BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jeff Quinn will be Buffalo's new football coach following the departure of Turner Gill.

Quinn's hiring was announced by the school Sunday. He will remain as Cincinnati's interim coach until after the fourth-ranked Bearcats play Florida in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.

Quinn was put in charge of Cincinnati when Brian Kelly left for Notre Dame.

With 27 years of college coaching experience, Quinn returns to the Mid-American Conference, where he previously served as offensive coordinator at Central Michigan.

Gill left last week to become the coach at Kansas after posting 20-30 in four seasons at Buffalo.

The NFL is partnering with Boston University brain researchers who have been critical of the league's stance on concussions.The league now plans to encourage current and former NFL players to agree to donate their brains to the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which has said it found links between repeated head trauma and brain damage in boxers, football players and, most recently, a former NHL player.NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told the AP that the league also is committed to giving $1 million or more to the center.The BU group and the NFL Players Association jointly announced that the union also will work with the center and encourage players to participate in brain studies.

NEW ORLEANS — Dwight Dasher ran for a bowl-record 201 yards and two touchdowns and threw two scoring passes Sunday to lead Middle Tennessee to a 42-32 victory over Southern Mississippi in the New Orleans Bowl.Dasher completed 15 of 25 for 162 yards and ran 26 times. He finished the season with 1,175 yards rushing. His rushing total for the game was the most for a quarterback in a bowl game, breaking the old mark of 200 yards set by Vince Young in the 2006 Rose Bowl.Middle Tennessee (10-3), playing in the second bowl game in school history, concluded its best season since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1999 with a seven-game winning streak and its first bowl victory.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — With versatile freshman Mohamed Sanu doing a little bit of everything, Rutgers extended its string of postseason success with a 45-24 rout of Central Florida in the St. Petersburg Bowl Saturday night.The multithreat receiver ran for two touchdowns out of the wildcat formation and scored on an 11-yard reception from Tom Savage, another true freshman who threw for a career-best 294 yards.Rutgers (9-4) claimed a school-record fourth consecutive bowl win to finish with at least nine victories for just the sixth time in 140 years. UCF (8-5) fell to 0-3 in bowl games under coach George O'Leary.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels threw three touchdown passes, the last a 13-yarder to David Leonard in the second overtime Saturday, and Wyoming beat Fresno State 35-28 in the New Mexico Bowl.Wyoming (7-6) stopped the nation's leading rusher, Fresno State's Ryan Mathews, on three rushing attempts from the 1 in the first overtime. The Bulldogs (8-5) tried a quarterback sneak on fourth down and came up short.