Turner Gill

[MrMustang1965]

Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - The University at Buffalo formally presented their new head coach, Turner Gill, Friday evening at the UB football stadium, and he presented the university with an instant slogan.

"UB will now stand for 'You believe,'" said Gill, the 23rd head coach in UB history. "We will be a physical and attacking team on both sides of the ball and special teams."

Gill comes from a winning coaching tradition. After a short stint at Southern Methodist University, Gill became an assistant coach at Nebraska under Tom Osborne, with whom Gill still speaks.

"He has a great way of making people feel valued," Gill said of Osborne. "He's still a good friend of mine."

Gill said it's a philosophy he brings to coaching.

"I just try to build relationships with people, to get past the surface, get into their background," he said. "It's deeper than just saying they can run a 40-yard dash and lift so much amount of weights."

Gill inherits a floundering program that has gone just 10-69 since joining the Mid American Conference. The Bulls finished just 1-10 this year.

The new head coach said fans should expect a "physical, attacking" program, and that he will be bringing some elements of the Nebraska program with him, but has a few of his own tricks up his sleeve.

UB's introduction of Gill is progressive in more ways than one for the school. Not only did they hire a candidate with both professional and collegiate experience, but Gill is one of only five Division I minority head football coaches, shortly after Ron Prince was hired by Kansas State.

Along with athletic director Warde Manuel and basketball coach Reggie Witherspoon, UB has African Americans in, arguably, their three most visible athletic department positions.

Speaking with WGR, Witherspoon said he's excited and proud that UB can present an example to the minority youth of the world that they can get those type of high level jobs. He also said that he hopes that Gill and the football team can feed off the excitement the basketball team has generated, and that the hiring of Gill generates a lot of excitement on its own.

And Gill is excited to be at UB.

"I know where (the program) is going and I want to be a part of it," he said. "This is something special. I believe in the leadership at this university."

A 1983 Heisman Trophy finalist, Gill was 28-2 as a starter at Nebraska, before moving on to a career in the CFL, as well as the minor league systems of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians.

Coincidentally, tonight was Gill and his wife's 21st wedding anniversary.

[Dutch]

I've met Turner on several occasions at Nebraska booster dinners, and he is a truely honerable person, and from what i have seen from his tenure as a Husker coach, this is a great move.

it will be interesting and fun to watch him coach against his former mentor Frank Solich.

[Corso]

Coach Gill is one of the classiest guys I ever met. I got to meet him once when he was playing at Nebraska, and then several times when he was at SMU. He's got a big job in front of him, but he's a very bright, charismatic guy who hopefully will be able to get some recuits up there and surround himself with a good staff. I wish him all the best.

When you think about it, he's got to be longing for a chance to come back to the Hilltop. He grew up in Fort Worth, which I guess is a tolerable town. He also coached briefly at SMU. Then he goes BACK to Lincoln (OK, coaching at your alma mater would be great) and now he has to go live in BUFFALO? Poor guy! Heh