Happy 60th Coach Kill

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short ornery norwegian said:
Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
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You can remember the past without dwelling on the past. I don't think anyone is going to forget that time period from the mid 60's to a couple of years ago....and hopefully since we all remember it we won't end up repeating it ever again.....:)
 

He was a competent qb away from being head coach at USC. Don’t think for a moment he was staying here if the call came in.
 

GopherJack said:
Didn't Kill also make the football players get out of bed in the morning and go to breakfast at the team training table? (baby steps) I do credit Jerry for shoring up team academics and pointing the ship in the right direction.
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Yes. If you don't come fifteen minutes early to the class, that is considered late. The players get to sit in the front row of the class. When Ra'Shede Hageman wasn't in class, he ran to the dorm to wake him up. He was the only one of Jewhan Edwards' Posse that wasn't kicked off or left the team.
 
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Perhaps my favorite post game press conference ever:


After the humiliation at Michigan.....Rock bottom. An honest assessment, steely resolve.

In the following years we'd go on to multiple bowl games (including a New Years Day game), beat Nebraska twice and absolutely kicked the hell out of Michigan in their own stadium.
 

For Kill and his sidekick getting a job as HC and DC in the BIG were a dream come true for both of them after working for many years coaching teams no one ever heard and in conferences as obscure.
He had the terrible misfortune to have developed a severe seizure disorder that required multiple medicines taken every day to control the seizures.
Kill felt the side effects of the medicines interfered with his job.
So he adjusted the doses on his own which resulted in more seizures, some of them in public.
So he had no choice but to leave the best job he ever had to save his life.
It is no surprise he was bitter.
I think he and Claeys were competent coaches but for many reasons recruiting was not going well.
Eventually he was able to stay in coaching but not as a HC. So things turned out ok for him and not so bad for his side kick.
 



Plato said:
For Kill and his sidekick getting a job as HC and DC in the BIG were a dream come true for both of them after working for many years coaching teams no one ever heard and in conferences as obscure.
He had the terrible misfortune to have developed a severe seizure disorder that required multiple medicines taken every day to control the seizures.
Kill felt the side effects of the medicines interfered with his job.
So he adjusted the doses on his own which resulted in more seizures, some of them in public.
So he had no choice but to leave the best job he ever had to save his life.
It is no surprise he was bitter.
I think he and Claeys were competent coaches but for many reasons recruiting was not going well.
Eventually he was able to stay in coaching but not as a HC. So things turned out ok for him and not so bad for his side kick.
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I don’t agree with the statement on recruiting.
look at the Gophers in NFL thread. Almost all of them are Kill recruits. They were gradually improving the team over the years and I believe it would have continued had he not been forced to retire because the athletes village would have helped them to be able to bring in better talent.
I think he would have gotten us to the Rose Bowl or similar and a division title had he remained healthy and been able.
He did blow all his good vibes here with how he acted after leaving.
 

F him...The classless shots he took at the University that paid him handsomely and at PJ who has said nothing but nice things about him are unforgivable.
 

GFBfan said:
I don’t agree with the statement on recruiting.
look at the Gophers in NFL thread. Almost all of them are Kill recruits. They were gradually improving the team over the years and I believe it would have continued had he not been forced to retire because the athletes village would have helped them to be able to bring in better talent.
I think he would have gotten us to the Rose Bowl or similar and a division title had he remained healthy and been able.
He did blow all his good vibes here with how he acted after leaving.
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Actually it is pretty close to a 50/50 split between Kill guys and non Kill guys in terms of the Gophers in the NFL. Depending on where you look there are around 14-15 former Gophers currently in the NFL.

Kill has the advantage as he would have far more potential players in the NFL right now given that Fleck's guys are just now starting to come to the end of their college eligibility. However as it shakes out, Claeys and Fleck both have 3 guys each in the NFL

Claeys - Coughlin, TJ, Winfield
Fleck - Bateman, St-Juste, Willamson

Claeys may very well pick up a few more after this year and Fleck's numbers are likely to grow a lot in the next few seasons as his guys enter the draft.

