“It’s hard to go into Madison and win,” Kill said. “But it’s hard to go into Lincoln and win.”

Minnesota overcame a two-touchdown halftime deficit in a 28-24 victory at Nebraska last week, its first in Lincoln since 1960. That propelled Minnesota into The Associated Press’s top 25 for the first time since 2008, at No. 22.

After a revolving door of coordinators under the previous coach, Tim Brewster — three on each side of the ball over four seasons — Kill’s stick-together staff pushed the Gophers from 3-9 in their first season to 6-7 and then 8-5 last year.

“When we come in to build a program, I don’t have to hire somebody and teach them how to do it,” Kill said. “We all know how to do it. We all have our roles. We all understand it. Sometimes you get different people that don’t know what you’re trying to do, and they can’t hang in there. It’s a lot easier to change the culture when you have the coaching continuity.”

Running back Donnell Kirkwood, now a senior, said staff cohesion was easy to spot.

“When something is not right at practice, they kind of give each other looks,” he said. “Next thing you know, we’re changing something or running the play over. They know each other’s styles and how they can work together. That’s a big part of it. When you get younger staffs, they kind of bump heads a little more. You really never see that here.”