The Wolverines will face a motivated Minnesota team, which was saddened Wednesday by the sudden retirement of coach Jerry Kill.
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– Minnesota football head coach Jerry Kill announced on Wednesday that he is retiring for health reasons effective immediately.
“All of us have grown to love this staff. I can’t say anything bad about them, I’ve loved every minute with them since I’ve been here, and I know a lot of the older guys (do too)”, Connelly said.
“President [Eric] Kaler, it’s not easy, I know. I don’t think he did”. We’ll close her down on Saturday.’ My sister ran [the restaurant], and obviously I’m not going to kick her out on the street and let her go.
Epping redshirted in 2010, coach Tim Brewster’s final season. Seven of them have served at least 15 years, dating to Kill’s takeover of the program at Southern Illinois in 2001.
■USA TODAY’s latest bowl projections: MSU vs. Stanford in the Rose Bowl, and Michigan vs. Ole Miss in the Cirtus Bowl, both January 1 games.
But, likely, for the first time, many saw the vulnerability of a coach who had to step away for his own reasons, but not necessarily on his own terms.
Kill made strides in reviving the underperforming Gophers, leading them to eight wins and a Citrus Bowl appearance last season.
Brock Vereen, who began the season in Chicago and joined the Vikings practice squad earlier this month, played three seasons for Kill. Travis, like Kill, has a love of football.
With a prematurely active coaching carousel this season, with that recruiting class and overall positive trend of the program, Claeys and the current staff have a good a chance as anyone stay on after this season.
“(I was) shocked, really“, Michigan defensive backs coach Greg Jackson added. “Jerry Kill is one of the most first-class individuals we have in our profession”. And I don’t want to cheat the game. A year ago Kill and his wife, Rebecca, donated $100,000 to start the Chasing Dreams fund with the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota to fund “seizure-smart school initiatives” and Camp Oz, a camp specially designed for kids with epilepsy. He has suffered multiple seizures and was forced to take a leave of absence during the 2013 season. Kill revealed on Wednesday that his seizure episodes had returned, that he hadn’t slept more than three hours any night in the past three weeks and that he had ignored doctors’ advice several times, including not taking medication on game days.
Flood was an assistant at Delaware in 2003 while Kill was the head coach at Southern Illinois.
Kill, who in July said he had not had a seizure in a year and a half, admitted Wednesday that he recently had two seizures. “They’ll try hard to keep it on, but if they have to they won’t hesitate…They want to keep it on as long as possible so we can be here for five years”. I don’t know about liability, but it sounds like watching that press conference, it sounds just (like it was) time….
Kill and Johnson kept in touch regularly via text messages, phone calls and face-to-face visits. “I think maybe the best credit to him is that they would play like their hair’s on fire regardless”.
Considered a longshot candidate to be selected in the 2015 National Football League draft, Epping went undrafted.
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In fact, that’s perhaps the best compliment the staff can pay to the now retired Minnesota coach.
