A Lot of Milk

February 19th, 2019 at 9:28 PM ^

Sour grapes. I don't know enough about his situation to question if he got pushed out at Minnesota or if he stepped out for himself, but coaching football for Rutgers two years after leaving for health reasons isn't a great look.

Seems to me he's jealous of the younger, more successful coach who was able to beat Wisconsin in only his second try and IN Madison

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Harlick

February 20th, 2019 at 9:11 AM ^

Kill and Clays left the program in bad shape.  Before Claeys was fired his recruiting was the worst in the big10 worse than Rutgers or purdue.  They didn't recruit a QB or WRwhich is why they looked so bad last year and why they looked underwhelming this year.  The program was heading south under Clays.  This is sour grapes and it makes Kill look bad.

Joined: 01/17/2015

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Mr Miggle

February 20th, 2019 at 11:48 AM ^

Mostly disagree. Claeys signed only one class, 2016 and it included two QBs. That was Minnesota's best class in quite a few years. Not saying too much, they've been close to the bottom of the Big Ten since RR was here. But Kill and Claeys won with those recruits and with bad QBs.

Fleck outrecruited the rest of the MAC at WMU. He will improve Minnesota's talent level, but he can't outrecruit the Big Ten. He's going to have middle of the pack talent at best. Let's see if he can win with them.

Joined: 10/07/2010

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bronxblue

February 20th, 2019 at 12:37 PM ^

I'm not a huge Fleck fan by any means, but he walked into a bad spot at Minnesota.  Beyond the sexual assault issues, it was a program recruiting poorly even for the Big 10 West (their 4-year average from 2012 to 2016 was in the mid-60's nationally and solidly in the bottom half of the conference).  They're now in the top-40 for 2 years under Fleck.  And Fleck's first year was a bit snake-bitten a bit; they had a number of injuries at QB and lost some close games (1-3 in one-score games in 2017.  In 2018 they had that rough stretch in the middle but they closed strong and for stretches looked like a top-tier team.  Obviously they also got pantsed a couple of times and are still figuring themselves out.  But people keep talking up Scott Frost and Nebraska next year but it feels like Minnesota is the real squad most likely to blow up in 2019 and really challenge for the division title, especially if Wisconsin really is taking a step back after a great run.

I think Fleck is a bit overrated as a head coach, but Minnesota is in better shape right now than they were when he stepped in.

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stephenrjking

February 20th, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^

This is a great point, and it's important because Dave Brandon followed the same logic when he evaluated the situation. He wanted a "Michigan man" that played "manball." He thought that RichRod's outsider status and style of play was the problem, so he remedied that "problem" and stuck the program with a mediocrity.

It is important to understand why things succeed or fail when making evaluations like this. Because the "why" affects subsequent choices, particularly when attempting to remedy problems.

Joined: 03/15/2012

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Creedence Tapes

February 20th, 2019 at 6:05 PM ^

So the reason for him being a bad coach and not working out is because people didn't like that he wasn't a Michigan Man and that he had a southern accent?

First, the reason he wasn't a Michigan Man is not because he wasn't from Michigan, or had no connections to Michigan football. He wasn't a Michigan Man because he didn't uphold the standards that a Michigan Man is supposed to uphold. He was was a terrible leader, took no responsibility, was loyal only to himself, threw players under the bus at every opportunity etc.

Second Rich Rod was a shitty coach, which has been proven over and over again. His teams went  3-9 in his first year, missed 2 straight bowls, had incomprehensibly bad defenses, etc.

This is was what many of the people associated with the program did not like Rich Rod, not because he had an accent and came from West Virginia Unfortunately they were right, Rich Rod was a shitty person (see Arizona scandal), and a shitty coach, and they people that criticized him were right in doing so. 

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BTB grad

February 19th, 2019 at 10:29 PM ^

One night 2-3 years ago after far too many whiskeys, I ventured over to RCMB for some good laughs. I remember seeing a post that was essentially “not afraid of Harbaugh. He’ll flame out. What I’m afraid of is Fleck then coming in and winning big.” I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life. 

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footballguy

February 19th, 2019 at 10:44 PM ^

I never understand the crowd that gets pumped up by stuff like this. Just a bad look for Kill, but even if it's true.

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Booted Blue in PA

February 20th, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^

In JH's first two years at Michigan many were saying the same things....  Staying in the media spotlight, sideline antics, etc was all about him, not about the program.   Maybe he's just a passionate coach who knows you've got to continue to build your brand it today's world.

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stephenrjking

February 19th, 2019 at 11:03 PM ^

Well, that's something.

Kill might hold some hard feelings with how things ended at Minnesota. He left due to health reasons (perhaps he was encouraged to leave and wasn't ready to throw in the towel?) and then his guy Claeys got run out due to the sexual assault issue (which is a lot more complex than just "ten guys accused"-- Antoine Winfield Jr, for example, was on that list despite not being a primary actor and was a key player on the team last year) and the entire AD has basically changed over since then, with Kill on the wrong side of it.

I'm mentioning all this because it is very, very unusual for a coach to comment on another coach like this. I'm sure a lot of coaches have a lot of opinions about other coaches, but we rarely ever hear such things, and when we do it's usually decades after the fact.

So my first impression is that Kill may have some hard feelings about the transition period between "Minnesota Head Coach Jerry Kill" and "Southern Illinois assistant to the athletic director Jerry Kill." And perhaps there are good reasons for that, I don't know. But it's rare, and in my experience kinda classless, to burn your successor like this. 

I mean, imagine how we'd feel if RichRod had torched Hoke after Hoke's second season. We certainly weren't fond of Harbaugh blasting Carr's program in 07. 

All that aside, I'm still not sure how well Fleck will work out. I actually think he did a good job given his roster last year, but it's hard for me to overlook the fact that the entire preparation for the Michigan game in 17 seemed to involve trying out that "switch the QB and RB and run zone read like Penn State" and that they never, ever adjusted to start blocking Khaleke Hudson. That's a serious Xs and Os deficiency that comes down from the head coach.

But he's got a young team with some good pieces. And he beat Wisconsin. We'll see how it goes. 

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treetown

February 20th, 2019 at 7:34 AM ^

Your point of how odd it is to see Jerry Kill burn his successors and the administration is a good one. As he rose in prominence, he always seemed to project a very old school, 1960's style of being a head coach - I don't mean his strategy and tactics but things like sticking with a same set of assistants and working their way slowly methodically along. 

We might never really learn the whole story of what went wrong - and went wrong so quickly up in Minnesota but it is weird. There is probably a whole deep inside story about how the Hoke and RichRod were hired/fired that we have yet to hear in detail.

 

 

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