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Nearly six years removed from a battle with kidney cancer, Minnesota football coach Jerry Kill is in good health and starting a new job in the Big Ten.
''I'm cancer-free,'' the first-year Gophers coach said Friday at the second and final Big Ten media day. ''I don't know if you ever win that battle, but I am coaching and I'm blessed to do that.''
Diagnosed with kidney cancer in late 2005 while at Southern Illinois, Kill underwent surgery and follow-up treatment.
After going through his ordeal, Kill created a Southern Illinois-based foundation to help low-income cancer patients pay for treatment and decided he would never waste a day.
''I almost lost my life, so I don't understand anybody who gets up in the morning and is moaning and groaning and complaining,'' he said. ''When you don't know if you're going to be there the next day you have a little change of thought.
''Life is short and you better take advantage of it.''
Kill spent seven seasons at Southern Illinois, posting a 55-32 record with three Gateway Conference titles. He moved to Northern Illinois in 2008 and his teams went 23-16 over the next three years with three bowl appearances.
Minnesota hired Kill, who turns 50 next month, in late 2010, the latest move in a career he thought he'd never have.
''I figured I'd (still) be at Southern Illinois. Once you get cancer you don't figure people are going to hire you. (But) Jim Phillips (then Northern Illinois athletic director now at Northwestern) rolled the dice on me and gave me the chance and he's probably the reason I'm around now.''
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NIGHT MOVES: Ohio State coach Luke Fickell initially found it hard to move into the head coach's office following the resignation of Jim Tressel, his former boss and mentor.
''It was difficult,'' he said. ''I left it alone for a week and a half and just stayed in my office knowing that it was eventually that time. One night - 11 o'clock at night on one of the Friday nights - I went in there and actually moved stuff around.
''I moved the desk ... and once I started moving the desk it allowed me to say `this is the way it is and we're moving forward' and it was a step.''
Tressel resigned on Memorial Day in the midst of an NCAA investigation.
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SOX FAN: Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald - a native of the Chicago area and a White Sox fan - was pumped up about the chance to throw out the first pitch at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday.
He also mused about the Wildcats maybe playing a game at the White Sox park or lakefront Soldier Field or even a return to Wrigley Field, where they played Illinois last fall.
''It was really cool to play at Wrigley, it was an unbelievable venue,'' he said. ''I'd do it again, it was really neat ... (but) I'd prefer to play our conference game at Ryan Field.''
Future schedules include nonconference home games against Notre Dame, Stanford, Boston College and Syracuse.
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HEROES GAME: The Big Ten is all about trophy games. There are games for a bucket, an ax, a jug and a pig.
The newest and 14th Big Ten trophy game will be played between Iowa and the conference's newest member, Nebraska.
The annual meeting between the flagship universities of two states that share a border will be called The Heroes Game.
The actual trophy hasn't been made, but the idea is to honor citizens in each state who perform brave and noble acts. Each year a one hero will be selected from each state and honored before the game. The people selected will have their names engraved on the trophy.
