I like Jerry Kill and want him to succeed, but I would be curious to hear if people have confidence in him taking this program to the next level. I know Minnesota is an after through for football and we have not been relevant for 50+ years but are we ok with being average every year.
I will admit that Kill came into a mess and did well to clean out a lot of the bad apples and improved academic performance. But just watching him and his staff I have questions on their scheme and vision for the program.
You are not going to win on talent alone so you need to come up with a scheme or concept that you can hang your hat on...before today i would have said power running. Where are some jet sweeps...or some swing passes to Berkley Edwards (probably not the best idea to run him up the middle on his limited touches). The QB position has been an utter joke and every QB they throw in there looks worse than the guy before. We hear all the time about how he developed Harnish and Lynch at NIU...you are in the Big Ten you should be able to recruit a QB that could be at least average.
Waving the white flag before halftime down 24-0 is concerning...punting on 4th and 1 with 51 seconds left down 23 is a joke (I know game was out of hand at that time).
I know I am going to get bashed for posting this but oh well
I admit that I'm a negative person and harsh critic, but I agree with this poster that the football decision making by Kill needs to be called into question. Kill is obviously well respected as evidenced by the recent poll where coaches were asked what coach would you like your son to play for. Kill tied for third place in that poll, which is impressive. But that does not mean he makes great football decisions. It means he's perceived as a decent man, disciplined, fair and has an ability to mold young men into responsible adults (all very important and praiseworthy).
In my little observation of Kill, he seems like a very "black and white" thinker. When he gets something in his head, I believe he can't see the "forest for the trees". He's resolute in his beliefs and for that reason he will definitely go down with this ship. Let's take a look at a few things:
The one thing this team has proven it can do is run the ball, at least against equal/inferior opponents and sometimes against marginally superior opponents. So, what would a clear thinking, logical human being do in that situation? Seems to me he would do everything he can to maximize the run game and create deception in the run game.
He would utilize all three of his good backs in Cobb, Kirkwood and Williams to keep them fresh, involved, interested and motivated. He would give them each 15 carries a game and let them each help you maintain a dominant rushing attack. He would also find ways to use two or three of them at the same time. That way, he could keep the defense guessing who was going to get the ball on any given play. He would run off-tackle, off guard, power sweep, counters, draws and triple option, all to the left and right, to keep a defense guessing what the hell play was coming next. He would also have his QB fake a handoff to the up back and throw a few swing passes to the other running back coming out of the back field.
He would also say to himself that one of the big reasons his running attack has been successful is because defenses never knew when the QB was going to hand off or keep the ball. He would understand that the read option has been a significant factor in creating a strong running attack. He would know that until he found a great passing QB, he would continue to employ a QB that was a significant running threat who would be expected to run for 500-700 yards for the season. He would know this was critically important to sustaining the offense that he'd begun to build the last two years.
The other thing a good decision maker would recognize (just like most if not all avid Gopher fans have) and say to himself is that I have an offensive line that has never proven it can provide adequate pass protection to create an effective passing game. He would say I have a sophomore QB that I observe can't look off a receiver, has difficulty going through progressions and understanding where the open receiver is most likely to be, and has difficulty making good throws. He'd tell himself I can't put that QB in a position where he needs to pass the ball to give us a chance to win. So, the only passes I'm going to ask him to make are bubble screens, swing passes to backs, short slant plays and other "quick hitters" and occasional deep throws and throws to his tight end. Most if not all will be off play action. I will never ask him to pass in a situation where a person is likely to be double covered and I will tell him to audible if it ever looks that way. I will have him throw these simple passes left and right and keep the defense guessing. I'm going to put him in position to succeed rather than fail. And if he demonstrates that he can't do that, I will give another QB the opportunity to demonstrate whether he can do that in a game situation.
It seems to me, that's what a clear thinking, goal-oriented, success minded coach would do. Instead, Kill has created an incoherent offensive mess that lacks any cohesiveness whatsoever, and he's 100% responsible for this. I believe this will be Kill's undoing, just like Brewster's undoing was his inability to create stability in his coaching staff and get his players to focus on school, grades and attending classes. The one thing that Kill has going for him that Brewster didn't is that Teague and Kaler have stated publicly and recently that they believe strongly in what Jerry Kill is doing. Because of that, Kill will definitely get to complete his contract term unless he resigns beforehand. But make no mistake, Kill has not demonstrated much common sense in building an effective offense. In fact, his decisions have made things substantially worse than they needed to be.
