Ex-Gophers coach Jerry Kill repeatedly slams PJ Fleck during radio interview
Former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill isn't a fan of current coach P.J. Fleck, and he let the entire world know his thoughts during an interview with SiriusXM's "Big Ten Today."
Kill, who resigned from coaching at the University of Minnesota in 2015, first got to know Fleck when he was head coach at Northern Illinois, with Fleck on his staff as an assistant from 2007-09.
In his 2-minute rip session, Kill accused Fleck of changing, treating Kill's coaching staff at Minnesota poorly, being all about himself and even bringing up Fleck's first wife.
"He coached with me, but after that, he changed a lot. I’ll just be honest with you guys. People that have known him before — When he got with [Greg] Schiano, his personality changed a lot. And I knew his first wife, and he just changed a bunch. And then once he became a head coach, I mean, I helped him get the job at Western Michigan, and I just think sometimes, ego gets carried away.
And when he went into Minnesota and treated the people the way he treated my guys and telling ‘em he had to go in and completely change the culture, and it was a bad culture and bad people, you know, he made it sound like we didn’t know what we were doing, and I took it personal. You just don’t treat people that have been with you and helped you career and you don’t even talk to him, you know, once you get the job."
After Kill resigned because of health reasons in 2015, Tracy Claeys took over as the interim head coach and was given the permanent job only to be fired following a 9-4 season in 2016.
Fleck was hired weeks later and chose to hire his own coaching staff rather than keep coaches from the Kill/Claeys era.
That led to a conversation between Kill and Fleck.
"Oh, yeah. It wasn't good," said Kill of that conversation. "And it will be the last time."
He went on to rip Fleck's routine of running from one end of the field to the other between quarters, then questioning whether he really cares about the players.
"Do I still root for the Gophers? I do," said Kill. "Do I enjoy him running up and down the sideline? No. Do I think that he’s about the players? No. He’s about himself. You can’t tell me. You’ve watched him. You listen to his interview, you think he thinks about the players?"
Fleck hasn't issued a response to Kill's verbal assault, but he did retweet a Mother Teresa quote about forgiveness and being kind that his wife Heather Fleck tweeted Wednesday morning.
