Can it be?
Can Turner Gill's Buffalo University Bulls football team of the MAC Conference be as good as the Nebraska Huskers? Next week will tell much more. In an ordinary year, Husker fans would ho-hum any comparisons.
Compare the records
Nebraska is 3-2, while the Bulls are 2-3: advantage Nebraska.
- B/R Ticket Guide
The Bulls lost to Missouri in Columbia 42-21 and the Huskers lost to Missouri in Lincoln 52-17; advantage Buffalo.
Next week is the tiebreaker. Nebraska beat Western Michigan in Lincoln 47-24 in August and the Broncos visit New York next week. Both teams had or will have home-field advantage.
Turner Gill never really was considered for the Nebraska opening that former Husker and LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini won.
If it turns out he has a better team this year, it would be an interesting turn of irony. Turner Gill has been coaching his players for two years longer than Bo Pelini has.
It is an interesting thought that a MAC team could be as good as a Big 12 team and a former BCS national champion.
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about 1 month ago
Gill never was considered for the Nebraska opening? Um, yes he was. Please don't try to rewrite history, even if it is just a pathetic little blog.
from about 1 month ago
Symantecs is important Victor. You are trying to rewrite my comment so you can criticise it. To quote someone you respect, "Please don't try to rewrite history".
about 1 month ago
Great stuff. It would be sad indeed. Gill should've at least gotten a serious look. I thought we were a little quick to hire Bo. Don't get me wrong, Bo deserved a shot as much as the next man, but Gill should've gotten a real shot. We need a real HUSKER on the job period, just my opinion.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks Curly. Tom Osborne thought he had made the hiring decision when he end ran Bill Byrne while Byrne was out of town and made Frank Solich the Assistant Head Coach. Frank did get the job, but Frank and AD Pedersen must have clashed.
If Turner had left immediately and taken a job as Offensive Coordinator rather than being loyal to the program he could have had a better shot at the job. Callahan and the ex pro coaches had not passed their recruiting tests and nebraska needed someone to talk with recruits. We were eternally grateful to him for sacrificing for the team.
The best way to describe what I observed about Turner is he has a quite calm assertiveness that he can hide or show as he wishes. He is a leader. I believe he will come out on top. If he sticks around Buffalo he might end up being lionized like Bob Devaney.
about 1 month ago
Peter, and Curly, can you back up that opinion, "Turner Gill never really was considered for the Nebraska opening," with some facts? Or, failing that, make your case? Thanks.
Break
Two topics no journalist, or blogger as far as I can tell, touched:
(1) Why didn't Osborne consider hiring back Solich, after all, he handpicked him?
(2) Why doesn't anyone hold Osborne partially accountable for the current state of NU's football affairs? After all, he hired Solich, which led to the talent drain, which led to the mediocre play, which led to a bleak future, which led to Solich's firing, which led to Callahan's hiring, which led to the Debacle, which leaves us at today. Remember, I used the adverb "partially."
from about 1 month ago
Oops, I posted your reply as a new comment.
about 1 month ago
Thanks for the great questions Greg.
If you were in Nebraska you would have understood that hiring Bo was easy. Husker fans and donors loved him for what he contributed to the program in one year. The Husker Blackshirts went from one of the most porous defenses in the Big Twelve to one of the best in the nation. Then he took the reins after Solich was canned and won a bowl game that everyone including pundits and fans expected them to lose. It was hardly safe to walk in public around Lincoln for all the puddles of drool from the prospect of hiring Bo.
Turner had been offered either the OC role or the title Assistant Head Coach when Frank took over. A brilliant offensive mind had sidelined himself for four years (five including Callahan's first) that could have helped qualify him for the head coaching job.
Turner wanted a head coaching job and took a job at Green Bay doing player relations rather than any other opening he could have gotten. At the time Frank left I opined that Turner should immediately find an OC job anywhere. If he was at a second rate school he could get a good OC job the next year. If he had been OC at a top tier school for two years he could have gotten a decent HC job. The course I plotted for Turner could have had him qualified for the Nebraska HC opening by the time Callahan left in four or five years. (It turned out to be four.)
If Tom Osborne had hired Turner Gill he could have done great damage to his brand if Gill did not turn out. Pelini was a national championship DC and that is a pretty good calling card. A guy can make a mistake like that without being pilloried.
Perhaps an article on Teflon Tom is due. Tom lost virtually every major game is first decade, but the AD was the man who hired him and a legendary coach in Nebraska. At the start of the season in 1995 there was a license plate on a sports car in Lincoln that Tom should have had: "IW84NO1". It would have had a different meaning, but just as funny. In January 1996 his wait rewarded him.
about 1 month ago
Peter, thanks for the reply. "Teflon Tom" ... an apropos phrase in many instances. I do hope the Huskers make it back, but patience, and lots of it, will be in order.
