Coach Jerry Kill told Sports Headliners his health is good as he prepares for the start of practices on August 2 and his third season at Minnesota. “I am fine,” Kill said.
Kill looked trim and was energetic during a night-time interview that is part of a typical week for him where he is working long hours every day. Like other major college football coaches, the demands on Kill’s time aren’t fully understood by most outsiders. In addition to coaching, recruiting, managing his staff, public speaking, working with the media and running summer football camps, Kill knows he and his assistants are responsible for the behavior of more than 100 young men on his roster.
Since taking over at Minnesota Kill has led a remarkable turnaround in the academic performance of his players. Players are attending classes and excelling. After last season, for example, the Gophers had 31 Academic All-Big Ten players, second in the conference only to Northwestern (34), a private school long known for its academic success. Minnesota had 13 more Academic All-Big Ten players than the year prior.
Admiration for Kill among Gophers fans has increased not just based on the coach’s insistence on good citizenship and grades. He has reached out to fans, and also key groups like the state’s high school football coaches with whom he is popular for various reasons including Minnesota’s aggressive approach in encouraging prospects to try out for the team even though they haven’t been offered scholarships. He has travelled the state of Minnesota telling his story about how it took time to rebuild programs at other places he’s coached and that the Gophers will be no different.
But Kill’s commitment to the community goes even further. Probably no coach in Gophers history has been more open to helping others with problems. He tries to do so privately and without asking for attention. In the same evening he might shuttle between a cancer promoted event and a football gathering. Another day he will thoughtfully listen as a friend relates the story of a boy who has experienced 300 seizures per month.
No doubt Kill’s perspective on those who have health issues has been impacted by his own personal history. Despite seizures during his career at Minnesota, Kill has missed only minimal time coaching his team. “I am a cancer survivor,” Kill said. “I developed epilepsy through that. …I see a doctor like anybody else that has a situation and I move forward on it.”
Among those who know Kill best, he is already a winner but the general public in Minnesota will judge him on wins and losses. The Gophers qualified for a bowl game last season after increasing their win total from three in 2011 to six in 2012. The team played better fundamentally last year than in Kill’s first season, a sure sign of good coaching.
Fans wonder if year three at Minnesota can approach the third season success Kill had rebuilding programs at Southern Illinois and Northern Illinois. Coming off mediocre second seasons, Kill’s teams at those schools earned 12-2 and 10-3 records.
There’s a difference, though, between past year threes and the one coming up. Because of a late start in recruiting after taking over as Gophers coach, Kill and staff had only minimal impact on the 2011 recruiting class. That means Kill has only two recruiting classes of his own in place so far.
“It makes a difference,” Kill said. “Somebody was telling me in 2009 here, when it was supposed to be a really good recruiting class, I think there was 20 kids
signed… I think there’s only four that have played. There’s a lot of emptiness in our program that we’ve had to fill in. I am not blaming Tim (Brewster, former coach). I am not blaming the administration. That’s the way it was. …”
“We’re a young team. There may be only four or five seniors (who) start.”
Those young players are expected to include promising sophomore wide receiver Andre McDonald who didn’t participate in spring practice. Despite at least one media report that McDonald wasn’t on the team, Kill said that isn’t correct. “He’s been working hard,” Kill said.
What about players who won’t or maybe will not be ready for the start of practice next month? “Zach Mottla (center) is a young man that won’t play for us this year because of the broken leg situation. Pete Westerhaus (linebacker) has a situation he’s been fighting and I don’t look to him to be in camp. We just want Pete to get well. (Center) Brian Bobek has got a viral infection that we’re waiting on him to get cleared.”
Worth Noting
Gophers coach Jerry Kill will be one of 12 Big Ten coaches doing news conferences and previewing their teams today from Chicago. Kill will speak at 1 p.m. with the Big Ten Network providing coverage.
The Big Ten announced its third annual Players to Watch List this morning but no one from the Gophers including much publicized defensive tackle Ra’Shede Hageman was among the 10 footballers.
The Gophers’ first practice on August 2 starts at 5:15 p.m. and is open to the public. Practices on August 3 and 4 begin at 10:25 a.m. and also are open to fans. All three practices will be at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex.
The Howard Pulley team that includes Tyus Jones and Reid Travis plays BABC Boston in an AAU Super Showcase game from Disney World that will be televised by ESPNU tonight beginning at 6 p.m.
Prep basketball authority Ken Lien e-mailed that Austin High point guard Zach Wessels has a scholarship offer from Minnesota State Moorhead.
Chris Herrmann, the substitute Twins catcher who hit a grand slam home run last night against the Angels to help Minnesota win for the sixth time in seven games, was a sixth round draft choice in 2009 who until this season had never played at a higher level than Double-A. He is hitting .409 in 22 at bats for the Twins.
The Twins announced this morning Joe Mauer is on paternity leave and the club has recalled catcher Drew Butera from Triple-A Rochester.
Steve Nestor will speak to the Gophers football team about the program’s history on a date to be determined. Nestor, a Gophers football historian and former student trainer in the 1960s, will also talk about his relationship with the late John Williams, a 1967 All-American tackle at Minnesota.
Over a year ago Nestor, who owns a radio station in Glenwood, Minnesota, donated a kidney to Williams. Within weeks Williams passed away while out for a walk. “When Barb (John’s wife) called, it just floored me. Up to that point all had been so right,” Nestor said.
Nestor, a white man who grew up in Minnesota, and Williams, an African-American originally from Ohio, had become close friends. Gophers coach Jerry Kill had wanted the two to address the team last year. Now that opportunity to talk about friendships, organ donation and more will be for Nestor alone.
Look for CORES to announce that Gophers athletic director Norwood Teague will speak to the group on Thursday, September 12 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington. Anyone interested in attending the lunch and program can contact Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.
Canterbury Park’s Extreme Race Day, featuring exhibition racing with camels, ostriches and zebras, drew 20,291 fans last Saturday, the largest crowd at the Shakopee racetrack since 1988. It was the seventh annual Extreme Race Day but the first that included zebras.
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