6A — Thursday, October 29, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan prepares for Minnesota, minus Jerry Kill
Citing health
reasons, Golden
Gophers head coach
announces his
retirement
By JAKE LOURIM
Managing Sports Editor
The Michigan and Minnesota
football teams are both coming
off bye weeks heading into their
clash in Minneapolis on Saturday
night. They have had time in the
past two weeks to recover from
losses, and time to prepare for
each other.
But Wednesday, the contest
became
an
entirely
new
matchup.
Minnesota announced around
7:30 a.m. that head coach Jerry
Kill would step
down effective
immediately
for
health
reasons.
Kill,
who
was
diagnosed
with epilepsy
in 2005, was
in
his
fifth
season
with
the
Golden
Gophers.
He
suffered game-day seizures in
each of his first three seasons
(2011 to 2013), taking a leave of
absence in 2013 to focus on his
health.
Before his decision to retire
Wednesday, he had not had a
reported incident since 2013.
“I was shocked, really,” said
Michigan secondary coach Greg
Jackson. “Sorry
for Minnesota,
but we will play
Saturday. One
thing
we’re
focused on is
winning
the
football
game
and
playing
great defense.”
Tight
ends
coach
Jay
Harbaugh was
also saddened by the news.
“I figured it was something
that had to be pretty serious,”
Harbaugh said. “You never want
to do anything like that. I know
he had a background of certain
health issues, so you just hope
and pray that he gets healthy,
and then his family deals with
everything all right. It’s a
serious thing.”
Kill
revealed
in
a
press
conference Wednesday that his
health issues had escalated once
again, and the stress of the job
only compounded them. He said
he hadn’t slept more than three
hours in a night in the past three
weeks.
As the season moves into its
second
half,
Kill’s
struggles
could serve as a cautionary tale
for other coaches who are under
similar stress.
“I think a lot of it has to do
with your work environment,”
Harbaugh said. “A lot of the
guys I work with, they’re serious
about
football,
but
they’re
lighthearted guys. It’s fun, it’s
loose and serious at the same
time, if that makes any sense.”
The Wolverines now have
three days to prepare to face a
Minnesota team with a new face
at the helm.
If any team is prepared for
this sort of event, though,
it’s the Golden Gophers. Kill
coached from the press box
during games in 2011 and 2012,
while
defensive
coordinator
Tracy Claeys led from the
sideline. Claeys also took over in
Kill’s absence two seasons ago,
winning four of seven games
while in charge.
And now, Claeys — who has
been an assistant coach on Kill’s
staff since they coached together
at Saginaw Valley State in 1995
and was promoted to defensive
coordinator in 1999 at Emporia
State — takes over for the rest of
the season.
Minnesota is 4-3 after a 48-25
loss to Nebraska on Oct. 17. Last
season, the Golden Gophers
routed Michigan in Ann Arbor,
30-14, on their way to an 8-5
finish.
They
have
established
themselves as a power-running
team, and the Wolverines don’t
expect to see anything different
Saturday, even without Kill.
“I think that’s very indicative
of who he is, maybe the best
credit to him,” Harbaugh said.
“They would play like their hair’s
on fire regardless. I think that
says a lot about who he is and
how he coaches.
“You’re not going to show up
and see a different team. I think
that’s how he would want it, too,
and that’s how those guys play.”
FOOTBALL
“Sorry for
Minnesota, but
we will play
Saturday.”
Wilson, Wagner
learning in post
By LEV FACHER
Managing Editor
Versatility is both a blessing
and a curse for Michigan men’s
basketball coach John Beilein,
who’s spending much of the 2015-
16 preseason teaching a crop of
underclassman big men both
the power forward and center
positions.
While sophomore Ricky Doyle
seems a safe bet to earn the bulk
of playing time in the low post
this season, the list of players who
might back him up or spend time
at the ‘4’ spot is still in question.
Among
those
center-forward
hybrids are redshirt freshman
D.J. Wilson and freshman Moritz
Wagner, each of whom is listed at
6-foot-10.
“It’s much easier for them just
to be at one position,” Beilein said
last week. “Fortunately, both Moe
and D.J. are pretty good with
picking different things up, and
that’s really been good. Moe is
exceptional.”
Michigan’s ninth-year coach,
however, has little choice but
to hedge his bets. Sophomore
Kameron Chatman and redshirt
sophomore Mark Donnal were
both inconsistent in 2014-15, and
they, too, could see minutes at
spots other than power forward
— Donnal at center and Chatman
at small forward.
Wilson is the likeliest of the
bunch to be relied upon heavily
at both big-man spots. Since
clocking in at 215 pounds prior to
his freshman season, he says he
has added 25 pounds of muscle.
He showed flashes of potential
early last season before suffering
a knee injury in November,
eventually spending the year
redshirting.
The prospect of alternating
between
spots
doesn’t
faze
Wilson, however.
“I
don’t
really
have
a
preference,” he said. “It’s not
really an issue for me. I’ve
been playing multiple positions
throughout my career.”
The injury gave Wilson a
rare opportunity to add size
and condition during the season
without substantially impacting
the
Wolverines’
full-season
prognosis,
which
later
took
bigger hits following the losses of
starters Caris LeVert and Derrick
Walton Jr.
“Me getting hurt last year and
redshirting was a big benefit for
me and the team,” Wilson said. “I
gained a lot of weight and became
more athletic.”
Wagner, however, hasn’t yet
had the opportunity to add the size
that Wilson will likely depend on
down low this season. That hasn’t
stopped
Beilein
from
raving
about his ability throughout the
preseason, but he has consistently
acknowledged that the 18-year-
old German’s youth can lead to
awkward
on-court
sequences
during practice.
Michigan’s coaching staff isn’t
giving much away about Wagner
in the early going, preserving his
status as the Wolverines’ biggest
wild
card.
Beilein
wouldn’t
hazard a guess as to which
position Wagner might appear
at in the early going, and while
assistant coach Bacari Alexander
offered a long-term assessment,
he also hesitated to make a
prediction for the season’s first
weeks.
“If you’re projecting out for
Moe
Wagner,
he’s
probably
going to end up being a ‘4’-man,”
Alexander said. “Reason being,
his skill set, coming from the
farm systems of Berlin, Germany,
has called for him to be so
multifaceted where he can make
3s; he can put the ball on the floor
and make plays for others; he
has the ability to post up smaller
defenders.”
The
biggest
deficiency
in
Wagner’s game, according to
both Beilein and Alexander, is
his rebounding ability. But he’ll
have the opportunity to ease into
college play against teams that
will be heavy underdogs entering
Ann Arbor.
The Wolverines begin their
schedule
with
an
exhibition
against Le Moyne on Nov. 6,
followed
by
matchups
with
Northern Michigan and Elon.
Those games, in which Michigan
will
likely
hold
substantial
advantages in talent and size,
could provide an early idea of
which players will see minutes
and where they slot in.
The going gets tougher over
Thanksgiving, as the Wolverines
travel to the Bahamas to face a
pool of competition that includes
Connecticut, Syracuse, Gonzaga
and Texas in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
There, size will matter, and that
tournament could provide the
first real test in physicality for the
Wolverines’ front line, however it
shapes up.
FILE PHOTO
D.J. Wilson redshirted last season after sustaining an injury in November.