Jerry Kill still the right guy for the job

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Its ok to criticize the coaching staff and point out things you don't agree with. This week I have seen a couple people that have said coach Kill is hurting the program or should be fired. I think we all agree the offense needs to be better but consider where we were before he got here. We are way better off than we were 5 years ago. I was one of the fans who was happy when Mason got fired and now I know how wrong I was. We have a really good coaching staff here right now.
 

Duh

West Fargo Gopher Fan said:
Its ok to criticize the coaching staff and point out things you don't agree with. This week I have seen a couple people that have said coach Kill is hurting the program or should be fired. I think we all agree the offense needs to be better but consider where we were before he got here. We are way better off than we were 5 years ago. I was one of the fans who was happy when Mason got fired and now I know how wrong I was. We have a really good coaching staff here right now.
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Yup
 


I never said Kill should be fired, but his allegiance to this OC/OL set-up might get him fired.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

West Fargo Gopher Fan said:
Its ok to criticize the coaching staff and point out things you don't agree with. This week I have seen a couple people that have said coach Kill is hurting the program or should be fired. I think we all agree the offense needs to be better but consider where we were before he got here. We are way better off than we were 5 years ago. I was one of the fans who was happy when Mason got fired and now I know how wrong I was. We have a really good coaching staff here right now.
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Not sure this needs its own thread. I don't see a lot of people calling for Kill's head at this point, and the ones that are, are just blowing off steam or trying to get a rise out of people. There could however be a case made that there is potentially a need for some new blood in the offensive staff.
 


Like everybody, he has to be willing to learn and change.

He is pretty good football coach Sunday through Friday.

He is not an awesome gameday coach. He is average at best.

From my point of view, he has a limited comfort zone. He only does what he thinks he understands perfectly. If something confuses him or is at odds with what he thinks he knows, he is unable to adapt well. Most of us are like this. Super successful people are not.
 

Well we could hire Lane Kiffin..... he was the Brewster alternative....


Yeah, on second thought, let's stick with Jerry & Co.

They're not miracle workers, not always right, and hit a nasty bump. Let's see what they do now.
 


I like Kill and his staff very much! Those of you who don't have very short sided memories of Gopher football. Mason certainly did a good job, but Kill has really changed the expectations of the program and the fan base, so when things don't go as planned the natives get restless. This means people care, and recently more years than not very few people cared about Gopher football. There is no one that is more frustrated than Coach Kill, he will figure it out. Injuries have really killed us this year, we are still not deep enough to compete without being healthy. Even our special teams is severely missing our regular players. Kill is the best thing to happen to the Gophers in a long time, our progress will to come without some bumps in the road, but thats part of the journey, which I look forward to watching with Kill as our guy for a long time.
 



I'd sure hate to see Kill leave, but I hope he realizes he needs to start emulating his pal G. Patterson and be open minded about making some serious changes on the offensive side of the staff, because what they are doing is not going to wash in the Big Ten.
 

Studwell55 said:
Like everybody, he has to be willing to learn and change.

He is pretty good football coach Sunday through Friday.

He is not an awesome gameday coach. He is average at best.

From my point of view, he has a limited comfort zone. He only does what he thinks he understands perfectly. If something confuses him or is at odds with what he thinks he knows, he is unable to adapt well. Most of us are like this. Super successful people are not.
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Different sport and somewhat different era, but Kill reminds me of former Twins' manager Tom Kelly.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Well we could hire Lane Kiffin..... he was the Brewster alternative....


Yeah, on second thought, let's stick with Jerry & Co.

They're not miracle workers, not always right, and hit a nasty bump. Let's see what they do now.
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I'd take kiffin as our oc. He's done well at bama
 

alchemy2u said:
I never said Kill should be fired, but his allegiance to this OC/OL set-up might get him fired.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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For sure. Don't fire Kill but Kill should fire his offensive philosophy and maybe those behind it. When you are at the bottom of the conference for years and now near the bottom of 127 teams, something is systemically wrong.
 



oak_street1981 said:
I'd sure hate to see Kill leave, but I hope he realizes he needs to start emulating his pal G. Patterson and be open minded about making some serious changes on the offensive side of the staff, because what they are doing is not going to wash in the Big Ten.
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I'd be shocked if now that TCU is off the schedule Kill doesn't have a whole bunch of his coaches down there this offseason to learn.
 


