Jerry Kill

Gerald R. Kill (born August 24, 1961) is an American football coach.

He was most recently the head coach at New Mexico State University.

He played college football at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, from 1979 to 1982.

Kill served as the head coach at Saginaw Valley State University, Emporia State University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Northern Illinois University and the University of Minnesota, as well as serving as the interim head coach for the final four games of the 2021 season at TCU.

Kill has also served as an athletic department administrator, most recently at Southern Illinois University as an assistant to the Chancellor and athletic director.

He was also briefly at Kansas State as associate athletic director.

During the course of his career he was credited with bringing several programs to new heights, and these successes led to increasingly more prestigious coaching positions.

Despite retiring from the game in 2015 due to health reasons, Kill returned to coaching in 2020 after accepting a special assistant's job at TCU and was named the interim head coach on October 31, 2021, after the resignation of Gary Patterson.

Kill was born in Cheney, Kansas.

He was raised in a working-class family and became the first member of his family to graduate from college.

Kill landed his first college head coaching job as the fourth football coach at Saginaw Valley State University in 1994, where he produced five consecutive winning seasons, including back-to-back 9–2 campaigns in 1997 and 1998.

Kill compiled a 38–14 record in five years as head coach.

His teams led the NCAA's Division II in rushing each of his last two years and his last season was second in the nation in total offense (498.3) and scoring (42.5).

Kill was the 20th head football coach for Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, and held that position for two seasons, from 1999 until 2000.

His overall coaching record at Emporia State was 11–11.

Kill was named to the head coaching post at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2001.

In 2004, Kill's Salukis went a perfect 9–0 against Division I-AA opponents and outscored competitors by more than 30 points per game.

Southern Illinois finished 7–0 in Gateway Football Conference games, earned the No. 1 ranking for the final ten weeks of the year, and garnered the top seed in the 2004 postseason.

At Southern Illinois, Kill was the first coach to produce four consecutive winning seasons and is credited with turning the football team around to a winning program.

On September 26, 2006, he became the school's all-time leader in winning percentage after defeating Indiana State, 55–3.

He is ranked third at Saginaw Valley State in total wins and second in winning percentage (as of the 2007 season).

As of completion of the 2007 season, this ranked him tenth at Emporia State in total wins and ninth in winning percentage.

In December 2007, Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, announced that Kill had been hired as its new head coach.

He replaced Joe Novak, who retired after developing the Huskies into a successful program over 12 seasons, though just one bowl win.

Before Kill's first season at Northern Illinois began, NIU was ranked No. 6 in ESPN's Bottom 10.

The team finished the 2008 regular season with a 6–6 record.

The six wins secured bowl eligibility and an invitation to the Independence Bowl was accepted.

Northern Illinois was defeated by Louisiana Tech, 17–10, in the bowl game despite outgaining the Bulldogs in rushing and passing yardage.

In 2010, Northern Illinois had a nine-game win streak and reached the MAC Championship Game, losing to Miami.

NIU finished 10–3 for the year.

In December, days after the losing the conference championship to Miami, Kill accepted the position of head coach for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

His announcement came less than two weeks before the Huskies were scheduled to play in the Humanitarian Bowl.

Leaving the team in the manner he did (many teammates learned about his new job via Twitter instead of from Kill himself ) dealt an emotional blow to the members of the team; quarterback Chandler Harnish saying about Kill's departure, "I have a horrible taste in my mouth".

Additionally, besides the emotional impact, USA Today noted, "The timing of the announcement further hurts the program due to Kill most likely taking the bulk of his staff to Minnesota."

Thus, Kill left NIU without ever winning a bowl game.

Furthermore, the fact that Kill left NIU before the team's bowl game added fuel to the debate about whether or not the NCAA should prohibit coaches from abandoning their teams before their final bowl game.

The University of Minnesota hired Jerry Kill on December 6, 2010.

He took over for Tim Brewster who was fired during the middle of the season.

Kill brought much of his NIU staff with him to Minnesota, including offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover, defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys, and special teams coordinator Jay Sawvel.

While his first season in Minnesota was not particularly successful (finishing with a 3–9 record and one of only two non-bowl eligible teams in the Big Ten), Kill was in the headlines most often due to his health issues.