PiPress: 'Recruiting is recruiting,' Gophers coach Jerry Kill says

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Interesting that Lemming thinks you not only need some guys with BigTen recruiting experience, but you need at least 3 or 4 of them. I think that no matter how good Kill's staff may be, recruiting still has a lot to do with perception (certainly in the first few years of Kill's program at the U). He does need some bigger name coaches/recruiters. Most recruits we need weren't serious candidates for UNI offers or didn't consider UNI. Recruits know his staff has not recruited and coached in BigTen or BCS level. Other schools will recruit against us with this, IMO he does need some more BigTen recruiting experience on the staff initially.
 

Here is a good article from SI I recalled reading last year about Patterson at TCU. I recall thinking we need someone with that type of recruiting mentality here. Who cares about how many stars a class has, recruit athletes, get them in a good system and then "coach them up". After hearing that Kill is good friends with Patterson this article probably gives a good sense of Kill's recruiting philosophies as well. We won't have top 25 recruiting classes but we are going to have a coach that assembles a team rather than a bunch of talented individuals.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1161009/1/index.htm
 

I'm just going out on a limb here. After listening to Kill talk, which has been very limited mind you. I am thinking the kids that want all the love and attention....the real blue chip athletes, will not be coming to the U. Any blue chippers Kill lands are going to be great players that have a good head on their shoulders and want to be here and are gonna work. He doesn't seem like the type of guy that is gonna kiss some kids butt and beg him to come here.

I loved the story about Ferentz when he came to visit Henderson last year and Henderson wasn't home at the scheduled time they set up to meet because he was getting his hair done. Kirk just left and never ended up visiting with him, basically saying get F'd, we don't need you.

Players like that, Kill doesn't want because obviously Henderson was saying with that display of disrespect toward Ferentz was that he was bigger than the Hawkeye program and if you want to talk with him you will do it on his time.

Don't want to jump the gun....Kill has done nothing yet and has to prove himself, but I have a really good feeling about this hire and the excitment keeps building for spring ball everyday. I will attend my first every spring ball game this year.
 

Great post, thanks. I assume Kill won't run that defense in this conference, but he obviously has similar player profiles he is looking for. Patterson was my favorite for the job, so the fact Kill shares a lot of philosph with him is great.
 


ATGopher said:
Here is a good article from SI I recalled reading last year about Patterson at TCU. I recall thinking we need someone with that type of recruiting mentality here. Who cares about how many stars a class has, recruit athletes, get them in a good system and then "coach them up". After hearing that Kill is good friends with Patterson this article probably gives a good sense of Kill's recruiting philosophies as well. We won't have top 25 recruiting classes but we are going to have a coach that assembles a team rather than a bunch of talented individuals.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1161009/1/index.htm
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Funny you mention this article AT. I have referenced the same article many many times when talking to people about how we need to build a successful program. Building a program he can be done but it can't be done by bringing in a bunch of 4 and 5 star recruits. They are never going to beat a path to our door. But if we can get a bunch of 3 stars who feel they should have been playing for the helmet schools, get them playing with a chip on their shoulder, all while having the the sh!t coached out of them. Well now we have got something.
 

CJTGopher said:
Funny you mention this article AT. I have referenced the same article many many times when talking to people about how we need to build a successful program. Building a program he can be done but it can't be done by bringing in a bunch of 4 and 5 star recruits. They are never going to beat a path to our door. But if we can get a bunch of 3 stars who feel they should have been playing for the helmet schools, get them playing with a chip on their shoulder, all while having the the sh!t coached out of them. Well now we have got something.
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+1

This very thing happens every time we play a Dakota/Montana school. Having ability and playing to that level of ability AS A TEAM require desire and coaching. Kill will have access to a higher quality recruit than he had at NIU because it's the Big 10.

And selling is selling. It doesn't matter if you're selling a $.01 product or a $1M product....it's the same process. You have to know your product, believe in it, and be persuasive. Kill will do just fine...he'll bring in guys who fit a winning system. IMO he'll bring in fewer hi-risk prospects than the Brew did (and waste less time persuing the ones he can't get) and he'll work harder at it than Mase did.

Go Gophers!
 

It seems to me...

that Coach Kill has done something during the past three seasons far superior to landing some top 25 recruiting classes. He has a team that has been ranked in the top 25 during the football season. Coach, Coach Kill...COACH!

People like that lemmings character wouldn't make as much money if people finally started realizing that it is how you COACH your players more than how someone RANKS your recruits. Actually, I think a lot of great Gopher Fans realize that the coaching part is the most important part of the equation.