HoustonTXGopher said:
I like Kill and his staff very much! Those of you who don't have very short sided memories of Gopher football. Mason certainly did a good job, but Kill has really changed the expectations of the program and the fan base, so when things don't go as planned the natives get restless. This means people care, and recently more years than not very few people cared about Gopher football. There is no one that is more frustrated than Coach Kill, he will figure it out. Injuries have really killed us this year, we are still not deep enough to compete without being healthy. Even our special teams is severely missing our regular players. Kill is the best thing to happen to the Gophers in a long time, our progress will to come without some bumps in the road, but thats part of the journey, which I look forward to watching with Kill as our guy for a long time.
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Mason also had a very particular ceiling in terms of who he is gonna beat and who would regularly trounce them.... and the inevitable bad luck. So even with that .... Kill & Co. look pretty good.
 

Patterson did not just change his offensive philosophy, he fired all the top level offensive coaches in brought in a couple of Mike Leach Air Raid disciples who probably amped it up one level higher with the pace (Chip Kelly like)

I do not think Kill is going to take the Gary Patterson route, but who knows, if Patterson is really his best friend he might listen to some tough advice from Gary Patterson. Gary Patterson has always been known as a defensive guru, who still calls all the plays at TCU on the D side, so I do not think it was hard for him to toss out the old staff and system.

I still have never figured out if Jerry Kill is skewed to one side of the ball in his background. I know he played on defense, but I think he tinkers with and meddles with the Offense a whole lot more than with the defense, and I suspect the belief that he is the driving force behind most of the Woody Hayes like Offensive philosophy (without the OSU talent level) approach.

Kill is stubborn and loyal and I think he'd rather go down a level (quit or be fired) before he will change too much.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Mason also had a very particular ceiling in terms of who he is gonna beat and who would regularly trounce them.... and the inevitable bad luck. So even with that .... Kill & Co. look pretty good.
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Nope. Kill is still short of Mase in a few areas (10 win season and beat every big ten team). Kill so far hasn't had the crappy non-bowl year after a few good ones that Mase often had, but that might be this year. In my opinion, we're back to the level Mason had us at. To be seen if Kill and company can go higher.
 

It's amazing to me how little some expect of this program. You realize you were "wrong" about wanting Glen Mason fired? My god the guy was 32-48 in conference play and his program was one of only two in the conference to NEVER finish in the top 3 during that time span. If those stats were not bad enough, Mason NEVER even beat a team that finished in the top 3 of the conference. If you look back and think that firing Mason was a mistake, you might as well fold up the program because you are essentially saying losing is acceptable.

Should Jerry Kill be fired? No. Should he have received quite as much praise as he did last year considering he finished 5-5 against fellow power 5 schools? Probably not. At some point, you have to move beyond 5-3 in the conference and actually contend (and beat Wisconsin which hasn't been done yet) for conference titles. That's not year 5 at Minnesota, but it certainly isn't year 10 either.
 

I happen to think Jerry's conservative philosophy is a good fit for us.

Jerry's instincts are to play in a style that tilts the odds slightly to our favor over the course of a game. That explains why we won some games by a play last year (NW, Purdue, NE) and lost a game by a play (David fumbling at IL).

I think Jerry's right to do that. I have no problem with a coach punting the ball and playing defense--when it works.
 

oak_street1981 said:
Patterson did not just change his offensive philosophy, he fired all the top level offensive coaches in brought in a couple of Mike Leach Air Raid disciples who probably amped it up one level higher with the pace (Chip Kelly like)

I do not think Kill is going to take the Gary Patterson route, but who knows, if Patterson is really his best friend he might listen to some tough advice from Gary Patterson. Gary Patterson has always been known as a defensive guru, who still calls all the plays at TCU on the D side, so I do not think it was hard for him to toss out the old staff and system.

I still have never figured out if Jerry Kill is skewed to one side of the ball in his background. I know he played on defense, but I think he tinkers with and meddles with the Offense a whole lot more than with the defense, and I suspect the belief that he is the driving force behind most of the Woody Hayes like Offensive philosophy (without the OSU talent level) approach.

Kill is stubborn and loyal and I think he'd rather go down a level (quit or be fired) before he will change too much.
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I'm with you.

I think the defense is Clayes.

I think the offense doesn't work.
 

West Fargo Gopher Fan said:
Its ok to criticize the coaching staff and point out things you don't agree with. This week I have seen a couple people that have said coach Kill is hurting the program or should be fired. I think we all agree the offense needs to be better but consider where we were before he got here. We are way better off than we were 5 years ago. I was one of the fans who was happy when Mason got fired and now I know how wrong I was. We have a really good coaching staff here right now.
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For sake of discussion, let's just say we go 4-8 this year. The question then becomes has Kill built a strong enough program where we could easily bounce back the following year and go 8-4 again. If not, one could take the position that we aren't much better off than we were 5 years ago. Yes, our players seem like good citizens, they are going to class and representing the University well. That definitely counts for a lot. But from a win/loss perspective only, we may or may not be in a better position than we were 5 years ago. We really don't know. If Croft doesn't cut it, our O-line doesn't improve a lot and our defense declines a little, we could suffer for several more years. Especially since other teams appear to be getting better. Only time will tell.
 

