Jerry Kill was not the top choice to be Gophers’ football coach when he was hired in December of 2010, but over his five seasons he has proven to be the right choice. But if things had gone a certain way three years prior to that, Kill may still be coaching the team’s upcoming opponent.
When Sonny Lubick was on his way out as Colorado State’s head coach after the 2007 season, Kill was on a fairly lengthy list of candidates for the job. Then-athletic director Paul Kowalczyk had hired Kill to be head coach at Southern Illinois in 2000, and he was still the head coach there in late-2007, so there was clear ties between school and coach.