Recruit players who are coachable, have a chance to succeed in the classroom and are good citizens and then coach them up. Demand discipline. It works in the Armed Services and on many good football programs at all levels, and it can work for the U of M football program. That is the formula for building a better football program. And THAT is the ONLY worry that the University of Minnesota Football Program has. They need to start to get better. Getting better is all this fan asks of the program. Work hard. Be honest. Produce fine student athletes. And just watch! Coach Kill is just the man for this job at this point in time. He KNOWS all he needs to know, and he strikes me as the kind of honest, humble, hard-working individual who will build, will learn more and willput a team on the field that every Gopher Fan can and will be proud of.

What you see is what you get and he has a great track record. He doesn't need some fantasy recruiting ranker telling him what he needs to do. He does NOT have to be one of lemming's lemmings. Some four or five star fantasy recruits are coached into being great players and some four or five star fantasy recruiters are over-rated, under-achieving, immature, problem children who never really fully actualize all of the potential they "supposedly" have.

Recruit the players who fit your system Coach. Good luck and best wishes and welcome to Minnesota! And NEVER let the bashers or the fantasy recruiting ranking freaks get you down!

; 0 )
 

gopherfield said:
Interesting that Lemming thinks you not only need some guys with BigTen recruiting experience, but you need at least 3 or 4 of them. I think that no matter how good Kill's staff may be, recruiting still has a lot to do with perception (certainly in the first few years of Kill's program at the U). He does need some bigger name coaches/recruiters. Most recruits we need weren't serious candidates for UNI offers or didn't consider UNI. Recruits know his staff has not recruited and coached in BigTen or BCS level. Other schools will recruit against us with this, IMO he does need some more BigTen recruiting experience on the staff initially.
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Going put this out there before dp comes through with a snarky comment asking you what you're talking about...UNI is Northern Iowa. NIU is Northern Illinois. :)
 



My only concern is when you are playing teams like Ohio State,Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn state, you need to find players that fit your system but are athletic enough to compete against the best teams We play some of the best teams in the nations, and we are kidding ourselves if we can recruit lesser players and coach them up. You can not teach speed, athleticism,height, etc. We need the same kind of athletics that Brewster recruited, and we need a coach who knows how to coach. Hopefully this coach can do both!
 

GoAUpher said:
Going put this out there before dp comes through with a snarky comment asking you what you're talking about...UNI is Northern Iowa. NIU is Northern Illinois. :)
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Thanks! It's been confusing/bugging me too! Didn't want to say anything because I know its an honest mistake and doesn't really matter. Grew up in Illinois, and half my damn high school went to Northern, so it's really confusing to hear it call UNI.
 

I don't disagree that you can take 2- and 3-star kids, coach them up, and have them comprise the base of the team, but you are going to need the occasional 4-star kid at a skilled position at this level of football. Clay, Ball, and Toon are all 4-star guys at Wisconsin (and there are a few more) and you need guys who can take over a game to contend for titles.

For me, it has to be a combination. Build the base and sprinkle in some big-time talent at the skilled positions. That will be the challenge for Kill, although I would think that big time running backs and combination QBs will take a good look at the program if it is shown we can compete.
 

I don't think recruits care much about a coach's perception as a recruiter. Winning is the best recruiter. They see that Kill wins, and he impresses high school coaches.
 



We could use the Illinois Plan, which involves recruiting 3 and 4 star guys and coaching them down.

I am not worried in the least about Kill's ability to recruit. Winning builds recruiting. Having the right players to win is built by recruiting the right players, regardless of star quality.
 

Got to have athletes to win. The phrase "coach them up" makes me physically ill and was one of the first things I thought of when Minnesota made this hire. Have to recruit better to at least the middle of the pack in the Big Ten recruiting rankings, unless you want a program that continues to never compete for championships.
 

EG#9 said:
Got to have athletes to win. The phrase "coach them up" makes me physically ill and was one of the first things I thought of when Minnesota made this hire. Have to recruit better to at least the middle of the pack in the Big Ten recruiting rankings, unless you want a program that continues to never compete for championships.
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can you explain illinois to me? florida? texas? notre dame? usc? all are teams filled with four and five star recruits and had poor years this year.

then there are teams like boise state, tcu, utah, ucf, uconn, northwestern. all teams that play substantially better than their recruiting stars predict.
 

It's gonna have to be the same way that Holtz was able to succeed at Minnesota for that short time when he said.."The heart and soul of the team will come from Minnesota. The arms and legs will have to come from somewhere else." That usually means we need running backs wide receivers and QB's(if we run a spread) from warm weather places like Texas, Florida, California.

Holtz used to say that those places tend to produce overall the most speed because kids grow up their whole life being able to run around outside all year long. Not that you can't find individual talent like that in the Midwest, but overall there are faster athletes in those area's of the Country.
 

