DMN's Turner Gill Article

[Stallion]

Might want to keep an eye on the Baylor Buffalo game today. Turner Gill has been a candidate for the SMU job in the past. Not sure if he is in the running this year but he's worth some consideration. He's on my long list.


Buffalo on rise

11:26 PM CDT on Friday, September 21, 2007



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Buffalo athletic director Warde Manuel looked at Turner Gill's sterling resume as a player and coach, and when he interviewed Gill, he heard the genuine concern for players.

He realized that Gill was the right person to become the school's head football coach. Four other schools had interviewed Gill and picked someone else. Then, as now, Manuel refused to second-guess colleagues.

"I'm just thankful he was available for us," Manuel said.

Gill, a Fort Worth native and former Arlington Heights High School and Nebraska star, is in his second season as Buffalo's coach. He has made real, if slow, progress since taking over one of the most difficult positions in college football.

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Baylor is admittedly taking a cautious approach to its game today with the Bulls.

"They have our respect," Baylor coach Guy Morriss said.

In the seven seasons since Buffalo's return to Division I-A in 1999, the Bulls have won just 10 games.

Under Gill last season, they won two, including a Mid-American Conference victory over Kent State.

This season, Buffalo has a 42-7 win over Temple. More significantly, Buffalo actually outgained Penn State in Happy Valley last week in a 45-24 loss.

Now comes Baylor.

"We're showing people we can bring people in here," Gill said. "We're showing people we're headed in the right direction."

Gill knows about winning.

After starting his coaching career at SMU in 1991, he returned to Nebraska, where he finished fourth in the 1983 Heisman voting. He tutored star quarterbacks like Tommie Frazier and Eric Crouch. Nebraska won three national titles while Gill was there.

Gill still talks regularly with former Cornhuskers coach Tom Osborne, who he calls a mentor and a friend.

The No. 1 thing he learned from Osborne? To respect everyone, from players to coaches to secretaries to equipment managers.

"You let them know what their role is in the program and why they're important," Gill said.

Gill stayed under Osborne successors Frank Solich and Bill Callahan before leaving to become an assistant with the Green Bay Packers.

He turned down Buffalo when the school first contacted him and then rethought it. Despite the previous interviews, he said a head coaching job wasn't a burning desire.

But he listened to Manuel, who had been an associate athletic director at Michigan, and the other members of the search committee. He was struck by how their views about working with young people dovetailed with his own.

"There's a connection; there's a fit here," Gill said.

Said Manuel: "He had a plan."

Gill is one of just six black head coaches in the Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A).

The numbers are so few that the Washington-UCLA game featuring Tyrone Willingham and Karl Dorrell has become an annual event to mark the lack of progress.

Gill carries no anger over not landing a job sooner.

Minority candidates need to network, he said, adding there's no such thing as a "token interview."

Case in point: the Missouri situation. Gill wasn't picked but word spread of his impressive interview. Manuel heard about it at Michigan and filed it away.

"I got this job because I interviewed at other places," Gill said.

Whether Gill can have real success is unclear. It's a pro town tucked away in snowy upstate New York, the eastern-most outpost of the MAC. But Gill sees an interest in college athletics.

"We're showing we can be competitive. We're showing we can be entertaining," Gill said. "We'll have people excited about Division I-A football."


TURNER GILL
Position: University of Buffalo head coach

Age: 45

Hometown: Fort Worth

High school career: Starred in baseball and football at Arlington Heights.

College: Went 28-2 as starting quarterback at Nebraska from 1981-83 and never lost a conference game as starter.

Coaching career: Spent 1992-2004 as an assistant coach at Nebraska, helping the Cornhuskers to three national titles. Spent one year with the Green Bay Packers as an assistant.

Notable: Played two years for Montreal in the Canadian Football League and spent three seasons playing minor league baseball.

Personal: Wife, Gayle; daughters Jordan, 16, and Margaux, 12.


Audibles
Notre Dame may have more troubles, this time off the field. The heavy-handed approach to the transfer of quarterback Demetrius Jones could impact recruiting in Chicago, a key area for the Irish. ... It will be interesting to see how much passing yardage Hurst L.D. Bell product Chase Holbrook accumulates for New Mexico State against struggling Auburn. ... As good as he has been this season, isn't the Tim Tebow-for-the-Heisman talk at best premature? ... Add UCLA's 44-6 loss at Utah to the list of puzzling outcomes so far.