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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2015

Jerry Kill

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q. I know ball security is huge, but how do you get past that a little bit with kind of a younger skill position set?
JERRY KILL: Well, I think you talk, and we work at it every day. You've been at practices, ball security, job security, and before long you fumble you're going to be on the sideline. But I think it's something that -- turnovers, we turn over the ball against Northwestern, we won't win the game, and they're very good at takeaways. I think that the defenses are doing a great job of stripping balls, and we've got to do a better job at teaching and making sure they take care of the football. We certainly do that every day, teach it and work hard at it, and we probably need to work a little bit harder at it.

But it's something that we work on every day and go through drill work and things to help prevent that. But you know, we are playing. We played five freshmen, a lot, or redshirt freshmen and true freshmen, and we're playing two offensive linemen for their first gigs and then we're playing three tight ends I think that are sophomores, redshirt sophomores. We're a young team, so I look for us to get better as the season goes.

Q. Is there more excitement as you get into the Big Ten schedule, or do you try to just keep --
JERRY KILL: Well, I think there's -- I think there had better be some excitement because we're going to go play the 16th ranked team in the country, and so we'd better be excited. I think sometimes, you know, to our kids and through our Sundays and working and so forth, we're 3-1, but I don't think sometimes they feel like we're 3-1, so we've got to make sure they understand that we've got a good football team. We're just like anybody; there's a lot of people decimated by injuries right now, and we've certainly by hit hard. So we've got to work and do a heck of a job teaching the guys that are going to have to play on Saturday to get better. But that's part of the schedule that we have. That's part of the things that happen in football. You know, you look at ESPN and pro football, everybody has got them, and you just have to deal with them.

But our kids understand that we're going into the Big Ten, and we're playing Northwestern at their place. You know, nobody is scoring points against them, so we've got a great challenge ahead of us.

Q. When you say you don't feel like a team that's 3-1 --
JERRY KILL: Well, I mean, just the general atmosphere, well, we didn't get -- blow this team out, we didn't do this, and I think that's just the nature of kids and social media and all those things. I mean, that's part of it and that's what we have to educate them on a little bit. That's part of life.

But you know, it's one of those things where we are 3-1, and it hasn't always been pretty, but that's where we're at. We got better on offense, and defense hung in there with a bunch of injuries and played well. We were just terrible on special teams on -- that's the bottom line. You start on your 10, your 5, your 13 and you try to score points, percentages aren't very good. Last week it was offense, and Sunday was special teams, so they got an education Sunday, so it's just like we get one thing fixed and one thing slips. But hopefully we got all that stuff covered now.

Q. How did you find Shannon Brooks?
JERRY KILL: Well, you just go hunting. You just hunt. We work hard at it, and Brian Anderson found him, and he went out and recruited him. He lived way up in the hills and went to a small school, just watched him and he was tremendously talented. I think he was the leading rusher in his class and Player of the Year. He was from a smaller school, so sometimes people go, well, it's a small school, but he did a great job in high school, great athlete, played basketball, and we knew he was good coming in. We thought he would have a chance to play. Probably should have played him earlier. But I think that everybody got a good peek at what's good for the future.

They're both freshmen, so good things ahead there.

JERRY KILL: We've got some depth in this position, but I thought he was a spark plug on Saturday. There was no question about that.

Q. Can you touch on how the team was able to finish as far as you typically would run like a two-minute drill at practice and you were able to execute that against Ohio to come up with a win like that, knowing that Big Ten play is going to just tighten things up a little bit more?
JERRY KILL: Well, we've done it a couple times and we haven't done it in the past, and I think a lot of that goes to all the work that we do in the no-huddle and two-minute offense and going against our defense, who's very good. We've done it a lot, so I think we've gotten better at it, and so, you know, we're going to have to win close games.

I mean, you know, Northwestern has been close every year we've played them. They've beat us, we've beat them. I mean, close games, it's going to take field goals, you're going to have to drive the field, and I certainly think that our offensive kids believe that we can go win at the end of the game. That is a tremendous confidence boost, and as Lawrence Maroney said, Coach, it's 60-minute game, 60 minutes. So it's not over until it's over, so to speak.

