[RVAparks]

I think that of the FBS conferences, the MAC is pretty far down the order of smaller conferences that could be raided for teams by bigger conferences.

MAC membership is as solid as it gets, none of full-membership schools are going anywhere in my opinion (maybe Ohio or Buffalo, but not likely). They have 14 football members and Temple is really the only one that I could see shifting, but if they do shift Liberty would likely get a football-only membership and I'm not sure where that would put the rest of the athletic department?

[Sly Fox]

In answer to Tally's question, football affiliates Temple & UMass have both been mentioned frequently as possible targets by other leagues. Of the full members, the only I have heard referenced has been Northern Illinois.

As for Joe Bob's post, I am not quite sure what to make of it. Clearly there is bitterness on display. But that may because of anger toward seeing a program crumble or it could be personal vendetta. We have no way of ascertaining that from a single post. But clearly there is some inside knowledge of the program.

[PAmedic]

yeah I and gotta admit- enough apparent inside knowlege that my good feelings about the guy just got rocked a lil' bit

trust that the AD knows what he's doing here

[Purple Haize]

So I guess we can put JoeBob as a NO vote on Turner Gill.

[SuperJon]

Several members of the coaching staff wear their hats on backwards on the sidelines, totally unprofessional looking.

Funny. One of those unprofessional looking guys is one of the most professional and well respected coaches to ever come through Liberty.

[jcmanson]

yeah I and gotta admit- enough apparent inside knowlege that my good feelings about the guy just got rocked a lil' bit

trust that the AD knows what he's doing here

agreed

[PAmedic]

the phog says Gill to Liberty. I'm sure they probably just read the N&A article. It's just the Kansas version of us

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172&f=2485&t=8434870

PS. They really seem to hate him.

or they read it here. Talk about perpetuating your own rumors...

we speculate- they read it, then report it, then we read it, then we speculate. Repeat.

[R i]

yeah I and gotta admit- enough apparent inside knowlege that my good feelings about the guy just got rocked a lil' bit

trust that the AD knows what he's doing here

agreed

+1

[Sly Fox]

Come on, admit it. Speculation is a blast, Medic. Don't try and pretend that the boys in blue don't rely heavily on speculation in chasing the bad boys.

[From the class of 09]

Wait we are taking a guy names JoeBob seriously now?

The guy is hilarious though, Ok we get it the KS thing didn't work out but to through off his time at Neb and Buffalo as luck, using his name, and existing talent at Buffalo is pretty funny. It's obivious he's got a personal beef with the Gill. If he would've kept his critism to Gill's time at KS he could have come across as informed but now he just sounds irrational.

The time at KS is a legit concern but not because of anything this guy says

[R i]

Getting fired after 2 years, with harldy any fan support , has to be a red flag at least.

[From the class of 09]

Getting fired after 2 years, with harldy any fan support , has to be a red flag at least.

Agreed but to act like he didn't do anything at Neb or Buffalo is crazy talk.

[PAmedic]

look at it this way: if you're a Richmond fan, do you take seriously the issues we've posted here about Danny, or do you write it off as "crazy talk" from disgruntled fans ?

[RVAparks]

I trust whatever the issues are with Gill that Barber, Carr, etc know about them and they will do their due diligence. At this point we just have to have faith in them.

[R i]

Our issues with Rocco are due to him leaving. Possibly the D.C. issues. Their board seems to think Turner was terrible, and no hate on the A.D. which is surprising.

If J.B. thinks Turner can bring us wins, and he is a good dude. I will support it. Its just interesting that not many there have his back.

[Sly Fox]

Most the people there are still furious that Mangino was canned after lifting that program out of total obscurity even in NE Kansas. Not many were prepared to give Gill much rope because they felt he shouldn't be there in the first place. Let the record show that I have covered games there and to say support was lackluster prior to Mangino could not be understated enough. MAC & Sunbelt schools often had better fan support than KU in the decade or so Pre-Mangino.

[JoeBob Briggs]

Turner Gill was primarily welcomed with open arms and there was genuine excitement when he was introduced as the KU coach. Most fans looked past the 20-30 record and made the same arguments you guys are making in this thread, like going 20-30 at UB is a miracle. Mangino was well liked, but most of the fanbase realized it was time to move on. TG's first season was a disaster of epic proportion, but most KU fans went into the season giving him a fresh slate again. Season 2 was an even bigger disaster than season one, a horrible team was getting worse before our eyes. Gill was given a fair shot, you just can't embarrass a program to that extent week after week and then have your players embarrassing you behind the scenes.


If your AD has any football background, you guys should be fine. Gill is not capable of discussing football in an in depth or intelligent manner past a conversation you could have with your average housewife. If he skips that part and gets into religious or character type questions and he is enamored with TG's relative fame, you might be in trouble. Lew Perkins fell in love with the idea of TG and never really thoroughy interviewed the guy.

Nebraska knows the guy better than ANYBODY. They love the guy there as he is a Forrest Gump type legend, but there were always rumors that he was not smart/competent enough to be a real coach (he was QB coach there), thus he was never a coordinator. Gill finally saw that they weren't taking him seriously so he took a desperation job at UB.

Now, remember NU knows the guy better than anyone. NEB job comes available. Two finalist are Turner Gill who just won the MAC championship as head coach and Bo Pellini who has never been a head coach. They don't hire Gill and go with the guy with NO HC experience. That says a lot in my book right there.

