Kill and Patterson are best friends.

Former Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill will join TCU's staff, sources told HornedFrogBlitz on Wednesday. Reports began surfacing that TCU had recently reached out to Kill about joining their staff. Kill is expected to be named the special assistant to the head coach and oversee the Frogs offensive side of the ball.

Kill will not be one of the ten assistant coaches, instead he will overlook the just the offensive side of the ball from coach evaluations, players evaluations, play calls, schemes; virtually everything involved with the offensive side of the ball.

Kill was most recently the special assistant to the head football coach at Virginia Tech under Justin Fuente. He spent one season at Virginia Tech. Prior to Virginia Tech, Kill also worked as an athletic assistant at Southern Illinois from 2018-2019. On the field, he was most recently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Rutgers in 2017. Kill spent one season as the associate athletic director at Kansas State in 2016.

Kill resurrected Northern Illinois’ football program in 2010. Arriving in 2008, after starting slow for the Huskies, Kill led Northern Illinois to a 10-3 record which included a nine-game winning streak. The Huskies played for the MAC Championship that season, losing to Miami (OH) University. Kill was hired by Minnesota after the championship and he left NIU prior to the Huskies playing in the Humanitarian Bowl.

The veteran coach is mostly known for his time as the head coach at Minnesota, where he coached from 2011-2015. Although he started slow in his first two seasons, Kill helped Minnesota to an 8-5 record in 2013 despite missing some games due to health reasons. After a seizure forced him to miss the Michigan game, Kill took a temporary leave of absence to focus on epilepsy treatment. Kill was later named Region 3 Coach of the Year by The American Football Association.

Kill’s 2014 squad started the season 5-1 with their only loss coming at the hands of TCU, a 30-7 loss in Fort Worth. Once again the Gophers finished the season with an 8-5 record which included wins over Michigan and Northwestern. Two of the Gophers losses came by a combined 11 points, including a tough 31-24 loss to Ohio State. For his efforts, Kill received the 2014 Big Ten Coach of the Year award.

Kill led Minnesota to a 4-3 record to start the 2015 season but was forced to retire after his health concerns persisted. He retired as head coach in late October.

There is some familiarity with Kill and Patterson. The two are known to be best friends and Kill even served as Patterson’s best-man when he married wife Kelsey in 2004. Both also worked under Dennis Franchione at Pittsburg State; Kill as the defensive coordinator and Patterson as a linebackers coach.

Kill will be dealt the task of overseeing an offense that ranked 7th in the Big 12 last season in yardage and points per game. Sonny Cumbie returns as the offensive coordinator for the third season. Patterson has also named former TCU co-offensive coordinator Doug Meacham as the inside receivers coach. Meacham was on TCU’s staff from 2014-2016.

TCU is looking to rebound from a disappointing 5-7 campaign in 2019.