Jordan Gill, the daughter of Kansas University football coaching candidate Turner Gill, recently began working for the KU athletics department’s Williams Fund, the Journal-World learned Tuesday.
Gill, a sophomore at KU, began the job — the duties of which include handling ticket sales for KU Athletics — this semester.
The elder Gill, who reportedly interviewed for the Kansas job on Sunday, is being considered as a replacement for recently resigned coach Mark Mangino.
In the past four seasons as Buffalo’s head coach, Gill has gone 20-30, his most successful season coming in 2008, when he led the Bulls to the Mid-American Conference championship and their first bowl game in half a century.
This season, the team finished 5-7, missing a bowl game.
UB players voice support for Gill: One Buffalo player, reached by e-mail Tuesday, told the Journal-World that there would be no feelings of betrayal on the part of players were Gill to land in Lawrence.
“(Wherever) he goes, there will be no hard feelings from me,” he said. “I wish him nothing but success and the best of luck.”
Added another player, also via e-mail, “Kansas would be lucky to get a first class guy like him but of course we would love to keep him here at Buffalo.”
Perkins addresses Williams Fund members: Also on Tuesday, meanwhile, KU athletic director Lew Perkins sent an e-mail to Williams Fund members, acknowledging that the search for a new football coach was under way and assuring he was doing everything possible to make the right hire.
“Please know that we will do our best to keep you informed, though I realize media seems to find a way to share both accurate and inaccurate information – a lot of times before we know it,” he wrote. “In my 41 years of experience in athletics, I’ve found it best not to comment on each name that’s thrown our way by the press. So until you see an official announcement from us, don’t believe everything you read.”
Perkins was scheduled to be at the National Football Foundation Awards Dinner on Tuesday night at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where KU quarterback Todd Reesing was honored as a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy.
