Jerry Kill less than a year ago said, "I'll always be a Gopher."
That story has changed. On 1500-AM radio on Wednesday morning, the former Gophers football coach said he would not attend another game in TCF Bank Stadium because of how athletic director Mark Coyle and University President Eric Kaler handled the firing of coach Tracy Claeys on Tuesday.
"I won't be stepping foot back in the stadium," Kill told 1500-AM, "and I won't be stepping back into the university."
Kill also was sticking up for the integrity of his old program, which he thought was under attack with the words Coyle used in his comments about why Kill's replacement was fired.
"Think about all the good things that happened with that football program," he said. "I hope they don't forget that. I certainly haven't forgotten about the state of Minnesota."
"We gave our best to the state of Minnesota," Kill continued. "We'll always come to Minnesota. My daughter is there. We love Minnesota. I'll go to every baseball game, (Vikings) football game, anything else. But I will not ever be in that stadium or that complex. And they're building a new complex. We had a lot to do with that. I won't ever see it. But I wish them all the luck in the world. I hope the decision that Mark made was right. I do hope the program continues to do well. I just wish people would be straightforward."
Claeys, a longtime defensive coordinator under Kill, was dismissed Tuesday a week after he finished with a nine-win season after beating Washington State in the Holiday Bowl. Claeys received heavy criticism after backing his team's boycott following the suspension of 10 players involved in an alleged sexual assault investigation.
Coyle said in a news conference Tuesday that he wanted "a program that operates with integrity and class academically, athletically and socially."