With seizures returning, Minnesota’s Kill retires
MINNEAPOLIS — The seizures had returned for Jerry Kill.
Perhaps hoping he could still mesh his demanding, pressurefilled job as Minnesota’s head football coach with his epilepsy, Kill guided the Gophers through one more practice on Tuesday. He was pleased with this week’s game plan for Michigan, yet he knew as he walked off the field what his heart-wrenching decision would be.
He was done coaching. The toll epilepsy took on his body, his mind and his family had become too much to bear for someone trying to turn around an FBS program.
“I feel like a part of me died,” Kill said.
The 54-year-old football lifer reluctantly and tearfully retired on Wednesday, halfway into his fifth season at Minnesota. The drain of his condition and the related medication was clashing with his exhaustive effort to transform the Gophers into a Big Ten power.
“I don’t have any more energy,” Kill said. “None.”
Kill told the team in early-morning meetings, five days before a critical game for the Gophers (4-3, 1-2) against 15th-ranked Michigan. The players wept, too.
“You’re so sad, because there’s never going to be another day when you’re going to go out to practice and you’ll have coach Kill behind you,” quarterback Mitch Leidner said.
Kill had a career record of 156-102 as a head coach, 29-29 at Minnesota. Tracy Claeys, Kill’s longtime defensive coordinator, will be the interim coach after going 4-3 in 2013 during Kill’s absence.
University President Eric Kaler and interim athletic director Beth Goetz will soon discuss a search process for a permanent replacement, though Kill naturally expressed confidence in Claeys to be his successor.
“I ain’t done anything else. That’s the scary part,” Kill said, pausing several times to keep from breaking down.