So in reality, Claeys was actually way better than Kill at identifying NFL level talent based on the small sample size of the 2016 class.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Actually it is pretty close to a 50/50 split between Kill guys and non Kill guys in terms of the Gophers in the NFL. Depending on where you look there are around 14-15 former Gophers currently in the NFL.

Kill has the advantage as he would have far more potential players in the NFL right now given that Fleck's guys are just now starting to come to the end of their college eligibility. However as it shakes out, Claeys and Fleck both have 3 guys each in the NFL

Claeys - Coughlin, TJ, Winfield
Fleck - Bateman, St-Juste, Willamson

Claeys may very well pick up a few more after this year and Fleck's numbers are likely to grow a lot in the next few seasons as his guys enter the draft.

So in reality, Claeys was actually way better than Kill at identifying NFL level talent based on the small sample size of the 2016 class.
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Since those from Claeys were being recruited well before he took over for Kill, I didn't really think of them as Claeys guys. Together Kill/Claeys did recognize defensive talent and were able to turn out some good ones. They were lacking in talent evaluation on the offensive side of the ball though.
 

GFBfan said:
Since those from Claeys were being recruited well before he took over for Kill, I didn't really think of them as Claeys guys. Together Kill/Claeys did recognize defensive talent and were able to turn out some good ones. They were lacking in talent evaluation on the offensive side of the ball though.
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The other aspect of all this is the development angle. For example, those 2016 guys were recruited by Kill/Claeys but developed for the most part by Fleck's staff. Coughlin and Winfiled probably end up in the NFL no matter who their coach is but I think TJ benefitted a ton from the coaching change.

He went from a coaching staff that was not strong at offensive development, and specifically WR development, to one that is very strong in that area. For a kid like TJ who played QB in high school that was extremely important. There was zero doubt he was a great athlete but my guess is that Simon deserves a ton of credit for turning him into a great WR.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The Kill era was not without its controversies and disappointments - BUT despite everything, I still have a lot of affection for Kill.

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Jerry to me is like the second car I ever owned - better than the previous one, performed a bit better, and I had some fun times with it...heck, and just like Jer', it made it to Florida once, too.
But, I knew it could only do so much and it had its limitations...at some point I knew I would need to take a step up sooner rather than later, but I had no regrets about ever buying that second car.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
Jerry to me is like the second car I ever owned - better than the previous one, performed a bit better, and I had some fun times with it...heck, and just like Jer', it made it to Florida once, too.
But, I knew it could only do so much and it had its limitations...at some point I knew I would need to take a step up sooner rather than later, but I had no regrets about ever buying that second car.
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nice analogy.....very well done....
 



Recruiting Minnesota kids goes in cycles. The fact Kill/Claeys recruited Coughlin successfully was a major factor. He rallied a whole bunch of guys to join him. But we were blessed with a very unique year with an abundance of available talent in Minnesota. Some years there are only a couple guys of Big Ten caliber in Minnesota to recruit.
Basketball this year had a bunch of guys beyond Holmgren, for instance. Next year, maybe not so much.
I think the Gophers were on the rise under Kill/Claeys. PJ had a great 2019 with many of those guys. Now, we are anticipating a fun 2021 season with PJ's guys.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
Jerry to me is like the second car I ever owned - better than the previous one, performed a bit better, and I had some fun times with it...heck, and just like Jer', it made it to Florida once, too.
But, I knew it could only do so much and it had its limitations...at some point I knew I would need to take a step up sooner rather than later, but I had no regrets about ever buying that second car.
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Second car I owned blew a head gasket in Wisconsin. Bleepin' Chevy Nova.....made me miss my old Ford Falcon.
 


I liked Kill.
Thought he knew how to coach.
Thought he was a bit stubborn however when it came to QB evaluations and in how he handled his job which ultimately cost him.

He's also a bit stubborn on letting the past be the past and moving forward.


Also, anyone who wants to give the "let's count the NFL players by each coach" and mark Winfield Jr as a Kill / Claeys recruit... that's laughable.
Winfield was out the door and not coming back until Fleck re-recruited him into staying.
The idea Claeys operation was going to make him an NFL'er is simply a lie at this point.
 

