re: Emerging candidates for the KU job...

Tubby interested in the job.

LINK

Former Auburn and Mississippi football coach Tommy Tuberville would like to hear from Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins about the open KU job, Tuberville said on Thursday.

Tuberville, who led Auburn to a perfect season in 2004, said he had been contacted by some other schools about their vacancies but wasn't interested.

"Kansas is a good program," said Tuberville, 55. "It's in a conference that you can compete in. It's really come leaps and bounds over the last few years, going to the Orange Bowl a couple years ago. Obviously, Kansas has made a reputation in basketball, and that's great. But I think that can just help the football program. You can win in both sports."

To get Perkins' attention, Tuberville will have to overcome some leading candidates who have moved to the forefront. As KU's search for its next coach enters its second week today, The Eagle has learned that Kansas has talked with Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh about the opening and that Harbaugh is likely the Jayhawks' top choice.

East Carolina coach Skip Holtz and Buffalo coach Turner Gill have also emerged from the pack of coaches that have spoken with Perkins — a group that includes Central Michigan coach Butch Jones, Houston coach Kevin Sumlin, Minnesota coach Tim Brewster and Mississippi coach Houston Nutt. It appears that Holtz and Gill would take the job if offered.

But barring Perkins picking up the phone and calling Tuberville, Harbaugh would be KU's home run hire. In Harbaugh's three seasons at Stanford, the Cardinal has made a steady progression, improving from 1-11 the year before he took the job in 2006 to 8-4 in 2009. Under the fiery Harbaugh this season, the Cardinal crushed Southern California 55-21 in Los Angeles and beat Notre Dame 45-38 at home. Stanford will face Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl.

Harbaugh, 45, a former quarterback at Michigan and for the Indianapolis Colts, shares Kansas' interest. His wife, Sarah, is from Kansas City.

Holtz, 45, is an attractive option to Perkins because of their personal relationship — Perkins hired Holtz to coach Connecticut in 1994 — and the success he has had in building East Carolina into the top program in Conference USA. The Pirates, now back-to-back league champions, had won three of their last 25 games when they hired Holtz after the 2004 season. Holtz does not have many apparent connections to the Big 12 region.

Gill, 47, was reportedly the first candidate that Perkins contacted. In four seasons at Buffalo, Gill has a 20-30 record, but he led the Bulls to the 2008 Mid-American Conference championship and the school's first bowl game in 50 years. While Holtz is lacking in regional ties, Gill has plenty. He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, played and coached at Nebraska and now has a daughter, Jordan, who is a student at KU.

Jones and Sumlin have spoken to Perkins but don't appear to be strong candidates. Sumlin told the Houston Chronicle that he is close to signing an extension with Houston. Brewster and Nutt both publicly revealed their intention to stay at their current schools.

In dealing with Tuberville, a coach's loyalty to another school would not be a factor.

"I can move overnight," Tuberville said. "I'm a free agent, don't have anything holding me back."

Tuberville fashions himself as a program builder. He talked with pride about "starting from scratch" at two Southeastern Conference schools.

He went 85-40 in 10 seasons at Auburn, including a 13-0 record and No. 2 final ranking in 2004, but things began to fall apart in 2008 when Tuberville abandoned the run-oriented attack that produced NFL running backs Rudi Johnson, Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown and switched to a spread look. Tuberville is a defense-first coach — he was a defensive coordinator at Texas A&M under R.C. Slocum in 1994 — but ultimately a bad offense sealed his fate at Auburn. After finishing 5-7 and losing to in-state rival Alabama 36-0, Tuberville resigned.

He said he has spent his year away making sure he'd be more prepared than ever to lead a program upon his return to the sidelines.

"I've spent this year going around trying to put together an offense that I feel would work," Tuberville said.

That meant trips to Oregon to learn its run-heavy spread offense, to Air Force to learn its wishbone attack and to Notre Dame, South Florida and Texas, among others.

"I've studied film, I've worked for ESPN," Tuberville said. "This year was good for me just to kind of reenergize, step back and look from the outside in a little bit, figure out what I want to do when I get back in it."

