Former Minnesota coach Jerry Kill has 'lost a lot of respect' for current coach P.J. Fleck
Former Minnesota coach Jerry Kill thinks P.J. Fleck’s personality has changed. And not in a good way.
Fleck, the current Golden Gophers coach, was an assistant for Kill at Northern Illinois in 2008 and 2009. Kill, now the athletic director at Southern Illinois, told SiriusXM College Sports Radio that he feels Fleck is “about himself” and has “lost a lot of respect” for his former assistant.
Very strong comments from former @GopherFootball HC Jerry Kill about current HC P.J. Fleck when he joined Big Ten Today with @ESPN_Schick & @OfficialAJHawk.
You have to hear this!!
👇👇👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/ltBWM5Pc7F
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) February 19, 2019
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“Once he became a head coach — I helped him get the job at Western Michigan — and I just think sometimes ego gets carried away,” Kill said. “And when he went into Minnesota and treated the people the way he treated my guys and telling them he had to go in and completely change the culture and there was a bad culture and bad people, he made it sound like we didn’t know what we were doing. And I took it personal.”
Fleck was hired at Minnesota ahead of the 2017 season. He replaced Tracy Claeys as Minnesota’s coach. Claeys was Minnesota’s defensive coordinator under Kill and took over as the team’s head coach in 2015 when Kill had to step down because of his issues with seizures.
Minnesota won nine games in 2016 but 10 players were suspended in relation to a sexual assault investigation. The handling of the accusation and investigation led to a practice boycott by Minnesota players ahead of the Holiday Bowl. Claeys’ decision to publicly support his players rather than the university’s investigation led to his firing.
Nine players ended up suing the school for discrimination in the summer of 2018.
After taking the job in 2017, Fleck said that spring that Minnesota “needed a culture build” and the school “hasn’t had something for such a long time.” Kill didn’t take kindly to those comments and talked to Fleck.
“It wasn’t good. That’s the last time [we talked],” Kill said. “And it will be the last time.”
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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