Kill on halftime: "If people don't agree with it, I'm not a very good coach, I guess"

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Just a stupid thing to say. On a lot of fronts. He should know better.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Kill was out-coached yesterday. By a long shot. There is no other way to look at it. He needs to own up to his shortcomings as a coach. This was an eminently winnable game for the Gophers. First and foremost, he let his players down with his unwillingness to trust them to make plays. Then he let Gopher fans down with his in-game decisions and pathetic comments at the press conference after the game. First class coaches ALWAYS accept responsibility when their team loses. Kill failed in every way a coach can yesterday.[/QU

Of course there are other ways to look at it. You're welcome to your own knee-jerk opinion, no matter how wrongheaded it may seem to me, but don't get the idea that your rant serves as my truth. I'll figure it out on my own thanks.
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Halsey Hall said:
BRILLIANT!!!!!!

Actually, you're better off chancing a throw at the end of the half because the other team has less time to score.

People still talk about Denny Green taking the knee. Now all we'll remember from this game is, "We get the ball to start the 2nd half so why risk scoring?"
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Reminds me a of a game against Northwestern that the last second throw did in fact cost us the game because they returned it for a TD. Take a knee and its over time.
 

wdgold said:
Maybe I was to vague with my comment because your response makes no sense
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I took your comment as the coaches didn't even give the players a chance to succeed in this game. The coaches deserve some blame but it's not like we went into the game with a horrible game plan that had no chance of succeeding. There were tons of missed opportunities.

They weren't even given a chance
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I apologize if I misunderstood.
 


sonnygarcia said:
This is my problem with the staff, they are so conservative and stubborn I don't have faith in them making the changes they need to make to win against top teams.
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Now this relates my own misgivings in a fair way. Thanks for putting it so succinctly. Thing is, coaches all are stubborn, at least the good ones. They have to be or there would be no stability. Brewster wasn't stubborn about style of play and we all saw that horror show unfold. Mason was stubborn in his own way and it eventually became his downfall. Maybe Kill has the same future ahead, perhaps not, but one thing is apparent: He's going to do it his way.
 

Kill and Gary Patterson are best buddies...maybe Kill needs to take a step back like Patterson did after last season and reevaluate his offense. Patterson completely altered his philosophy on offense and look at the results in just one year. It is nice to have consistency in a program but sometimes a coach needs to realize something else needs to be done for the betterment of the program.
 

It was a frustrating situation to watch from the stands for sure. Having said that, I told the family we wouldn't risk anything with that short of a clock. Coach wins by flipping the field with kicking, moving sticks, grinding clock, and stealing possessions. Did he have time to work with? Yes. Is that ever been part of how he coaches in games? No. I accepted the fact he wouldn't risk it. Again, not saying it is not the right thing to do (particularly in a bowl game where coaches typically do take risks). Just saying that I understood why based on him staying true to his own philosophies. If there is one thing I think Coach does very well is reflect and attempt to get better. As his players grow, so will his confidence in taking more risks.
 

It was a frustrating situation to watch from the stands for sure. Having said that, I told the family we wouldn't risk anything with that short of a clock. Coach wins by flipping the field with kicking, moving sticks, grinding clock, and stealing possessions. Did he have time to work with? Yes. Is that ever been part of how he coaches in games? No. I accepted the fact he wouldn't risk it. Again, not saying it is the right approach to take (particularly in a bowl game where coaches typically do take risks). Just saying that I understood why based on his continually staying true to his own philosophies. If there is one thing I think Coach does very well is reflect and attempt to get better. As his players grow, so will his confidence in taking more risks.
 



GopherinPhilly said:
Reminds me a of a game against Northwestern that the last second throw did in fact cost us the game because they returned it for a TD. Take a knee and its over time.
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At the time we through that interception, there were 26 seconds left on the clock, we were on on our own 29, and we had just burned our last time out, so if we wanted to get to field goal range, we needed to force passes and take risks. When we decided to sit on it yesterday, we had more than 50 seconds, all three timeouts, and were on the 36. The situations are wildly different, yesterday we could have given ourselves a chance to get some points without taking any major risks or forcing anything. Three timeouts and a extra 30 seconds make all the difference in the world.
 

To be honest, I was more disappointed with the poor preparations on special teams for trick plays then the end of the half. The fact we were completely unprepared for those few plays makes me wonder what the coaches did for 3 weeks. I watched a number of other games where coaches came out and changed how they played during the regular season, just to take away the strengths of their opponent. Why didn't we do that?
 

