Emporia State, Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois -- the Gophers' new football coordinators sure have some familiar résumés.
Tracy Claeys, who is now in charge of Minnesota's defense, and Matt Limegrover, who will head the offense, have followed Jerry Kill on his various stops for more than a decade each, and so were easy decisions for the new head coach as he began building his staff on Friday.
Not so easy: letting the previous staff go. Kill has not announced his plans for coach Tim Brewster's assistant coaches, including interim coach Jeff Horton.
Horton, who directed the Gophers to back-to-back victories to close a 3-9 season, remained on the job Friday, conducting a meet-the-coach session for some of Minnesota's in-state recruits. He declined to comment on his future with the team, saying, "That's got to come from Coach Kill."
It's likely that most of Kill's 2011 staff will be filled out on Dec. 19, the day after Kill's 10-3 Northern Illinois squad faces Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl. The Huskies allowed Claeys and Limegrover to leave with Kill -- they arrived in Minneapolis on Friday and went right to work -- and miss the bowl game, in order to begin recruiting for the Gophers, but the rest of NIU's staff, six members of which have also worked under Kill for several seasons, remained in DeKalb, Ill.
One of Kill's longtime assistants, linebackers coach Tom Matukewicz, has been appointed Huskies coach for the Humanitarian Bowl but does not appear to be a candidate for the permanent job.
Kill's staff is known for its loyalty.
"He has ambitious guys, they want to excel and advance like anyone else," said Mario Maccio, athletic director at Southern Illinois, where Kill and his band of assistants coached from 2001-07. "Jerry has a staff of guys who are very capable of being head coaches themselves, but they like working for him."
That continuity in coaching has been absent at Minnesota lately. Limegrover and Claeys each will become the fifth coach to hold their position with the Gophers in six seasons.
Limegrover's offense led the Mid-American Conference in scoring, rushing and total offense this season and has produced the conference's top rusher for the past two seasons.
"We've heard from quite a few people that Minnesota football is a sleeping giant," Limegrover, who began working for Kill at Emporia (Kan.) State in 1999, said in a statement released by the university. "After being around here for just a few hours, I can see why people feel that way."
Claeys' history with Kill goes back even farther -- he was hired by Kill 16 seasons ago at Saginaw Valley (Mich.) State, and this year the Huskies allowed the fewest points in the MAC.
