Vols Buying Out Tarheels For Buffalo...?

((HT: GoVolsXtra/Ward))

Looks that way...

UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton told Ward today:

"It's been verbal communication to this point and in these situations there still has to be formality to any contract, and so we've let Carolina know that we're going to go a different direction since they were not able to move the game and the series to a later date in the decade," Hamilton said. "Personally, it's kind of a downer for me because I was looking forward to playing Carolina as a North Carolina native, but without the ability to move it to later in the decade, we felt like we needed to break that six-game stretch up and put a non-BCS team in there.

"We'll buy out of the series and do that and move ahead."

So much for all those quality losses Tennessee would be building in the early years of the Dooley era... this gives the Vols an eighth home game, more revenue, and an easy win to maintain bowl-eligibility...

Which, is of course, more important...

Here's what the Nation will be seeing... or, more accurately, not seeing...
It will not be a "Free Willy" moment...
((HT: ESPN/TrueBlueUBathletics))

College Wrestler Rehabbing At Home After Spinal Cord Injury

((HT: WIVB-TV Buffalo))

A University at Buffalo wrestler is walking on his own and will continue his rehabilitation at home a little over a month after sustaining a life-threatening spinal cord injury.

Dan Bishop was released from a rehabilitation center in Schenectady, N.Y., the school announced on Tuesday. Bishop returned home to his home in the New York town of Whitehall a day after he spent 45 minutes walking unassisted.

He will continue to get therapy as an outpatient. Bishop said he intends to return to UB to walk on stage to get his diploma during graduation ceremonies next month.

He sustained a fracture between two vertebrae and damage to a major artery on March 6 during a Mid-American Conference semifinal match.

Here's video from our friends at UBSpectrum when Bishop started moving his limbs on his own...


And here's an interview with Bishop that George Rickert conducted with him in his hospital room, thanks to our friends at WIVB-TV...


The HQ will keep rooting for Bishop during his rehab and hopes he gets his wish...

Gill Staying at UB

Once again, the OSG knows when something is up...

Wasting no time and knowing that University of Buffalo Head Coach Turner Gill ((pictured, thanks Getty Images)) was next on everyone's hit list to fill a coaching vacancy, UB signed Gill to a contract extension through the year 2013. The pay raise he is receiving will make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the Mid-American Conference.

The contract also has that lovely "roll-over" language we like to hear about so much.

"On the day I came here to be the head coach, I told my team that one day we would be successful here at the University at Buffalo," Gill said in a statement released by the school. "Now, more than ever, I have never been more proud to be the head coach of this program at this great academic institution. This program has proven it can win now and it is built to continue to win in the future. I am grateful to president John Simpson and athletic director Warde Manuel for their continued support and faith in me as a football coach and leader of young men."

WKBW-TV catches up with Turner Gill in black...

UB Champs!!!

The University of Buffalo may be too good for its own good.

The Bulls took care of previously-unbeaten Ball State in the MAC Championship Game, 42-24. Brady Hoke's Cardinals turned the ball over five times and the Boys In Blue are heading to their first bowl game since 1958.

Once the Bulls take on, probably, one of those middle-of-the-road East squads ((at press time- looks like UConn)) they need to make sure Head Coach Turner Gill is well compensated for plenty of years to come.

Otherwise, Gill is headed to Syracuse.
Here's the fall-out from the upset of Ball State
((HT: WIVB-TV4 in Buffalo/Emma Orn))

Free Willy and the Temple Of Doom

In baseball these days, this would be called a "walk-off Hail Mary"

Let's just call it a game winner and leave it at that...
((thanks, the youtube and ESPNPlus))

Let's Go Buffalo...