Sparlimb said:
To be honest, I was more disappointed with the poor preparations on special teams for trick plays then the end of the half. The fact we were completely unprepared for those few plays makes me wonder what the coaches did for 3 weeks. I watched a number of other games where coaches came out and changed how they played during the regular season, just to take away the strengths of their opponent. Why didn't we do that?
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We did do what you were asking. We ran a number of short passes and pitches to Cobb that we didn't run all season and that was probably to take Mizzou's great defensive line out of the play and slow down their ends on future plays. As far as what you said about special teams and other preparations.... I totally agree. Not sure how you don't prepare for those. Unfortunately during half time I said "I sure hope they are ready for an onside kick" and others agreed with me. It shouldn't have been very hard to prepare for, if it wasn't an onside kick it was going out the back of the endzone anyway. For a coach that is so "conservative" in his game plan you would think they would have been ready for some of their fakes by "playing it safe" like they did at the end of the half.
 

We are seeing the fatal flaw in Jerry Kill's conservatism when in the ultimate game of the season he retains the idea that the way to victory is only in preventing mistakes. The opposite of preventing mistakes is calculated risk taking. Every successful organization takes calculated gambles when the odds for success rise. The one area that the Kill regime lacks is the drive for innovation. Each off season, they go to other schools to learn what they are doing to be successful. Do other teams come here to learn what Jerry has to say? This team always lags behind because they only imitate, and rarely innovate. Football has infinite permutations of potential plays. Innovation requires a certain amount of instability in the system to allow for new ideas. Jerry Kill resists that because of the instability. It is the teams greatest weakness. Jerry Kill will run plays that have been proven successful before and will not accept the premise that innovation can produce good results.
 



Dean S said:
We are seeing the fatal flaw in Jerry Kill's conservatism when in the ultimate game of the season he retains the idea that the way to victory is only in preventing mistakes. The opposite of preventing mistakes is calculated risk taking. .
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Nobody should be surprised. Kill's record when leading and being behind at the Half bears that out. Except for 2-3 games out of the 51 played, his Gopher teams win when they are ahead or tied at the half and lose when they are behind.
 

bottlebass said:
As far as what you said about special teams and other preparations.... I totally agree. Not sure how you don't prepare for those. Unfortunately during half time I said "I sure hope they are ready for an onside kick" and others agreed with me. It shouldn't have been very hard to prepare for, if it wasn't an onside kick it was going out the back of the endzone anyway. For a coach that is so "conservative" in his game plan you would think they would have been ready for some of their fakes by "playing it safe" like they did at the end of the half.
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That was my concern as well.

In these games where teams have more time to prepare, they are able to pick up tendencies of the opponent and use it against them..........See Hank Stram vs Bud Grant.

Go Matriculate-rs!
 

You would think that only Denny Green and coach Kill were the only ones to take a knee. Going forward when you watch a NFL game or a college game you'll find many coaches doing this as well.
 

#2Gopher said:
You would think that only Denny Green and coach Kill were the only ones to take a knee. Going forward when you watch a NFL game or a college game you'll find many coaches doing this as well.
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We didn't even take a knee.... We weren't that organized.
 


#2Gopher said:
You would think that only Denny Green and coach Kill were the only ones to take a knee. Going forward when you watch a NFL game or a college game you'll find many coaches doing this as well.
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There are lots of coaches who will take a knee in some situations. I struggle to think of very many who would do it on the 36 yard line with 3 timeouts, over 50 seconds, and while trailing.
 


RolGnav said:
I bet the Missouri coach has a big smile right now feeling like he took candy from a little kid. That's what happened with the coaching today.

Missouri coach: Fake punt, they'll never suspect it. Done.
Missouri coach: Let's punt at the 40 and pin them inside the 5, and get field position. Done.
Missouri coach: Kill thinks they'll get the ball and never suspect it, onside kick. Done.
Missouri coach: Gopher's Corners are too good, so let's run the ball, they'll never suspect it. Run run run. Done.
Missouri coach: Gopher's have poor time management, so just let them run out the time on their own. Done.
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Interesting.

We had 4 on 4 on the fake punt. Covered, but the 290 DT made the one guy he had to miss.

Missouri is a run first team. We stopped them until we ran out of gas in the second half. That was due to the extra possessions created by our special teams.

It's not easy to play fast if you don't practice it regularly and it's not your style. I noticed Bama looks a bit off trying to play catch up as well. It's not what Saban wants to do. It is the number one thing I want this team to do in the off season. Practice in the no huddle all the time. It will create better communication. You don't have to do it in games, but can be better at it when needed.


