By Jimmy Robertson
BLACKSBURG – Jerry Kill, the Virginia Tech football program's special assistant to head coach Justin Fuente, may have the shortest job description in America, and he revealed it to media members Monday morning at the Hokies' weekly news conference.
"My day-to- day is whatever Justin tells me to do," Kill said with a laugh. "My life's great. I'm not the head coach."
Kill has wasted no time in getting familiar with the Virginia Tech football program. He resigned from his position as the director of athletics at Southern Illinois last Monday. The next day, he and his wife drove to Blacksburg – and he immediately joined the Hokies' staff in the offense meeting room.
The 58-year-old Kill got his start in coaching as a defensive coordinator at Pittsburg State, a Division II school, in 1985. Nine years later, he got his first head coaching position at Saginaw Valley State (1994-98), and since then, he has been a head coach at Emporia State (1999-2000), Southern Illinois (2001-07), Northern Illinois (2008-10) and Minnesota (2011-15). In 2017, he worked as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Rutgers.
At the least, Kill brings experience to the Tech staff.
"Probably 36 years of knowledge and experience through different places," he said. "I've worked for one of best coaches in the country in Bill Snyder, who called and said, 'Hey this is a great move for you,' which is neat. From all the years of being a head coach and being under the fire, I've been offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator from Division II up … is bring knowledge that I can help our staff be better. Again, my job is help get Virginia Tech better. If somebody has a question, I can put some input, 'Hey maybe we ought to look at this,' or whatever. That's my job."
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Health issues related to epilepsy forced Kill to resign as the head coach at Minnesota in 2015 – one season after he earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors following the Golden Gophers' 8-5 season, including a 5-3 mark in the Big Ten. He then spent the 2016-17 year working in administration for Kansas State's athletics department, often consulting with his good friend and former longtime Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder.
In the 2017 offseason, Kill – who overcame kidney cancer in the mid-2000s – felt rested and better and wanted to get back into football, so he joined Rutgers' staff as the offensive coordinator. But after a season there, health issues again forced him out of the game.
Now he's ready to jump back into the game again, albeit in a less-pressurized setting.
"The kids kept me going," Kill said. "Coaching kept me going. You have stage 4 cancer, and without that [football], you sit around and think about it, and your life is over. Or you go through seizure situations, and what are you going to do? Are you going to quit, or are you going to keep persevering? I did it as long as I could until I was told that was it. That was a tough day in my life, but at the same time, I've learned a lot through administration and doing this role at K-State [Kansas State]. It's been good. Life's been good to me. Real good. I've been blessed."
Kill believes firmly in the importance of his new position on Tech's staff, stating that he had hired someone for this exact same spot during all of his head coaching stops. He also believes he is the perfect fit for this position, given his ties to TCU coach Gary Patterson – for whom Fuente once worked as the offensive coordinator – and because of his relationship with Fuente.
Fuente wanted to hire someone who would be blunt with him and the status of the program. Kill said that he is exactly that type of guy.
"He knows that I'm a person that's going to tell you what I think and so forth, and I think that's why he had interest in me because that's what I wanted out of the person that worked for me," Kill said. "I looked for the person that worked for me side by side that wasn't on the field – I wanted him to tell me, 'Hey, you need to back off a little bit. You need to do this, you need to do that,' and I listened because I trusted that person. I think that's the crux of it. And he knows my background and all the places I've been.
"Life's about relationships and trust. No. 1, he's [Fuente] a helluva person. No. 2, he's a good football coach. No. 3, that's the only type of person I'm going to work for."
Kill has spent the past week learning Virginia Tech's offense, both the schemes and the terminology. He watched film of the Hokies with the staff, and he also watched film of Duke, Tech's Friday night opponent and a critical game for the Hokies in a wide-open Coastal Division race. He said he also expect to watch film of recruits.
Specifically, Tech's staff continues to evaluate the Hokies' rushing attack, and offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen already has sought Kill's advice. The Hokies currently rank 80th nationally in rushing offense at 152 yards per game.
"There's talent to do a lot of things," Kill said. "The biggest thing is they've had a lot of movement in the offensive line because of injuries, and until you get continuity with five guys that have played together for a while, it takes a while. I think that's the biggest thing. The health issue has been difficult, just by watching film. If we can get people healthy and everyone working together, I like the young back [Keshawn King]. I think he's going to be a great player.
"But I think more so it's just continuity. To run the ball, there's a lot of communication and things that go on, and in pass protection for that matter. You just have to all be on the same page. When I was here, the center that was playing, he wasn't cleared. So there was missing parts when I was here. Whoever those five are, we need to get them going and get them on the same page. We're certainly big. I look like I come up to their waist, so that's a good sign. If they're my size, then we're in trouble."
Kill added that he likes the foundation of Tech's program. He doesn't view himself as any type of savior, and he doesn't feel needs to be one. In his eyes, he simply came to Tech as an addition to help.
"Like I've told Coach, if he needs me to carry the dummies, I've done that before," Kill said. "I'll carry the dummies. I'm not too proud."
