Turner Gill
Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:33 pmAMHERST, N.Y. (CP) - He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy as U.S. college football's top player and went 28-2 as Nebraska's starting quarterback before being part of three NCAA championships at his alma mater as an assistant coach.
But such success has been fleeting this year for Turner Gill.
The former Montreal Concorde has a 1-5 record as the rookie head football coach at the University of Buffalo, a program that went 1-10 last year and has just 11 wins overall since joining the Mid-American Conference in 1999.
The 44-year-old Gill, who signed a five-year deal in December, knows he will ultimately by measured by wins and losses but says there's much more to his job description.
"My experience this year has been outstanding because I know my purpose," Gill said in a recent interview. "It's to help young men grow to their full potential as a man, as a person, as a student, as an athlete and to help them grow first to understand life, how to be responsible.
"You've got to do all those things first, then it carries over to the football field. That's why I tell our guys if they don't go to class and do homework, how do they expect me to trust them to go out on the field and run a play? What they do in the classroom is a reflection of that, which is why we stress to our players the importance of going to class. My underlying goal is for these guys to get their degrees and be better men in society."
Despite the Bulls' struggles, football remains a top sport on campus. The team plays at UB Stadium, a two-tier 31,000-seat outdoor stadium with a grass surface that was built in '93 for US$23 million. The facility would make most CFL teams drool.
The football department offices are in a separate building a short walk from the stadium, and Gill spoke to The Canadian Press in a spacious coaches lounge filled with framed football pictures and two leather couches.
Gill is the 23rd coach in Bulls history - and the second to have CFL ties. Frank Clair coached at Buffalo in 1948-49, compiling a 12-4-1 record before beginning his illustrious Canadian coaching career in 1950 with the Toronto Argonauts.
But there's no denying that Gill has the highest profile of any Bulls coach. A standout on the field, Gill remains an impressive figure off it. Fit and looking as if he could still play, Gill is an articulate man who puts plenty of thought into his answers.
Still, Gill is under a microscope at UB and not just for the team's record.
One of just five black head coaches among the 119 Division I-A football programs, he's also one of three blacks at Buffalo to hold down high-profile athletic jobs, joining men's basketball coach Reggie Witherspoon and athletic director Warde Manuel.
"For me, (race) isn't a big deal because I look at people as human beings," Gill said. "But I know people are watching and I understand that in this position I can give people hope.
"There wasn't really a black quarterback at Nebraska before I got there . . . . but now college football and the NFL have more black quarterbacks. So if there's a way how I can help one, two, three or four other young men that grow up in this society and give them hope, it's all worth it."
Gill, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, was Nebraska's starting quarterback from 1981 to '83. Gill was a stellar 20-0 in Big Eight conference play and almost as good overall, losing just twice as a starter.
Although Gill finished fourth in the '83 Heisman voting, NFL teams wanted him to play either receiver or defensive back. Anxious to prove he could play quarterback, Gill signed with Montreal in 1984, looking to follow in the footsteps of Hall of Famer Warren Moon, who spent the first five years of his career in Edmonton before heading to the NFL.
Gill emerged as a starter with Montreal, but his CFL tenure was short-lived. He suffered a career-ending concussion during the '85 season.
"Unfortunately, the first thing that comes to mind about my time there is the negative that it was the end of my career but I loved playing football there and I really enjoyed my experience," Gill said. "And I still know (former Montreal assistant) Wally Buono is coaching and Damon Allen is still playing.
"I can't sit here and tell you I keep up with (CFL) but I do have an interest with (former Nebraska quarterback) Eric Crouch in Toronto."
The concussion didn't end Gill's athletic career as the next year he resumed playing baseball - Gill was recruited to play football and baseball at Nebraska. He spent three years as a shortstop with the Cleveland Indians organization before being dealt to the Detroit Tigers.
"When I went to spring training with the Tigers, I didn't have the drive and determination I had in the past," Gill said. "I had always told myself if that happened it was time to move on and that was the sign it was time to do something else."
For Gill, that meant returning to football.
He began coaching in '89 as a graduate assistant at Nebraska before spending time at North Texas University and Southern Methodist University. Gill returned to the Cornhuskers in '92, reuniting again with legendary head coach Tom Osborne.