What's your theory as to why Solich wasn't considered for a second go-round as HC by Osborne? In my opinion, it would've been a disaster, but I wonder about the seeming inconsistency on Osborne's part.
from about 1 month ago
Tom was drafted. He has not conducted himself like he wanted to become entrenched. I will say that there were a lot of tears shed the day he returned. The first thing he did was take down the slogans about trust, honor and honesty and live them instead.
Tpm had the benefit of hindsight. Frank was not able to recruit talent. TO was the closer. When he walked into a recruit's home, everybody looked up to him and respected him immediately. Many recruits were persueded by their mother after Tom had visited. Frank was not as wholesome genuine.
I don't recall Frank expressing interest in returning. Peraps if Tom had called there might have been a dialog. I think Frank is at the appropriate level and maybe, if his critics were wrong, the Bobcats will one day be a national power.
Besides Frank would not have won the 2003 MasterCard Alamo Bowl versus Michigan State that Bo won as interim head coach.
about 1 month ago
Reconsidering Frank as HC of Nebraska, come on??? Peter, you were right to hit on the fact that Frank lacked some pull in recruiting. But, some of that wasn't his fault. After NU's run through the mid 90's so many upper tier programs' coaches began to use negative recruting tactics against NU. Namely, the fact that NU ran a offense that hardly suited any top tier athletes that had aspiritions of an NFl career.
Somehwere, at some time a change had to be made, sooner or later after T.O. retired there was going to be an inevitable downturn.
Callahan was not the right man for the job and we are only finding out now that his recruiting was hardly better than Solich. Quite frankly, it appears that Callahans recruits were completly overrated.
Pelini was the right man for the job at the time and I think given 4-5 years and patience he will be able to compete in the Big 12.
I think Pederson and Callahan have so damaged this program that it is going to take 4-5 years to even begin to be competive in the Big 12.
from about 1 month ago
Frank was the coach at Nebraska and is unlikely to return. If he were a great recruiter he should be at the top of the MAC. I doubt if negative recruiting is a major factor, but given the level of the programit could be. Since he is not on top of the MAC it follows that either he has had some terrible luck at Ohio or he is a mediocre recruiter.
I have nothing agaist him and wish him only good.
Little Billy OTOH was a choice born of despiration. Nobody worth hiring who had a job would take a job after the incumbant was fired for producing nine wins. You and I know the real reason and writing it here is not going to do anyone any good.
BTW Ohio beat Kent State on the road 26-19 in a day that showed how level the talent is in the Big Twelve this year. UB suffered an overtime loss to Western Michigan after leading by 14 in the fourth quarter.
about 1 month ago
Greg,
From the outside looking in, my beleief that Gill never got a strong look is based on the speed in which we hired Bo. Of course I was not privy to the treu hiring process, but considering how important the decision was to Husker fans, we appeared to move at warp speed. Again I hope I didn't appear to be slighting the Pelini decision, beacuse I firmly believe that it was a solid if not spectatcular hire.
Two reasons not to rehire Solich:
1. Solich has already moved on emotionally as have Husker fans. No need to rehash that soap opera.
2. Recruting is the key to success on the college level and Pelini was just coming off of national championship coaching experience.
As for holding T.O. accountable for the current state of the program; In my mind that's a helluva strecth to pin Pederson and Callhan on Osbourne. I mean T.O. left his hand picked successor on the sideline, he had no control over what the A.D. after he was gone. The fact that he has to preside over the rebuilding of the Husker Brand Name is no evidence that he sullied it to begin with. I really don't see the connection to T.O. for Nebraska's recent shortcomings.
from about 1 month ago
Great comments Curly. I agree with you on most of it. As evidence that TO was not on the same page as Little Billy they both held different golf tournaments the last couple years. Billy made it clear from his very first interview after accepting Pedersen's despirate offer that he thought he was better than TO. I have not encountered anyone who shares that opinion.
Frank Solich and Nebraska have both moved on and he seems to be at a level that he can compete at. Without the Nebraska brand to trade on he is having to create a brand and it must be tough going.
8 days ago
Remember, I used the adverb "partially" accountable.
8 days ago
Remember, I used the adverb "partially" accountable.
from 7 days ago
Tom won three national championships. Look at other coaches like that and they can get away with murder. JoPa has a job until he is ready to leave on his terms. Woody Hayes had to rip up a sideline marker to get notice as being hotheaded and then when he went ballistic on a kid it was over the top. Bobby Knight was bombastic for years and it took multiple outragious acts to get him canned. Still he got hired again pretty quick.
The way I have expressed it is in disappointment. Bob Devaney was a great coach and a great AD. He hired many coaches that established nationally promenent programs at Nebraska. TO's first try out of the chutte was a flop. It was disappointing tat TO left the Huskers with a mediocre coach.
TO hired Bo, but the state had already been looking forward to him making that choice. If he had hired Cardinal Mooney High's coach he would have been questioned by all constituents.
I am sorry if I took your questions out of context.
3 days ago
Like Turner Gill and University at Buffalo Football?
Lots of NEB talk in relation to Turner Gill.
Come over to www.ubfan.com
We have tons of Huskers, True Blues(students), and Forever Blues(alumni and fans of program)
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