TicketsI really should be mentioning this every Wednesday to remind you, but remember today you can receive two free sides with a 1/2-pound sandwich at any City BBQ location as long as you are wearing some UC gear.
Mac-n-Cheese, people. It tastes like cheese-covered dreams.
Let's eat before you do....
--- The Bengals offense has been holding workouts at UC for the last week and a half now and each Wednesday the defense comes up from working out at Ignition for a full-team practice.
They are all at Nippert today putting in the closest thing to work you can when nobody is covering a possible injury.
Anyway, good story from local writaaah and Boston homaaahh, Geoff Hobson, on Butch Jones' view of the workouts. Not surprisingly, third QB Dan LeFevour has been staying with Jones and his family. Jones' family is still close with LeFevour from his days at Central Michigan and kept in contact during the season.
I mentioned here last year that Jones reported LeFevour and Zach Collaros had even started developing a working relationship since LeFevour was around the program so much. They hold the same experiences in this offense and understanding expectations.
When you see the way former players still gravitate toward Jones, his success and connection with players becomes abundantly clear.
--- Another reason they gravitate toward him...speeches like this that Tommy G put together for the ticket sales campaign. Yeah, I think I can feel the program. (I'm also positive TG is standing in the background writing two reminders on his notepad, "Make commercial of speech" and "pick up cookies for Bill Koch")
--- Bill caught up with Armon Binns recently and posted a blog about his plight waiting out the lockout. Binns took the draft hard as he was expecting to be selected, as most of us expected him to be selected.
For now, he's trying to stay in shape and work out so when the time comes he will be ready to make an impact in training camp somewhere.
You have to like his attitude:
"You've got to take it as motivation," Binns said, "work harder and prove everybody wrong."
Binns finished the year 14th in the country in receiving yards per game. Of the top 10 draft-eligible players in that stat, only Binns and Jordan White of Western Michigan were not drafted. Hard to figure out, but Binns will latch on somewhere.
--- Athlon Sports sent out its preseason publication and kept consistent with the few we've seen already. Isaiah Pead, JK Schaffer and DJ Woods were on the Big East first team. Zach Collaros and punter Pat O'Donnell landed on the second team. Derek Wolfe, Alex Hoffman and Dominique Battle earned third team honors.
Collaros also dons the Cincinnati regional cover. Click here to order.
Anybody who thinks Derek Wolfe would be on the third wave of defensive linemen if the Big East put one team together needs their head checked. Wolfe has been constantly underrated nationally and has the capability to prove a ton of pundits wrong by season's end.
--- Athlon also ranked UC's running backs as the best position group in the conference. With Pead, Darrin Williams, George Winn, Jameel Poteat and Akise Teague, among others, the pool runs deep with the top individual talent at the top.
Can't disagree there.
--- The latest question Athlon posed was if West Virginia is still the Big East favorite with the recent coaching transition? The magazine says yes in this blog. They don't see Holgorsen's first stint as a head coach holding the team back.
Andrea Adelson at ESPN agrees with Athlon.
--- This sparked a thought (Caution: Typically dangerous proposition): What is the success rate of career assistants in their first year as head coaches in comparison to leaders with previous head coaching experience?
I took a look back at 2010 to find out (experience only as coach in bowl game does not count):
Career Assistants:
Coach School Rcrd +/- '09 wins
Rob Ianello Akron 1-11 -2
Jeff Quinn Buffalo 2-10 -3
Dan Enos CMich 3-9 -9
Ruffin McNeil ECU 6-7 -3
Jimbo Fisher FSU 10-4 +3
Joker Phillips UK 6-6 -1
Sonny Dykes La. Tech 5-7 +1
Charlie Strong Louisville 7-6 +3
John Holliday Marshall 5-7 -2
Larry Porter Memphis 1-11 -1
Mike MacIntyre San Jose 1-12 -1
Robbie Caldwell Vandy 2-10 --
Willie Taggart WKU 2-10 +2
-----------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS 51-110 -13
Previous head coaches
Coach School Record +/- '09 wins
Butch Jones UC 4-8 -8
Turner Gill Kansas 3-9 -2
Todd Berry La-Monroe 5-7 -1
Brian Kelly ND 8-5 +2
Derek Dooley Tenn. 6-7 -1
T. Tuberville TTech 8-5 -1
Bobby Hauck UNLV 2-11 -3
Lane Kiffin USC 8-5 -1
Skip Holtz USF 8-5 --
Mike London Virginia 4-8 +1
-----------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS 56-70 -14
--- The results of the research prove...very little. That's good news for West Virginia fans. Whether a career assistant or coach with previous head coaching experience, the results are barely distinguishable from each other. The previous coaches held better records, but only because most of them were promoted to schools with winning reputations.
Now, if you only look at BCS schools, the results alter slightly. The BCS schools hiring career assistants saw a +5 result from the previous year with two of the four coaches improving by three wins apiece (Strong, Fisher).