Our kids have composed theirselves. Mitch has done a great job in that situation, made some good throws, had some good catches, and got down there and still had two time-outs left, which was good and big at the end of the game.

But I think we've gained a lot of confidence in that. I felt the key to us has been being able to run the football, and we still threw it a good amount of times because of some of the things they were doing, but running the football is the key, and it makes everything a little bit better. Offensive line played better. Still got work to do there, but they got better, and you know, those -- right now we'll get to start those five guys I think for the first time -- the same five played last week. I believe those same five will play this week, so that'll be a good thing.

Q. What do you see as the attributes in Justin Jackson, and did you try to recruit him?
JERRY KILL: Yeah, we did, but he was going to go to Northwestern. It was a good fit for him.

But he's got great vision, great speed. You know, if you don't get him wrapped up, he's going to bounce off of you, and you don't want to give him any creases. But a very good back.

Q. You talked about being concerned about Vereen's knee. Can you update us on his status?
JERRY KILL: We'll just have to see. Our whole secondary is a question mark except for Eric Murray. We won't get Damarius Travis back. Damarius is probably going to be out a while.

Q. The word was that you did dodge a bullet with Brandon in terms of not surgery, though. Can you update us on that?
JERRY KILL: Yeah, he's not going to have any surgery on his knee, uh-uh.

Q. But in terms of this game, you'll have to see?
JERRY KILL: Yeah, we'll see. He won't practice today, but we'll see.

Q. With the difficulty of your non-conference schedule, does that help going into the Big Ten or does it make it more difficult because you like to use those games as a tune-up to get your team prepared? This non-conference schedule you had some huge challenges.
JERRY KILL: Yeah, I think you can look at it both ways. I think it does prepare you, and we've been in some tough games and we've had to come back. Those things I think are -- I think they will help us. The other count is all the injuries that could have happened, but that can happen. That's just part of it. Some years you just have it, and you've got to be lucky.

But I think overall, I think it's been good for us. We've been battle tested a little bit, and so we've been in some situations that some other teams haven't been in, and we've been able to come out on top, and like I said, it hasn't always been pretty, but I didn't -- I don't think I really realized how young an offensive group we really have until we played all those freshmen. But Mitch got the ball to eight or nine different receivers on Saturday, and thought he did a good job of doing what he needed to do. He missed two or three throws like you would like to have, but Peyton Manning misses two or three, and he's pretty good.

Overall I thought that we proved as a group -- we changed some things, changed some protections to make it simpler to get the ball out quick. We're trying to do a better job of coaching with some of the things that has happened to us.

Q. Do you look at the Big Ten West as being kind of wide open when it starts this week?
JERRY KILL: I think everything is in college football. You don't know from week to week -- UCLA blew out -- you just -- I don't think you know. Certainly Iowa must be playing at a very high level. Northwestern is playing at a very high level. But at the same time I think anything can happen on any given Saturday, and until you get in there and play, I think each week is going to be a battle, and the team that can stay the healthiest and be able to handle the grind in the Big Ten will have the opportunity to win.

Q. When you watch Fitzgerald's defense, what stands out?
JERRY KILL: Well, you know, discipline. They've always been that way. I mean, Coach has done a good job, and they'll let you move the ball a little bit, but they won't let you get in the end zone. They don't make -- they don't give you big plays. They don't let balls get over the top of them. You know, their mentality is like Coach's. I think it breeds into the defense.

But they take what you do and they do a good job of stopping it. I mean, they're just -- right now, this is the most athletic group they've had on defense. They run pretty well. And they're big up front, big and strong, and smart. Northwestern is a very high academic school, and that's why they don't make very many mistakes. You've got to go win the game, and you cannot turn it over against them. That's for sure. Against Duke, I think the defensive end tipped the ball, got it, got a pick, they got one in the end zone. They're just good at getting the football. They do a great job of ripping the ball out. Just overall they're just very solid, disciplined, and don't make mistakes.

Q. Do you like the chances of Wolitarsky possibly playing on Saturday?
JERRY KILL: He'll play. He practiced on Sunday. It was not a major situation, so he practiced on Sunday, yeah. He's fine. He practiced, so he's fine.

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