Shama: Old School, New Start for Jerry Kill

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Shama:

Beloved former Gopher football coach Jerry Kill started a new job at Southern Illinois a few weeks ago, but he has a new health concern. Kill, 56, talked to Sports Headliners by telephone this week from Carbondale, Illinois where he coached the Salukis to five FCS playoff appearances from 2001-2007.

Kill is about three weeks into his position as a special assistant to the Chancellor at SIU-Carbondale. His responsibilities include speaking on behalf of the school, increasing admissions and raising money from donors. “It’s a lot different (than) coaching football,” Kill said. “It’s a different pace.”

After 36 years of coaching high school and college football, Kill knew this winter he still wanted to work hard and help others but developments during the last six months convinced him and his family that the career path had to reroute from the profession he loves. As offensive coordinator at Rutgers last season, Kill had multiple seizures—more attacks from the Epilepsy that has targeted him for years. His body also took a severe blow after a sideline collision with an Eastern Michigan player during an early season game.

Kill, who resigned his position at Rutgers in December, has been told he is starting to lose short-term memory. He has experienced countless seizures since 2005, including those at Minnesota that contributed to his heartbreaking and unexpected resignation in mid-season of 2015. Those seizures have impacted Kill to the point where he now can’t make the kind of split-second decisions a coach must execute on the field during games.

“I can’t process like I used to,” Kill said. “In this job (at SIU) it’s good, because I got time to process.”

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!
 

I recall at one point the team doctors mentioning explicitly that the seizes themselves do not have a cumulative impact on his health.... but when Kill retired he implied otherwise and this outright says it.
 

ol' jer is a ball coach. it's who he is, it's in his blood. he just wants to help turn boys in to men.
 

It is a crying shame. Kidney cancer, and then seizures threw a curve ball in Jerry Kill's dream of coaching for a long time. I think the new less stressful job at SIU health-wise will still allow him to be still involved in college athletics.
 

**Trigger Warning** The following may induce hateful rhetoric, frothing of the mouth, historical re-writes from certain Gopher fans and high-ranking administrators. Surely those who are “tired of hearing about Jerry” didn’t click in the thread though...:rolleyes:

Listening to Kill talk about enjoying life is reassuring to all his friends and admirers in Minnesota where he became one of the state’s most respected and popular coaches ever. He turned around a Gopher football program that was in dire shape by every standard when he arrived in Minneapolis in December of 2010. By the time he resigned as coach almost five years later he had led the Gophers to a January 1 bowl game for the first time since 1962. His 2013 and 2014 teams broke a losing streak against Nebraska that went back to 1960. Minnesota also defeated Michigan in 2014 for only the second time this century.

“Brick by Brick” was the program’s slogan and after two seasons Kill and his staff had the Gophers at .500 in Big Ten games. A year later Minnesota was 5-3, the program’s first winning conference record since 2003. He was named the 2014 Big Ten Coach of the Year.

But there was so much more to the success and the coach’s story. Players who were in freefall academically before Kill arrived improved their GPAs and started graduating. Off the field incidents involving misbehavior by players declined. Kill and Rebecca made a commitment to volunteerism in the community like few coaches ever have, including establishment of a fund to assist the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota.
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I recall at one point the team doctors mentioning explicitly that the seizes themselves do not have a cumulative impact on his health.... but when Kill retired he implied otherwise and this outright says it.
Click to expand...

I think it's more the medications which destroy the body.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I think it's more the medications which destroy the body.
Click to expand...

Destroy the body- what does that mean? First they do nothing of the kind, and second without antiepileptic medications he wouldn't have as good a life as he has now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 





BleedGopher said:
per Shama:

Beloved former Gopher football coach Jerry Kill started a new job at Southern Illinois a few weeks ago, but he has a new health concern. Kill, 56, talked to Sports Headliners by telephone this week from Carbondale, Illinois where he coached the Salukis to five FCS playoff appearances from 2001-2007.

Kill is about three weeks into his position as a special assistant to the Chancellor at SIU-Carbondale. His responsibilities include speaking on behalf of the school, increasing admissions and raising money from donors. “It’s a lot different (than) coaching football,” Kill said. “It’s a different pace.”

After 36 years of coaching high school and college football, Kill knew this winter he still wanted to work hard and help others but developments during the last six months convinced him and his family that the career path had to reroute from the profession he loves. As offensive coordinator at Rutgers last season, Kill had multiple seizures—more attacks from the Epilepsy that has targeted him for years. His body also took a severe blow after a sideline collision with an Eastern Michigan player during an early season game.

Kill, who resigned his position at Rutgers in December, has been told he is starting to lose short-term memory. He has experienced countless seizures since 2005, including those at Minnesota that contributed to his heartbreaking and unexpected resignation in mid-season of 2015. Those seizures have impacted Kill to the point where he now can’t make the kind of split-second decisions a coach must execute on the field during games.

“I can’t process like I used to,” Kill said. “In this job (at SIU) it’s good, because I got time to process.”

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Anyone else think that Jerry Kill would have been perfect for this (the bolded section) role at the U? I know he eluded to that but perhaps he wanted too much $?
 

NotAFanOfBecky said:
Anyone else think that Jerry Kill would have been perfect for this (the bolded section) role at the U? I know he eluded to that but perhaps he wanted too much $?
Click to expand...

Not really considering he left a job like that to coach again ...


He should have taken a leave of absence from MN.
 

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