Jerry Kill has said the toughest moment of his life came when his father died of cancer in 1998. The second toughest came one year ago Friday, when he resigned as Gophers coach for health reasons in a move that left Minnesota stunned.
Twelve months after that tearful goodbye, Kill has remade himself as an associate athletic director at Kansas State, where he works closely with coach Bill Snyder as the school's chief administrator for football.
"I really like what I'm doing now, and think it's unusual," Kill said in a telephone interview this week. "I think you'll see more coaches do it. I might have started something."
Kill, 55, spends his morning working with the Kansas State administration and afternoons on the football side. Basically, the goal is doing whatever Snyder needs, so the 77-year-old legend can fully focus on football.
After finishing 6-7 last year, Snyder's Wildcats knocked off Texas last week to improve to 4-3, and one of the losses was a one-point thriller against No. 10 West Virginia.
"We've expanded the locker room facility for some support staff and hired someone to do graphics for recruiting," Kill said. "We'll be hiring two more recruiting people when the season's over. We are graphically designing the upstairs of our football area. I've been a part of that and restructuring our nutrition situation."
Kill attends every practice and stands on the sideline for games.
"I know all the players, and I'm patting them on the tail end, and I still feel like I'm a part of it," Kill said. "The athletic director [John Currie] needed me to build a bridge [to Snyder], so to speak, so it's been good.
