Former Nebraska football coach and quarterback Turner Gill is calling it a coaching career. The former Husker quarterbacks coach announced he was retiring, effective immediately on Monday afternoon. Gill and his Liberty team had just finished their first season in FBS after making the jump from the Big South Conference in the FCS this year. The Flames are independent at this level, which allowed them to play a schedule that allowed them to transition to the upper echelon a bit easier. They finished 2018 with a 6-6 record and notched some big wins in their FBS Inaugural season.

That included a 22-16 over the same Troy team that had upended the Cornhuskers earlier in the year.

Health issues cause stunning announcement from Turner Gill

In a statement released by Liberty University, the former Nebraska, Buffalo and Kansas coach said he had to step away from the game because his wife is ill. "In the summer of 2016, my wife Gayle was diagnosed with a heart condition. Both Gayle and I wanted to be here to help Liberty through their transition and we are so glad to have done so. We have come to the realization that it is now time for me to step away," the statement read in part.

He has served the last seven years as the head coach of Liberty compiling a 47-35 record with the Flames.

He was once one of the hotter names in coaching circles after taking over what was then a moribund Buffalo Bulls program. He went 2-10 in his first season at the MAC school but managed to get them to 8-6 in his third year. They also won their division that year and went to a bowl game. In 2010, he took over the Kansas Jayhawks but was fired after just two disastrous seasons.

He made the jump to Liberty, where he has mostly had great success. That includes an upset victory over Baylor during the 2017 season.

Shaping the future of Nebraska football

Before branching off on his own, Turner Gill was a long time assistant for both Tom Osborne and Frank Solich. He became the quarterbacks' coach after finishing his playing days as one of the best quarterbacks to ever put on the scarlet and cream.

One notable pupil of Gill's is the current Nebraska football coach. Scott Frost played under both Osborne and Gill when the Cornhuskers won the National Title in 1997. With a kind fo reunifying of the Husker family since Frost has returned to Lincoln, one has to wonder if Turner Gill might decide to come back to Lincoln himself. Even if he isn't on the coaching staff, a role in the athletic department doesn't seem out of the question.
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