His goal was to turn Kansas University football into a dynasty, but the experiment ended with him going down as one of the least successful coaches in school history.
Through it all, KU coach Turner Gill, who was fired Sunday afternoon with three years remaining on the five-year, $10 million contract he signed in December 2009, functioned as a man of class and integrity. He just couldn’t win football games.
“I admired Turner Gill as a person going in, and I admire him more going out,” first-year KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger said several hours after the firing.
Zenger broke the news to Gill at a 4 p.m. meeting in Zenger’s office. The discussion lasted 15-20 minutes and featured a coach whom Zenger described as cordial throughout. One other member of Zenger’s senior staff was present in case questions about the contract came up. None did.
As outlined in his contract, Gill, who came to Kansas after a 20-30 stint at Buffalo and guided the Jayhawks to a 5-19 record in two seasons, will receive $6 million within the next 90 days. Zenger said the money would come from a redistribution of revenue streams — most notably the increased dollars from the Big 12’s new FOX television contract — and that none of KU’s share of the exit penalty that has yet to be received as a result of Texas A&M and Missouri’s departure to the SEC would be used.
“That money was going to go to whatever our top priority was, and our top priority just became this transition,” Zenger said of the television dollars.
As for moving forward with a new staff, that, too, will come from existing university dollars.
“We will tighten our belts, and I will do fundraising to support the next staff,” Zenger said.
In addition to dismissing Gill, Zenger also removed the KU football program’s strength and conditioning staff on Sunday. KU’s strength and conditioning program had been under fire for poor performance throughout Gill’s tenure, and Zenger, a former football coach, said a solid strength staff was crucial to a football program’s success.
“It all begins in the weight room,” Zenger said. “The tone gets set there. The discipline gets set there. Everything starts in the weight room.”
One of Gill’s strength coaches, former KU player Joe Vaughn, told the Journal-World on Sunday night that even though he was disappointed about the decision, he understood that college athletics was a business.
“I’m happy my alma mater gave me this opportunity,” Vaughn said. “I’ll always love KU, no matter what.”
The nine assistant coaches who worked for Gill, at least for now, have been retained. Each has 18 months remaining on his contract, and their place at Kansas figures to be re-evaluated by KU’s new head coach. Many of them will continue to work for, recruit for and be paid by KU in the coming weeks.
Running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Reggie Mitchell has been appointed as KU’s interim head coach, and beginning today the Jayhawks will move ahead with heavy hearts and a new focus.
“Right now, I can’t even explain it to you,” said sophomore linebacker Darius Willis, who also played for Gill for one season at Buffalo. “I’m all over the place right now. The dudes that want to be leaders on this team are going to have to step up and just keep us together. We can’t lose each other. We lost a great coach, but we gotta stick together, because if we don’t, it’s going to get a whole lot worse.”
Gill and his coaching staff met with players in small groups for about two hours Sunday evening. Many emerged from the Anderson Family Football Complex with tears in their eyes and spoke to reporters about being surprised and disappointed by their head coach’s firing. Others elected not to talk. Gill was a member of the latter group.
After the final players exited the facility, Gill left through the back door without saying a word. His wife, Gayle, and their youngest daughter, Margaux, pulled their car around back to pick Gill up and he walked past reporters without talking. Many players said Gill remained positive even while meeting with them for the last time.
During his short time in Lawrence, Gill completely changed the culture of Kansas football. The answer to the question of whether he changed it for better or worse was what ultimately led to his removal.
The Gill Era started on an embarrassing note with a loss to FCS opponent North Dakota State. Gill’s team followed that up with a spirited upset of No. 15 Georgia Tech, but no momentum from that performance carried into the rest of his reign. Gill’s teams too often looked unorganized, undisciplined, unable to adjust and uncompetitive.
Overall, his teams lost by 30 points or more 10 times, including losses this season by scores of 66-24 (Georgia Tech), 70-28 (Oklahoma State), 59-21 (Kansas State), 43-0 Texas and 61-7 (Texas A&M).
