What grade do you give Kill & Staff for 2011 season?

What grade do you give Kill & Staff for 2011 season?

  • A

    Votes: 15 7.7%

  • B

    Votes: 82 42.3%

  • C

    Votes: 82 42.3%

  • D

    Votes: 13 6.7%

  • F

    Votes: 2 1.0%
  • Total voters
    194
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Stan

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Try not to let the emotion of today's win over-weigh your grade. What grade do you give Kill & Staff for 2011 season?
 

I went with C because of the improvement we have seen in the players throughout the season.
 

Went with C as well. A win over New Mexico State might have pushed me to a B. I think it took the staff too long to figure out how to use the talent they had on the roster because if you have enough talent to beat Iowa and Illinois you have enough talent to crush New Mexico State. That being said the improvement over the course of the season was good to see and hopefully bodes well for the future.
 

I'll say C.

Horton beat Iowa and Illinois last year too and he got canned.
 



zambam said:
He also was an INTERIM head coach whose last head coaching experience didn't turn out too well.
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I understand that. I'm just saying that last year's team also beat Iowa and Illinois and won 3 games overall. Most people on this board were expecting 4-6 wins this season but all of sudden a 3-9 record and beating 2 teams they beat last year and Kill is COY in the B1G. Funny how much back peddling is going on. I will give him a C but there were more embarrassing moments than glimmers of hope. The offseason will be interesting. Need to find a RB and a punter.
 

Art Vandelay said:
The offseason will be interesting. Need to find a RB and a punter.
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Don't forget about a go-to receiver, middle linebacker, and 2 safeties. Hopefully some of those guys are already on the roster but if they are we have not seen them in action this year.
 

I went with a D and that's assuming we are only including what we saw in the season and not recruiting. If recruiting is included, then I would need to wait until Signing Day to give a grade. I think it's really hard to argue anything over a C with losses to NMSU and NDSU at home and two of the worst losses in terms of margin of defeat in program history (conference games) against Michigan and Purdue. The team had some nice moments against USC and MSU in losses and I might argue that the team played it's best game of the year at MSU. The big reason this wasn't an "F" season for me was beating Iowa, because I hate seeing the Gophers lose to them. It still could be an F as an overall year for the staff if we end up way down in the conference recruiting rankings.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Don't forget about a go-to receiver, middle linebacker, and 2 safeties. Hopefully some of those guys are already on the roster but if they are we have not seen them in action this year.
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The "go to" receiver part will be tough and I don't think he is on the roster. I would expect more of a committee approach. I don't think WR will be a position of strength for us next season, but I do expect it to be deeper, with more options (but none of them as good as McKnight). We have Fruechte coming in January, hopefully Jones is healthy, another season with Moulton, Green has played well the second half of the season and DCT has had moments.

MLB: It's kind of a tough spot. Hill plays nice LB in passing situations for our team. He has played a lot in the past couple games. I wouldn't be shocked to see Rallis get some run in the middle (with Lamonte getting more run on the outside). It'll also be interesting to see what we have with Beal, if he can make it a go.

Safety: Well....I can sugarcoat that one...lol. Hope for a surprise!

As for the Grade....
I give a C+
As others have said, I think this is 4-5 win talent, so the on the field, I will go with a C.
I gave it a bump because in this extremely small sample, I am impressed with Kill's ability to evaluate talent. He brought in Amaefula late, Jones and Bush from Northern Illinois, Moulton late, supposedly Cockran looks really good.
Another reason for the bump to C+ is that Limegrover has worked wonders on our OL. We have been so banged up and we're so young, the fact that our OL played pretty well the last half the season (in the depleted/young state we were in) speaks volumes about Limegrover as a coach.

So C+
 



Where would we be without Marqueis Gray's early nagging injuries?
 

I went with a C. To me NMSU is the only game that went 100% the wrong way. 58-0 to Michigan is terrible, but in hindsight Gray not playing and being healthy hurt this team more then most thought. USC and MSU showed what this staff and team is capable of if they play solid games. As bad as we have been in the last decade, we have only finished dead last in the conference one. Illinois and Indiana have at least four times. I could be worse. The last two teams are able to say they went out on a high note and that they beat Iowa. I would have gone with a C+.
 

I gave him a C grade as well.

It looked to me like Coach Kill was installing his system even though he was missing a number of the parts to run it effectively. The result was a stretch of terrible football that started getting better later in the season after he found the best players currently on the team to run his system and Clayes & Limegrover both made some adjustments to work inside the constraints they currently have.

With more players next year that are suited to his systems and another year of experience I think we'll see improvement.
 

B

I believe I guessed 4 wins for the season, so this is about what I expected. Throw in a new QB (and his injuries), seizures, Reusse and his clowns, etc, and I'd say they did alright in a very tough spot, even exceeded expectations. Feeling very fortunate in the coaching department.
 



I gave him a B but would prefer an opportunity to give an incomplete. The Gophers are a work in progress but no doubt improved over the team Kill took over. Early season losses were related to lack of discipline and condition that Brewster left the team in and also Kill figuring out what he had to work with. Change doesn't usually happen overnight.
 

I believe I predicted 1-2 victories for the season. With 3, I still give him a C. He has admitted in articles of not being prepared with the staff, not having the team prepared for all phases of the game. That must improve.
 

Diffferent Take

I gave him a much higher grade than the rest of you did but I didn't evaluate him on win/losses. I evaluated him on how well he did in changing the culture and implementing his vision. This is what he needed to do in year one and he accomplished this. I have to say I am surprised how many of you don't seem to recognize this. Very sad.
 

Kill's Grade

B +. New staff, new schemes, not an easy schedule. They showed consistent progress as the year went on. The QB position is a key position and Kill had Gray who really had not played QB since his HS days about four years ago and Shortell who was throwing to HS receivers a year before he went into the USC game.
 

