By Jonah Bronstein
AMHERST — Even after the most successful season in school history, University at Buffalo football coach Turner Gill rejected the status quo.
In the celebratory months following UB’s Mid-American Conference championship and International Bowl appearance, Gill reshuffled his coaching staff, changing coordinators on both offense and defense.
Jimmy Williams, a former Nebraska teammate who had overseen the defense since Gill’s arrival in 2006, was dismissed, and Fred Reed was elevated from defensive backs coach to coordinator.
On the other side of the ball, Gill relinquished his coordinator responsibilities, including gameday play-calling, to Danny Barrett, who had been quarterbacks coach and assistant head coach for the past two seasons.
“Offensively, it’s definitely a change, but I don’t see it as a major change,” Gill said Tuesday. “Danny was so involved in recommending plays and really each (coach) has their own responsibility throughout the week of what they have to do and study to bring out the gameplan of what we should do and how we should attack. I saw last year, and heard last year, that Danny was very similar in the things that I was doing in playcalling.
“From the defensive standpoint, I just asked myself the question, what is going to continue to help us move this football program forward on the defensive side? I just thought it was better for us to make a change, and I thought Fred was the best person for the job.”
The Bulls ranked among the nation’s best in forcing turnovers in 2008, a major factor in their 8-6 finish, but gave up more than 408 yards and 28 points per game.
Reed’s first season at UB came after a two-year stint with the Detroit Lions. Before that, he was a coordinator at Division II University of Nebraska-Omaha, where his defenses led the North Central Conference in takeaways in 2002 and 2004, and was second in the conference in total defense in 2004.
“I like what Fred’s all about,” Gill said. “He understands the front line, the linebackers, the secondary. He’s been a coordinator before. He’s a very detailed guy.
“But he also has great relationships with our players. Being here for one year, I saw how our players responded to him, not just our secondary, but our whole defense.”
Cornerback Domonic Cook (St. Joe’s) said Reed has fostered a business-like approach among the defensive players, and encouraged them to be more vocal in support of each other.
“We really want to concentrate on the things that don’t take a lot of talent,” Reed said. “Things like getting off blocks, and tackling. The best defenses around the country, all of them are great tackling teams.”
Reed said the Bulls can tackle better without sacrificing their ability to take the ball away.
“I think the more people you can get to the football, it increases your chances of making turnovers,” he said. “We want to try and get as many bodies to the ball as we can.”
Gill said he expects this year’s defense, which returns eight starters, to be the best he’s had at UB.
Barrett’s challenge will be to replicate the 30-point-per-game production of last year with first-year starter Zach Maynard taking over at quarterback for savvy senior Drew Willy.
“He’s better prepared as a sophomore than Drew was as a sophomore,” Gill said. “He’s been around our coaches for a year. He’s been exposed to a few more things than Drew was at that time. I really believe we have a lot of things in place where he doesn’t have to do everything on every single play.”
Notably, the Bulls have two of the conferences top returning playmakers, and NFL prospects, in tailback James Starks (Niagara Falls) and receiver Naaman Roosevelt (St. Joe’s).
“They’re our home run hitters,” Barrett said.
Starks, Roosevelt, and the rest of the veterans have climbed to the top of a mountain UB had never even been halfway up before. Gill wants them to realize how much effort it will take for them to ascend again.
“What has happened in the past has happened in the past,” he said. “We have to go out and execute better than last year. Each and every guy has to go out and perform better than last year. If we do that, we’ll win football games, and we’ll have a great opportunity to be MAC champions again, and go to a bowl game and win that also.”
Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at jonah.bronstein@niagara-gazette.com