Tuberville maintained that defense will be the priority of any program he runs. He said he already has a staff in mind to run the offense he has been concocting. He said he could assure Kansas that he knows the Texas landscape and would hire a staff with recruiting the Big 12 region in mind.

"I got a plan," Tuberville said.

Tuberville certainly sounded like a man who has had plenty of time to think out his pitch to athletic directors. He even mentioned that he'd come cheaper since he has no contract to buyout.

"If they called, I'd like to talk to them," Tuberville said. "That's the only thing you want to do is talk to them. You sell your philosophy."

Gruden and Harbaugh are pipe dreams at this point, but KU has the money to get a big name in here. A lot of people bash the football program, but it's not that bad. Nowhere near the prestige of Nebraska, Oklahoma, or Texas, but we could very well become a force in the North with the right coach. Perhaps we'll start to be like Oklahoma State is right now. Flirting with ambitions of taking the conference title, and eventually putting ourselves in the mix for a BCS bowl on a consistent basis.

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Skip Holtz--good move IMO




yes


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Turner Gill--probably better than Holtz at this poin




but that's just my opinion.

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What is your opinion based on? Did you coach or play for him? Coach against him?

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What is your opinion based on?

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Well, I'm from western Iowa so I know quite a bit about Nebraska football.

He's done an amazing job at Buffalo.

Seems like a great guy who runs a tight ship.

I think he has a bright future when someone takes a chance on him and I'm just not sure how good Skip Holtz will be.

I'd like to see them be more competitive in the Conference-USA first. I know they won the conference but I'm talking like win all of their conference games.

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Emerging candidates for the KU job...

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Bert Lyons 716




Sorry I fell for your flaming immaturity.


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You can't be old enuff to remember Gill.




This is all I need to say..........

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I'm being mature. You provided no proof that you know anything about Gill's coaching abilities.
Enuff is often used in informal computer slang.
Now tell me why Gill is the man for the KU job. Please explain your childish Recruiting Asst Team sig. How old were you when you lived in Iowa and Gill was Husker QB?

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if Kansas hires a Holtz instead of Gill, will they get the "back-lash" like Auburn got last year with the same situation? I bet NOT

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I bet not either, but I'll see if I can't get Charles Barkley on it if they hire him.

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I'm being mature.

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Right, you're being mature for calling me out and calling me childish. That sounds mature.

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You provided no proof that you know anything about Gill's coaching abilities.

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He improved each year at Buffalo since he took over in 2005 gaining wins each year for a program new to Division one.

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Enuff is often used in informal computer slang.

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Again, and I'm the childish one? Even though it's the internet, I still put my best foot forward and try to present myself in a professional manner.

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Now tell me why Gill is the man for the KU job.

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I didn't say he was the man for the KU job. I said he would do a good job and I think he's a better pick than Holtz who were the two mentioned in the first post. Obviously, I think Tubby would be better than both of those. As I said initially, it's just my opinion. I think Gill is an emerging young coach who has the potential to be pretty special.

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Please explain your childish Recruiting Asst Team sig

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A couple of posters came up with this because I was helping to keep an eye on people trashing our recruits last year and posting lies about our guys and being a detriment to LSU in general. I just helped admins (as they asked us to) to help watch people who would be a detriment to recruiting efforts and someone had the silly idea to turn it into a sig image.

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How old were you when you lived in Iowa and Gill was Husker QB?

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I was a baby, but like I said, living in Western Iowa is like living in Nebraska. Our news channel is all Omaha, our newspaper is the Omaha World Herald. It's nothing like growing up in Louisiana and knowing anything about Texas. My dad is a die-hard Nebraska guy and my brother-in-law has two Big 8 Championship rings. So, needless to say, Gill is firmly entrenched in my family's lore just like the LSU Tigers of your past. I'm from Iowa, my home is still Iowa, and I'm currently in Iowa.

Not that I needed to answer your flames but this was just me trying to be the bigger person and answer you in a serious manner.

pipe dream. Harbaugh can get a job worth a shite or even head to the NFL soon