BTN.com staff, September 21, 2011
On last week's on Step Into My Office, our Mike Hall sat down with Illinois coach Ron Zook and the week before that it was Nebraska coach Bo Pelini. At 10 p.m. ET Thursday on BTN, Hall takes you behind the scenes with Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill. Hall, who can be found on Twitter, @BTNMikeHall, filed a few bonus Web-only video clips from his visit to Minneapolis. He also wrote a little about what it was like to hang with Kill, whose 1-2 Gophers host North Dakota State at 7 p.m. ET Saturday on BTN.
Here's what Hall said about his time with Kill: "I was in Minneapolis covering Jerry Kill?s news conference the day Minnesota hired him. I met him and interviewed him then and thought he was as they say ?winning? the conference. He came off folksy and football focused (pardon the unnecessary alliteration). Then this interview gave me the chance to see more of the every day side to him. For example, he keeps pretzels under his desk and enjoys ice cream after victories.
I will say one thing I was hoping to really dive into but didn?t was the fact that he used to make donuts. I was ready for a ton of follow up questions for him, but once we started going, he said it was really just a simple process. Nothing fancy, kinda machine-like. Just like the old commercial said, "Time to make the donuts." Though in hindsight, I realize, that?s kinda the way he approaches turning around this program. Bit by bit, day by day. Just making the donuts."
Check out this bonus clip of Kill talking about Dennis Franchione:
Here's another bonus clip of Kill discussing the sports he played while growing up in Kansas:
How would Kill describe himself as a player? Find out below:
And finally, what goes through Kill's mind the night before the game?