Oneoldgopher

Oneoldgopher said:
I believe I predicted 1-2 victories for the season. With 3, I still give him a C. He has admitted in articles of not being prepared with the staff, not having the team prepared for all phases of the game. That must improve.
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As usual you think you understand what is going on but you don't have a clue why Jerry says those things.
 

Art Vandelay said:
I understand that. I'm just saying that last year's team also beat Iowa and Illinois and won 3 games overall. Most people on this board were expecting 4-6 wins this season but all of sudden a 3-9 record and beating 2 teams they beat last year and Kill is COY in the B1G. Funny how much back peddling is going on. I will give him a C but there were more embarrassing moments than glimmers of hope. The offseason will be interesting. Need to find a RB and a punter.
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Art, can you please provide one link where someone (let alone "most people on this board") are saying Kill should be COY.

Thanks in advance.

Go Gophers!!
 

We should not lose to NDSU or NMSU with our second string. Even with a first year coach.

Kill knows that.
 

I agree, I gave him a letter grade of B. Fifty years of horse$h&t football and a huge culture change is a lot to overcome in one year. Throw in the free "baby sitting" services that Kill & Co. had to perform for the 60 plus idiots that weren't going to class to stay eligible and I think the coaching staff did a remarkable job!

When you look at the "black hole" that has become Gopher Football over the years I really wonder how they convinced Kill & Co to take the job? Obviously, Brady Hoke and the others knew the job was a pile of "feces" and passed. Current season ticket holders might be sitting on the largest undervalued Twin Cities sports ticket package if Kill and his group really start to get the whole package to gel! There were a lot of season ticket holders in my section of the stadium missing yesterday, but as for me, I'm going to renew!
 

I gave a C trending to a C+ given the improvement I saw over the latter part of the season.
 


I always believed this Gopher team had the talent to win a minimum of 5 to 6 games. I haven't changed my mind The coaching staff had a very slow start to the season. And BS on the "culture change" excuse. The team was losing games because of poor offensive schemes and play calling, too many bad penalties, and the inability to pressure the opposing QB. That was all on the coaching staff. But I will give them a C+ because of the obvious improvement over the last part of the season and winning one of the trophy games. The season can never be considered a total failure if the Gophers win the Pig, Jug, or Axe.
 

proudgopher said:
B +. New staff, new schemes, not an easy schedule. They showed consistent progress as the year went on. The QB position is a key position and Kill had Gray who really had not played QB since his HS days about four years ago and Shortell who was throwing to HS receivers a year before he went into the USC game.
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<---This.

2011 was going to be about progress. Kill never talked about a bowl or a B1G title. We needed to rebuild this thing from the ground up. I think retaining Floyd and being way better in November than September met our goals for the the season.

That said, next year the bar must be raised, for sure. I don't feel I'd be happy at 3-9 in 12 months with a year of stability under our belts. But this year? Content. :) Can't wait to come to Nagurski this summer and visit our resident oinker again!
 

Go4Broke said:
The coaching staff had a very slow start to the season. And BS on the "culture change" excuse. The team was losing games because of poor offensive schemes and play calling, too many bad penalties, and the inability to pressure the opposing QB. That was all on the coaching staff.
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I agree.

They misread the situation and the team.

I think they really underestimated how psychologically beat-up/fragile the kids were.
 

Killjoy said:
I gave him a much higher grade than the rest of you did but I didn't evaluate him on win/losses. I evaluated him on how well he did in changing the culture and implementing his vision. This is what he needed to do in year one and he accomplished this. I have to say I am surprised how many of you don't seem to recognize this. Very sad.
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I agree, and for that reason gave him a solid "B". It took a little bit for the kids to buy-in/figure out the system/schemes, but their was vast improvement by the end of the year on both sides of the ball. Things I'm most excited about for the future...solid offensive line play, a swarming/aggressive defense, and overall team discipline. If we can be consistent in those areas and continue to build our overall talent level, we will compete with anyone in the B1G Ten.

Also...did you notice the players dancing around on the sidelines in between the 3rd and 4th quarters (yes, I know they've done this much of the year)? I true sign that the kids were having fun, and a coaching staff understanding the importance of this (as well as playing quality football). If you looked over at the Illinois sideline at that same moment, the kids just looked like they wanted to go home...no enthusiasm whatsoever. Don't underestimate the importance of this in building the program...it becomes/became contagious with the crowd as well.
 

B - Players were out of shape when he got them, academics were in disaray, needed to evaulate what he got, and then more time to recover as he discovered what he inherited. I thought he did a pretty good job considering the overall climate with the players and the media.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Went with C as well. A win over New Mexico State might have pushed me to a B. I think it took the staff too long to figure out how to use the talent they had on the roster because if you have enough talent to beat Iowa and Illinois you have enough talent to crush New Mexico State. That being said the improvement over the course of the season was good to see and hopefully bodes well for the future.
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New Mexico State lost to Louisiana Tech yesterday, 0-44. Our loss to NMSU and NDSU, despite two big victories late, merits a "C" for the year - but things are looking up!
 

There were two parts to the season.

I gave him a D- through the Nebraska game as we were pretty bad and there were lots of issues including really bad losses to NMS and NDSU. After that, I think he deserved a B- as the team started to show gradual improvement.

Going into the season, I was hoping for gradual improvement and be able to stay in the games. We were able to do that after Nebraska except for the Wisconsin game. I felt the team was not ready for NU's high speed offense and fell behind right off the get go. But the adjustments were good and the guys played them on an even keel from that point on. But, that is one game we could have won.

Finishing off with a convincing W over Illini was a great ending and a tribute to the players for hanging in there and the coaches for staying the course.

Overall: C.
 

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