I think you do need a mixture of the both...coaching, system and stars. Most of the top schools not only coach them up, but do get a whole lot of the star athletes besides. Along with that, you need a system that utilizes the abilities of the athletes you bring in...Just ask RichRod in Mich.

I actually think Kill will be better then Mason, both in Recruiting and coaching along with has a much better, more aggressive attitude.

Basically it does get back to recruiting, recruiting great athletes that fit well with the system you have. Avoiding primadonnas and extreme problem players is very helpful as well.
 

i'm batman said:
can you explain illinois to me? florida? texas? notre dame? usc? all are teams filled with four and five star recruits and had poor years this year.

then there are teams like boise state, tcu, utah, ucf, uconn, northwestern. all teams that play substantially better than their recruiting stars predict.
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I agree. I'll wait and see what kind of class is brought in. As the results on field get better immediately, recruiting will get easier. The coach isn't the reason kids turn the U down, it is because the program sucks right now.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I agree. I'll wait and see what kind of class is brought in. As the results on field get better immediately, recruiting will get easier. The coach isn't the reason kids turn the U down, it is because the program sucks right now.
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True, but some of that does depend on the level of opponents as well. ND and USC have always had a higher level of opponent. That has been one of the knocks against Boise State in their quest for BCS recognition.
 

Patience - You won't be Physically Ill

EG#9 said:
Got to have athletes to win. The phrase "coach them up" makes me physically ill and was one of the first things I thought of when Minnesota made this hire. Have to recruit better to at least the middle of the pack in the Big Ten recruiting rankings, unless you want a program that continues to never compete for championships.
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Athletes not only need God given talent, they need an attitude to get in shape, learn their football assignments, learn discipline, study in the classroom, and are coachable so they can be "coached up".

For your own health--- you should try more patience about being a fan.
 

we will win this week? said:
My only concern is when you are playing teams like Ohio State,Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn state, you need to find players that fit your system but are athletic enough to compete against the best teams We play some of the best teams in the nations, and we are kidding ourselves if we can recruit lesser players and coach them up. You can not teach speed, athleticism,height, etc. We need the same kind of athletics that Brewster recruited, and we need a coach who knows how to coach. Hopefully this coach can do both!
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Iowa and Wisconsin don't get big time recruiting classes, in fact, the Gophers have out recruited the crap out of Iowa the last 4 years according to the experts, and we've been ahead of Wisc too for that matter.
 

we will win this week? said:
You can not teach speed, athleticism,height, etc. We need the same kind of athletics that Brewster recruited, and we need a coach who knows how to coach. Hopefully this coach can do both!
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I agree with your assertion that given the same level of players that Brewster recruited combined with good coaching will make us competitive with the Big Ten Power programs.

However, I feel that the sentiment that one cannot teach speed is patently false and a logical inconsistency. That is why a good coach is required. You need someone who will recognize how to help a player reach his maximum potential. You also need someone who can recognize those kids who have the natural ability and can reach a higher level than the average.

With a little coaching you can instruct someone how to run better, more efficiently, and through strength and flexibility training and they can realize immense gains in speed.
 

sonnygarcia said:
Iowa and Wisconsin don't get big time recruiting classes, in fact, the Gophers have out recruited the crap out of Iowa the last 4 years according to the experts, and we've been ahead of Wisc too for that matter.
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I believe it was only '08 and '09 -- not quite the last four years.
 

As a follower of Notre Dame here in Saint Paul and after years of disappointment, I have learned to placed less emphasis on the number of stars behind a recruits name, then his work ethic and ability to play as part of a team. Five star running backs aren't going to do squat behind a poor offensive line. Stud MLBs without a D-line to control the line of scrimmage aren't going to win the game by themselves. Talented primma donnas with speed often do not pan out. Bring in a solid class of players that are coachable, a few JCs to fill the gaps, and get them to play as a team. If Kill can do that, we will be on the right path. We just may be able to land a 4-star recruit every once in awhile.

Judge Coach Kill by his play on the field versus his recruiting class. I still remember Brew talking about Harold Howell returning kickoffs for TDs following the announcement of his first recruiting class.
 

imthewalrus said:
that Coach Kill has done something during the past three seasons far superior to landing some top 25 recruiting classes. He has a team that has been ranked in the top 25 during the football season. Coach, Coach Kill...COACH!
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Hey, so did Brewster!

What does Kill's 2-12 record against teams with a winning record say about his ability to coach?
 

I could be wrong

atsgopher said:
I agree with your assertion that given the same level of players that Brewster recruited combined with good coaching will make us competitive with the Big Ten Power programs.

However, I feel that the sentiment that one cannot teach speed is patently false and a logical inconsistency. That is why a good coach is required. You need someone who will recognize how to help a player reach his maximum potential. You also need someone who can recognize those kids who have the natural ability and can reach a higher level than the average.