Over his 13 seasons there (1992-2004), Gill also worked under Frank Solich and current coach Bill Callahan, serving as quarterbacks coach from 1992 to 2002 before being named assistant head football coach in 2003. Gill was praised as one of U.S. college football's top recruiters with the Cornhuskers, who won NCAA titles in 1994, 1995 and 1997.
"Tom Osborne taught me how to tell each and every person what their value is to our football team," said Gill, who spent 2005 as an assistant coach-player development director with the NFL's Green Bay Packers. "He taught me all about teaching players how to be responsible, how to know what makes them tick and also how to know what irritates them.
"Knowing all of their background helps you understand how you coach and teach these guys. We always have a tendency to correct and tell players what they did wrong but to tell them what they did right is difficult, that's a challenge for all of us as coaches."
Upon his arrival at Buffalo, Gill met with Bulls players and said he could see signs of desperation in their eyes.
"I saw they didn't have hope, they didn't have discipline, they didn't have an identity," he said. "So those are the things we went about instilling into them right away."
It's an approach junior defensive end Jason Judges of Pickering, Ont., one of five Canadians on the Bulls roster, says the players appreciate.
"There has been a difference here," said. Judges, whose father, Gordon, spent 13 years as a CFL lineman with Montreal and Toronto. "Coach Gill is very consistent in terms of what his game plan is and he lets us know that.
"The whole intensity as far as practice is concerned has gone up, too. Coach Gill is a great coach and I think that's why we're starting to have some success. Hopefully we can win a few more games."
But Gill again stressed he's not all about wins.
"It's about seeing them improve," Gill said. "We're not defined about wins and losses because once you say, 'I want to win this number of games this year," what do you do when it becomes evident you can't win that many?
"I tell our guys no one is guaranteed tomorrow so today is the most important day. So not only did their mentality have to change, but also their level of expectation. We had to show them how we wanted them to be, what the level of what we're talking about is. They've seen it now so their challenge is to do it every day, every week and every month. That's how you get consistent as a football program."
Then again, having talent doesn't hurt, either. Gill intends to spend time this off-season recruiting players from his native Texas as well as southern Ontario and Quebec.
"I think there's an interest from people in Canada to come to the U.S. and play football here," he said, "especially in this area because they can come and see some of the games.
"There's no doubt there are some very good players in Canada."
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/football/061016/f101691.html
But such success has been fleeting this year for Turner Gill.
The former Montreal Concorde has a 1-5 record as the rookie head football coach at the University of Buffalo, a program that went 1-10 last year and has just 11 wins overall since joining the Mid-American Conference in 1999.
The 44-year-old Gill, who signed a five-year deal in December, knows he will ultimately by measured by wins and losses but says there's much more to his job description.
"My experience this year has been outstanding because I know my purpose," Gill said in a recent interview. "It's to help young men grow to their full potential as a man, as a person, as a student, as an athlete and to help them grow first to understand life, how to be responsible.
"You've got to do all those things first, then it carries over to the football field. That's why I tell our guys if they don't go to class and do homework, how do they expect me to trust them to go out on the field and run a play? What they do in the classroom is a reflection of that, which is why we stress to our players the importance of going to class. My underlying goal is for these guys to get their degrees and be better men in society."
Despite the Bulls' struggles, football remains a top sport on campus. The team plays at UB Stadium, a two-tier 31,000-seat outdoor stadium with a grass surface that was built in '93 for US$23 million. The facility would make most CFL teams drool.
The football department offices are in a separate building a short walk from the stadium, and Gill spoke to The Canadian Press in a spacious coaches lounge filled with framed football pictures and two leather couches.
Gill is the 23rd coach in Bulls history - and the second to have CFL ties. Frank Clair coached at Buffalo in 1948-49, compiling a 12-4-1 record before beginning his illustrious Canadian coaching career in 1950 with the Toronto Argonauts.
But there's no denying that Gill has the highest profile of any Bulls coach. A standout on the field, Gill remains an impressive figure off it. Fit and looking as if he could still play, Gill is an articulate man who puts plenty of thought into his answers.
Still, Gill is under a microscope at UB and not just for the team's record.
One of just five black head coaches among the 119 Division I-A football programs, he's also one of three blacks at Buffalo to hold down high-profile athletic jobs, joining men's basketball coach Reggie Witherspoon and athletic director Warde Manuel.
