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AP: Gill building relationships at Kansas in opening season
Published 7/29/2010 in Sports
IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Turner Gill wanted to get to know his new Kansas team and wanted to make sure they knew each other. So he asked questions like who was the most influential person in their lives and why, then had every player and coach stand up and answer.
Will that matter on fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the closing seconds of a tight game?
It can't hurt, Gill figures.
"The whole point of doing it," he said, "was to let everybody understand we're a lot closer than you think."
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Associated Press Kansas head football coach Turner Gill talks with reporters Wednesday at the Big 12 media day in Irving, Texas. Gill will be entering his first year at the Jayhawks' helm.
Gill's soft approach could be just what the Jayhawks need after eight years under Mark Mangino.
Mangino turned Kansas football into the kind of program the basketball team could be proud of, winning as many bowl games (three) as all his predecessors combined. In 2007, the Jayhawks went 12-1 with the offense and defense among the best in the nation, earning a spot in the Orange Bowl.
But things came crashing down late last season. Mangino was accused of physically and verbally abusing players and others around the program. He denied everything, then resigned in December.
Administrators moved quickly to hire Gill, a star quarterback at Nebraska in the early 1980s who'd become a potential coaching star over his four years at Buffalo. He'd been up for several jobs the previous offseason and gladly took this chance to work in a BCS conference.
Gill knows he'll ultimately be judged by wins and losses. But over about a half hour of speaking at Big 12 media day, it was clear his approach is that results are a byproduct of the other ways he runs his program.
"I'm passionate about trying to develop young men," he said. "That's what my purpose (is) here on this earth."
Players have been hearing it for seven months, and they've seen how sincere he is about it.
"He's there as very much a father figure and a mentor for us," offensive lineman Brad Thorson said. "That's not typical for a Division I coach, for a guy that's got his own family. He's got a daughter in college and a daughter in high school. He's got his own family to take care of, and he calls us his sons. He says it, he means it. It's powerful. It means a lot to us. We're willing to go out there and lay it on the line for him."
The image on all their promotional material sums it up pretty nicely: seven players circled around their new coach, all looking up, eyes squarely on him, with Gill standing and leaning back slightly, his arms crossed and the start of a smile on his face.
He's going to lead them, and they're ready to be led -- gently.
"We're here to challenge you, we're here to be demanding, we're here to raise your expectation of yourself," Gill said. "But we can do it in a way where you can still feel good about yourself."
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