The University of Minnesota’s football program has made big strides under head coach Jerry Kill, and the school rewarded him for that progress Friday. His raise is worth an estimated $300,000, which boosts his 2015 salary to $2.5 million, the Star Tribune reports. The Gophers went 3-9 in his first season, improved to 6-7 in 2012 and have gone 8-5 in each of the past two campaigns.
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Last season under Kill, the Gophers played in their first New Year’s day bowl game since 1962.
The extension locks Kill up with the University of Minnesota through 2019. “I love the state, love the people, coaches and kids, and I try to take care of them”.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Coach Kill for several years and I admire how he and his staff have built the Gopher football program the right way”, interim AD Beth Goetz said in a statement.
“We want to win a Big Ten championship”, junior quarterback Mitch Leidner recently said, via Sporting News.
“I am excited about it and am very appreciative of everybody”, Kill told the media after Friday’s practice. “It’s good, and I’m ready to move on”. Even with the raise, Kill’s pay will rank eighth among Big Ten coaches.
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With Teague stepping down, Kill said his extension was “critical” to help keep verbal commitments from high school players in the 2016 recruiting class and assist in recruiting other prospects. Otherwise, we are going to lose the recruits.
