BleedGopher
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ESPN: Recruiting Q&A: Minnesota's Jerry Kill; says he drove for first time in 2 years
per ESPN:
There's some negative recruiting out there, and I'm sure other teams have brought up your health issues to try to persuade recruits not to head to Minnesota. What kind of impact has that had on this class, and how do you try to tackle the issue with recruits?
Jerry Kill: You know what? I just shoot it out straight. I'm sure there are things that happened -- I know it happened three or four times -- but I don't think it made any difference in recruiting at all. It may have helped. Sometimes, when you get attention, whether good or bad, it ends up being good. I think people respect me because when I come into a home and I tell them I'm epileptic, it is what it is. But I won a hell of a lot of football games and turned around three programs doing this.
If you're straight forward, I don't think it affects it at all. Do some people go and say things? Yeah, I've heard that. But people are competitive, they want to compete, and I don't get worried about it. The best answer to that is probably that I drove last night -- the first time in two years. I drove right down the highway. I didn't drive very good, and I'm probably going to have to take a driver's ed course, but I did drive -- so maybe that'll put an end to all of that. ... I'm honest with recruits. And I think if you're honest, people say, 'Hey, he's honest -- and I'm not going to worry about it.'
Let's put aside my 14-second 40 for a moment and pretend I'm a five-star recruit. What is the Jerry Kill pitch to get me into a Gophers' uniform?
JK: I think we have a lot of things we can talk about. This is an unbelievable city to come to, and we have 19 Fortune 500 companies here. There are great opportunities here. We have a tremendous school, a great academic school and, with having that and all the Fortune 500 companies, that's important. We have summers and springs and falls that are outstanding. It's the Land of 1,000 Lakes, a beautiful state. And I think we're the top four in the country in fitness states. So we have so many things to offer -- a brand-new stadium -- so we just have to get people to visit. To be honest with you, when we get people to visit, we've usually got a pretty good chance to get them committed.
I know when I got this job I was like,' Boy, that's a long way up there.' But when people get here, they just don't leave -- and I'm talking about the business world. That's important.
Are there specific players, or a position grouping, that you do expect to have a more immediate impact?
JK: We don't have a lot of seniors leaving, and that's a good thing. We're a young football team, but we needed to fill some specific needs. Melvin Holland is a big get for us, and Conner Krizancic is a good get for us at receiver. Isaiah Gentry was really under the radar. They've all got length, and they've got speed. And Jerry Gibson and Gaelin Elmore are guys that are athletic enough to play tight end, H-back, wide receivers -- they can be all over the place. And we want that versatility in our offense.
Offensively, we really improved our football team. We recruited a lot on defense the first two years -- you build your team on defense; the Seahawks proved that -- and, offensively, we moved slower.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/95396/recruiting-qa-minnesotas-jerry-kill-2
Go Gophers!!
per ESPN:
There's some negative recruiting out there, and I'm sure other teams have brought up your health issues to try to persuade recruits not to head to Minnesota. What kind of impact has that had on this class, and how do you try to tackle the issue with recruits?
Jerry Kill: You know what? I just shoot it out straight. I'm sure there are things that happened -- I know it happened three or four times -- but I don't think it made any difference in recruiting at all. It may have helped. Sometimes, when you get attention, whether good or bad, it ends up being good. I think people respect me because when I come into a home and I tell them I'm epileptic, it is what it is. But I won a hell of a lot of football games and turned around three programs doing this.
If you're straight forward, I don't think it affects it at all. Do some people go and say things? Yeah, I've heard that. But people are competitive, they want to compete, and I don't get worried about it. The best answer to that is probably that I drove last night -- the first time in two years. I drove right down the highway. I didn't drive very good, and I'm probably going to have to take a driver's ed course, but I did drive -- so maybe that'll put an end to all of that. ... I'm honest with recruits. And I think if you're honest, people say, 'Hey, he's honest -- and I'm not going to worry about it.'
Let's put aside my 14-second 40 for a moment and pretend I'm a five-star recruit. What is the Jerry Kill pitch to get me into a Gophers' uniform?
JK: I think we have a lot of things we can talk about. This is an unbelievable city to come to, and we have 19 Fortune 500 companies here. There are great opportunities here. We have a tremendous school, a great academic school and, with having that and all the Fortune 500 companies, that's important. We have summers and springs and falls that are outstanding. It's the Land of 1,000 Lakes, a beautiful state. And I think we're the top four in the country in fitness states. So we have so many things to offer -- a brand-new stadium -- so we just have to get people to visit. To be honest with you, when we get people to visit, we've usually got a pretty good chance to get them committed.
I know when I got this job I was like,' Boy, that's a long way up there.' But when people get here, they just don't leave -- and I'm talking about the business world. That's important.
Are there specific players, or a position grouping, that you do expect to have a more immediate impact?
JK: We don't have a lot of seniors leaving, and that's a good thing. We're a young football team, but we needed to fill some specific needs. Melvin Holland is a big get for us, and Conner Krizancic is a good get for us at receiver. Isaiah Gentry was really under the radar. They've all got length, and they've got speed. And Jerry Gibson and Gaelin Elmore are guys that are athletic enough to play tight end, H-back, wide receivers -- they can be all over the place. And we want that versatility in our offense.
Offensively, we really improved our football team. We recruited a lot on defense the first two years -- you build your team on defense; the Seahawks proved that -- and, offensively, we moved slower.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/95396/recruiting-qa-minnesotas-jerry-kill-2
Go Gophers!!