The previous coaches joining the BCS were -10 on the earlier results. Many of those numbers come from the extenuating circumstances here at UC, which we have gone into ad nauseum since the end of last football season. But, obviously, following in the footsteps of the best team in school history by the numbers, without a senior starter on defense and almost entirely new coaching staff created unusual circumstances compared to the rest of the sample.
That said, the differential in improvement comes as a surprise. Only two of the eight possible coaches saw an improvement in their record from the previous year.
Reasons for this? Hard to do anything but speculate, but assistants are less likely to stick to a system they know works or apply the dynamics of a previous job to the current one. They would be more likely to stick with the existing status quo in some situations because they don't have a previous head coaching experience to base it on.
Convincing players to "buy-in" always comes as the toughest challenge for a new coach taking on new players. Some of those coaches, such as Jimbo Fisher, Joker Phillips and Robbie Caldwell were already on the staff and provided a smooth transition from a familiar face. Arguably, Fisher would be the greatest success story of the first-year coaches last season, but in fact, most would claim he was running the FSU program behind figurehead Bobby Bowden for a few years.
I'd call that a limited argument with thousands of other dynamics playing into those records, but my snap analysis nonetheless.
At the end of the day, dealing with the transition of a new head coach, regardless of previous history, can be a trying experience. A total of 27 fewer wins than 2009 proves that.
In regards to how it affects Dana Holgorsen at WVU, the program taking on a new coach will likely endure growing pains in the process, but as a career assistant, lack of experience as the head honcho likely won't be a significant factor.
--- Regular MLBearcats update: Big night for Tony Campana, who came on late to rip a double in the 10th inning and score the game-winning run in a 5-4 walk-off win for the Cubs.
--- Some randomness....
--- Installing a hot tub seemed like a great idea. Until the crane crashed through the roof.
--- Damaging SPF news for my albino brethren everywhere. I may just order my sun-poisoning pills now.
--- The U.S. Open is this week, most of you are already dozing off just reading that sentence, but I'm a huge golf fan. More importantly, something I've been saying for years is golfers shouldn't be afraid to show more of their personality. Lack of a rooting interest because these guys are seen as robots has become a big problem in its drive for exposure. There are many reasons Tiger Woods helped golf explode nationally, but one of them is that people loved having somebody to root for.
All of that said, that's why I love Bubba Watson, Ben Crane, Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler letting go and putting out this fake boy band video. Ohh layli layli!!!!
Mac-n-Cheese, people. It tastes like cheese-covered dreams.
Let's eat before you do....
--- The Bengals offense has been holding workouts at UC for the last week and a half now and each Wednesday the defense comes up from working out at Ignition for a full-team practice.
They are all at Nippert today putting in the closest thing to work you can when nobody is covering a possible injury.
Anyway, good story from local writaaah and Boston homaaahh, Geoff Hobson, on Butch Jones' view of the workouts. Not surprisingly, third QB Dan LeFevour has been staying with Jones and his family. Jones' family is still close with LeFevour from his days at Central Michigan and kept in contact during the season.
I mentioned here last year that Jones reported LeFevour and Zach Collaros had even started developing a working relationship since LeFevour was around the program so much. They hold the same experiences in this offense and understanding expectations.
When you see the way former players still gravitate toward Jones, his success and connection with players becomes abundantly clear.
--- Another reason they gravitate toward him...speeches like this that Tommy G put together for the ticket sales campaign. Yeah, I think I can feel the program. (I'm also positive TG is standing in the background writing two reminders on his notepad, "Make commercial of speech" and "pick up cookies for Bill Koch")
--- Bill caught up with Armon Binns recently and posted a blog about his plight waiting out the lockout. Binns took the draft hard as he was expecting to be selected, as most of us expected him to be selected.
For now, he's trying to stay in shape and work out so when the time comes he will be ready to make an impact in training camp somewhere.
You have to like his attitude:
"You've got to take it as motivation," Binns said, "work harder and prove everybody wrong."
Binns finished the year 14th in the country in receiving yards per game. Of the top 10 draft-eligible players in that stat, only Binns and Jordan White of Western Michigan were not drafted. Hard to figure out, but Binns will latch on somewhere.
--- Athlon Sports sent out its preseason publication and kept consistent with the few we've seen already. Isaiah Pead, JK Schaffer and DJ Woods were on the Big East first team. Zach Collaros and punter Pat O'Donnell landed on the second team. Derek Wolfe, Alex Hoffman and Dominique Battle earned third team honors.
Collaros also dons the Cincinnati regional cover. Click here to order.
Anybody who thinks Derek Wolfe would be on the third wave of defensive linemen if the Big East put one team together needs their head checked. Wolfe has been constantly underrated nationally and has the capability to prove a ton of pundits wrong by season's end.
