Football: Gill turning heads on day one

Ten things to talk about from Turner Gill's first day as head football coach at Kansas.

1, Best lineup of goals heard at a press conference in a long time:

Said Gill: “Recruit. Beat Missouri. Recruit. Win the North. Recruit. Win the Big 12, and in most cases if you win the Big 12, then you're playing for a national championship. And then we're going to recruit.''

2, Second-best salary bump recently in the Big 12:

Gill's contract, according to KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins, is “in the range'' of $2 million annually for five years. Gill made about $425,000 at Buffalo. Mark Mangino was making $2.3 million when he resigned.

Only Mack Brown at Texas, where everything is bigger, got a larger raise recently, going from $3 million to $5 million.

3, Good vibrations from the Big Man on Campus (no, not Mangino; we mean national championship basketball coach Bill Self):

Self was a college contemporary of Gill. Self, while a scholarship basketball player at Oklahoma State, remembered watching Gill play quarterback at Nebraska.

“He was a far superior athlete than what I was,'' Self said with a laugh.

Gill and Self hadn't met until Saturday afternoon, shortly before KU's basketball game.

“Without me knowing him, he comes across as an absolute first-class guy,'' Self said. “I'm looking forward to everybody supporting him because we do have a good situation here.

“The foundation has been set in a lot of ways by the previous staff. Turner and his new staff should be able to take that and take it to a very, very high level.''

4, One way Gill caught the eye of his new athletic director:

Said Perkins: “It's important to recruit Texas, and it's important that Turner is from Texas. If he can get kids from Texas to go to Buffalo (he had 11), I'm sure he can get them to come to Kansas.''

5, Rare form of flattery:

Buffalo senior Dane Robison sent a Facebook message to Kansas junior Brad Thorson, telling KU players how Gill will change their lives for the better and wishing the Jayhawks well.

Perkins had Thorson read the message to open Gill's press conference.

Said Thorson: “I can not believe the words that he had to say about Coach Gill, considering we are taking him from their program. I think it is amazing that they feel so positively about him.''

6, Worst effort at disguising his feelings about the previous coach:

Kansas defensive back Chris Harris, when asked what he knows about Gill: “That's he's a players coach, which is something that we haven't had really. It's so much nicer to have a players coach because you build trust in your coach and you want to go out there and fight for him.''

7, Biggest change from the previous coach:

Gill building relationships on the team and in the community. Mangino had little one-on-one interaction with his players, and his yearly community appearances often could be counted on one hand.

8, Second biggest change from the previous coach:

Straight answers. Gill volunteered that on offense, he will run a spread formation with some two-back looks. Defensively, he wants an aggressive 4-3 with a focus on forcing turnovers.

That's more detail in one day than Mangino usually offered in a year. Also, Gill will issue a weekly injury report. Mangino never wanted to discuss injuries.

9, Best break for a new head coach:

The South Division opponents Kansas faces in 2010 change from Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech to Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.

10, Best one-sentence summary of Gill's mission:

“We have to be able to empower people through encouragement.''

Contact the writer:

444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com