I really liked what Kill was doing. He brought a lot of discipline off the field and good play on the field to the team, which was a positive to see. I remember watching the stats improve week-to-week in the first few years. It was especially true with the defense.

Watching the team improve from the 58-0 loss to Michigan in 2011 to getting a win against a ranked Nebraska team in 2014 was enjoyable to see. Having it become a regularity to see Gophers in the NFL Draft was great, too. Plus, the push for the Athletes Village was really important.

I do have to wonder where Kill's ceiling was, coaching-wise. My guess is he probably would have had a tenure like Joe Tiller at Purdue.

Honestly, it has been disappointing seeing the path Kill has gone on since he left the U of M. First of all, watching him get back into coaching at places after his emotional goodbye at Minnesota felt off. I understand he loves to coach, but there just seemed to be a "riding off into the sunset" feel when he ended his time at Minnesota. He got the program on the right track and could now sit back and relax.

Then he starts this football position hopping thing, and it kind of took away from that heartfelt goodbye from the Gophers. Seeing him on the sidelines for other teams after capping his career at Minnesota took away that shine.

What was really disappointing were his comments regarding Coach Fleck. Obviously he probably wasn't happy to see how Claeys was let go, but Kill had been a head coach in college since 1994. He knows how it works, especially at the Power 5 level. He shouldn't have been especially surprised that after he left, the school might consider new options in the near future.

I agree with what some of the other posters said about Brewster here. In comparison, both Brewster, and Mason for that matter, to my knowledge, haven't really been negative when it comes to Minnesota football.

Brewster wasn't the right fit, as people have pointed out with things on and off the field. But I think he was an honest actor and was just the wrong selection for the position, despite wanting what was best for the program.

Kill not taking the high road really took away from that folksy charm he had brought during his time here.
 

balds said:
Perhaps my favorite post game press conference ever:


After the humiliation at Michigan.....Rock bottom. An honest assessment, steely resolve.

In the following years we'd go on to multiple bowl games (including a New Years Day game), beat Nebraska twice and absolutely kicked the hell out of Michigan in their own stadium.
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Wasn’t this like an hour long?
 

Jerry did a great job here, and his last full season was a blast - winning the Pig and Jug in grand styles, thrilling comeback wins against NE and Purdue, playing a competitive game against the eventual national champion Buckeyes, throwing a scare into Wisky (until that BS hands-to-the-face penalty), and then playing on NYD (albeit not particularly well). Some of his comments after leaving may have tarnished the memories a little, but I’ll always look back fondly on the Kill era.
 
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FredCoxRocks said:
Jerry to me is like the second car I ever owned - better than the previous one, performed a bit better, and I had some fun times with it...heck, and just like Jer', it made it to Florida once, too.
But, I knew it could only do so much and it had its limitations...at some point I knew I would need to take a step up sooner rather than later, but I had no regrets about ever buying that second car.
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Has your latest car been to Pasadena?
 


balds said:
Perhaps my favorite post game press conference ever:


After the humiliation at Michigan.....Rock bottom. An honest assessment, steely resolve.

In the following years we'd go on to multiple bowl games (including a New Years Day game), beat Nebraska twice and absolutely kicked the hell out of Michigan in their own stadium.
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The harmony of this game and the destruction of Michigan in Ann Arbor 4 years later was perfect. One elevator coming from the penthouse, the other from the basement, and we passed them hard.
 


balds said:
Perhaps my favorite post game press conference ever:


After the humiliation at Michigan.....Rock bottom. An honest assessment, steely resolve.

In the following years we'd go on to multiple bowl games (including a New Years Day game), beat Nebraska twice and absolutely kicked the hell out of Michigan in their own stadium.
Click to expand...
I like how candid he was, especially when he's talking about their physical abilities.
You can't change that today. That takes time.

It goes to one of PJ's cheesy sayings about getting better every day.
It happens in very small increments, but if you don't do the work, those small increments don't happen over time.
 


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