--- Athlon also ranked UC's running backs as the best position group in the conference. With Pead, Darrin Williams, George Winn, Jameel Poteat and Akise Teague, among others, the pool runs deep with the top individual talent at the top.
Can't disagree there.
--- The latest question Athlon posed was if West Virginia is still the Big East favorite with the recent coaching transition? The magazine says yes in this blog. They don't see Holgorsen's first stint as a head coach holding the team back.
Andrea Adelson at ESPN agrees with Athlon.
--- This sparked a thought (Caution: Typically dangerous proposition): What is the success rate of career assistants in their first year as head coaches in comparison to leaders with previous head coaching experience?
I took a look back at 2010 to find out (experience only as coach in bowl game does not count):
Career Assistants:
Coach School Rcrd +/- '09 wins
Rob Ianello Akron 1-11 -2
Jeff Quinn Buffalo 2-10 -3
Dan Enos CMich 3-9 -9
Ruffin McNeil ECU 6-7 -3
Jimbo Fisher FSU 10-4 +3
Joker Phillips UK 6-6 -1
Sonny Dykes La. Tech 5-7 +1
Charlie Strong Louisville 7-6 +3
John Holliday Marshall 5-7 -2
Larry Porter Memphis 1-11 -1
Mike MacIntyre San Jose 1-12 -1
Robbie Caldwell Vandy 2-10 --
Willie Taggart WKU 2-10 +2
-----------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS 51-110 -13
Previous head coaches
Coach School Record +/- '09 wins
Butch Jones UC 4-8 -8
Turner Gill Kansas 3-9 -2
Todd Berry La-Monroe 5-7 -1
Brian Kelly ND 8-5 +2
Derek Dooley Tenn. 6-7 -1
T. Tuberville TTech 8-5 -1
Bobby Hauck UNLV 2-11 -3
Lane Kiffin USC 8-5 -1
Skip Holtz USF 8-5 --
Mike London Virginia 4-8 +1
-----------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS 56-70 -14
--- The results of the research prove...very little. That's good news for West Virginia fans. Whether a career assistant or coach with previous head coaching experience, the results are barely distinguishable from each other. The previous coaches held better records, but only because most of them were promoted to schools with winning reputations.
Now, if you only look at BCS schools, the results alter slightly. The BCS schools hiring career assistants saw a +5 result from the previous year with two of the four coaches improving by three wins apiece (Strong, Fisher).
The previous coaches joining the BCS were -10 on the earlier results. Many of those numbers come from the extenuating circumstances here at UC, which we have gone into ad nauseum since the end of last football season. But, obviously, following in the footsteps of the best team in school history by the numbers, without a senior starter on defense and almost entirely new coaching staff created unusual circumstances compared to the rest of the sample.
That said, the differential in improvement comes as a surprise. Only two of the eight possible coaches saw an improvement in their record from the previous year.
Reasons for this? Hard to do anything but speculate, but assistants are less likely to stick to a system they know works or apply the dynamics of a previous job to the current one. They would be more likely to stick with the existing status quo in some situations because they don't have a previous head coaching experience to base it on.
Convincing players to "buy-in" always comes as the toughest challenge for a new coach taking on new players. Some of those coaches, such as Jimbo Fisher, Joker Phillips and Robbie Caldwell were already on the staff and provided a smooth transition from a familiar face. Arguably, Fisher would be the greatest success story of the first-year coaches last season, but in fact, most would claim he was running the FSU program behind figurehead Bobby Bowden for a few years.
I'd call that a limited argument with thousands of other dynamics playing into those records, but my snap analysis nonetheless.
At the end of the day, dealing with the transition of a new head coach, regardless of previous history, can be a trying experience. A total of 27 fewer wins than 2009 proves that.
In regards to how it affects Dana Holgorsen at WVU, the program taking on a new coach will likely endure growing pains in the process, but as a career assistant, lack of experience as the head honcho likely won't be a significant factor.
--- Regular MLBearcats update: Big night for Tony Campana, who came on late to rip a double in the 10th inning and score the game-winning run in a 5-4 walk-off win for the Cubs.
--- Some randomness....
--- Installing a hot tub seemed like a great idea. Until the crane crashed through the roof.
--- Damaging SPF news for my albino brethren everywhere. I may just order my sun-poisoning pills now.
--- The U.S. Open is this week, most of you are already dozing off just reading that sentence, but I'm a huge golf fan. More importantly, something I've been saying for years is golfers shouldn't be afraid to show more of their personality. Lack of a rooting interest because these guys are seen as robots has become a big problem in its drive for exposure. There are many reasons Tiger Woods helped golf explode nationally, but one of them is that people loved having somebody to root for.
All of that said, that's why I love Bubba Watson, Ben Crane, Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler letting go and putting out this fake boy band video. Ohh layli layli!!!!