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18 players expected to sign with KU today

By Jayson Jenks

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Turner Gill wears a crisp blue button down with a Jayhawk logo on one side. He stands in the corner of a big, open room as people walk around him and converse.

He’s here, at the opening of the Kansas Sports Museum in Newton Sunday, to engage with supporters from the western portion of the state. He’s here to be visible, to talk and to sign autographs. But most importantly, he’s here to build relationships.

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Photo by Ryan Waggoner

Kansas football coach Turner Gill speaks with members of the media at the Kansas Sports Museum in Newton Sunday afternoon. The museum had its grand opening Sunday, and Gill was on hand to sign autographs and speak with the media.

At least verbally, that’s the centerpiece of Gill’s coaching philosophy. When talking about recruiting, he highlights relationships with parents and prospects alike. When talking about current players recruited by former coach Mark Mangino, that theme doesn’t change.

Now, on national signing day for high school seniors, the relationships established by Gill and his staff will be sealed by pen and paper.

“You’re always ready for Wednesday because you want to know who you got,” Gill said, laughing. “You always want some more time based on the circumstances that happened when I got hired. But I’m good with the reality of where we’re at.”

That reality will become clearer today when at least 18 high school seniors are expected to join Gill in his inaugural season at Kansas.

Highlighting the relatively small class – at least as of Tuesday night – are two Missouri-based recruits. Wide receiver Keeston Terry, from Blue Springs, MO., and running back Brandon Bourbon, from Potosi, Mo., are the only Rivals.com four-star recruits expected to sign with the Jayhawks.

Terry verbally committed late last summer when Mangino was still at the helm and has maintained his nonbinding commitment to Kansas throughout Mangino’s resignation and Gill’s hiring.

Bourbon represents the other end of the recruiting world: the late-in-the-process switch.

After maintaining a verbal commitment to Stanford for six months, Bourbon joined Gill and his staff less than a week ago. He’s rated as the nation’s No. 29 running back, receiving offers from Notre Dame, Missouri and Kansas State.

“They really kept in close contact with him and definitely let him know that he was wanted,” Mark Casey, Bourbon’s high school coach, said. “They just did a good job communicating with him and not necessarily pushing him. They wouldn’t even necessarily talk about football.”

Bourbon’s signing certainly eases the loss of two highly-touted players.

Kansas lost two four-star recruits – Independence cornerback Dave Clark and Hutchinson defensive end Geneo Grissom – after Mangino’s departure. But the Jayhawks also added a handful of verbal commitments since Gill accepted the job Dec. 14.

Kansas’ commitment list has eight players from Texas, adding four wide receivers and four defensive linemen.

“Our staff has put together our needs in areas we felt that we needed,” Gill said. “But again, I can’t sit here and say that I know our team very, very well at this time. Next year, I’ll have a better understanding of where we’re at and what we need.”

The circumstances certainly didn’t help.

Between Mangino’s resignation Dec. 3, Gill’s hiring Dec. 14 and the subsequent hiring of Gill’s staff Jan. 5, Kansas was dealt a short amount of time to play catch-up in the ultra competitive recruiting world.

“You have to build a relationship with families, high school coaches and obviously the student athletes,” Gill said. “That’s the negative when you come in December or January. You’re probably not going to have a chance at people because you didn’t have a relationship that the previous schools had.”

At a time when recruiting continues to generate more media and fan attention, Gill maintains that the foundation – the barebones key – is simple.

Build relationships. Interact with coaches and families. Make you and your staff known.

It’s not an easy order – in fact, it’s perhaps the most difficult aspect of recruiting. And adding to that difficulty is the fact that those same philosophies are generally effective only with time.

“They can see a lot of things on the Internet and with those types of things,” Gill said. “But the relationships, the people, that’s what defines a university and a football program.”

In the past three weeks – in the home stretch of recruiting – Gill and his staff added two local prospects: Pat Lewandowski from Overland Park and Dexter McDonald from Kansas City, Mo.

Although much of Kansas’ recruiting efforts center on Texas, Gill insists that the Jayhawks will also mine local prospects. Each coach will have an area of Kansas that he is responsible for recruiting.

True, Gill and his staff certainly used their limited recruiting time to target possible prospects for the upcoming season. But they also kept an eye down the road, using the time to create relationships for future seasons.

“Recruiting, as we all know, is 365 days out of the year,” Gill said. “So you always are going after guys. Your number one goal is to go after the senior class, the guys that are seniors. But at the same time, we’re still talking about guys for later. It’s always ongoing.”

— Edited by Megan Heacock

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