FanHouse Turner Gill

For Iowa State, their next football coach was obvious. All they needed to do was send a dump truck full of money to Turner Gill's office in Buffalo and the former Nebraska quarterback would be Iowa-bound. It didn't work out that way, though, as Gill signed a contract extension with Buffalo on Tuesday.

That makes ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard's job about 30% harder, which means it's now Impossible + 30%. You can tell the stress is getting to him. He hasn't yet started calling Gene Chizik "a great big lying poopy-pants" but it sure seems like he wants to. And now he the obvious guy is off the market.

Of course, if Pollard's got a sense of humor at all, he's already been in contact with Tommy Tuberville's agent. Tubs might not like Ames winters, but he's known to have a mean streak. What better way to get back at Auburn than to take Gene Chizik's players and put up a better record than the Golden Boy? All he has to do is win four games to exceed Chizik's best season.

While that would be triple-distilled awesome, I don't expect it to happen. But where will Iowa State find its next coach?

Something tells me the list of "People Who Like Gene Chizik" is a bit shorter than this one.

We've already told you why the Chizik hiring at Auburn is, um, questionable. Fans have had their say, and they're not happy.



Time now for the alumni to chime in. We'll start with one of Auburn's most visible alums: Charles Barkley. I don't think he's happy.

"I think race was the No. 1 factor," said Barkley, who played basketball for three seasons at Auburn during the early 1980s. "You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumes and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume."

"I'm just very disappointed. I just thought Turner Gill would be the perfect choice for two reasons: He's a terrific coach and we needed to make a splash. I thought we had to do something spectacular to bring attention to the program. Clearly, if we'd hired a black coach, it would have created a buzz."

Ouch.

As the coaching carousel keeps turning, the newly-available Ty Willingham might be expected to be bitter. After all, his record at Notre Dame was essentially the same as Charlie Weis' after three seasons. Yet Willingham got the gate from the Domers, while Weis got the dreaded vote of confidence from his athletic director this week. You wouldn't blame Willingham if all of a sudden he started talking like Yosemite Sam with a habanero seed stuck in his throat. Gibbering, barely coherent anger would seem to be an appropriate response to such a regrettable circumstance.

Whatever you may think of Willingham as a coach, he said the right thing about Weis, and about coaches in general.

"It's not just my issue, it's a college football issue - we have to give coaches a chance to do their job," Willingham said Thursday from Seattle, where he recently was fired as the University of Washington's coach after four seasons, the last of them winless.

"Because now we have coaches ... especially some of the minority coaches ... they are losing their jobs after 2 1/2 years. That's not right."

Indeed, it's not right, as I said earlier this year. The situation hasn't gotten better. Who's to blame?

So Saturday's Auburn-Buffalo game doesn't have you decking out the SUV in Auburn magnets, painting a sign for the game or searching the internet for the latest stories on the Buffalo offense? Thank goodness. That means your normal. However, Auburn's match-up with Buffalo does serve a purpose.

Auburn fans can be thankful that this week's game is the easiest on the schedule. I can't remember a time when an Auburn team was so banged up. With that said, you may still want to know a little about the Buffalo Bulls and what they are about. At least it will make the game more interesting. To help you get better acquainted, I've put together a series of links culled from the internet that should familiarize you with the mighty Bulls.

Buffalo Bulls Charge Onto Auburn Tiger's Plains

Buffalo Facing Long Odds At Auburn

Buffalo' s Gill No Stranger To Jordan-Hare

Gill Finds Purpose As Buffalo Coach

Buffalo Coach Knows How To Beat AU

Buffalo Coach Returns To The Scene Of Nebraska Win Over Tigers

While Auburn fans know little about its next opponent, they should be more familiar with its coach. When Buffalo rolls into Jordan-Hare Stadium this Saturday, there will be a familiar face on the sidelines. The Bulls are lead by former Heisman finalist and Nebraska All-American quarterback Turner Gill.

Gill engineered some of the great Nebraska teams of the 1980's. While a starter for the Cornhuskers, Gill lead his team to a 28-2 overall record and 20-0 in the Big Eight. He finished fourth in the Heisman race in 1983 behind teammate Mike Rozier.

This will be Gill's second trip to Auburn . Back in 1982, he brought his Nebraska team into Jordan-Hare Stadium and came away with a 41-7 win against Pat Dye's second Auburn team. The previous year, he and the Cornhuskers defeated Auburn 17-3 in Lincoln.

Don't expect Saturday's results to be so positive for Gill and his Buffalo team. He is in his first season at Buffalo and stands at 1-2 after Saturday's 31-17 loss to Northern Illinois . The Bulls lone win came against Temple in week one. Buffalo is a member of the MAC conference.

Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. from Pat Dye Field. There will be no television coverage this week. The game can heard on the radio through the Auburn Network and Sirius Satellite Radio.