Charley Walters: Joel Maturi nailed it in hiring Jerry Kill

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Among the 49,680 spectators who witnessed Minnesota's startling 51-14 annihilation of Iowa on Saturday afternoon at TCF Bank Stadium was Joel Maturi, who as then-Gophers athletics director hired football coach Jerry Kill five years ago.

Kill's Minnesota teams went 3-9, 6-7 and 8-5 in their first three seasons, and with Saturday's memorable victory, the Gophers are 7-2 heading into next Saturday's home game against Ohio State.

There is little doubt Maturi found the right coach to succeed Tim Brewster, whom he fired, in Kill.

"When you're hiring people, oftentimes, especially if you've dismissed a coach, you try to find somebody you think has different strengths than the person you perceived not having prior," Maturi said. "Tim Brewster had never been a head coach, didn't have the experience of assembling a staff. One of the challenges coach Brewster had was keeping a staff -- all his coordinators left, for good jobs, but they all left."

So Maturi pursued coaching prospects, he said, "who had stability and the ability to turn around programs, which Jerry has done every place he's been. Those are the qualities that meant the most to me in hiring Jerry Kill."

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_26898852/charley-walters-joel-maturi-nailed-it-hiring-jerry

Go Gophers!!
 




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