Former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill told a national radio audience Tuesday that current coach P.J. Fleck is "about himself" and not his players, describing a deep divide that has formed since they coached together at Northern Illinois.
"He coached with me, but after that, you know, he changed a lot; I'll just be honest with you guys," Kill told hosts A.J. Hawk and Matt Schick on Sirius XM College Sports.
Fleck, who could not be reached for comment, spent two seasons coaching under Kill at Northern Illinois before joining Greg Schiano's staff at Rutgers in 2010.
"People that have known him before — when he got with Schiano … his personality changed a lot," Kill said. "And I knew his first wife, and he just changed a bunch."
In 2012, Fleck became the head coach at Western Michigan at age 32.
"I helped him get the job at Western Michigan, and I just think sometimes the ego gets carried away," Kill said.
Kill, 57, now the athletic director at Southern Illinois, resigned as Gophers coach in 2015 for health reasons. Minnesota fired his successor, Tracy Claeys, after a 9-4 season in 2016 that included a sexual assault scandal involving multiple players.
The Gophers then hired Fleck, who had just led Western Michigan to a 13-1 season and a berth in the Cotton Bowl. Upon taking over at Minnesota, Fleck called himself "a Kill guy."
