Rutgers OC Jerry Kill hospitalized following seizure on Sunday
Offensive coordinator Jerry Kill had a setback this weekend during his first season at Rutgers. During his Monday press conference, head coach Chris Ash explained an incident during Saturday’s loss to Eastern Michigan that may have had something to do with Kill’s seizure.
“Early in the game, after the first drive, got tumbled up on Kyle's [Bolin] late hit on the sideline. He was really discombobulated a little bit in the first half from it,” Ash said. “Had some headaches Saturday night and not -- this isn't confirmed or not necessarily been identified as the reason yet. but had a minor seizure yesterday morning. But he's fine. He's still waiting to get released from the hospital but he'll either be back here this afternoon or tomorrow, whenever he feels up to the task.
“It's a minor setback, and fully anticipate he'll be back with us here shortly after he recovers from it. But no concerns about him not being able to do that, just so we're all clear. He feels great. It's one of those things where life situations or medical situations come up with a lot of people and this happened yesterday.”
Kill has a history of seizures that are a result of his epileptic condition and forced him out of his head coaching job at Minnesota during the 2015 season.
Despite the setback, Kill is expected on the RU sidelines this weekend when Rutgers faces Morgan State.
“Unless something came from a doctor or he needed more time to recover,” Ash said of Kill’s return. “You know, right now his focus is on getting back with our football team. Our focus is on getting better and our next opponent, and right now nobody is even thinking about that.”
In Kill’s absence, it will be an all hands on deck mentality when it comes to coaching the offense.
“It's a staff effort. It's always been a staff effort,” Ash said. “When I'm a defensive coordinator, that's the way it is. As a coordinator -- if you've got a really good staff, the coordinator is a coordinator by title. He sets the meeting times and ultimately has to make the final decisions. But when it comes to practice, preparation, game planning, it's a team effort. And I think the offensive staff has done an outstanding job working together as a team effort. Game planning is going as normal, here yesterday, last night and today. So there haven't been any hiccups or adjustments from that standpoint.
“Obviously because of the medical history of Jerry, we've had contingency plans in place if something like this were to happen and this was a long-term situation that would cause him to miss work and you know, right now, we're pretty confident and feel like that's not going to be the case.”