The Jerry Kill situation: Discrimination or inability to perform duties? (Badger: schools, campus)

[Mr. In-Between]

Originally Posted by jmgg

The U. of Minnesota powers that be need to sit down with this guy and ask him to resign. If not now, at least at the end of the season. It's to the point where it doesn't matter how much his players like him or he's a nice guy or if he even knows the sport well. The university is, as said before, becoming irrelevant and frankly, a joke.

When has it ever been anything other? In our lifetimes, that is. Anyone worth hiring would be crazy to consider Minnesota. With a program like this, a guy like Kill is probably the best you can get.

[r_shackleford]

I gave up on the Gophers when I realized Mason era was the upper bound. And I think anybody who has paid any attention would agree that Brewster had an inability to perform his duties.

For any job, there are certain physical and health requirements. Likewise, for any limitation there are some jobs you just shouldn't do. For example my dust allergies might prevent me from working in a library with shelves of old, dusty books. From what outsiders can see, Kill coaching the Gophers lands in the gray area. Most of his duties are outside of the actual game- recruiting, running practices, strategy, etc. Yet, all of that work culminates on about a dozen days of the year. On average, he will have to miss all or part of one or two of those. That's certainly not ideal, but provided he has a contingency plan and fulfills the rest of his duty, it's not really that big of a deal.

Souhan's comment about as many seizures as Big 10 wins- insensitive though it may be- hints at the underlying reality. If the Gophers start winning more conference games, people will forget about the seizures pretty quickly. If they don't consistently win Big Ten games, then they should look for a new coach regardless. As for recruiting, if the program's history hasn't already sent recruits running in the other direction, it's going to take more than a seizure to talk them out of Minnesota.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by The Northerner

Wondering what folks think about this. Personally, I would contend that if coach Kill can't uphold his end of the bargain to be Minnesota's head coach on the sidelines - which means a full 4 quarters every game - because of his health, he should either resign or ask Norwood Teague to reassign him away from the field. I feel terrible that his epilepsy is negatively affecting his career, but having him repetitively collapse on the sidelines in front of thousands of spectators is creating a circus atmosphere around the program and is taking the attention off of the players where it should be.

Of course, the bleeding hearts are already out trying to make this into a political issue. Discrimination toward epileptics is their cry, and they go on to tell us all how little we know about epilepsy.

Truth is that this is not about epilepsy, but about a football coach making hundreds of thousands of dollars who is unable to fulfill his duties for health reasons. They have a plan in place for the assistants to take over when he goes down.......but the U did not pay for assistants to be running the team. A decision has to be made, and it should be made by coach Kill in favor of resigning so that the program can get back to trying to become competitive........and no, they are not competitive just because they beat 3 junk teams so far this year, so I don't want to hear about how far the program has come. They stunk last year, had the worst recruiting class in the conference afterward, and have yet to prove their worth vs. any of the Big 10 elite teams such as Ohio St., Michigan, or Wisconsin.

The real college football story this weekend is how a pathetic Michigan team was outplayed by Akron, deserved to lose, and would have, had the game not been stolen for them by their co-conspirators in stripes.

When I lived there, Michigan football was something to be proud of, but that was a long time ago. I do not understand how you people allowed that storied program to sink to the depths that it has.

Coach Kill might have had to check into a hospital this weekend, but the entire Michigan coaching staff was missing in action even as they stood there like helpless little children on the sidelines.

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

The real college football story this weekend is how a pathetic Michigan team was outplayed by Akron, deserved to lose, and would have, had the game not been stolen for them by their co-conspirators in stripes.

When I lived there, Michigan football was something to be proud of, but that was a long time ago. I do not understand how you people allowed that storied program to sink to the depths that it has.

Coach Kill might have had to check into a hospital this weekend, but the entire Michigan coaching staff was missing in action even as they stood there like helpless little children on the sidelines.

Not disagreeing with any of this, although Bill Martin's decision to hire a guy named Rich Rodriguez, who was the antithesis of everything Michigan football stood for, was the starting gun for what has happened since. Talk about having a mess to clean up.

