University of Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague backed football coach Jerry Kill Monday morning, saying he supports keeping Kill on the job “100 percent” despite fallout from the coach’s third in-game seizure Saturday afternoon at TCF Bank Stadium.
The Star Tribune reports that Teague says, “I have full faith that we can move forward with the program.”
Teague said Kill will return to running practice today, reports Minnesota Public Radio. But Teague said he’ll leave it up to Kill to decide whether he will coach from the box or the sideline, and whether the stress of games is a factor in Kill’s health.
It was Kill’s third seizure at a game since he took over the Gopher football program in 2010. Teague said Kill was taken to the hospital as a precaution, and that the coach was home by Saturday evening.
The Star Tribune reports that Teague says he knows that dealing with Kill’s epilepsy is an “ongoing process.”
Here’s Teague’s statement to the media, via YouTube:
Meanwhile, many are raising questions about the wisdom of keeping Kill on the sidelines.
On Sunday, Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan wrote that Kill should step down, which sparked controversy.
Others are rushing to the coach’s defense. Two of his assistants, defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys and offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover, say that the coach’s health does not interfere with his ability to lead the team.
Claeys told the Star Tribune Sunday that the coach would step down if his seizures were doing any harm to the football program or the University.
“He’s an epileptic,” the Pioneer Press reports Teague saying. “He has seizures. We deal with it, and we move on. If I felt like it was affecting things, it would be different.”
Over at the Daily Gopher, there are ruminations about what the coach’s illness might mean for recruiting. Short answer: Shouldn’t hurt.
And still others are wondering about the whole PR handling of it from Teague’s end.
And another post from the Daily Gopher recaps arguments on both sides and, … well, it’s a tough one to figure.
“I just trust that we’re going to keep battling through it, and he is going to keep looking at it in an intensive way with his physicians,” Teague said, according to WCCO.
