Pelini talks with NU officials, Gill may be next
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON AND STEVEN M. SIPPLE / Lincoln Journal Star
Bo Pelini has interviewed, and Turner Gill appears set to be interviewed by Nebraska officials, who Sunday flew to Baton Rouge, La., and apparently on to Atlanta to conduct their search for a head football coach.
The private airplane, carrying interim athletic director Tom Osborne and UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman, arrived in Baton Rouge shortly after 3 p.m. Two sources told the Journal Star that Pelini, Louisiana State’s defensive coordinator, was interviewed there.
The airplane, owned by Norfolk Iron and Metal, sat on the tarmac at Baton Rouge Metro Airport for nearly 2½ hours before departing for Atlanta at 5:35 p.m. According to flight logs, the airplane arrived at Fulton County Airport-Brown Field in Atlanta at 7:50.
The Journal Star learned Saturday that an Atlanta-based firm, Parker Executive Search, was assisting Osborne in finding a replacement for Bill Callahan.
In announcing Callahan’s firing, Osborne said Saturday that he would like to talk to four or five coaches over the next few days.
Osborne was given permission Sunday by Buffalo athletic director Warde Manuel to interview Gill, the Bulls’ second-year head coach.
Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, Manuel told the Journal Star: “I think it’s tremendous. Turner is absolutely ready to coach at Nebraska. He’s done a great job, an awesome turnaround. Although I would hate to lose him, he would be a great coach there.”
Manuel believes an interview will take place “in the next day or so.”
Gill just completed a 5-7 season at Buffalo. Before his arrival, the Bulls had won only five games in four years.
Pelini’s interview comes during the week of LSU’s preparations for the Southeastern Conference championship game. The fifth-ranked Tigers, who lost 50-48 in triple-overtime to Arkansas on Friday, face Tennessee on Saturday with a BCS bowl bid on the line.
Dick Robinson, president of Norfolk Iron and Metal, declined comment Sunday as to why the company’s plane was en route to Baton Rouge and later Atlanta.
“We have a policy that we don’t reveal that type of information,” said Robinson, a prominent Nebraska athletics donor who in 2006 was presented with the Clarence Swanson Memorial Award.
The award honors a person “for outstanding contributions to the University of Nebraska and the Husker athletic department.”
Told of the flight to Baton Rouge, LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said, “Are you kidding me?”
Bertman said nobody from Nebraska contacted him regarding Pelini, but added, “It's probably not absolutely, positively mandatory for an assistant. I don’t suppose he felt he had to contact me, I guess.”
Another name that has been linked to the Nebraska opening is first-year Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly.
Kelby Siler, associate athletic director for communications at Cincinnati, said Kelly wouldn’t discuss rumors.
“He doesn’t want to talk about it,” Siler said. “He doesn’t want to field questions. We’re just trying to figure out if we’re going to El Paso, Charlotte or Birmingham (for bowl games) right now.”
Siler said athletic director Mike Thomas won’t say whether he’s been contacted by schools seeking permission to speak with Kelly.
Kelly and Thomas are having an end-of-the-regular season review meeting on Monday, Siler said.
Nebraska fired Callahan on Saturday after four seasons. He was 27-22 in that time.
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