A native of Fort Worth, Texas, and blessed with the right personality and presence to recruit well in his native state, new Kansas University football coach Turner Gill could take the school’s Texas recruiting finds to new heights.

But Gill can’t do it alone, and KU can’t fill a roster with players from Texas and Kansas alone. Gill will need plenty of help, and he’ll need to assemble a staff that includes at least one assistant coach rich with Texas contacts and one loaded with Midwest ties.

Enter Reggie Mitchell, University of Illinois assistant head coach/recruiting coordinator/running backs coach. An industry source’s whisper that Gill could hire Mitchell as his recruiting coordinator and put him in charge of running backs makes a lot of sense.

Since leaving KU, where he worked for Glen Mason from 1988-1996, Mitchell has worked at Minnesota (1997-98), Michigan State (1999-2004) and Illinois (2005-present).

Former Michigan State receiver Charles Rogers, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2005 NFL Draft, is among the many standouts recruited by Mitchell over the years. A native of Flint, Mich., Mitchell has mined most of his talent from the Midwest.

Mitchell isn’t the only assistant coach in contention for a return trip to Lawrence. Darrell Wyatt, associate head coach/offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach for Southern Mississippi, has had success recruiting Texas while coaching at Baylor, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Arizona.