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bottlebass said:
We did do what you were asking. We ran a number of short passes and pitches to Cobb that we didn't run all season and that was probably to take Mizzou's great defensive line out of the play and slow down their ends on future plays. As far as what you said about special teams and other preparations.... I totally agree. Not sure how you don't prepare for those. Unfortunately during half time I said "I sure hope they are ready for an onside kick" and others agreed with me. It shouldn't have been very hard to prepare for, if it wasn't an onside kick it was going out the back of the endzone anyway. For a coach that is so "conservative" in his game plan you would think they would have been ready for some of their fakes by "playing it safe" like they did at the end of the half.
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This is what gets me the most. No excuse not to prepare for that considering Missouri wasn't allowing a return anyway. Same as in the second half, when they refused to put extra players toward the RB/QB run game Missouri was employing, even though the QB was injured, Missouri was gouging us in the running game (primarily up the middle), and even though Missouri was having little success in the passing game (other than some fluke plays).
 

Dean S said:
We are seeing the fatal flaw in Jerry Kill's conservatism when in the ultimate game of the season he retains the idea that the way to victory is only in preventing mistakes. The opposite of preventing mistakes is calculated risk taking. Every successful organization takes calculated gambles when the odds for success rise...
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We could argue that Kill's ultra-conservatism cost us the Wisconsin game as well. Similar situation, sufficient time left on the clock to move the ball, and after having great field position, Kill decided to play for a long FG to end the half by slowing down the offense and using short runs. And then Cobb fumbled, and Wisconsin did NOT play it safe, went down the field quickly, and kicked a half-ending FG for a huge momentum swing and, essentially, the game.
 

cncmin said:
We could argue that Kill's ultra-conservatism cost us the Wisconsin game as well. Similar situation, sufficient time left on the clock to move the ball, and after having great field position, Kill decided to play for a long FG to end the half by slowing down the offense and using short runs. And then Cobb fumbled, and Wisconsin did NOT play it safe, went down the field quickly, and kicked a half-ending FG for a huge momentum swing and, essentially, the game.
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Agree 100%. Unfortunately, I have to keep adding the disclaimer that I love Kill going forward, he just needs to change his philosophy at times. He is so scared of losing because of a mistake, that he may have prevented a couple of huge wins. That can't be argued by anyone. The flip side is, his conservative style may have also resulted in some huge victories. It depends on the day. But, the fact is, he can't always sit on his hands and hope it puts the team in a position to win on the last possession. At times, it backfires.

Another thing, whenever someone blasts Leidner around here, many get offended. I'm getting tired of that. (Again, disclaimer that I like Mitch going forward, just pointing this out). But, if the head coach himself doesn't trust Mitch to drive 30 yards, with a full minute and 3 TOs, then why should the fans have any faith, and refrain from calling for a more capable QB? I definitely see the merit in their outrage.

Either way, it's on Kill at this point, I don't care what anyone says. Whether it's his conservative nature, or his inability to get a real QB in here. At some point he has to realize he's not at directional Illinois anymore. He has to adapt. If not, this program has already hit it's ceiling.
 

TheBulldog said:
Agree 100%. Unfortunately, I have to keep adding the disclaimer that I love Kill going forward, he just needs to change his philosophy at times. He is so scared of losing because of a mistake, that he may have prevented a couple of huge wins. That can't be argued by anyone. The flip side is, his conservative style may have also resulted in some huge victories. It depends on the day. But, the fact is, he can't always sit on his hands and hope it puts the team in a position to win on the last possession. At times, it backfires.

Another thing, whenever someone blasts Leidner around here, many get offended. I'm getting tired of that. (Again, disclaimer that I like Mitch going forward, just pointing this out). But, if the head coach himself doesn't trust Mitch to drive 30 yards, with a full minute and 3 TOs, then why should the fans have any faith, and refrain from calling for a more capable QB? I definitely see the merit in their outrage.

Either way, it's on Kill at this point, I don't care what anyone says. Whether it's his conservative nature, or his inability to get a real QB in here. At some point he has to realize he's not at directional Illinois anymore. He has to adapt. If not, this program has already hit it's ceiling.
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I think youve touched on something here.I personally like Jerry Kill and think hes an above average football coach. I do have my concerns about his abilities or his staffs ability to identify a QB.. The League QB he had at NIU(Chandler Harnish) was not a Kill recruit. He was recruited by the previous coach Novak in "07 (Novaks last yr at NIU) and was redshirted. Jordan Lynch was a RB who could throw a little bit which was evident by Lynch being a Heisman finalist and going undrafted in a QB driven league. Lynch was brought in by the Bears as an UFA to play RB not QB.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
There are lots of coaches who will take a knee in some situations. I struggle to think of very many who would do it on the 36 yard line with 3 timeouts, over 50 seconds, and while trailing.
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One other point, if neither team scores in the 2nd half, we lose. You can't assume you're going to score again. You have to always try to take the lead in any game.