Gill’s lone Big 12 victory, a surprise, 52-45 comeback win, came at home against Colorado, Nov. 6, 2010. Again, the momentum of a comeback from a 28-point, fourth-quarter deficit didn’t carry into the next week, despite it being the largest comeback in KU history.
So now, for the second time in 24 months, KU turns its attention to another coaching search. There’s a new man heading up the search this time around, Zenger, but, thanks to the realignment madness that has captivated college athletics during the past two summers, there also are new stakes.
Sources have told the Journal-World that the search will move quickly, as Zenger essentially has had the past several weeks to map out a game plan for identifying a successor to Gill.
“I have no specific timetable,” Zenger said. “Naturally I would like to have a new coach on board as soon as possible.”
Early signs of coaching-search mania hit Lawrence late Sunday night, when rumors of a plane carrying former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach began to surface. Many reporters and even a few fans flocked to the Lawrence Municipal Airport to await the plane from Key West, Fla., near where Leach keeps a home. When the plane parked near the terminal and the door flew open at 9:56 p.m., a Lawrence family returning from vacation stepped out, somewhat surprised by the welcoming.
“Sorry. We know who you thought it was,” the father said with a laugh.
And so it begins.
For more on what's next for KU football see our list of coaching candidates.
Comments
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jhawkinsf (anonymous) says…
Put Gale Sayers in charge of the search committee.
gsxr600 (anonymous) says…
Yup
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
Well dipsie doo!
observant (anonymous) says…
Just think, Gill got $2 million for each of his wins here. What a deal.
vuduchyld (anonymous) replies…
Exactly...why would he be anything BUT positive?
sierraclub (anonymous) says…
I believe that Turner Gill knew exactly what he was doing.
atiopatioo (anonymous) says…
"After a thorough evaluation of our football program"
KU at its finest hour.
deec (anonymous) says…
Nice work if you can get it. Get a multimillion dollar contract, do a bad job, get fired, and relax and enjoy the millions. Sounds like he's been training to be a wall street banker or multinational corporate CEO.
jhawkinsf (anonymous) replies…
There's really no reason for piling on. A good decent man as been fired by a good decent university. His failure has been our failure. I wish him well as I'm sure he wishes us well. Move on.
deec (anonymous) replies…
Yeah. I'm sure like Liberace he is crying all the way to the bank.
grisgris (anonymous) replies…
+1
jkilgore (anonymous) replies…
Would you sign a multimillion dollar contract for five years' work? I would. Gill did his best which wasn't very good, but it's not his fault that the University of Kansas offered him a dump truck load of money with a career 20-30 record.
Who's the biggest fool here?
jkilgore (anonymous) replies…
I meant, "the bigger fool" you know, comparison of two, not three or more entities.
purplesage (anonymous) says…
It is unfortunate that Coach Gill did not have success at Kansas. As to the outlandish salaries being paid in sports at college and professional levels, to players and coaches alike - that's another matter. No one should go and watch or turn on their televisions until some sanity is restored - but that just isn't going to happen.
observant (anonymous) says…
Gill is a very intelligent man, only a damn idiot would have passed on gift Perkins presented him. His qualifications were not up to what he was given, but he was smart enough to get what he could. Now he's set for life, go set up a religious movement, he can afford it.
justanotherface (anonymous) says…
There's a flight from the FL Keys that's due to arrive at Lawrence Municipal Airport in about an hour. Leach lives in the FL Keys. Let the rumor mill start now!
justanotherface (anonymous) replies…
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/EJ...
Come on ljworld, I've given you all the tools you need to investigate this possible story...
cheeseburger (anonymous) replies…
Don't know what it all means with regard to our vacancy, but your link is interesting - thanks!
cheeseburger (anonymous) replies…
justanotherface - you gonna run out to the airport and see who gets off that plane? It's a sure bet the weekend skeleton crew at the LJW can't spare anyone for that duty.
jhawkinsf (anonymous) replies…
Don Shula? Bill Parcells? Jimmy Johnson?
