The Minnesota Golden Gophers hired Jerry Kill in an attempt to turn their football program around, hoping for similar results to the ones that Kill got at Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois. While the 2011 season was a rough one for Kill and the Gophers, he's getting some love from the folks at the Sporting News.
↵Out of 124 coaches at the FBS level of college football, Kill comes in at #64 on their list.
↵↵↵America doesn't know a lot about Kill—most fans outside Big Ten country might recall him as the coach who had a seizure on the sideline last September—but he's had a terrific career. He built Southern Illinois into an FCS power and improved Northern Illinois dramatically. A fellow Big Ten coach calls Kill the most underrated coach in college football, citing his "toughness, recruiting (and) player relations."
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That seems like a pretty fair assessment of Coach Kill. Hopefully his ranking will be higher next season if he can continue to get the Gophers on the right path.
↵How does Kill compare to the other Big Ten coaches, according to The Sporting News? Well, here's where the other conference coaches ranked.
↵#3 - Urban Meyer, Ohio State
#12 - Bret Bielema, Wisconsin
#13 - Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
#24 - Brady Hoke, Michigan
#33 - Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
#37 - Bo Pelini, Nebraska
#42 - Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
#62 - Bill O'Brien, Penn State
#64 - Jerry Kill, Minnesota
#69 - Tim Beckman, Illinois
#92 - Danny Hope, Purdue
#111 - Kevin Wilson, Indiana