Turner Gill Staying at Buffalo

by Husker Mike on Dec 16, 2008 9:36 PM CST Comment 6 comments

Turner Gill is not interested in the vacant Iowa State head coaching job, and in fact, has signed a contract extension and will remain at Buffalo. ESPN is reporting that Gill's contract will make him one of the highest paid coaches in the MAC.

Meanwhile, Charles Barkley continues to criticize his alma mater, saying that race was the reason Auburn didn't select Gill.

"I'm just very disappointed," Barkley said. "I just thought Turner Gill would be the perfect choice for two reasons: He's a terrific coach and we needed to make a splash. I thought we had to do something spectacular to bring attention to the program. Clearly, if we'd hired a black coach, it would have created a buzz."

"My biggest problem with the black coaches is they're not getting jobs and they're getting [expletive] jobs when they are hired," Barkley said. "They're not getting good jobs. They're not getting jobs where they can be successful. That's why I wanted Turner to get the Auburn job. He could win consistently at Auburn. You can't win consistently at New Mexico. You can't win consistently at Kansas State. He could have won at Auburn."

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I'd glad.

that he’s staying at Buffalo. I have no idea why someone would want the job at Auburn (other than having a ton of money through at you), and I’m glad he didn’t take that one.

Barkley was right to say something, though. He’s right about black coaches still getting screwed, something that seems odd in this day and age. I covered a little bit of the issue when Nebraska was looking for a coach to replace Callahan, asking Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA’s Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion some questions about race and coaching, including this one:

Question 2: Why does the NCAA think that race is a relevant issue with regards to the hiring of coaches?

Answer: The Association – through its member institutions and conferences – shares a belief and commitment to an inclusive culture that fosters equitable career opportunities for coaches from diverse backgrounds. Diversity and inclusion are NCAA core values.

The fact is that the highest percentage of football student-athletes in the Football Bowl Subdivision are African-American. Yet, only six out of the 119 head football coaches in FBS are African-American – only 5. And it’s worse in the Championship Subdivision – only four out of 122 head football coaches are African-American – only 3.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!

by Jon Johnston on Dec 16, 2008 10:12 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I am

glad that TG is staying at Buffalo. I dont think he has to be in any rush to leave. Even if he stumbles a little next year and falls to 5-7 or so he wont be judged by that. People will simply say " oh well it is Buffalo and look where they were before". He will be judged on this year for a couple of years. He seems to have a pretty good staff so I think he will continue to win at Buffalo which will make him even more wanted.

In regard to most football players being black but most coaches being white….well being a good football player doesn’t mean you will be a good coach. You have to know the game inside and out, know how to recruit, know how to teach the game, teach fundementals of the game and how to communicate with people both on and off the field no matter what race you are.

I get tired of hearing how we need to hire someone because of their race. You should hire the most qualified person and that is it. No matter the job. I dont care if they are white, black, yellow, green or purple, if they are the most qualified then hire them. Do I think TG got screwed at Auburn? Sure I do but then I am biased as he is my favorite Husker of all time and the guy I thought NU should have hired. Do I think it was race? Maybe. I think it probably figured in which is BS but it shouldn’t figure into it one way or the other. Dont hire him because he is black, hire him BECAUSE HE IS A DAM GOOD COACH AND PERSON. Forget that he is black.

Auburn will get what the deserve for hiring the wrong guy.

by taflorom on Dec 17, 2008 7:53 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

So tired...

of everything coming down to race. Is it me, or does it just start to sound petty anymore when someone brings race into it? WE HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT TO BE!

When does the black / white talk stop completely and I don’t even have to mention the president to be is going to be black – instead of talking about his credentials? The same thing goes for football coaches. I would like to think (maybe I have rose colored glasses on) that people have stopped looking at color completely. Skills and Experience should run coaching searches – NOT COLOR!

by VarangianGuard on Dec 18, 2008 9:10 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

you're right

but the fact is that there’s still a huge imbalance in the number of black coaches in all levels of college football. It’s a subject that’s thorny, yet worth examining.

Put it this way – Charles Barkley has a mouth to be sure – but it looks like there’s some truth in what he’s saying.

Hell, even Myles Brand wonders what’s going on, and when you look at the numbers, you are confronted with the same questions:

There are 117 colleges participating in Division I-A football and there are only three black head coaches. You don’t have to be too smart to know how stupid this looks.

Let me lay it out for you:

Fifty percent black athletes leads to 25 percent black assistant coaches leads to 3 percent black head coaches.
Fifty percent white athletes leads to 75 percent white assistant coaches leads to 97 percent white head coaches.

After doing this site now for three years, I realize why the Nebraska regular media doesn’t get into these issues very often. People want their college football to be about sports only, and when other life issues intrude on that space, people tend to get turned off. It’d be easier if we didn’t say anything here about it at all, but to be blunt and honest, I don’t want to run a site that way. There are a lot of issues around college football that are worth discussing, and this is one of them.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!

by Jon Johnston on Dec 18, 2008 10:39 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

So

you are saying that we have to have a certain number of black coaches just because they are black? Doesn’t matter if they can coach as long as they are black there should be a certain number hired? How many black people are applying for the jobs? If there are 10 applicants for a job and 2 are black dont you think that the job has a better chance of going to someone who isn’t black? The same could be said the other way… if there are 10 applicants and 8 are black there is probably a better chance of a black person getting the job.

I dont know how many black people are applying for head coaching jobs but my guess is it is a far cry shorter then the number of white people. That means there is probably a better chance of the job going to a white person.

As I said previously it shouldn’t matter. Hire the most qualified person for the job and be done with it.

by taflorom on Dec 19, 2008 11:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It starts at the top

I don’t know the numbers but how many of the colleges that are hiring head coaches are run by old white men. How many chancellors, athletic directors, and trustee board members are black? I can’t even think of an AD, who hires the coaches. I would bet it isn’t any better of a ratio, probably worse, than the head coaching ratio.

by Huzkerfan on Jan 7, 2009 7:07 PM CST reply actions 0 recs