Jerry Kill - Football Coach

Jerry Kill

Title:
Special Assistant to the Head Coach | 1st Season

Jerry Kill joined the Horned Frogs in February 2020 as special assistant to the head coach in charge of offense. He became interim head coach on Oct. 31, 2021.

Kill previously served as special assistant to the head coach at Virginia Tech in 2019. Among his many coaching accolades, Kill was the consensus 2014 Big Ten Coach of the Year after leading Minnesota to the Citrus Bowl for its first New Year’s Day game since 1962. He was head coach of the Golden Gophers from 2011-15.

While at Southern Illinois (2001-07), he was the FCS Eddie Robison National Coach of the Year in 2004 as well as the 2007 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year. He led the Salukis to five straight NCAA playoff appearances. He then served as head coach at Northern Illinois from 2008-10, earning the Grant Teaff FCA Coach of the Year Award in 2010 when he guided the Huskies to a 10-3 record and berth in the Mid-American Conference Championship Game.

Following his time at Minnesota, Kill briefly stepped away from coaching in 2016. He served as associate athletics director for administration at Kansas State, before returning to the sidelines as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Rutgers in 2017. He was director of athletics at Southern Illinois in 2018.

A 1983 graduate of Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, he played linebacker and won the team's most inspirational award. He quickly ascended through the coaching ranks with stops at NCAA Division II Pittsburg State, Saginaw Valley State and Emporia State. At Pittsburg State, he had stints as both offensive and defensive coordinator and helped lead the Gorillas to the DII championship game twice, including the 1991 national title. Sandwiched between his stints at Pittsburg State, Kill was the head coach at Webb City (Mo.) High School. He was 25-1 in two seasons at Webb City and won a state championship in 1989.

Southern Illinois had endured nine-straight losing seasons when Kill arrived in 2001, attendance was at an all-time low, and decrepit McAndrew Stadium was beyond repair. The Salukis went 1-10 during Kill's first year, but two years later in 2003, he and his staff of loyal assistants were sitting atop the Gateway Conference with a 10-2 record and the school's first playoff appearance in 20 years. From 2003-09, SIU went 70-19 overall and 42-8 in conference play. Southern Illinois became the first league school to beat a Big Ten opponent when it toppled Indiana in 2006, and earned another FBS win the following year at Northern Illinois. SIU spent 99 consecutive weeks in the FCS Top 25. including 18 weeks during 2004 and 2005.

His success at Southern led him to Northern Illinois, where he guided the Huskies to 23 wins in three seasons (2008-10), three straight bowl games and a berth in the Mid-American Conference Championship game in 2010.

Kill briefly stepped away from coaching in 2016, serving as associate athletics director for administration at Kansas State, before returning to the sidelines as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Rutgers in 2017 and then returning to Southern Illinois as director of athletics in 2018.

Kill has dealt with epilepsy for much of his adult life, serving as an advocate for others with the condition and earning wide-spread respect and national attention. He chronicled his experiences as a coach in a 2016 book, "Chasing Dreams: Living My Life One Yard at a Time."

In addition to his many coaching awards, Kill has a long list of civic honors, stemming from his public advocacy for worthy causes, such as the Coach Kill Fund that he started in Southern Illinois while coaching at SIU, and the Chasing Dreams Coach Kill Epilepsy Fund he began while at Minnesota. He has been the recipient of the National Football Foundation Courage Award (2009), Cal Stoll Courage Award (2014), Bob McNamara Memorial Legends Award (2015) and the FCA Power of Influence Award (2016). He continues to help raise money for research for the National Foundation of Epilepsy and was the inaugural recipient of the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota's Coach Kill Award in 2016.

Kill is a member of Hall of Fames at Southern Illinois, Southwestern College and Kansas Sports. He and his wife, Rebecca, have two daughters, Krystal and Tasha. Tasha and her husband Jason Hynes are the parents of the Kill's granddaughter, Emery.