Remember when the Gophers had the punt blocked by Wisconsin at the dome because of a fumbled snap? A reporter asked Mason why he didn't prepare the punter to take a safety if the snap was dropped and he said he didn't want to put negative thoughts in his head. That is as stupid as Kill saying he gave up because he's getting the ball first in the 2nd half. WHAT???????????????
 

TheBulldog said:
Agree 100%. Unfortunately, I have to keep adding the disclaimer that I love Kill going forward, he just needs to change his philosophy at times. He is so scared of losing because of a mistake, that he may have prevented a couple of huge wins. That can't be argued by anyone. The flip side is, his conservative style may have also resulted in some huge victories. It depends on the day. But, the fact is, he can't always sit on his hands and hope it puts the team in a position to win on the last possession. At times, it backfires.

Another thing, whenever someone blasts Leidner around here, many get offended. I'm getting tired of that. (Again, disclaimer that I like Mitch going forward, just pointing this out). But, if the head coach himself doesn't trust Mitch to drive 30 yards, with a full minute and 3 TOs, then why should the fans have any faith, and refrain from calling for a more capable QB? I definitely see the merit in their outrage.

Either way, it's on Kill at this point, I don't care what anyone says. Whether it's his conservative nature, or his inability to get a real QB in here. At some point he has to realize he's not at directional Illinois anymore. He has to adapt. If not, this program has already hit it's ceiling.
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Agree 100%
 

TheBulldog said:
Agree 100%. Unfortunately, I have to keep adding the disclaimer that I love Kill going forward, he just needs to change his philosophy at times. He is so scared of losing because of a mistake, that he may have prevented a couple of huge wins. That can't be argued by anyone. The flip side is, his conservative style may have also resulted in some huge victories. It depends on the day. But, the fact is, he can't always sit on his hands and hope it puts the team in a position to win on the last possession. At times, it backfires.

Another thing, whenever someone blasts Leidner around here, many get offended. I'm getting tired of that. (Again, disclaimer that I like Mitch going forward, just pointing this out). But, if the head coach himself doesn't trust Mitch to drive 30 yards, with a full minute and 3 TOs, then why should the fans have any faith, and refrain from calling for a more capable QB? I definitely see the merit in their outrage.

Either way, it's on Kill at this point, I don't care what anyone says. Whether it's his conservative nature, or his inability to get a real QB in here. At some point he has to realize he's not at directional Illinois anymore. He has to adapt. If not, this program has already hit it's ceiling.
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Overall good post.

As for the bolded, I think the issue is some people act like we have a better QB on the roster right now. Kill can be blamed for the QB situation, but Leidner is the best we have right now.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Overall good post.

As for the bolded, I think the issue is some people act like we have a better QB on the roster right now. Kill can be blamed for the QB situation, but Leidner is the best we have right now.
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Leidner is not only the best QB we have right now, he is going to be our QB for the next two years barring injury. No QB currently on the Gopher roster, or any QB who commits this year or next, is going to good enough to beat him out. Given Kill's extremely conservative "run first" offensive system, no "can't miss" QB prospect is going come here in the next few years. But that's ok because Leidner will be good enough. Far too many posters forget all the throws Adam Weber made that bounced at the feet of his receivers during his far too long career with the Gophers. Leidner's QB numbers will never exceed Weber's because of Kill's system but for my money he was a better QB in his second year than Weber was and I expect him to be significantly better than him in his junior and senior seasons.
 

On the "Trick plays" - the reason trick plays work is because they're unexpected. The vast majority of onside kicks come late in games when teams have to get the ball back to have a chance to win. I don't know if some internet genius can find out, but I would bet the % of onside kicks in the same situation as the bowl game happen on less than 1% of all kickoffs. Another question - does Pinkel have a history of using onside kicks or fake punts in similar situations? I don't know - but Kill does know Pinkel, and presumably knows what he (Pinkel) has done in the past in similar situations.

I will say this - give Pinkel credit for trying something risky and/or going against tendencies. That is something Kill and his staff can learn from. But I don't fault Kill for not being "prepared" for something that 99.9% of coaches and fans would not expect.

I just think a lot of what we're hearing is second-guessing from upset fans. Every coaching decision is analyzed in the context of the result - if it works, it was a good decision, if it doesn't work, it was a bad decision. If the team wins, the mistakes are forgiven or forgotten. If the team loses, the mistakes are amplified.

In the end, the Gophers lost because the other team made more plays.
 

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