[Husker] Why Not Gill?

[Mike Nolan]

> What exactly causes the hesitation surrounding Turner Gill as Nebraska head coach?  Is it the "he's not ready" opinion?  If so, why exactly isn't he "ready"?

One of the things that a few years more experience gets you is a bigger
network of assistant coaches you know and have worked with, either during
the season or at coaching clinics, so you have a bigger pool of talent 
from which to build your staff.  And more importantly, you know their
strengths and weaknesses (and hopefully your own.)

It aiso gives you that many more years of talking to recruits and especially
their mothers, and to fans and the media.  The fans and the media in Buffalo 
don't have the same frenzy for college football that they do in Nebraska.  

(And I doubt the new coach will get more than about a 6 game 'honeymoon'
from either the fans or the media.)

And to be honest, what Turner has done at Buffalo shows promise but he
hasn't exactly set the world on fire yet.  

That being said, he'd be on my short list, but probably not #1.  Jim Grobe
would probably top that list, I'm not sure if Gill or Pelini would be #2.
(Pelini has far less experience as a college coach than Gill, but his NFL
contacts probably cancel that out.)

At least Osborne has done the right thing this time and told all the assistant
coaches that they're terminated, though the new coach could choose to keep
some of them.  I always thought one of the mistakes Osborne made in turning
over the reins to Solich was that Tom asked all the assistant coaches to stick
around for 3 years, so the coaching staff wasn't really Frank's for a few 
years (and possibly not really until his last season.)
--
Mike Nolan