With a little coaching you can instruct someone how to run better, more efficiently, and through strength and flexibility training and they can realize immense gains in speed.
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Do you have any experience with that assertion? This is not pee wee football. Teaching someone 20 years old to learn how to walk all over again and then run differently is a massive time consuming activity that could possibly be successful a very limited number of times.

But what is the point? Recruit someone who is fast and teach them football skils. In that scenario you are looking for someone who you feel has not been well coached but has the athletic tools.

Grade school kids your idea has merit. For 18 to 23 year old people you don't have enough days or hours to teach them how to run fast and oh, by the way after this we need learn football skills.
"Ok, your move should have been like this and your running technique lapsed into your old habits so let's focus on your arm action as you preparing to fill this hole but remember you need to shed the block too."

You can't spend time on learning on how to run in season, I promise. In summer could you make improvements? I'm sure. But the guy better be fast to start with too. It is not track. There are a lot of areas you need to focus on related to football. Conditioning as I understand it, is not what you are talking about. Again, a different area, which is critical. I just don't feel attempting to train someone "slow" to re-learn how to run with proper technique is the proper course of action or focus. Makes more sense to me to alter your philosophy and spend the time on the specific sport....in this case football. And especially because you get to recruit the players. You are not stuck with the kids who live within a mile of the school. Recruit speed! And Teach them football is easier than trying to do both. JMO
 

60's Guy said:
Do you have any experience with that assertion? This is not pee wee football. Teaching someone 20 years old to learn how to walk all over again and then run differently is a massive time consuming activity that could possibly be successful a very limited number of times.

But what is the point? Recruit someone who is fast and teach them football skils. In that scenario you are looking for someone who you feel has not been well coached but has the athletic tools.

Grade school kids your idea has merit. For 18 to 23 year old people you don't have enough days or hours to teach them how to run fast and oh, by the way after this we need learn football skills.
"Ok, your move should have been like this and your running technique lapsed into your old habits so let's focus on your arm action as you preparing to fill this hole but remember you need to shed the block too."

You can't spend time on learning on how to run in season, I promise. In summer could you make improvements? I'm sure. But the guy better be fast to start with too. It is not track. There are a lot of areas you need to focus on related to football. Conditioning as I understand it, is not what you are talking about. Again, a different area, which is critical. I just don't feel attempting to train someone "slow" to re-learn how to run with proper technique is the proper course of action or focus. Makes more sense to me to alter your philosophy and spend the time on the specific sport....in this case football. And especially because you get to recruit the players. You are not stuck with the kids who live within a mile of the school. Recruit speed! And Teach them football is easier than trying to do both. JMO
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My main point is that speed is, and should be, coached. I think it is just so standard that it is often overlooked by casual observers.

I think maybe my post was little rushed as it did not explain quite what I meant. However, I never went to a football practice where form running was not done. It doesn't take long at all but like any fundamental it cannot be overlooked. The rest of speed drills should be incorporated into strength and conditioning program...Some examples might be running stairs, hills, using a weighted vest to do both, a parachute trainer, Sprinting, or running pyramids on the treadmill. I'll bet these are standard at most major college programs.

In my football days (albeit limited to high school and a few college camps) we usually dedicated about twenty to thirty minutes at the beginning of every practice doing various drills that focused on form running.

I am not talking about recruiting guys that run a 6.0 40 time and turing them into a burner. We are talking about recruiting guys, whether fast or not and continually improving their speed as a fundamental rule. One would hope these basics are instilled at the High School level and you can build on them.

I guess all too often I just read the line you can't coach speed and I find that ridicoulos, because you absolutely can make a kid faster. Granted I know it originated as a shortended version of you can only go so far; however, the cliche has morphed into some idea that there is no speed training going on.
 

vames said:
As a follower of Notre Dame here in Saint Paul and after years of disappointment, I have learned to placed less emphasis on the number of stars behind a recruits name, then his work ethic and ability to play as part of a team. Five star running backs aren't going to do squat behind a poor offensive line. Stud MLBs without a D-line to control the line of scrimmage aren't going to win the game by themselves. Talented primma donnas with speed often do not pan out. Bring in a solid class of players that are coachable, a few JCs to fill the gaps, and get them to play as a team. If Kill can do that, we will be on the right path. We just may be able to land a 4-star recruit every once in awhile.

Judge Coach Kill by his play on the field versus his recruiting class. I still remember Brew talking about Harold Howell returning kickoffs for TDs following the announcement of his first recruiting class.
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Harold Howell, a name from the past! But you're 100% correct...as I recall he said he was either the fastest or one of the fastest hs fb players in Florida. Brew had us stoked on Harold. Harold was our hope!
 


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