"For me, (race) isn't a big deal because I look at people as human beings," Gill said. "But I know people are watching and I understand that in this position I can give people hope.
"There wasn't really a black quarterback at Nebraska before I got there . . . . but now college football and the NFL have more black quarterbacks. So if there's a way how I can help one, two, three or four other young men that grow up in this society and give them hope, it's all worth it."
Gill, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, was Nebraska's starting quarterback from 1981 to '83. Gill was a stellar 20-0 in Big Eight conference play and almost as good overall, losing just twice as a starter.
Although Gill finished fourth in the '83 Heisman voting, NFL teams wanted him to play either receiver or defensive back. Anxious to prove he could play quarterback, Gill signed with Montreal in 1984, looking to follow in the footsteps of Hall of Famer Warren Moon, who spent the first five years of his career in Edmonton before heading to the NFL.
Gill emerged as a starter with Montreal, but his CFL tenure was short-lived. He suffered a career-ending concussion during the '85 season.
"Unfortunately, the first thing that comes to mind about my time there is the negative that it was the end of my career but I loved playing football there and I really enjoyed my experience," Gill said. "And I still know (former Montreal assistant) Wally Buono is coaching and Damon Allen is still playing.
"I can't sit here and tell you I keep up with (CFL) but I do have an interest with (former Nebraska quarterback) Eric Crouch in Toronto."
The concussion didn't end Gill's athletic career as the next year he resumed playing baseball - Gill was recruited to play football and baseball at Nebraska. He spent three years as a shortstop with the Cleveland Indians organization before being dealt to the Detroit Tigers.
"When I went to spring training with the Tigers, I didn't have the drive and determination I had in the past," Gill said. "I had always told myself if that happened it was time to move on and that was the sign it was time to do something else."
For Gill, that meant returning to football.
He began coaching in '89 as a graduate assistant at Nebraska before spending time at North Texas University and Southern Methodist University. Gill returned to the Cornhuskers in '92, reuniting again with legendary head coach Tom Osborne.
Over his 13 seasons there (1992-2004), Gill also worked under Frank Solich and current coach Bill Callahan, serving as quarterbacks coach from 1992 to 2002 before being named assistant head football coach in 2003. Gill was praised as one of U.S. college football's top recruiters with the Cornhuskers, who won NCAA titles in 1994, 1995 and 1997.
"Tom Osborne taught me how to tell each and every person what their value is to our football team," said Gill, who spent 2005 as an assistant coach-player development director with the NFL's Green Bay Packers. "He taught me all about teaching players how to be responsible, how to know what makes them tick and also how to know what irritates them.
"Knowing all of their background helps you understand how you coach and teach these guys. We always have a tendency to correct and tell players what they did wrong but to tell them what they did right is difficult, that's a challenge for all of us as coaches."
Upon his arrival at Buffalo, Gill met with Bulls players and said he could see signs of desperation in their eyes.
"I saw they didn't have hope, they didn't have discipline, they didn't have an identity," he said. "So those are the things we went about instilling into them right away."
It's an approach junior defensive end Jason Judges of Pickering, Ont., one of five Canadians on the Bulls roster, says the players appreciate.
"There has been a difference here," said. Judges, whose father, Gordon, spent 13 years as a CFL lineman with Montreal and Toronto. "Coach Gill is very consistent in terms of what his game plan is and he lets us know that.
"The whole intensity as far as practice is concerned has gone up, too. Coach Gill is a great coach and I think that's why we're starting to have some success. Hopefully we can win a few more games."
But Gill again stressed he's not all about wins.
"It's about seeing them improve," Gill said. "We're not defined about wins and losses because once you say, 'I want to win this number of games this year," what do you do when it becomes evident you can't win that many?
"I tell our guys no one is guaranteed tomorrow so today is the most important day. So not only did their mentality have to change, but also their level of expectation. We had to show them how we wanted them to be, what the level of what we're talking about is. They've seen it now so their challenge is to do it every day, every week and every month. That's how you get consistent as a football program."
Then again, having talent doesn't hurt, either. Gill intends to spend time this off-season recruiting players from his native Texas as well as southern Ontario and Quebec.
"I think there's an interest from people in Canada to come to the U.S. and play football here," he said, "especially in this area because they can come and see some of the games.
"There's no doubt there are some very good players in Canada."
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/football/061016/f101691.html