With all the controversy of recent weeks, the Kansas University football program may be in need of a fresh start.

Turner Gill made his first appearance Monday as the Jayhawks new head coach. Time will tell whether he and KU are a good match, but Gill made a strong first impression during his opening press conference.

Gill, a former quarterback at Nebraska, seemed eager to take the reins at KU. Although the KU job was only offered a few days ago, Gill already was introducing his offensive and defensive coordinators: former San Diego State coach Chuck Long on offense and former North Carolina and Louisiana Tech coach Carl Torbush on defense. He said he’d talk to “a couple” of the assistants coach Mark Mangino left behind, but he was wasting no time in building his own team.

The new coach was confident and articulate at the microphone and clear about the goals he was pursuing. He said he won’t be building a program from the bottom, that the KU program already is near the top and primed to solidify its position as a leader in the Big 12. Gill put a high priority on building relationships with existing players and recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.

As one would expect of any coach starting a new job, Gill described himself as “a competitor. I like to win.” The $2 million salary announced for Gill was a notch below the $2.3 million Mangino received and well below the $5 million announced last week for Texas coach Mack Brown. The pressure is on Gill to produce a winning KU team, but if he’s successful, the pressure will be on KU to pay him enough to keep him in Lawrence.

Gill’s older daughter is a sophomore at KU and Gill said he already had a passion for the school and its football program. “It’s a special place.”

We think so, too. One press conference clearly doesn’t guarantee a stellar coaching career, but the KU faithful no doubt were favorably impressed with the personable manner and take-charge attitude Gill projected on Monday.