Gophers' first victory is the best medicine for Kill

Jerry Kill was a little unsteady on Saturday, still recovering his strength and his wits after a hellish week, perhaps apprehensive about what's ahead. But he was still plenty resilient enough to work hard and win a football game.

Sort of like his team.

The Gophers, fueled by the return of their still-recuperating coach, blocked a punt, unleashed their quarterback and made one game-saving defensive play at TCF Bank Stadium, just enough to hold on for a shaky-but-invigorating 29-23 victory over Miami (Ohio).

It's the first Minnesota victory of Kill's career, and it comes after a week spent mostly in the hospital. It's the first victory as starting quarterback of MarQueis Gray's career, and it comes after two weeks of doubts about his ability to lead the offense.

"We were down a little bit" this week, Gray said of preparing for Miami without Kill, who was hospitalized for five days after suffering a seizure in last week's loss to New Mexico State. "But when he came back, it gave us momentum going into the game."

And celebration afterward. The Gophers swarmed into the locker room chanting, "Jer-ry, Jer-ry," and awarded a game ball to the emotional coach, who admitted he didn't feel well until he arrived at the stadium -- a decision his wife, Rebecca, advised against, he said. Kill said he had additional seizures as recently as Tuesday -- "I was talking to [his assistant coaches] between seizures, if you can believe that," he said -- and has feared a recurrence ever since.

But he finally decided to risk returning to work, figuring football was as good a medicine as any.

Whatever motivated Gray, it made a big difference. The junior quarterback, the hesitation in the pocket of his first two games seemingly cured by a steady diet of short completions, broke free for one critical run after another. Gray rushed for 171 yards, breaking Sandy Stephens' 50-year-old school record for a quarterback, and threw for another 163, making him responsible for all but 65 of the Gophers' 399 yards of offense.

"It's tough to play a guy like that, a guy that can break tackles," said Miami safety Anthony Kokal. "He's such a big body. You try to prepare for it, but you don't know what you're going to get until game day."

But for all the firepower the Gophers showed after two weeks of frustration, it was a special teams play that earned Minnesota its first victory.

With a little more than 10 minutes remaining in the game and the Gophers clinging to a 23-16 lead, Duane Bennett smothered a Zac Murphy punt, knocking it high into the air deep in Miami territory. James Manual tried to grab the ball inside the 5, but fumbled it into Bennett's arms, and the tailback took two steps into the end zone.

"I told them we're probably going to have to make a special teams play, block a punt or get a kickoff return, do something special to get the win," Kill said. "I'll be darned if we don't block a punt."

After forcing the Gophers to turn the ball over on downs, the RedHawks embarked on one final desperation drive, and got within 20 yards of victory with seven seconds left in the game.

Dysert avoided the Gophers' rush and threw into the end zone, but safety Kim Royston arrived at the same time as the ball, and knocked it away from wide receiver Chris Givens to preserve Kill's first victory -- and the first for him as an active player since Nov. 14, 2009.

"I saw the ball in the air, and I knew I had to give all I had trying to give great coverage," said the senior safety, who sat out last season with a broken leg. "I went for a swat on the ball and luckily it came out."

On the RedHawks' final drive, "The No. 1 thing that was in my mind was 'win, win, win,' " Royston said. "We had come so far as a team, we definitely needed to get this 'W' under out belts to get things rolling. And I think that's what this is going to do."