Yet who is Jerry Kill, and how has he risen from football obscurity to coaching a team that can contend for a national title?
The Cheney, Kan. native describes himself as an overachiever. Clearly, he has excelled when others thought he couldn't.
Not an especially gifted athlete, he weighed 160 pounds as a freshman at Division II Southwestern College (Kan.) in 1979. His football coach encouraged him to play point guard for the basketball team.
Instead, Kill played linebacker and eventually became a starter, all-conference player and two-time captain. He was named the team's most inspirational player his senior year.
Raised in a working class family, Kill became the first member of his family to graduate from college. He earned a degree in teaching with a minor in biology.
His coaching career began shortly thereafter, and Kill paid his share of dues, earning a meager sum as an assistant coach to his mentor, Dennis Franchione, at Division II Pittsburg State. He was eventually promoted to offensive coordinator -- the title he held during PSU's 1991 National Championship run.
Kill worked his way up the coaching ladder, eventually landing his first head coaching job at Saginaw Valley State in 1994. He posted five-straight winning seasons at SVS, including back-to-back 9-2 campaigns in 1997 and 1998.
Yet after his father passed away from liver cancer in 1999, Kill took the head coaching job at Emporia State (Kan.) to be closer to his grieving mother. In the process, he left a program that was nationally ranked to coach one that had a losing record.
Kill came to SIU in 2001 and quickly sized up his predicament.
"I thought it would take at least five years to turn things around," he said. "But it was worse than I thought when I came for my interview."
Yet, Kill rolled up his sleeves and made incremental progress his first two years.
He was instrumental in striking a deal with the local electrical union to install lights at the stadium so the team could play night football again.
He reached out to the community, making himself and his team available for frequent community-service and goodwill projects.
The community, in return, rewarded his team with the biggest crowds at McAndrew Stadium in more than a decade.
Himself a generous donor to worthy causes, he has inspired others to contribute to the program, which helped renovate the locker room and replace the stadium's artificial turf.
Kill brings a no-nonsense approach. His work ethic, honesty and integrity are unparalleled.
A practice session under Coach Kill reflects his personality; crisp, well-organized and fiercely competitive. He is very demanding of his players on the field, but is also a friend off the field.
"I try to treat people like I want to be treated," he said. "It takes a while to build that family atmosphere. You do it by being around the players. You've got to have them in situations where you're not just talking football all the time. Being visible, communicating with the players and getting to know them is very important."
What does all this say about Jerry Kill? Plenty.
No matter what the odds, no matter what people might expect him to accomplish, he has consistently exceeded expectations.
And he has done it by following the Golden Rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He cares about people. In June of 2004, Kill was shocked to receive a call from his alma mater. The reason for his surprise? They were calling to induct him into the school's hall of fame.
Hardly the kind of achievement anyone would have predicted when he first set foot on that campus 26 years ago. Or as Kill likes to joke, "not bad for a short, fat, bald guy."