Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle issued a statement Monday that said of coach Tracy Claeys: "He is our head football coach. ... He has my full support."
Coyle's statement makes no mention of a contract extension, but a source familiar with the situation said Claeys has indeed been told that the school plans to offer extensions for Claeys and his coaching staff.
Coyle's statement said: "Now that our regular season is complete, Tracy and I have begun to discuss this past season and the plan for our program moving forward. He is our head football coach. As is the case with every one of our head coaches, he has my full support. I will do whatever I can to help him and our students achieve at the highest levels.
"Our football program has now won eight games in the regular season three times in four seasons. We expect that our program will continue to grow and I am committed to putting us in a position to do so. This includes working with Coach Claeys to evaluate where we need to improve and what each of us can do to ensure we meet our expectations."
Claeys, 47, has gone 10-8 as the team's head coach since taking over when Jerry Kill resigned for health reasons in October 2015.
Under then-interim AD Beth Goetz, Claeys had signed a three-year, $4.5 million deal last Nov. 11, which included a relatively small buyout of $250,000 per remaining season. The deal was designed to allow a new AD time to evaluate Claeys this season.
The Gophers went 8-4 during the regular season, including 5-4 in the Big Ten. They led in the second half of all four losses to Penn State, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin, four teams that went a combined 37-11 this season.
Last year, after Kill resigned, the Gophers went 1-4 to finish the regular season, though all of the losses came against eventual 10-win teams _ Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Following that Wisconsin loss, Claeys fired offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover and quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski. He later replaced them with a new offensive coordinator/QB coach (Jay Johnson) and a new offensive line coach (Bart Miller).
The changes appear to have worked, as the Gophers have averaged 30.3 points per game this year, compared to 22.5 last season.
