It was only two sentences, but what Dave Curtis wrote can’t help but command attention among Gophers football fans.
The Sporting News Magazine’s college football authority wrote this in the publication’s April 11 issue: “Of the 21 schools that hired coaches for 2011, none will be more pleased than Minnesota. Jerry Kill can make the Gophers Big Ten contenders.”
I emailed Curtis and asked him to elaborate on his statement that was part of a First-and-10 column with short takes on college football. Here’s how he replied including his reference to prominent TCU coach Gary Patterson:
“A few things come to mind about Jerry. First, I love his bloodlines. I see a lot of Gary Patterson’s attitudes and tendencies in Jerry, and I know Gary would walk to Minneapolis and give Jerry a piggyback ride to Fort Worth if he would join the TCU staff. It’s easy to like a guy who brings such a consistent no-nonsense approach, from the way he runs practice to the way he holds press conferences.
“Next, where Jerry goes, the teams win. He turned around Southern Illinois, which had some administrators thinking about dropping the program. He restored NIU as a MAC power after a slip in the mid-00’s. The highlights don’t always belong in Canton, but Jerry’s teams somehow end up with more points than the other guys way more often than not.
“I also think Jerry has one of the most important characteristics of a Division I-A head coach: an understanding of his program’s place in the sport. He knows Minnesota won’t compete for most five-star, blue-chip recruits, so he won’t waste his time with them off the bat. He’ll cater his style of play along these lines, a la TCU or even Iowa. He knows Minnesota needs to restore fans’ confidence, so he’ll spend time reaching out to them as a public speaker, and do it in genuine fashion.
“I like where he comes from. I like the numbers that show he’s successful. And I like his approach to the program, in terms of developing toughness, avoiding nonsense, and identifying a path to make the Gophers a winning program and a source of pride in the Twin Cities.”