LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Liberty has brought in Turner Gill as its new football coach and the school also has hired a firm to help it study the feasibility of moving up to the Bowl Subdivision.
The former Kansas coach was introduced Thursday, when Chancellor and President Jerry Falwell, Jr., also said the school founded by his father would look into possibly moving up to the highest level in college football.
Liberty competes in the Big South Conference in the Championship Subdivision.
Gill was fired Nov. 27 at Kansas after just two seasons into a 5-year contract. He takes over a program coming off six consecutive winning seasons under Danny Rocco, who left after the season to take the top job at Richmond in the powerful Colonial Athletic Association.
Gill took the job with the Jayhawks after what was considered remarkable success at Buffalo. He took over a team that had won only 10 of its past 79 games and guided it to a 20-30 record over four seasons, and won the Mid-American Conference title in 2009.
His teams struggled at Kansas, winning just five times in 24 games. They lost in a stunning debut to lower-division North Dakota State, and won only one Big 12 Conference game in two years. The victory, against Colorado, cost the Buffaloes’ coach his job later that week.
In a statement, Falwell said the school talked to numerous candidates for the coaching position before settling on Gill, and that whether the school intended to move up was a consistent topic.
The school has contracted with Carr Sports Associates to conduct the study.