SMITH: Turner Gill’s homecoming turns awkward as Husker Nation moves on

Turner Gill said it best: Saturday was awkward.

Gill — the Cornhusker quarterback turned NU assistant coach turned Buffalo savior turned Kansas head coach — had a homecoming defined in equal parts by appreciation and indifference.

"There was a little bit of awkwardness for me to come into the stadium on the other side," Gill said after his Jayhawks lost 20-3.

But there was more to the awkwardness than the visitor's entrance.

There was the classy, but routine, video tribute to Gill that played on HuskerVision before kickoff.

There was the polite, but not overwhelming, ovation from the Nebraska crowd after the video played.

There was the fact that one of the best offensive players in Nebraska history coached a team that mustered only 87 yards of total offense.

There was the fact that NU coach Bo Pelini told a TV reporter that he said, "Good luck" to Gill when they met at midfield after the game.

But more than that, there was the fact that Nebraska had moved on.

It's been well documented that Gill and Pelini were the two finalists for the job when Bill Callahan was fired.

Of course, Pelini got the job and Gill was left out in the upstate New York cold. You'd be hard-pressed to find a Nebraska fan now who would call that the wrong choice.

Also, no fan younger than 30 years old remembers watching Gill play for the Huskers. Most Nebraska students weren't born when Gill's playing career ended in 1983 and were in middle school or high school when he left the Husker staff in 2004.

Players like Brandon Kinnie admitted last week they don't know the first thing about Gill. And Gill himself said the only people in the current Husker program he keeps in close touch with are athletic director Tom Osborne and tight ends coach Ron Brown.

So while Saturday was a chance to welcome home a favorite son, he was welcomed by many who never saw him play and instead saw the game as a head-to-head comparison of the coach Nebraska hired and the coach Nebraska didn't.

In all fairness, Gill took over a crumbling program this year with limited talent, an impatient fan base and overblown expectations. And while he had his peaks with an upset win over No. 15 Georgia Tech and a fourth quarter for the ages against Colorado, it's the valleys that have hogged the headlines.

Losing to FCS school North Dakota State. Losing to Southern Mississippi. Getting blown out by Kansas State.

Pelini, on the other hand, has had the benefit of three years to install his system, a football tradition that goes back further than the 2008 Orange Bowl and fans that don't switch into basketball mode on Oct. 1.

Despite Pelini's advantages, the inevitable comparison between the two coaches on Saturday didn't favor Gill. His offense sputtered on each drive and its 87 total yards were the fewest allowed by Nebraska in more than a decade.

Long considered an heir apparent to Frank Solich, Gill rose to coaching prominence after twice being passed over for the top job in Nebraska. He did it the hard way, resurrecting a Buffalo program that makes his Kansas squad look like the Green Bay Packers, while Pelini won the more glamorous job in Lincoln.

Gill should be proud of what he's accomplished since leaving Lincoln, and the pregame video and polite cheers showed that Nebraska fans are proud of Gill.

But Nebraska has moved on. Players don't know who he is. Students don't remember him wearing red. And, perhaps most telling, almost every Husker fan is glad that Gill wasn't hired three years ago.

That's what made Saturday so awkward.

Mitch Smith is a junior news-editorial major. Reach him at mitchsmith@

dailynebraskan.com