Just as I was hitting the button to publish the post right below this one, the email came flying into the inbox: “KU FB: Gill Named Head Football Coach”.
And, with that, the reports that first started to surface have become official. Turner Gill will replace Mark Mangino as Kansas’ new head coach.
The now-former Buffalo coach will be officially introduced as the Jayhawks coach at a noon ET press conference Monday. And the Bulls will officially commence a search for Gill’s replacement.
[Writer’s Note: From a Buffalo press release: “In the wake of University at Buffalo head football coach Turner Gill accepting the head coaching job at Kansas, Director of Athletics Warde Manuel has named Danny Barrett interim head coach while a national search process commences.”]
Here’s the full text of the release from the school:
LAWRENCE, Kan. - University of Buffalo football coach Turner Gill has been named the head football coach at the University of Kansas. KU Director of Athletics Lew Perkins said Sunday that Gill will be introduced at a press conference at 11 a.m. Monday.
“Turner Gill is a winner,” Perkins said. “His accomplishments at Buffalo speak for themselves. But more than that, everyone I talked to about him, starting with Tom Osborne, had the highest praise for Turner as a coach and as a person.”
Gill has been the head coach at Buffalo for the past four seasons. There he took over a program that had won more than two games just once in the previous seven seasons and guided it to a share of the MAC Eastern Division title in his second year (2007). The following season he led them to a league championship and the school’s first bowl appearance.
He earned MAC Coach of the Year honors in both 2007 and 2008, and was a finalist for the Bear Bryant National Coach of the Year award in 2008.
Gill handled the play-calling during Buffalo’s record-setting 2007 season, when the Bulls set school records in points (424), and his players set school single-season individual marks in passing yards, rushing yards and receiving yards.
In his four-year tenure 17 Buffalo players earned All-MAC honors after having just six in the program’s first eight years of conference play.
As an assistant coach at Nebraska from 1992-2004, Gill was part of three national championship teams (1994, 95 and 97). He coached 2001 Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch and First-Team All-American Tommie Frazier.
He was named a finalist for the Frank Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach, in 2002. ESPN.com named Gill one of the nation’s top-10 recruiters in 2000 and 2001.
As the starting quarterback at Nebraska from 1981-83, he led the Cornhuskers to a 28-2 record and a 20-0 mark in Big Eight Conference play, three straight Big Eight Conference championships and three consecutive Orange Bowls.
Gill was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 1983 when teammate Mike Rozier claimed the honor. He was a three-time All-Big Eight selection and was named the quarterback of the Big Eight Conference All-Decade Team (1980-89). He has been inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame and the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame. He also spent three seasons in the minor league systems of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians.
Gill, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and his wife Gayle, have two daughters, Jordan and Margaux.