Blog: Expectations, Excitement Come Out of Team Meeting

The boys are back in town.

With classes resuming Tuesday morning after the holiday break, returning Golden Gopher football players met with their new coaching staff Monday night at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex. It was the first full team meeting with head coach Jerry Kill and his full staff since Kill took over the program in December.

Returning student-athletes met with their position coaches for roughly 45 minutes. Following those position-group meetings, the entire team, coaching staff and many support staff groups gathered in the team meeting room. There, Coach Kill begin to lay out his plan for the Minnesota Football program, at least through the rest of the winter and spring.

Coach Kill spent a great deal of the meeting discussing many of his expectations for members of the program. There was a great deal of talk about doing the right things and working hard.

"The most important thing is we've kind of laid down a standard of what we want during the spring," Kill said after the meeting. "This was an informational meeting on how we're going to do things. We can't control what's happened in the past. The only thing we can control is the future. We just tried to set the tone for what we expect and what we want. I wanted to let them know that we expect certain things out of them. In return, we're going to take care of them. The bottom line is the game is about the players. The players have to feel good to play good."

By many accounts, the players did feel good coming out of Monday night's meeting and they are looking forward to getting to work right away. And it will be right away. The off-season conditioning program under head strength and conditioning coach Eric Klein begins Tuesday.

"I think it's going to be good for everybody, " senior running back Duane Bennett said. "It's a fresh start. Everybody is on a clean slate. This is just a way to kick off the season right. They have plans to implement for us. I think we're going to do a great job of getting acclimated to it and instilling those into our everyday life."

Junior quarterback MarQueis Gray echoed Bennett's sentiments.

"Coach Kill knows what he wants in his players and we're going to have to be prepared for everything and just believe in what he's going to do to change the program around," Gray said. "The big thing is he wants us to believe in him, because he already believes in us."

While Kill spent a great deal of time laying out some new ground rules and policies. He made sure his team knew he was implementing these policies for their own good. He truly cares about the kids in his program. That was made abundantly clear through his words. But the point was driven home much more strongly after the meeting as Coach Kill delivered many handshakes and even a good number of hugs following the meeting.

"Our job is to prepare the young men for life," Coach Kill said. "Whether they're going to be a professional football player, a doctor, a lawyer, a businessperson - our job is to make them a better person when they come out of this university. That's the way I look at it. I think we're not only coaching football, we're presenting life skills that will help them for the rest of their life."

Many of the Gopher players left the meeting energized to get started.

"There was a lot of excitement tonight," sophomore defensive end Matt Garin said. "It was good. Coach Kill got to go over a lot of new things, a lot of the policies. Everything sounds great so far. I really took away how hard he wants us to work and the responsibility factor he holds for every player. I definitely think this group will be the group that is going to work hard and get everything done. I personally can't wait to get started training."

"The takeaway for me was just pure excitement," Bennett said. "The biggest thing is just going into this year with an unselfish mentality. For me, it's my last year. With a new coach, you don't want to just do things for yourelf, but be able to branch out and do things for the program, as well as helping to mold younger guys."

While his message was well-received Monday night, Coach Kill said this was not the full message, nor was it the only time his players would hear it.

"The big thing we have to do is over the next two or three months, we have to teach them what we want," Kill said. "It isn't going to happen in one meeting. It's going to take several meetings and several sessions, some tough times and some good times. Hopefully as we get through and finish up before we get to May, they have a good idea of what we expect and how we're going to do things."
-By Andy Seeley, Associate Director of Athletic Communications

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