[Jayhawktravis]

As a KU fan and Alum, I can say that much of Jo Bob's post is accurate, although I don't share his venom for the man. I think Gill is a good person and a decent recruiter, but I think he made several fatal mistakes as Head Coach of KU.

In his first season, he made drastic changes in both the offense and defense. We had players that were recruited to play the spread trying to run Gill's option offense. Then he switched the defense to a 3-4 when our roster did not have the linemen or the backers to do it. I feel like if he would have made the changes more gradually, it would not have been as damaging to the team in the short term. I think he probably thought that he had more time and it would be better for the team in the long run, but my second point is a big reason why he didn't have more than 2 seasons.

Secondly, I think he is too much of a player's coach. Having talked to several people, (trainers, tutors, etc.) There was no discipline under Gill whatsoever. he pretty much left it up to the players themselves to police themselves as far as conditioning or academics were concerned. People did not show up to life with any regularity and were generally out of shape, as is evidenced by the 2nd half jerk kickings we received pretty much every week this season. Academics were a joke. as Joe Bob said, 53 players with at least one F. Unfathomable. Rumors are that several players have already been booted from the team under Weis, and I am sure it has to do with academics.

More of an annoyance than a fatal flaw, but he says very little in press conferences. I think every post game presser this season could have been interchanged with the rest of them. It was always "We just need to execute better and continue to improve from that standpoint," never saying how we were going to improve, what went wrong, or what we were going to change.

If Gill has learned to show a little backbone and come down on kids, I think he could be effective as a head coach. I think he is a good man, and cares about his players as much as any coach out there, but players need a coach more than they need a friend if they are going to be successful. I am sorry it didn't work out at KU because I think that off the field, he is a great person to represent an athletic department.

Hope this helps. If Turner ends up at Liberty, I will definitely pay attention and root for you guys.

[From the class of 09]

Nebraska knows the guy better than ANYBODY. They love the guy there as he is a Forrest Gump type legend, but there were always rumors that he was not smart/competent enough to be a real coach (he was QB coach there), thus he was never a coordinator. Gill finally saw that they weren't taking him seriously so he took a desperation job at UB.

Now, remember NU knows the guy better than anyone. NEB job comes available. Two finalist are Turner Gill who just won the MAC championship as head coach and Bo Pellini who has never been a head coach. They don't hire Gill and go with the guy with NO HC experience. That says a lot in my book right there.

Again stick to KS story and you might be ok.

As for the rest ,Gill left Neb after a season with Callahan cuz Callahan was driving the program off a cliff. Ask any Neb fan and they won't blame anyone for trying to get away from Callahan.

And your time line for the Pelini hire is off. Neb hired Bo after the 07 season. Gill had taken Buffalo to their first winning season in the MAC (his 2nd year on the job). He wouldn't win the conference until 08,but was still in the running to be a HC at Neb. Bo on the other hand had briefly led the Huskers to a bowl win as intern HC after Solich was fired in '03. Bo was the DC that year in '03 and a finalist for the Neb HC job then. Also at the time of Pelini's hire in '07 he was the DC of LSU who happened to win the NC that year. So to act like Bo was somehow less qualified then Gill is just nuts.

We've seen the struggles at KS, it's a concern but that doesn't summarize Gill's career.

[RVAparks]

I know we were discussing salary earlier, as a point of reference Arkansas State just signed Gus Malzahn for $850,000 a year. Which is actually a pay cut for Malzahn.

[LUconn]

You know, I would be very worried with all of this info, except AD Barber is not making this decision by himself. He's got one of the best coach finding agencies in the business advising him as well as great football minds that are willing to lend a hand (Dungy). How could one guy who you claim is so incompetent, be able to fool so many people? Except sharp Kansas fans.

[BJWilliams]

You know, I would be very worried with all of this info, except AD Barber is not making this decision by himself. He's got one of the best coach finding agencies in the business advising him as well as great football minds that are willing to lend a hand (Dungy). How could one guy who you claim is so incompetent, be able to fool so many people? Except sharp Kansas fans.

Id have to agree with LUconn on this one...Id find it hard to believe that he has so elaborate a facade that the only people who can see through it are folks who wanted him run out of town after only two seasons and really have only had one relevant season in football in the last 10 and ran a guy out of town prior to him that had the only two winning seasons in the last 40 years.

[thepostman]

who's to say that the Kansas program wasn't already a complete mess but mangino just knew how to handle it better?? I am not saying it couldn't be because Gill couldn't keep a disciplined program but that seems like a whole lot of crap going on for it to be pinned on a guy that has been there for 2 years.

Again it could be completely his fault, I am just curious if this crap started long before he got there and was beyond repair?? Its a possibility

[D-ZasterLU]

So to act like Bo was somehow less qualified then Gill is just nuts.

We've seen the struggles at KS, it's a concern but that doesn't summarize Gill's career.

Great Job 09. Don't Forget Gill was QB Coach for the Huskers in '95 and '96 when the won NC. and They went to a bowl almost ever year he was involved in the program. He wasn't leading, grant you, but he was involved.

[BJWilliams]

Not to mention he was no slouch as a QB himself (although he did have a bit of a concussion problem)