does not fully agree with what to do next, you only have a couple of potential decisions.

1.) Resign.
2.) Fire the assistant(s) who are not on board with your ideas going forward.
3.) Try to get everybody on board, moving in the same direction.

It is pretty clear that he tried 3.) and was not able to pull it off. That left 1.) or 2.). He appeared to be worn down. That is all I can really say; the rest is speculation.
 
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SaveFerris said:
I know Leach gives his DC a lot of latitude but Leach is the head coach. Buck up and stick around to fix things. It’s really unfair to the players to bolt 5 games in.
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It is an interesting situation where I think leach is hands off on a daily basis. I also think TC didn’t bring in his DB coach, or some other coaches .

Imagine if Oklahoma brought Leach in to be OC back in the day and Stoops kind of pushed the narrative of the offense on him, making it more conservative and pound and ground. And in three games the offense scored a total of 21 points and Leach says I know how to fix it but stoops wanted to play within what he believed in.

Not sure there are any villains or people who are wrong here. Sometimes the fit is all wrong and you don’t find out until things go sideways.
 
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Secondary focus on defense recruiting, recruits not working out/leaving/getting the boot has hurt. A lack of vocal leaders on that side of the ball has also contributed. The cougs just don't have the horses, which is a travesty given the team's record over the last three years.
 
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Being said now that CML wanted him to stay but Claeys wanted out "for personal reasons".
This per Bruce Feldman.
 
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It’s gotta be less then 5% that this confrontation had anything to do with Leach other then the mandate to fix this issues. There has to be a large difference in Philosophy and personnel between Claeys and his assistants. There is a lot that didn’t add up about who was playing and where people we’re playing. If I had to guess one side really wanted to play the younger more talented guys, and the other wanted to go more towards a standard base scheme with older guys. Just my opinion, but the use of guys like Brown who showed he was much much better then Rodgers and Sherman etc in every way but saw little snaps likely contributed to the difference. Some of this younger bodies are easier to plug and play in a defense predicated on flying around, rather then plugging gaps. Just my 2 cents
 
Phelps, Shaver, Roc, and Brock are Claeys guys. I don't think McBath is a problem either.

Leach doesn't strike me as someone with an opinion about anything other than the offense. He understands the principle of delegation. I could see him strongly suggest Claeys get down on the field to help organize the sideline. Grinch never lasted in the booth as we always look disorganized while he was up there.

I remember a Minnesota fan posting when we hired Claeys that he was a good second banana but lacked the alpha mentality to be a head coach. In a year when we lacked leadership on the field, I think the limitations of his personality hindered him. Claeys seemed to use every trick in his bag to fix things and it didn't work.
 
fingerdisco said:
If it’s true what’s been said that Claeys doesn’t really hit the recruiting trail, then this could be a blessing in disguise if CML finds a good fit at DC that can also recruit.
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Or adjusts responsibilities to bring in a position coach that does.
 
chugspig said:
It’s gotta be less then 5% that this confrontation had anything to do with Leach other then the mandate to fix this issues. There has to be a large difference in Philosophy and personnel between Claeys and his assistants. There is a lot that didn’t add up about who was playing and where people we’re playing. If I had to guess one side really wanted to play the younger more talented guys, and the other wanted to go more towards a standard base scheme with older guys. Just my opinion, but the use of guys like Brown who showed he was much much better then Rodgers and Sherman etc in every way but saw little snaps likely contributed to the difference. Some of this younger bodies are easier to plug and play in a defense predicated on flying around, rather then plugging gaps. Just my 2 cents
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So did Claeys want to play the young guys or did his assistants?
 
COUGinNCW said:
So did Claeys want to play the young guys or did his assistants?
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By most accounts it’s speculated Claeys wanted to move away from the speed D and run a more traditional defense. So I would guess Claeys was more set on guys like Sherman, Rodgers, Pladson etc at the Lb position. Slower, but more gap filling LBs. I also think it was thought that that was a dangerous move as those guys are outclassed by every pac12 team for the most part, which is where the discrepancy of personnel comes in. Claeys probably didn’t want to head a unit he wasn’t running the way he saw fit.
 
Flatlandcoug said:
My theory on Claeys is that Leach probably gave him a little bit of the ol' "DO YOUR JOB" speech and Claeys, as a former head coach and 50 years old, went full blown lethal weapon and said, "I'm too old for this sh!t" and decided it was time to move on.

The "We couldn't agree on solutions" comment by Claeys is really intriguing. As mentioned by someone else, HBO has picked a great time to be featuring WSU in terms of intrigue and drama. Should be fascinating to see what comes out there.
Click to expand...

That didn’t happen.
 
etowncoug said:
Phelps, Shaver, Roc, and Brock are Claeys guys. I don't think McBath is a problem either.

Leach doesn't strike me as someone with an opinion about anything other than the offense. He understands the principle of delegation. I could see him strongly suggest Claeys get down on the field to help organize the sideline. Grinch never lasted in the booth as we always look disorganized while he was up there.

I remember a Minnesota fan posting when we hired Claeys that he was a good second banana but lacked the alpha mentality to be a head coach. In a year when we lacked leadership on the field, I think the limitations of his personality hindered him. Claeys seemed to use every trick in his bag to fix things and it didn't work.
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Was TC connected to any of these coaches? I just don’t know who hired them . I do know when the first staff was hired Leach hired all the coaches and then hired the DC, so clearly he did that once I just don’t know if he did it a second time and hired coaches and asked TC to work with them .
 
chugspig said:
By most accounts it’s speculated Claeys wanted to move away from the speed D and run a more traditional defense. So I would guess Claeys was more set on guys like Sherman, Rodgers, Pladson etc at the Lb position. Slower, but more gap filling LBs. I also think it was thought that that was a dangerous move as those guys are outclassed by every pac12 team for the most part, which is where the discrepancy of personnel comes in. Claeys probably didn’t want to head a unit he wasn’t running the way he saw fit.
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Sherman hasn't played since getting injured vs. Northern Colorado. Pladson did not play vs. UCLA or Houston....and only saw a couple of plays vs. Utah. So really, the games with the most egregious defensive problems took place with Woods, Rodgers, and Taylor starting...and Stone, Fa'ave and Tristan Brock coming off the bench. Of that group, Rodgers and Brock could be considered slow, IMO, but not so much the others who have been playing. They certainly aren't filling the gaps and their tackling skills are lacking. WSU truly needs to recruit and develop better linebackers.

Glad Cougar
 
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