Maybe a well off Lawrence resident coming home after a long weekend in the sun?
cheeseburger (anonymous) replies…
KU sports twitter is indicating Leach has a room at the Oread tonight. Maybe a decoy, maybe something to it. . .
jhawkinsf (anonymous) replies…
Thanks for the info.
sundancewierdo (anonymous) replies…
My money says it's a rich guy coming home from an extended vacation in FL...
cheeseburger (anonymous) replies…
(Must have been you!)
/smile/
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
Maybe it's Jimmy Buffet coming up to have a few margaritas.
SinoHawk (anonymous) replies…
It is obviously Urban Meyer. Why would he coach a downtrodden program like Ohio State when a gem program like KU comes calling?
/sarcasm
CLARKKENT (anonymous) replies…
lets see now, how did this work?
first--fire mangino for winning record, and give him 3 million dollars.
second--fire gill, after only two years, and give him 6 million dollars.
wow, i bet the big name coaches will run to get this prime job. i hope they pick a good asst. coach from another program. maybe ku can make another person happy, and set for life.
pizzapete (anonymous) says…
I think we needed to give him a little more time. Maybe we should've never gotten rid of Mangino...
itwasthedukes (anonymous) replies…
Bingo!
KUBABYJ (anonymous) says…
I think it was an omen when Turner Gill would not allow Coach Fambrough in to talk with the team last year before the KU/MU game as he had done for many years just because he didn't like Fambrough's language and of course this year was too late to make up for it.
Rest in Peace, Don. We miss you!
LesBlevins (anonymous) says…
I think KU deserves what it is reaping. Addressing climate change is the biggest global challenge humanity faces. With just one or two of those several millions KU throws at its sports programs each year it could do a lot to empower the world to address the climate issue, add tremendously to global sustainability and add to KU's sagging national image and add tremendously to Kansas' standing in the nation, which would in turn attract many more students to KU in coming decades. Yet KU wouldn't even send an engineer or two to see and learn how all this would be possible.
thebigspoon (anonymous) replies…
Actually, Les, KU has one of the premier climate change operations in the nation in the ice sheet monitoring station on the west campus.
KDWinTexasNow (anonymous) replies…
Really?!?!?! Climate change is the biggest global humanity faces?
If there was credible evidence to support the claim that fluctuation in temperatures is caused by man, or anything more than natural cycles, you might have a leg to stand on.
If the data is so overwhelming, I wish the keepers of it would publish the data publicly so that people beyond the Select Few could analyze it. Or are we too simple-minded to comprehend it, hence our complete reliance on the Intelligencia?
tanaumaga (anonymous) says…
Great, now hopefully you'll can find something more meaningful to complain about ....I doubt it.
wprop (anonymous) says…
Lew Perkins should have been fired when he hired his son-in-law.....that was an early sign of corruption.....now mangeno $3,000,000.& his assistants 3,500,000....Gill $10,000,000 & his asstants $5,800,000...low ball for new person $5,000,000.... a total of $27,300,000 ....Thank you lew.perkins....$27,300,000 WOW....
akt2 (anonymous) says…
Turner Gill's Short List of Things to Do This Morning - 1. Decide which tropical resort he wants to spend the holidays. 2. Go to the bank. 3. Pack up his KU gear to donate to The Salvation Army. 4. Start his Christmas shopping, multi-millionaire style.
catfishturkeyhunter (anonymous) says…
Gill's firing changes nothing. KU football sucks, always has and always will. Thats just the way it is. You would think by now people would get used to that idea
.
kuhlman (anonymous) replies…
^^One of the only truthful, reasoned posts made about the situation. You could resurrect Tom Landry or Vince Lombardi to coach KU football and they still wouldn't be that good. People who believe that the coach is the main force behind whether a team wins or loses need to realize the idea that a coach can make inspire any team to the top through fiery, passionate leadership is the stuff of TV and movies. Sure, a good coach can increase your chances of winning, but at the end of the day there are much bigger factors that determine the long-term success or failure of a program. And people need to quit acting like Mangino was a genius. Take away the fluke Orange Bowl season where we lost to the only decent team we played all year and still got a title out of the deal, and you're left with an incredibly average, if not sub-par coaching career at KU.
jhawks1510 (anonymous) replies…
I don't agree w/that...Mangino took us to three bowl games and brought the team up from the Terry Allen era. Coaches aren't paid to be nice guys. Niceness isn't one of the paramount traits as a leader. .