Back to Kill, though........he refused to take any questions about his latest episode at his presser today. I find that incredibly foolish and arrogant of him considering the story that its become. Pissing off the media is not going to help him one bit at this point. If I were him I would be more accommodating all things considered.

[jmgg]

Over the past +40 years I've tried to be an outlying fan of the Gophers football program since it's actually the closest BCS team to where I'm at, but have long since gravitated to being a Iowa Hawkeyes fan primarily (one of my kids live there and another one used to). I also follow Nebraska as my second favorite BCS team. I have always been (and still am) a big Vikings and Twins fan. The Gophers not only hardly ever recruit in South Dakota unlike the Hawkeyes and Cornhuskers, but have actually turned into a prime recruiting ground for the South Dakota and North Dakota colleges (especially North Dakota State). The best players from the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro areas pretty much all go elsewhere. With one of the largest universities in the nation right there in the Twin Cities, to me it's an embarrassment to have most of the better local players dissing your program.

This circus with Kill is NOT helping the program.

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by The Northerner

Back to Kill, though........he refused to take any questions about his latest episode at his presser today. I find that incredibly foolish and arrogant of him considering the story that its become. Pissing off the media is not going to help him one bit at this point. If I were him I would be more accommodating all things considered.

So do you want a media circus or not? Honestly, what more do you actually need to know? As someone who has both worked the media and been diagnosed with epilepsy, I thing it's foolish and arrogant of you to think you're entitled to answers about personal health when they've largely been answered.

Epilepsy is a grossly misunderstood disorder. There's nothing Kill could tell anyone that would change that. People like you would continue to berate him and wouldn't change your mind. This is a media circus only in that it lasted a few days and the team stood behind Kill.

Honestly, even if he left, who takes his place? Who would want to? Nobody would take that job, knowing they'd be shoved out the door by disgruntled fans after two years, like we've done with so many coaches around here. The fact is that as a fairly recent graduate (recent enough that I had friends who were in school while Kill was coach, at least), I saw a distinct change in how people at the school saw the program. People ARE more excited about it. That will take time, but firing the coach starts us back at square one.

[Tyryztoll]

I'll say this much......I do like Jerry Kill, and I wish Michigan could run the football the way the Gophers did today. That said, the real test begins next week vs. Iowa as conference play begins. Like others have said, if they don't go at least 4-4 in the Big 10 the seizure thing WILL be a non story.

Can't lie, though.....every time the tv showed a shot of Jerry I held my breath hoping he wouldn't fall out. That's more my problem than his, I know.

[chessgeek]

I think for a lot of people it always depends on the team's record which has improved a little each year and so far this year it is 4-0 and hopefully they continue by beating Iowa this Saturday. Last Saturday, they beat my alma mater San Jose State.

BTW, a 4-0 record demonstrates an ability to do the duties...namely win football games; not an inability. The toughest part of the schedule has yet to be played, though. Northerner, it is all about whether the team can win and improve going forward.

I think it is a decision each university AD has to decide and really for anyone else to decide. If they decided to release him, I certainly do not believe it is discrimination. Any coach can be released at any time. That is the nature of the job and do not feel too sorry for them. Major college coaches are highly compensated these days.

They would have to be crazy to release him now and he is so highly respected. The players give more than 100% for him and his condition has gradually been improving from what I hear. Then the players would have to get used to a new coach and system.

[chessgeek]

Well, Kill made it through the Iowa game without a seizure, but the Gophers did not look good for the most part. The offense had one really good play (for their only TD) and special teams had one on a return to midfield as well. The defense played heroically considering the offense could not get anything going for almost the entire game. Iowa settled for just two FG's in the second half and the Minnesota D also intercepted in the end zone in the second half to stop an Iowa drive. Iowa does not have that many good players. I was thinking this was a slam dunk as the game was at home. We usually beat Iowa at home. I think at this point they can only beat Purdue and Indiana and will lose to everyone else if this is the best they can do effort wise. It is a shame because the fans deserve so much better than that.

[Huckleberry3911948]

he needs to go out on disability