Jerry Kill was back at practice Wednesday only four hours after leaving his hospital bed. Kill said reports that he had checked himself in to Mayo were untrue, that he had been taken there following another seizure last Sunday. He tried to downplay his condition, and as Phil Miller's article says, Kill believes turning this program around requires more attention than his seizures:
"I can't take two weeks off. I can't take three weeks off. Minnesota hired me to turn a program around, so that's what I'm trying to do," said the 50-year-old coach, who has battled recurring seizures since late in the Gophers' loss to New Mexico State on Sept. 10. "I can't do it not being here. If I have to be a little different at practice or whatever, that's fine. But I have to be here."
OK, I love the man's passion and dedication to the job...but does this worry anyone else just a little? He had a seizure against Miami of Ohio, spent four days in the hospital, was back for two weeks then had to check in go back to the hospital for four more days because of seizures. Coach Kill and his staff are the right people to turn this program around but this is not going to be an easy season. I worry about how healthy he'll be and what this season could do to him if through four games he's already had two hospital stays.
"I think everybody is trying to protect Coach Kill," he said. Doctors are trying different methods and medications to prevent or at least minimize future attacks, and he intends to keep working while they explore solutions. "They haven't got it all figured out yet," he said, "but hopefully they're making progress on it, and we'll be fine."
I hope so too, but I'm a little worried.
Coach Kill's health is the big story of the day, but player injuries could be a big issue for the Gophers too: MarQueis Gray is hurt and not certain to play Saturday. Q apparently suffered toe and foot injuries during the loss to NDSU, which would explain one of the B1G's top runners only rushing for 26 yards against the Bison. How he looks in practice today could decide his status against Michigan. Quite literally adding insult to injury-or perhaps just more injury to injury- is that senior corner Troy Stoudermire is practicing with a cast on his forearm to protect a broken bone, and frosh WR Marcus Jones is concussed and his status for Saturday is questionable. Not the news we were looking for heading into the Big House on Saturday.
FBT takes a look at the matchup with Michigan, and Denard Robinson's Heisman chances.
Speaking of Shoelace, the MIchigan QB is down on himself for Michigan's passing woes- passing woes that caused them to stumble to a 4-0 start. If only we all had such woes to deal with.
Nebraska travels to Wisconsin Saturday for the biggest game of the day, and perhaps the B1G game of the year. SB Nation Badger blog Bucky's 5th Quarter got an exclusive interview with Brent Musberger. With both teams having red as their primary color, Husker fans in attendance at Camp Randall (and I'll be very interested to see how many get in) Saturday night will be wearing black.