"With Manuel's help, Gill surrounds himself with experienced staff"

After a disappointing and all-too-familiar one-win season, the leadership of UB football has received a complete makeover.

Having fired head coach Jim Hofher and replaced him with former Nebraska great Turner Gill, Athletics Director Warde Manuel and his new head coach then set out on the daunting task of bringing in a staff with a hunger for winning and a spirit to match Gill's.

The result has been a coaching staff that even the most cynical Bulls fans can appreciate.

"I think the common thread between all of these coaches is that they will form great relationships with our student-athletes and they are excellent coaches and recruiters," Gill said earlier this year in a press release. "I'm very excited about the caliber of men that are joining me to help build this program."

With the dismissal of Hofher, only the running backs coach, Allen Mogridge, is left from last season's staff. Brought in to complement the lone Buffalo veteran are eight new assistants from across the country.

The biggest local name of these new coaches is former Buffalo Bills quarterback Alex Van Pelt. Van Pelt brings a decade of NFL experience to the Bulls as the new QB coach and passing coordinator.

With Gill, who will also serve as offensive coordinator, and Van Pelt calling the plays, Angus McClure has joined the staff as the new assistant offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Another product of Bill Callahan's Cornhuskers, McClure is expected to help Buffalo run a far more advanced offense than what the team did under Hofher.

"We are going to run some similar things to what the West Coast style of offense would run," Van Pelt said. "I don't want to call it a West Coast offense because that term gets used too often. We'll use a lot of three-step drops, and a quick passing game. A lot of it will be timing, with a lot of play-action pass. Our run game is going to be important. We'll also have a mix of some other things that all of us on the staff, offensively, have had success with in the past."

The Bulls will need to get solid production from their skill positions in order to make a more sophisticated offense work. This is where new coaches Juan Taylor and Aaron Stamn come in. Working with the receivers and tight ends, respectively, both coaches are high-energy leaders who bring years of experience to the team.

With as much experience as the coaching staff shows on the offensive side of the ball, four new defensive-minded coaches have also been hired.

Charlie Jackson joins Buffalo after serving as a defensive assistant for the Green Bay Packers last season. Jackson will take over the defensive coordinator and defensive backs position for the Bulls. Due largely to Jackson's coaching, Green Bay's pass defense improved from 25th in the league in 2004 to first in 2005.

Brian Mohnsen, or "Moose" as he prefers to be called, joins the Bulls as the front-four guru. Described by Gill as "a very intelligent person and an outstanding technician," Mohnsen will look to improve the performance of the defensive line.

Joining the Bulls as the co-defensive coordinator and inside linebacker coach is two-time Detroit Lions' team MVP and first-round draft pick Jimmy Williams. Working closely with Williams will be R. Todd Littlejohn, who will take on coaching Buffalo's outside linebackers, along with insuring field position as the special teams coordinator.

Littlejohn has a laundry list of college experience, having coached numerous athletes that have gone on to be successful players in the NFL. As UCLA's defensive backs coach, Littlejohn was a part in the Bruin's win in the Las Vegas Bowl last season, and he has mentored players such as Ricky Manning of the Carolina Panthers), Matt Ware of the Philadelphia Eagles), and Marques Anderson and Ben Emanuel of the San Francisco 49ers).

As the lone returning coach, Mogridge believes the sea of new faces Gill and Manuel have put around him has created not only a new family, but also a new era in Bulls football history.

"Probably one of the biggest things about Coach Gill is that this isn't him, it isn't us, it's everybody," Mogridge said. "It doesn't matter if you're on staff, or a player, or you support the team. Anybody who works around this environment is only striving for one goal and that's obviously winning."