Sparlimb said:
Nope. Kill is still short of Mase in a few areas (10 win season and beat every big ten team). Kill so far hasn't had the crappy non-bowl year after a few good ones that Mase often had, but that might be this year. In my opinion, we're back to the level Mason had us at. To be seen if Kill and company can go higher.
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That lack of a crappy non bowl year thing would seem like a positive for Kill.

Mason's 10 win season was just one, and still just 4th in the Big 10. Not sure if that is big a deal or a one off.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
That lack of a crappy non bowl year thing would seem like a positive for Kill.

Mason's 10 win season was just one, and still just 4th in the Big 10. Not sure if that is big a deal or a one off.
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The 10 win season was/is a big deal. Arguably the most successful Gopher season in decades, although not without it's bad spots. It's the high water mark for the program, and Kill has been great and I think he's the answer for our program but his resume is not quite at Mase's level yet. To be fair, he's got 5 fewer years than Mason had as well so give him time to catch up and I think they will be neck and neck.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
That lack of a crappy non bowl year thing would seem like a positive for Kill.

Mason's 10 win season was just one, and still just 4th in the Big 10. Not sure if that is big a deal or a one off.
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It is a positive for Kill. As long as we don't have one this year. The other thing we need to note about Mason is he did it coming off 40 years of ineptitude. Kill at least is following 10 years after someone who had some success here. There was nothing nearing mediocrity prior to Mason, unless you want to argue Holtz...
 

West Fargo Gopher Fan said:
Its ok to criticize the coaching staff and point out things you don't agree with. This week I have seen a couple people that have said coach Kill is hurting the program or should be fired. I think we all agree the offense needs to be better but consider where we were before he got here. We are way better off than we were 5 years ago. I was one of the fans who was happy when Mason got fired and now I know how wrong I was. We have a really good coaching staff here right now.
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I agree Kill is absolutely the right guy for the job. I think his recruiting has gotten better each year, a lot of top guys on this team were two stars or lower, so they've found some hidden gems. I think the class we have coming in will get us beyond quote on quote Mason territory. Although I wouldn't rule this team out if it can fix some of its offensive warts. The defense is already there. As for Mason, the mistake wasn't firing him, it seemed he had worn out his welcome with the Athletic department and some key boosters. They just did poor job replacing him, but I'll give credit where credit is due. despite being his 23rd choice, mature made a good hire in coach Kill, as Maturi would put it, it turned out to be a Tubby Smith hire
 

DoubleAlum said:
For sake of discussion, let's just say we go 4
I would consider the schedule next year too we drop TCU, Ohio State and Michigan and replace them with Oregon State, Rutgers, Maryland and Penn State. I think our other non con games are home vs Colorado State and Indiana State. The D will take a step back in the secondary, but should be better in the front seven, plus we have good depth in the defensive backfield, our second stringers played just fine at Northwestern last week. The only key skill position player we lose is Maye. We lose lineman but the way that's going right now it could be addition by subtraction.
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I guess the real question in Kill vs mase at this point is would you rather have Mason first five years or Kill's first five years? Didn't the guy after Holtz have a couple of 4-4, 5-3 type seasons before he bottomed out. I was toddler then, so I wouldn't have any recollection of those late 80's teams.
 

Mason beat Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Wisconsin. Right now I would take Mitch Browning as OC. I support Kill, but Limegrover is either in over his head or has to much on his table.. No one knows what Mason would have done in TCF stadium, or for that matter, new facilities. Mason had the dome and sh-t facilities, and an AD that was more interested in the rowing team.
 

bemidjigopher said:
I guess the real question in Kill vs mase at this point is would you rather have Mason first five years or Kill's first five years? Didn't the guy after Holtz have a couple of 4-4, 5-3 type seasons before he bottomed out. I was toddler then, so I wouldn't have any recollection of those late 80's teams.
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I think one issue is that Kill got the team after .... you know, that other coach.

Mason didn't get a good situation either, but I think there was at least some structure there, of a program, something.

Ws & Ls are similar in terms of the previous coach just before they each got their team, http://www.gophersports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/yearly-records.html but I feel like the program was in worse shape when Kill got it than Mason, and possibly the haves and have nots in the Big 10 weren't as separated. Hard to quantify that though.
 

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