Jerry Kill's new autobiography slings no sharp arrows at the University of Minnesota over its decision not to keep him within the athletics department after he resigned as Gophers football coach for health reasons.
Kill takes the high road in "Chasing Dreams: Living My Life One Yard at a Time," a book co-authored by Jim Bruton. The book will be released next month; a review copy arrived last week.
Written in Kill's folksy tone, filled with humor and some harrowing memories, the book chronicles Kill's journey from small-town Kansas through his 32-year coaching career, with lessons learned along the way.
Kill details challenges he faced at Minnesota and his other coaching stops. Beyond outdated facilities with the Gophers, and the program's dire academic standing when he arrived, there were other nuisances. He had no designated parking spot at TCF Bank Stadium, for example, and wound up getting a parking ticket there during a team practice.
"I mean, it was unbelievable," Kill writes. "We weren't allowed to park anywhere, so I remember at times we parked on the sidewalk with recruits in the car."
He goes in-depth about his epilepsy, explaining how his health deteriorated because of stress and fatigue in 2013, and again last fall.
Kill describes the burden he felt to take on more speaking and fundraising duties after Norwood Teague sexually harassed two female university employees and resigned last August.
"I don't want to take anything away from [Teague]," Kill writes. "… But I think I would still be coaching if I hadn't had to do a lot of things besides coaching football. I believe because of what I was asked to do, I had to do much more than most other coaches.
