UC basketball vs. UC football

[RedFanAlways1966]

Originally Posted by Reds4Life

Dantonio is gone, expect a presser at MSU tomorrow naming him head coach.

Given the current administrations attitude toward athletics, and the fact Nancy has ruined the basketball money machine, I'm sure we'll hire whoever is willing to work for the cheapest. Dantonio was one of the worst paid BCS coaches in all of college football, I'm sure his replacement won't do much better.

WLW is reporting that at MSU Dantonio will make 3X the salary that he is getting w/ UC.

[LoganBuck]

If it is true they should go right back up the road and grab Jim Heacock, at OSU. Ohio State is still running the same defense from when Dantonio was there and the philosophy would be the same. Rumors have circulated all year that Heacock would probably move into a top spot somewhere else after this season.

It my be a little premature, but Jim Tressel does have a young budding star of a coaching candidate, in Luke Fickell the co-defensive coordinator but he is a little young. He is said to be the second best recruiter at Ohio State behind Tressel himself. If UC wants to grab a young coach, he would a good choice as well. He was there when Dantonio was as well.

[paintmered]

According to C. Trent's blog, UC matched MSU's offer.

He didn't bail because of the money, he bailed because he got absolutely no support from the area.

[Reds Fanatic]

Dantonio is getting a 5 year contract for $1.1 million a year with a $200,000 signing bonus and other incentives where he can make even more.

[max venable]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...70346/1062/SPT It's official. Dantonio to MSU.

[HotCorner]

Go get Central Michigan's Brian Kelly!

[beb30]

This is why UC will never be a football program. We get coaches that actually have talent, but then they leave for bigger and better schools.

[Chip R]

David Shula had a turn with the Bengals so perhaps little brother could take the UC gig.

[Roy Tucker]

Maybe UC should have lost its last few games. A devastating blow to a program that appeared like it may juuuuust be turning the corner.

They need to rapidly fill the slot with an up-and-coming coach to keep the momentum going. Otherwise, UC will sink back to its same old-same old ne'er do well status.

[redsfan30]

Huge loss for UC. Dantonio had that program 100% on the rise and was just a few years from I think being a force in the Big East.

[dabvu2498]

Originally Posted by HotCorner

Go get Central Michigan's Brian Kelly!

Already gotten.

Iowa State: Will announce the signing of Central Michigan coach Brian Kelly this evening

Michigan State: Has agreed to terms with Cincinnati's Mark Dantonio and will announce this week.

Alabama: South Florida's Jim Leavitt will be the top candidate on the list. Forget Steve Spurrier going to Tuscaloosa, or Miami for that matter too.

Arizona State: Former Colorado coach Gary Barnett has emerged as a posisble surprise candidate. Texas Tech coach Mike Leach will interview for this one. Leach is ready to leave Lubbock and should emerge some place else. There is no clear cut favorite at the moment.

North Carolina State: Tennessee Titan offensive coordinator Norm Chow may have a shot at this job.

Miami: The hot news was that Houston Nutt was high on the list, but Nutt says he isn't interested. Rutgers Greg Schiano claims he will stay in New Jersey (where he is from). Tulsa's Dave Kragthorpe and South Florida's Jim Leavitt will be on the list. There is a remote chance that Dolphins' head coach Nick Saban might have interest. TTU's Leach could eventually wind up as the eventual hire here, if Arizona State doesn't grab him first.

Cincinnati: With the apparent loss of Dantonio, this frees up a school on the rise opening in the Big East. This is an opportunity for an NFL coach to resurrect his career, ala Pete Carroll, Al Groh, etc. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Hal Mumme got a call.

Wake Forest's Jim Grobe will end up on somebody's short list, and West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez could desire to talk with somebody about one of the job openings.

http://mb14.scout.com/fvanderbiltfrm...ID=24028.topic

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by beb30

This is why UC will never be a football program. We get coaches that actually have talent, but then they leave for bigger and better schools.

That's really an excuse that a program like UC shouldn't be allowed to make. They're in what is, allegedly, a BCS conference. A coaching job at UC should be a destination job, not a stepping-stone job to a bigger program. We're not talking about a MAC school or a C-USA school -- this is supposed to be big-time college football.

All the ingredients should be there for UC to be successful. Hell, the football program even got a break when Huggins and his larger-than-life basketball program went with him. This is a city where you can't sneeze at a workplace without bumping into someone that either went to UC or sent a kid to UC, yet they have to run 2-for-1 specials and count on people like me (college football fan with no tie to UC) to show and watch games. I know there's competition for sports dollars around here with the Reds, Bengals and Xavier Basketball, but not so much so that UC should be forced to beg and whine for 27,000 fans to come out and watch a national TV game vs. an unbeaten opponent in November.

If the reason Dantonio left is because Michigan State is simply a better job (that assuming that UC matched the offer and he still left) then it's time for everyone to sit down and figure out why Clifton isn't an attractive place to coach and go about fixing that -- because finding good coaches is too damn tough and too big a crap chute to repeat frequently. This is big time, and if UC wants to be big time, it's time for the alumni and students to put up and start treating their football program like something they give a damn about as opposed to something to do on a sunny day when they're bored.

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

That's really an excuse that a program like UC shouldn't be allowed to make. They're in what is, allegedly, a BCS conference. A coaching job at UC should be a destination job, not a stepping-stone job to a bigger program. We're not talking about a MAC school or a C-USA school -- this is supposed to be big-time college football.

