Jerry Kill joked with a visitor last week about “messing” with his walking schedule. The Gophers second year football coach sat in his office and answered questions about his health.
“Don’t I look good?” Kill teased.
The 50-year-old Kill seemed fit, energetic and happy, despite starting another day in the office at 6 a.m. He’s learned to cope with long days and nights, just as he’s adjusted to a history of seizures and winning a fight with kidney cancer several years ago.
Kill stunned Minnesota fans when he fell to the ground during a game at TCF Bank Stadium last September. Most Minnesotans, including media, weren’t aware of Kill’s seizures prior to his becoming the Gophers coach. The scary sight of Kill writhing on the ground and not knowing the cause made the outcome of the game against New Mexico State on September 10 a secondary concern (Minnesota lost).
Kill had additional seizures last year, was hospitalized and also sought advice from the Mayo Clinic. Asked about his health last week, Kill said he’s okay and although he couldn’t specify a date said he’s been seizure-free for “awhile.”
Kill’s challenge with seizures is ongoing and very public but he insists the issue doesn’t minimize his effectiveness in trying to rebuild a Gophers program that was 3-9 last season and had the same record the year before he arrived in Minneapolis. “There are two or three CEO’s that do not want their names mentioned right here in the Twin Cities (who’ve) got the same problem I got,” Kill told Sports Headliners. “But nobody knows that. They’ve reached out to me—confidentially to me—‘Hey, coach (I) know what you’re going through.’
“I am doing fine. Just like anything, you can’t worry about…(what) you can’t control. You just don’t need to help it. My wife makes sure I am not helping, that I am staying on the right track. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but I am in good shape right now.”
The college football world can be cutthroat and Kill admitted when he was coaching at Southern Illinois, a rival used his cancer against him in recruiting. “There was a coach that I won’t name that said, ‘What’s going to happen?’ ”
While recruiting his 2012 freshmen and junior college players Kill said he wasn’t aware of rival coaches using the seizures issue against him.
“That hurts people (recruiters) more than it helps them,” he said. “I am honest. I haven’t lied to anybody. I’ve said that it is (the seizures) what it is. If that bothers you, you shouldn’t come here.”
The Gophers begin spring football practice on March 22. Kill is excited to see what an offseason of conditioning and strength training has done for his players. They can expect to see a coach full of energy and ready to work.
Kill has said that if health problems ever become too much for him to be effective, he will step aside. That time isn’t now. “If I can’t do my job, I am not going to steal money,” he said.