The Zeitgeist List · coordinating

Tracy Claeys

Defensive coordinator across 2 programs, 3 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.

How to read this. Coordinator seasons come from coordinator_journeys(); head-coaching-era seasons are the same unit's FBS-relative percentile for those years, regardless of who coached it, read directly from staff_assignments. A role change (a “hinge”) is a fact, never a performance verdict — only the season-by-season data itself is colored by outcome.

The Zeitgeist List · coaching

Tracy Claeys

Tracy Claeys held Minnesota at National Program III for 2 seasons.

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2015–2016 · 1 stint

Minnesota

← all coaches

Career arc

His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.

Reached National Program in his 1st career season — faster than 41% of the 675 FBS coaches who have ever reached National Program (rank #1 of 675 by seasons-to-arrival).

Minnesota, 2 seasons

+1.2

National Program III → National Program III.

Style position and drift

Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.

Pass rate — share of offensive plays that were pass attemptsfirst covered seasonmost recent covered seasonfull season-to-season range (3+ covered seasons)

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

0–2 against his rivals.

Rivalry record

0–2

0.0% · 2 rivals

One-score games

4–3

57.1% · margin ≤8

Rivalry ledger

Iowa0–10%

Wisconsin0–10%

Performance by opponent class

Power Program

0–4 0.0%

National Program

2–0 100.0%

Regional Program

5–0 100.0%

Coaching career

2015–2016

Minnesotacaretaker

National Program III → National Program III

Tracy Claeys held Minnesota at National Program III for 2 seasons.

10th-best Minnesota tenure of 15 by the numbers.

Recruiter or developer?

Underperforms his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.

Offense vs. talent

-13.0 pts

#160 of 208 · less than most

Defense vs. talent

+15.0 pts

#50 of 208 · more than most

Recruiting talent is team-wide (no offense/defense split exists in the source data) -- both sides are scored against the same talent input, only the outcome is side-specific.

Succeeded by P.J. Fleck (2017–2026).

Season	2015	2016
Record & result
Record	4–3	9–4
Postseason	W bowl	W bowl
Recruiting rank	#63	#46
Style — pass rate
Pass rate	48.9	37.0
Coordinators
OC	Matt Limegrover	Jay Johnson
DC	Tracy Claeys	Jay Sawvel
Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile
Offense	54	21
Defense	50	81
Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only)
1st-down pass%	38.1	36.6
Red-zone pass%	34.5	23.0
4th-down go%opp. territory	22.0	17.4

Where the roster comes from, by position

Grows Running back from high school

100%

#196 of 208 stints

Grows Tackle from high school

100%

#198 of 223 stints

Postseason detail2015: Beat Central Michigan 21–14 Quick Lane Bowl2016: Beat Washington State 17–12 National Funding Holiday Bowl

7 NFL Draft picks: Maxx Williams (2015), Damien Wilson (2015), David Cobb (2015), Ced Thompson (2015), Eric Murray (2016), De'Vondre Campbell (2016), Jalen Myrick (2017)

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