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Former Minnesota coach Tracy Claeys has been hired as the new defensive coordinator at Washington State. The news comes on the same day former WSU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was officially introduced as a member of the coaching staff at Ohio State. "Tracy comes highly recommended as a tremendous teacher, strategist, and a player's coach with an impressive body of work that has withstood the test of time," Cougars head coach Mike Leach said in a statement.  Claeys led Minnesota to a 9-4 record in his only full season as head coach in 2016, but was fired shortly after the season ended in the wake of a standoff between the football program and the school's administration. Gophers players threatened to boycott the team's game against Washington State in the Holiday Bowl after 10 players were suspended for their connection to an alleged sexual assault. Claeys tweeted in support of the players' proposed boycott -- which ultimately did not take place, and Minnesota went on to beat Washington State 17-12 -- but has since stated he should not have addressed the issue on social media. "This was too complex and important an issue to address in a 140-character message," Claeys wrote in a commentary for the Minnesota Star Tribune in August. "It generated more questions than it answered and likely created more problems than it solves." The idea of a boycott originated from the players' belief that their teammates had been denied due process from the university's Title IX office, especially five players who were never investigated by Minneapolis police or Hennepin County prosecutors. An external review of the university's investigation last year found that the school followed federal law and institutional policy over the course of the investigation, but faulted "weak leadership" and poor communication by the football coaching staff as partial reasons for the threatened boycott. Claeys, who was hired as the Gophers' defensive coordinator in 2011 and has been a defensive coordinator in college football since 1999, took over at Minnesota midway through the 2015 season after Jerry Kill resigned due to health reasons. Grinch worked wonders during his three years in Pullman. In 2014, the year before he arrived, WSU allowed 38.6 points per game. Since then, it has not allowed more than 27.7 points per game.
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