BigAl (anonymous) replies…
"Gill's firing changes nothing. KU football sucks, always has and always will. Thats just the way it is. You would think by now people would get used to that idea"
And yet Kansas is basically tied all-time with Missouri and leads K-State by a wide margin. What does your comment say about them?
Solomon (anonymous) says…
Who's going to want to coach at KU? We hired a guy (with marginal qualifications, to be sure) who came in to a bare cupboard talent-wise, then give him (essentially) one year to recruit guys to his system. When his freshman/sophomore laden team failed to perform in year 2, we fire him.
KU will be very lucky to find anyone of known talent to come to work here. They will have to know that they are on a short leash at a school that has little football tradition other than the tradition of firing football coaches for being too rough or too soft.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
If they give them the same contract that Gill got ($5.1 million a year, highest paid coach in the country) they'll get lots of takers.
gotmylimitofjhawks (anonymous) replies…
"Who's going to want to coach at KU?"
Really?
Your teams barely have to be competitive, you only have to win one conference game, you only have to work for two years and you get to take $10 million to the Caymens...who'd sign up for that?
snoopy_79 (anonymous) replies…
Caymans...
concerned1 (anonymous) replies…
The better question is Who wouldn't want to coach at KU? The way they throw money around, a coach would be crazy not to.
gotmylimitofjhawks (anonymous) says…
Right now, somewhere there is a 400-pound football coach with a bucket of KFC in his lap laughing his considerable @ss off...
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
Actually, he's probably wondering why Gill got a severance package twice as big as the one he got.
rtpayton (anonymous) says…
Leach really?? Didn't coach Leach once get the biggest fine in Big 12 history.
LesBlevins (anonymous) says…
I'm with kuhlman. The coach isn't what it takes. What would help KU team performance more than anything else would be if KU became a truly outstanding university, which its sports teams were proud of and felt they had to live up to, which it surely isn't today. KU can become an outstanding university only if it gets its priorities right, but being in a politically red state it cannot do this without angering its primary funding sources, the State Legislature and the KU Endowment Association. If I can see through this everyone should be able to.
CardHawkFan (anonymous) says…
God bless and good luck Coach Gill! I understand that things didn't work out for him as I hoped they would have. It is a business and unfortunately nice guys rarely survive in it. The thing that is lost in this mess is that had he been successful on the field, he would never had left for a "better" job. Regardless of what will be said as replies to my post, I wish him the best in the future (I hear Memphis and UAB have openings). The players truly seemed to care about him, and that says a lot considering the product on the field was tough to stomach. It seems as though the only thing that isn't better off from knowing him was our overall record. Of course, that is how you measure a coach.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
"It is a business and unfortunately nice guys rarely survive in it. "
$10 million for two years' work-- I'd say he survived just fine.
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
Kansas University make another millionaire. Can I be coach for two years???
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) replies…
I've been trying to get the job since they fired Mangino, and they wouldn't even have to make me a millionaire.
But so far, they haven't even responded. Go figure.
somedude20 (anonymous) says…
I heard that KU just hired Bill Cower. Zoinks!
jhawks1510 (anonymous) replies…
Now that would be sweet.
ohiostreet (anonymous) says…
Do Sports Really Make Money for the University?
Barbara R. Bergmann
Academe
Vol. 77, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 1991), pp. 28-30
(article consists of 3 pages)
Published by: American Association of University Professors
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40251010
According to the research of this economist, the myth that college sports make money is false in most cases. Google "do college sports make money" for further research arguing that the answer is no. Individual teams may make money, but spread over the entire athletic program the answer is no. Researchers have used statistics from Maryland, Florida, California/Berkeley and other programs.
yourworstnightmare (anonymous) says…
A post I made on another thread:
$10 million for two years of a losing football coach.
