Where are you getting Syracuse will get Gill from Buffalo? Let me just say that I live in the Buffalo area and there hasn't even been an obscure rumor about that. I'm not trying to be a jerk at all VK, but with all due respect that's more than likely not going to happen. Gill basically turned down the Nebraska job to stay here at UB. I understand he wasn't "officially" offered the job, but from many accounts around here, he told them he wasn't that interested before they decided.
Gill has been perfect for this school and has a great opportunity to build a yearly winner in the MAC conference. He doesn't seem to be the type to go to Syracuse (a bottom tier Big East school) just to coach at a "name" school. He truly seems to want to build a winner from scratch, and if he didn't want to go to Nebraska, why in the bloody hell would he want to coach at Syracuse??
I have seen this rumored several places but certainly defer to someone more in tune with that program. I assumed with his recruiting connections the move would make sense .. especially with buffalo graduating 10 or 11 senior starters this year. I was just guessing based on some of the rumors that i read about over the course of offseason and after slow syracuse start..... living in buffalo you probably have a better grasp of that situation though. Here is one of the articles i read.... Not just pulling it out of my butt.
You want names for GRob's potential replacement? Let the listings begin.
by Bud Poliquin Tuesday September 09, 2008, 12:02 AM
Syracuse, N.Y. -- As you might have expected, I've been hit with a lot of correspondence relative to the Syracuse University football team and its beleaguered head coach, Greg Robinson, who might soon be modeling a bit of tar and more than a few feathers.
Oh, it's ugly . . . and you'll get a taste of it all on Friday when the BudBlog mailbag will be almost entirely turned over to those missives I've received. Not all of them, mind you, because even cyberspace has its limitations, but certainly a representative number.
While awaiting that, I would like to answer a question that has been asked over and over in those e-mailings: Who might be the next Orange football coach?
I have, of course, no solid clue. Not on this date. But I do know this: I would be shocked and more than a little disappointed if Daryl Gross, in his search for Robinson's replacement, returns his gaze to the NFL. The good doctor went the pro route the last time for his head coach -- who, in turn, plucked his first failed offensive coordinator, the dazed and confused Brian Pariani, from the NFL -- and we've all seen how that's worked out.
Associated Press/Troy MabenIt would be a dream come true for some Syracuse University football fans if Chris Petersen, currently the head coach at Boise State, would some day point the way for the Orange.
In any event, I believe that the inevitable New Guy will have to be:
-- In his 30s or 40s.
-- An offensive-minded "college" guy with a clear vision of the scoring laboratory that the flat, dry, climate-controlled Carrier Dome can become.
-- A fellow with college head-coaching experience.
-- A proven recruiter, ideally with "ins" up and down the East Coast who can sell this SU program that desperately needs selling.
Among those popular names that can be eliminated, I believe, from the area's wish list are (1) Kevin Rogers, who is more a MacPherson/Pasqualoni guy than a Gross guy, and (2) George O'Leary, who probably couldn't get pulled out of Central Florida and back to Central New York with a team of horses.
That submitted, and without any specific knowledge of the language in existing contracts relative to escape clauses and what-not, here are three not-so-surprising names to put on your early roll:
Skip Holtz, the East Carolina coach who has led to Pirates to seasons of 5-6, 7-6, 8-5 and now to 2-0 and a No. 14 ranking in the latest Associated Press poll.
Chris Petersen, the Boise State coach who has led the Broncos to seasons of 13-0, 10-3 and now to 1-0 and a No. 29 ranking in the latest Associated Press poll.
Turner Gill, the Buffalo coach who has led the Bulls to seasons of 2-10, 5-7 and now to 1-1.
The identity of more candidates will undoubtedly surface, and as they do so will this monumental question: Will the corresponding money for the salary needed to entice a quality head coach (never mind the wages that will have to be paid to those quality staffers he'll want to hire) surface with them?
As that is pondered, now is the time for Nancy Cantor to search her sofa's cushions for spare change.
-- Bud Poliquin
bpoliquin@syracuse.com
(In addition to reading his columns and "To The Point" commentaries regularly in The Post-Standard newspaper, you can hear Bud Poliquin on the "Bud & The Manchild Show," which is broadcast on Sports Radio 620 WHEN (AM 620) Mondays through Fridays between 3-6 p.m. You can also listen on-line at
www.sportsradio620.com.)
