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.