Defining game for Coach Kill.

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Not in regards to winning or losing it, but " being there " on the sidelines. You would hope the two week break would correct his medications will jump start him for a healthy rest of the season. I think a breakdown, or not being on the sidelines for Northwestern would again create unessary hype in the media and more raised eyebrows with the fan base. We need you roaming the field coach.
 

Hopefully, the bye came at just the right time for Coach Kill, but the Gophers are likely underdogs in all six games the second half of the season.
 

Hopefully, the bye came at just the right time for Coach Kill, but the Gophers are likely underdogs in all six games the second half of the season.

I actually wonder if the bye didn't come at bad time for the coach and the team...on the field, getting Northwestern after a tough loss in a possible signature game would've been great timing...now with an extra week, if NW goes out and beats Wisky, they're back to rolling next Saturday when it faces our favorite squad. Off the field, the bye gives the media, the fan base, and everyone involved an extra week to focus on everything bad going on. I wonder if we wouldn't have been better off taking the field this weekend and hopefully make us forget everything going on the past couple weeks. It's all a moot point, of course, but I'm not sure I'm on board with the whole "bye came at a perfect time" rationale.
 

I love the opportunity the program has next week!!! Coming out of the bye week, they have the chance to upset a ranked team on the road to give the program a signature win. How wonderful would Kill, staff, and players feel after the scrutiny they've been through since Iowa?

How much hope would that give us heading into the second half of the season? We can hope!
 

I actually wonder if the bye didn't come at bad time for the coach and the team...on the field, getting Northwestern after a tough loss in a possible signature game would've been great timing...now with an extra week, if NW goes out and beats Wisky, they're back to rolling next Saturday when it faces our favorite squad. Off the field, the bye gives the media, the fan base, and everyone involved an extra week to focus on everything bad going on. I wonder if we wouldn't have been better off taking the field this weekend and hopefully make us forget everything going on the past couple weeks. It's all a moot point, of course, but I'm not sure I'm on board with the whole "bye came at a perfect time" rationale.

With how bad we have looked, I actually like the NW-Wisconsin game the week before we get Northwestern. If Northwestern loses, they have seen all of their hype and strong out of conference play evaporate into a frustrating 0-2 start and should be pretty deflated (more so than we are after our 0-2 start, because our expectations were lower), and possibly a little bit beat up (2 weeks against top conference opponents vs. us coming off of a bye week).

Conversely, if Northwestern beats Wisconsin, it is going to be very easy to over look us because we have looked like total crap in B1G play. Combine that with the fact that we always seem to give Northwestern a game (even last year with all of our struggles, we might have beaten them had we not fumbled the openning kickoff), and this might be as good a shot as any for a big upset this year.

Either way, this would be a very good game for Kill and Co. to win. Winning puts us back on track for appearing in a bowl game and gets the focus back on football. If we show up and totally wet the bed, it feeds the narrative that our coach's epilepsy is too big of a problem, everything is in shambles, and the sky is falling. This guy has needed a signature upset over a top team in the conference, and now more than ever would be a great time to get it.
 


I actually wonder if the bye didn't come at bad time for the coach and the team...on the field, getting Northwestern after a tough loss in a possible signature game would've been great timing...now with an extra week, if NW goes out and beats Wisky, they're back to rolling next Saturday when it faces our favorite squad. Off the field, the bye gives the media, the fan base, and everyone involved an extra week to focus on everything bad going on. I wonder if we wouldn't have been better off taking the field this weekend and hopefully make us forget everything going on the past couple weeks. It's all a moot point, of course, but I'm not sure I'm on board with the whole "bye came at a perfect time" rationale.

I think it is debatable if it came at a good time for the players but I think it came at a perfect time for Kill in that it has given him the ability to take some time away without being overly questioned about it because there is no game this weekend. Things will ratchet up again after the weekend and hopefully he will be recovered enough to get back to business as usual.
 

I don't think there's any doubt Kill will be on the sidelines. It would take another game day seizure for him to miss it. Let's all cross our fingers and hope that doesn't happen.

I think we'll play well against Northwestern. Leidner will have had 2 weeks to build off his performance against Michigan, if he cleans some things up then I expect him to be very productive. Northwestern can be run on. If we can control the clock and not turn the ball over we can keep it close.
 

I agree with the OP. We need Kill on the sidelines. I don't think the bye is bad for Kill or the team, but bad for the fans.
 





Don't take this the wrong way because I'm still a big Coach Kill fan, but I think Kill is damn lucky we had a bye this week. It's Thursday, he hasn't been seen in public for a week, there has been no indication if he would have been able to coach if we did have a game this week.

I have not seen that asked or addressed one time by our beloved media or administration. If you think things are hot now for the Gophers just imagine if he would not have been able to coach this week and had missed two games in a row!
 


I love the opportunity the program has next week!!! Coming out of the bye week, they have the chance to upset a ranked team on the road to give the program a signature win. How wonderful would Kill, staff, and players feel after the scrutiny they've been through since Iowa?

How much hope would that give us heading into the second half of the season? We can hope!

That's how I choose to look at it. And if for some reason Coach Kill cannot make the game or be on the sidelines, and the team still won, then what would conversation look like?
 






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