Gill Named Head Football Coach At Kansas
Dec. 13, 2009
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 started his coaching career as the wide receivers coach at SMU in 1991.
Gill, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and his wife Gayle, have two daughters, Jordan and Margaux.
Gill File
Coaching History
1989 North Texas Volunteer
1990 Nebraska Graduate Assistant
1991 SMU Wide Receivers
1992-2002 Nebraska Quarterbacks
2003 Nebraska Assistant Head Coach
2004 Nebraska Wide Receivers
2005 Green Bay Packers Player Development Director
2006-09 Buffalo Head Coach
Year By-Year Head Coaching Record
Year All MAC
2006 2-10 1-7
2007 5-7 5-3
2008 8-6 5-3
2009 5-7 3-5
Totals 20-30 14-18
Playing Experience
1980-83 Nebraska Quarterback
1984-85 Montreal (CFL) Quarterback
Education
1990 North Texas Behavior Analysis
Personal
Wife Gayle
Daughters Jordan and Margaux
