I wasn’t alive when John Gutekunst was around so reading message board posts about how Tracy Claeys is or isn’t similar means almost nothing to me. So first let’s find out who the hell Gutekunst sometimes called Gutey is.
Gutey came to Dinkytown as a Defensive Coordinator in 1984 with Lou Holtz. When Lou left John took over and coached the team to a 1985 Independence Bowl victory over Clemson. Replacing Lou Holtz when there seems to have been better options seems to be the main comparison. It was written in most of the papers that winter that the U of M was considering Maryland Coach Bobby Ross.