Jerry Kill quote about Minnesota's lack of toughness
Down in the Mgo.licio.us links is an article titled "Kill not thrilled with what Tim Brewster left him". In that article is the following quote: "“We’re not athletically gifted enough. We’re getting slower. You have to recruit tough, you don’t make them tough. You have to recruit tacklers,” Kill said. "
How sad. Maybe it is the medication. I won't draw any parallels, but he needs to learn how to point differently.
October 6th, 2011 at 10:21 AM ^
I agree. I would have preferred the head coach express his sentiments in a different way, but I don't think what he said is over the top, given their circumstances. Their talent level isn't good and he's right about recruiting toughness. Some guys can get by at the college level with subpar fundamentals but have the right mentality. And the team as a whole isn't athletically gifted to the level that you need them to be in order to be competitive. I know it's a slam on the players, but it's directed more towards Brewster and his recruiting performance. It sucks for the players to hear this, but I can't pretend to know how his players feel about him and how he feels about the players, on an emotional level, from a short quote.
October 6th, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
I know our team is struggling now and we need to get tougher and focus on fundamentals. We have to make sure everyone goes out there and plays their assignments.
He's making it out to be like it's the players fault their bad. Like he has nothing to do with it. I'm sure if they were 5-0 he would take the accolades, so when you're 1-4 you have to take the jeers as well. Kind of disappointed a coach able to get to this high of a level as a coach in the B1G and place blame like this. Bad form Kill, bad form....
October 6th, 2011 at 10:12 AM ^
could come, too, and it's not going to fix some of the problems they have on defense.
October 6th, 2011 at 10:16 AM ^
The guy is a genius when it comes to dealing with the media.
October 6th, 2011 at 10:29 AM ^
"If I had known how bare our cupboard was this year, I would have focused more on the Florida opportunity. I feel as though I inherited the same situation Rich Rodriguez did several years ago and we all know how that turned out. I promise you this, I will clean house after this year and the players who depart will have a tough time making a JC team.
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<br>Some of you may not know but I put up my 6 year old for adoption due to his lack of toughness and confidence when he enrolled in Kindergarten. He did not have what it takes to be successful, he didn't know the alphabet, couldn't count to 10, was shy and bashful in class and did terrible in the school play."
October 6th, 2011 at 10:45 AM ^
foot meet mouth.
im not sure how this really helps a team's morale, especially after that beatdown last weekend. it definitely could have been more PC.
October 6th, 2011 at 11:00 AM ^
I think Minnesota could bring in Vince Lombardi and I don't know if he could fix some of the things with their defense.
EDIT: LB beat me to it.
October 6th, 2011 at 11:17 AM ^
In fairness to Kill, and I agree his comments came off poorly, he was probably irked by Tim Brewster's constant bullshitting about the condition the program he left to Kill and some of the other things Brewster did that made Kill's job tougher. Apparently 25 players were academically ineligible when Kill took over. Brewster has also made some stunning statements:
“This is the same group of kids that beat Illinois and Iowa. Same group of kids that played well to start the season at USC.”
“That’s a very talented football team that’s at the University of Minnesota right now. Coach Kill is very fortunate and he knows that,” Brewster told the Daily at Big Ten football media days in Chicago in July
Brewster told the Daily in July that his greatest disappointment was that the Gophers would be going to the Rose Bowl and he would not be there to lead them. Brewster denied making those comments when reached by phone Tuesday.
http://www.mndaily.com/2011/10/04/kill-doesn’t-mince-words-brewster-left-football-team-rough-shape
October 6th, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
Minnesota isn't Michigan. That team is freaking terrible and that team QUIT in the first quarter against us. QUIT.
That's on both the coaches and the players. Jerry Kill has a good reputation for getting a lot out of kids and he's beaten cancer. I've seen those players absolutely positively quit without a modicum of pride in a conference game and that was ridiculous.
I would be upset if Hoke did this but then this is Michigan.
October 6th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^
but...If I was a Gopher fan I would not mind the coach saying he has no chicken to make chicken salad
October 6th, 2011 at 1:34 PM ^
Those kids quit. Those receivers were going through the motions and wondering if they would have to bother looking like they were going to try the catch the ball. That's the worst effort I've seen from a big ten team in my life.
October 6th, 2011 at 11:35 AM ^
October 6th, 2011 at 11:36 AM ^
Too many cats?
October 6th, 2011 at 3:29 PM ^
A cat in the house?
October 6th, 2011 at 11:47 AM ^
Its one thing to say we need to get tougher, we're not tough, etc. Its another thing to outright say the kids on your team will never be tough enough and will never know how to tackle becuase the coach before him didn't recruit those kind of kids.
October 6th, 2011 at 11:54 AM ^
I don't know why the title of this thread is about toughness, Kill was primarily bemoaning the lack of talent and bodies on his roster. The toughness angle was one sentence and probably rates behind acdemic discipline in Kill's problem list.
Here are Minnesota's top issues based on my reading of Kill's statements
1.Talent
2.Lack of bodies
3. Discipline, specifically academic discipline
4. Toughness
Also, it appears Kill believes he can instill toughness but he can't because he doesn't have the bodies to practice as he would like.
He added they are unable to practice harder to gain toughness due to personnel limitations
October 6th, 2011 at 12:32 PM ^
It's his first season, so he's not in any danger of losing his job. And he has a huge excuse - his health condition has surely affected his ability to do his job. So why trash the players? It'd be one thing if he were saying "This team isn't where we want it to be," but he's basically guaranteeing that they'll never get there with this roster. That's not going to inspire confidence.
October 6th, 2011 at 12:48 PM ^
October 6th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
Most coaches will tell you that the time to be hardest on your team is after a win. After a loss, you've got to pick them back up. That goes all the moreso after a blowout loss. The Gophers' confidence is probably shot right now, and still they've got to play seven more games. Kill needs to give them a reason to believe in themselves.