ABOUT
If it's true that adversity builds champions, the Minnesota football program may be able to look back upon the 2011-12 school year some day with fondness. For now, the Golden Gophers are just ready to move on to something else.
Jerry Kill's debut season ended with a 3-9 record, which was not too surprising considering what he inherited. But there was almost more attention given to Kill's health issues. The survivor of kidney cancer had a seizure -- an issue he has been dealing with for years -- on the sideline late in a Sept. 10 loss to New Mexico State, then again a couple weeks later.
He was admitted to the Mayo Clinic but emerged from the scares and the questions to continue coaching his new team. After a rough season on the field, the Gophers were blindsided by tragedy when former linebacker Gary Tinsley died suddenly in his apartment on April 6, weeks from his graduation.
It was later revealed by coroners that Tinsley died of an enlarged heart.
"We've gone through a lot," Kill said after the April 21 spring game. "We really have. You know, Gary passing away, and all the things that have gone on mentally. None of us understand, really, what the kids have gone through, and I think they've handled things very well, as well as they can. They've stayed focused and practiced hard. We've got a lot of kids that have stepped up and gotten better."
That's the focus as Kill enters his second season. The Golden Gophers started to figure some things out on offense last season after a dreadful start, and their 2012 hopes rest largely on the shoulders of senior quarterback MarQueis Gray.
The coaching staff stripped things down last season and will try to build some of those things back up.
"We wanted to build on what we had done at Northern Illinois, and I think we kind of went in with unrealistic expectations about how to approach things," offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said. "Midway through the season we said, 'We're not really good at anything right now, let's get back to fundamentals.' We simplified some things, and I think that helped us play better."
Defensively, it was more of a personnel issue. The Gophers didn't get pressure on opposing quarterbacks and didn't force turnovers but did give up a lot of big plays.
"You've got to have defensive linemen and corners, and that's where we'll always start," defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said. "Our linebackers and defensive backs have to do a better job of tackling -- just better tackling can do a lot. But we have to get where we don't have to blitz so much to pressure the quarterback, that's my concern."
Still, both coordinators think their units will be better, and the 2011 team beat Iowa and Illinois and lost to USC and Michigan State by a combined nine points. The Gophers are ready for something new and believe better things are ahead.