Donors buying out his contract to the tune of $6 million.
This is reprehensible and highlights the insane position that college athletics has in the university. I realize that it is all about money, but it makes the research and education mission of the university look like a second thought, which apparently it is.
How many donors would pony up $6 million for endowed professorships to keep the professors at KU? The answer: none or very few.
$6 million would endow at least 4 science professorships and many more in the humanities and social sciences.
Pathetic.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
newmommiebrazil is about to get disappeared.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
Admin must be on break.
observant (anonymous) replies…
Apparently came back from break.
distant_voice (anonymous) says…
$6 million to pay off the contract of a losing coach and who could say how many million more to buy a new one. And our university gladly takes on this expenditure at a time when they are holding out on salary increases to professors and making cuts to their educational programs. Sure good to understand where KU's mind is at. Why don't we give up the hypocritical title of KU as a university.
Bob_Loblaw (anonymous) replies…
Nice sentiment, but Kansas Athletics Inc. is literally an entirely (legally) separate entity from the KU you are talking about.
AS (anonymous) says…
Smiling all the way to the Bank!
LesBlevins (anonymous) says…
thebisspoon wrote; Actually, Les, KU has one of the premier climate change operations in the nation in the ice sheet monitoring station on the west campus.
The problem is this "monitoring" doesn't do anything at all to reverse the rapid buildup of
Co2 nor prevent global warming and sudden human induced climate change. Couldn't Nero see the fires from his window? And what did poor Nero do poor thing.
Jayhawk1963 (anonymous) replies…
Go peddle your left-wing "global warming" bulls**t somewhere else, you butt-head; this is a SPORTS article !!! You and your fellow travelers "cooked the books" over at Cambridge on this subject anyway, or have you forgotten??? Besides, none of us give a damn what you and your OWS trash think !!! Go kiss your Obamanation bumper sticker, you'll still be stupid but you'll feel much better.
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
justanotherface (anonymous) says…
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/EJ...
Looks like there's another FL Keys flight heading to Lawrence later today. Let's see if we can get more people to show up and stalk than they had last night!
kc_hhsl (anonymous) says…
Zenger just tied his own hangman's noose ... he is going to have to compete against too many programs that are viewed better foorball schools.
Should have waited one more year - would have looked better all the way around. Go ahead and dismiss the the strength and conditioning group - that makes sense if you want to get stronger. But Gill - you should have waited.
observant (anonymous) replies…
Zenger did what he's paid to do. Get rid of an under preforming employee and find a competent replacement. How many millions in lost ticket sales can KU afford, not to mention all the other sales merchants would lose.
bornon7 (anonymous) says…
As a wife and mother, I would welcome my husband being fired and getting all those millions!! I wouldn't have to hear how stressful his job is, and how much people hate him, and my child would not have to endure the cruel comments made about his/her father. Not his fault KU hired him. Gill sounds smart to me. Mrs. Gill, have a great nights sleep....Merry Christmas.
budwhysir (anonymous) says…
who comes up with these ideas and contracts???? The political world of contracts will bankrupt this university within the next 10 years. I hope the alumni has ALOT of money to throw away....
budwhysir (anonymous) says…
oh, and by the way, getting paid 6 million dollars to be fired, makes you out of nothing. You are not out of time, out of money, out of options, out of your mind, out of a house, and on and on and on. You are however, set for LIFE..... No matter what happens.
oneeye_wilbur (anonymous) says…
It was either Zenger or Gill. The same push will be now for the departure of Chancellor Gray-Little and by the same behind the scenes politics. KU is still the stagecoach stop of the midwest. KU wasn't even smart enough to keep Mr. Moeser but North Carolina got him.
Let's see what Saturday Columns Mr. Simons can generate from this recent firing and how he will relate it to the KU School of Medicine, the KU Hospital and whatever that conglomeration of buildings is at 39th and Rainbow that didn't ever get a position at LMH.