Buffalo football head coach Turner Gill didn’t want to talk about it, but the rumors had already begun.

With his alma mater Nebraska firing Athletic Director Steve Pederson, football coach Bill Callahan’s job security came into question. Sports Illustrated’s Stuart Mandel reported earlier this week that ‘The popular rumor du jour is that of Huskers legend/Congressman Tom Osborne temporarily taking the reins (as Athletic Director) and bringing back favorite son Turner Gill…’

The first part’s already come true. Osborne was hired as interim AD Tuesday, but Gill isn’t even looking west to Lincoln.

‘I’m focused on Syracuse,’ the Buffalo coach said in a teleconference Monday. His Bulls visit the Carrier Dome Saturday for a 4 p.m. bout with the Orange in a game originally thought to be a huge mismatch. But Buffalo is as competitive as it has ever been, much thanks to Gill and the lessons he learned from his time at Nebraska.

Gill has spent quite a bit of time in Nebraska. He was a Heisman Trophy finalist as a player in 1983 and ranks sixth on the school’s all-time passing charts. After that, he returned as an assistant coach from 1992-2004 and was lauded as one of the nation’s best recruiters in that time.

Now Gill’s taken that experience to Buffalo, where he’s in charge of a program that’s finished above .500 just once in the past two decades. But in his second year at the helm, Gill has the Bulls 3-4 overall, 3-1 in the Mid-American Conference and in second place in the conference’s Eastern Division.

Some of what has helped that charge has been the knowledge Gill took from his time as a Cornhusker – working under Osborne, former Nebraska and now Ohio coach Frank Solich, and others.

‘You learn something from everybody, no matter who you’re coaching with,’ Gill said. ‘So I take some things from all those guys and put it together the way I think is best fitting for myself as a person and my personality, and that went with our vision.’

Solich, whose team fell 31-10 to Gill’s club two weeks ago, echoed his former assistant’s sentiments.

‘I think your background plays big into what you’re all about as far as a coach,’ Solich said. ‘What you want to do is take things from those coaches that are going to help you be the best you can be. I think that even though you do that, you also need to be your own self. You’ve got to take the things you’ve learned from coaches you were under and move forward with those, but then your personality has also got to be your personality.’

Part of the style that Gill adopted deals with relationships. Gill said a key to coaching is building relationships with his players, not just to encourage growth on the football field, but also in the classroom and in life. That’s an approach the former quarterback said came from being a Cornhusker, and it’s evident in the amount of Nebraska ties on the Buffalo coaching staff.

‘Our guys understand that, the four or five guys (assistants from Nebraska on Buffalo’s staff) that have been a part of that,’ Gill said. ‘And so it makes an easy transition for them to help me to build a program with the other staff members. That’s just the vision that I have, and I want to keep that moving forward.’

Gill brought in four coaches with Nebraska ties: defensive coordinator Jimmy Williams, who was an All-American in Lincoln; his brother, defensive tackles coach, Toby Williams; special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Aaron Stamn and defensive ends coach Brian Mohnsen. All four once played and or coached for the Cornhuskers.

But the ideals that group brings from Nebraska isn’t just coach speak. The players recognize and buy into it. Eric Crouch won the Heisman Trophy as Nebraska’s quarterback in 2001. Gill was the quarterbacks coach.

‘The thing I like most about Turner is that he really prepared you to play from a mental standpoint,’ Crouch said. ‘His coaching style was that of a player, so he really understood because he’s been in that position before. He wasn’t a guy that would scream and yell at you and belittle you in front of your teammates.’

Being mentally prepared is one thing Gill stressed during his first year as head coach, when trying to change the culture of a losing team. Since moving to Division I-A in 1999, Buffalo was 12-79 before this season. The three wins in 2007 already represent one quarter of the Bulls’ Division I-A victories.

Gill met with each player individually in order to sell his vision.

‘I showed them what they could do, what they can do,’ Gill said. ‘I told my coaches, ‘I want you to only talk to the kids about things that they can do.’ From a standpoint football-wise, show them exactly what their strengths are.’

It’s with that strategy in mind that Gill looks to bring the ‘Husker attitude’ to Western New York.

‘I saw what Tom Osborne did to get players perform at a high level,’ Gill said, ‘and that’s what we’re trying to do here at the University of Buffalo.’

Published on October 17, 2007 at 12:00 pm