Jerry Kill’s assistants defend coach’s decision to return after seizure

Minnesota’s offensive and defensive coordinators struck back at critics who suggested head football coach Jerry Kill should resign, according to a story in the Star Tribune. Their defenses came after Kill suffered another in-game seizure in his team’s victory over Western Illinois on Saturday.

Both defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys and offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover have worked with Kill for more than a decade and are quite obviously very close to the head coach.

“Being as good of friends as we are ... if we thought it was going to cause something permanent ... we’d tell him to get the heck out of the game,” Claeys said. “We’d all be fine. Heck, I’ll go back and serve bar in Clay Center, Kansas.”

Claeys also noted Kill’s past comments on the matter -- the head coach has said he would resign if he was “hurting the football program, or the university, or the state of Minnesota.”

Limegrover was irate with those who suggested Kill should resign, saying he was “shaking” with anger when thinking about it.

”I think when people say that and write that, they’re basically saying, ‘Hey, it’s too bad. You people with epilepsy, don’t shoot for your dreams, don’t push and try and have goals because it makes me uncomfortable to see when something happens.’

Claeys has been Kill’s defensive coordinator since 1999 and been on the coach’s staff since 1995. Limegrover has been Kill’s offensive coordinator since 2001 and been a member of his staff since 1999.

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