Jayhawks ready to move forward
LAWRENCE — On the day after, the Kansas athletic department began the process of moving on from the firing of now-former football coach Turner Gill.
Interim coach Reggie Mitchell took over Gill's duties and embarked on a plan for how to keep the 2012 recruiting class together for the next coach. KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger met with the current Jayhawks to further explain his expectations for them in the future. And Gill, let go after going 5-19 in two seasons, issued his only public statement since learning his fate Sunday.
"I would like to thank the University of Kansas for the opportunity to be its head football coach," said Gill, who will be paid the remaining $6 million on his contract. "On behalf of our staff, I want to thank the players for putting their heart and soul into this football program the past two years. I hope nothing but the best for all their future endeavors, both on and off the field."
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, speaking across campus at his weekly press gathering, called Sunday a "sad day" —no coach ever wants to see another coach shown his walking papers — but also acknowledged just how much KU needs to have a good football program.
"It benefits everybody on our campus," Self said. "It benefits our athletic department, it benefits our budget. There's no revenue stream that this university can create that's better than putting people in the seats over there. When you put people in the seats over there, now the advertising dollars go up, and more TV exposure means people are paying more to put signage in the stadium. Regardless of how many people see it, it is a business, and you've got to generate income."
As the 2011 season played out, a real concern emerged among KU administrators and donors that the number of season-ticket packages purchased would greatly decrease if Gill was KU's coach in 2012. The Jayhawks lost all positive momentum by losing their last 10 games.
Self was able to do some math on the fly Monday to illustrate how important football revenue can be.
"Basketball, I don't know exactly where we're at, but I'd say we're close to being maxed out to what we can generate," Self said. "We can't do this because of the size of our (football) stadium, but let's say Penn State has 110,000. Let's say 10,000 of those are students. That's 100,000 people paying approximately an average of 70 dollars a game. That's 7-million dollars plus parking and concessions. When putting a lot less numbers in there, how do athletic budgets compete against each other?
"We need football to be good, because football also brings an element of enthusiasm and energy on your campus which I think is important."
With Gill gone, the responsibility of transitioning KU into a new era falls to Mitchell, who served as Gill's running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. Mitchell, also who coached at KU under Glen Mason during 1988-96, said Monday that he was only a little surprised that Gill was let go.
"We've been here two years," Mitchell said. "Then again, we only won one Big 12 game. The fact that we haven't been competitive... you want more time, but you also know you have to show more. We did not show enough improvement."
Mitchell said that he will be joined by defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt and wide receivers coach David Beaty on the recruiting trail. So far, Mitchell said, KU has not had any players decommit or open up their recruitment.
Their message to recruits will be to wait until meeting with the next Kansas coach before making a final decision.
"Give him an opportunity to come into your home and sell himself and sell his vision," Mitchell said. "We've just got to talk to them and calm them down. We're going to have a guy that can take it in the direction we all want it to go."
This story was originally published November 29, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Jayhawks ready to move forward."