It took the combined efforts of head coach Jerry Kill and defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys to guide the University of Minnesota football program to its best record in 10 years. But it wasn’t that the Gophers finished the regular season 8-4, as much as how; that earned them the Pioneer Press’ Sports Figures of the Year award.
On Oct. 10, after he missed a game at Michigan, with the Gophers coming off back-to-back Big Ten losses, Kill announced he would step away from the team to manage his epilepsy. Claeys took over as acting coach, and Minnesota rolled off four consecutive conference victories, something it hadn’t done in 40 years.
