Buffalo has hired Turner Gill as head football coach, effective January 3.

Gill, a longtime assistant football coach at Nebraska, becomes the fifth African-American head football coach in Division I-A.

For the past year, Gill has been player development director and offensive assistant with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. Before his stint with the Packers, he spent 12 years at Nebraska. From 1992 to 2002, Gill served as quarterbacks coach before being elevated to assistant head coach in 2003. He was in charge of wide receivers the following season. During his tenure at Nebraska, Gill was part of national-championship teams in 1994, 1995 and 1997. He began his coaching career as receivers coach at Southern Methodist in 1991.

As the starting quarterback at Nebraska from 1981 to 1983, Gill twice led Cornhusker squads to top-three national rankings, a 28-2 overall record and an unblemished 20-0 Big Eight Conference mark. The three-time all-Big Eight selection went on to quarterback the Montreal Concordes of the Canadian Football League to playoff appearances in 1984 and 1985. He also spent three seasons with minor league affiliates of Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians.