Coming off the best season since, well, the previous season, Minnesota has rewarded head coach Jerry Kill with a little bit more job security as he prepares for the 2015 season. On Friday the school announced a one-year contract extension, giving Kill a job at Minnesota through the 2019 season. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Minnesota has gone 8-5 each of the past two seasons and has reached the postseason three consecutive years under Kill. Kill took over as head coach of the Gophers in 2011 and quickly changed the culture of the football program with four losing seasons in the previous five before his arrival. While Minnesota is still looking for its first bowl victory since 2004, Kill has put the program on the right track, one that actually has Minnesota in the conversation for a potential run at the Big Ten Championship Game this season. Under Kill, Minnesota has gone 25-26, but that includes taking over a mess of a program and increasing the win total in his first three years. After going 3-9 in his first season at Minnesota, Kill took the Gophers to a bowl game in 2012, again in 2013 and once more last season.
According to USA Today‘s database of coaching salaries from 2014, Kill was paid $2.1 million. That made him the ninth highest-paid coach in the Big Ten. Among the staff salaries on public record (Northwestern and Penn State do not have to provide this information publicly), Minnesota’s payroll was fifth in the Big Ten.
Things seem to be going well for Kill. Earlier this summer at Big Ten media days in Chicago Kill revealed he has been seizure free for over a year. Kill and Minnesota open the 2015 season at home against No. 2 TCU on Thursday, September 3.
UPDATE (4:46 p.m.): Per the Star Tribune, Kill is getting a raise of $300,000 each season through 2019. The assistant coaching staff pay will be bumped by $175,000 and will be among the six highest-paid assistant coaching staffs in the Big Ten. Additional funds will be made available for the rest fo the football staff as well.
