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Tom Powers: Jerry Kill deserves applause, not sympathy

He is no square-jawed, wavy-haired block of granite from central casting. Nor is he a silver-tongued rascal naturally capable of charming the birds out of the trees.

Shee-oot, Jerry Kill is just regular folks. He's short, bald and ruddy-cheeked. His vocabulary is unremarkable unless he's inventing a word. Such as when he wants to "guaran-gol-dang-tee" you of something. Kill is a pair of Hush Puppies in a college football world overloaded with Giorgio Armanis.

He's also an epileptic living a lifestyle that apparently is not conducive to managing his symptoms. On Wednesday morning, however, lacking sufficient energy to both properly take care of himself and run the Gophers program, Kill reluctantly and unexpectedly retired.