It is but it isn't. Just being in a BCS conference doesn't make UC a big time program any more than being in the Big 10 or SEC makes Indiana or Vanderbilt big time. There are decades of tradition in programs like tOSU, MSU, LSU, Notre
Dame, etc that fans and alumni can talk about like it happened last week. Even a school like Illinois can talk about Red Grange and Bob Zuppke and Dick Butkus. ABout all UC people can talk about is the win over Wisconsin in 99. Most don't know or don't care that a guy like Sid Gillman coached here.

All the ingredients should be there for UC to be successful. Hell, the football program even got a break when Huggins and his larger-than-life basketball program went with him. This is a city where you can't sneeze at a workplace without bumping into someone that either went to UC or sent a kid to UC, yet they have to run 2-for-1 specials and count on people like me (college football fan with no tie to UC) to show and watch games. I know there's competition for sports dollars around here with the Reds, Bengals and Xavier Basketball, but not so much so that UC should be forced to beg and whine for 27,000 fans to come out and watch a national TV game vs. an unbeaten opponent in November.

You're right again. But you can't make people come to the games if they don't want to. Obviously giving tickets away doesn't help much. If people don't believe in the product, you can't give it to them. There just isn't the passion here for UC football as there is for UC hoops. When Huggins was here pre-Zimpher and the program was at it's peak, there was talk about every year about him going to the NBA or another college job. Whenever that happened it was the talk of the town. Newspapers, radios, TVs, internet sites would be talking about it all the time. And if he had left, you can bet there would have been a lot of really upset people out there at him for turning his back on UC. Now Dantonio goes to Sparty, most people are saying it's a good career move for him - which it is. There is very little anger and resentment. That tells me that people don't care that much about the program.

If the reason Dantonio left is because Michigan State is simply a better job (that assuming that UC matched the offer and he still left) then it's time for everyone to sit down and figure out why Clifton isn't an attractive place to coach and go about fixing that -- because finding good coaches is too damn tough and too big a crap chute to repeat frequently. This is big time, and if UC wants to be big time, it's time for the alumni and students to put up and start treating their football program like something they give a damn about as opposed to something to do on a sunny day when they're bored.

Either that or downsize. If UC wants to keep up with the Joneses, they are in for a struggle. And it may be a struggle they can't win. I'm not saying they can't have a nice program here and be competitive in the Big East but the Big 10 schools and the SEC schools they are competing against are always going to be upgrading. You have 3 teams in the Big 10 that have stadiums that seat over 100,000 people. You have 2 in the SEC that are over 100,000. And they fill those stadiums each week. If they want an indoor facility or a better weight room or a new playing surface or more seats in the stadium, it's no big deal. Alumni and businesses are happy to donate. I know UC has upgraded their facilities but they can't do it every year and pay their coaches the going rate. Dantonio said it best. He said Sparty has 80k people in the stands every week screaming their heads off. They play the best teams in the nation and are on TV all the time. He said that the state is split right down the middle between Sparty and UM. That last statement may be hyperbole but even if it is, you have 30-40% of a state like Michigan who are Sparty fans. You don't even have 30-40% of a city that are UC fans. So why beat your head against the wall? If you just want to collect the TV and Bowl money from the Big East, that's fine. But you are never, ever going to be on a par with a school like MSU much less tOSU.

[Cedric]

UC is nowhere near at the level of Michigan State. It would take years and years of winning for that to happen.

Michigan State was the premier school in Michigan in the 50's and all the way to like 69. They have tradition, fan support, and a much better stadium. It's just not a good comparison. UC in my opinion will not ever have sustained success with football. Football is a sport based on tradition and fan support and UC has neither.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Chip R

There are decades of tradition in programs like tOSU, MSU, LSU, Notre Dame, etc that fans and alumni can talk about like it happened last week. Even a school like Illinois can talk about Red Grange and Bob Zuppke and Dick Butkus. ABout all UC people can talk about is the win over Wisconsin in 99. Most don't know or don't care that a guy like Sid Gillman coached here.

This inferiority complex bothers the hell out of me. It's a "woe is me, I'll never be as great as THE Ohio State University or Notre Dame, so why should I even try" song and dance that is used as an excuse. For teams not in a BCS conference (like my own whining alma mater, Tulane), the song and dance is "we're not in a BCS conference, how can we compete?" Well, now even for teams in a BCS conference the song and dance is "we're not a traditional football powerhouse, how can we compete?"

Don't have a 100,000 seat stadium? Neither do the Oregon Ducks, but they somehow manage to make Autzen Stadium the loudest place on the planet once a week in the fall. Don't have a storied football tradition? Neither did the Virginia Tech Hokies, but they somehow managed to make it to a national title game and carve out a nice program for themselves with a hot young recruit named Michael Vick.

It takes alumni support and a commitment from the university to playing winning football. Winning puts you in big TV games, gets you into big bowl games, and into the homes of top recruits. Alumni support sells your stadium out and gets people excited about your product. UC could do both -- they could go out this week and find themselves a top-flight coach, pay him what he's worth and then go aggressively sell the football program to their alumni base. Lean on the big time alums to pony up for season tickets and make UC football the place for Cincinnatians to be seen on the weekends.

Or -- just roll over and die for the traditional powerhouses. That's what they want, anyway: to find a way to remind you that no matter what you do, what conference you join, you're still on the outside looking in compared to them. They belong in the big game, not you. They deserve the top talent each year, not you. If I were a UC alum, I know I'd be crowing loudly for the former.