HoosierCat
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I love that the program is banking a lot on Ohio with coaching connections and recruiting. It is a very warm welcome from where Tub had us on that front.
Football Staff
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jacobkdoyle
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@ChadBrendel
As I posted on @BearcatJournal last night, I'm hearing veteran assistant Jon Tenuta is expected to join the new Cincinnati staff.
As I posted on @BearcatJournal last night, I'm hearing veteran assistant Jon Tenuta is expected to join the new Cincinnati staff.
jacobkdoyle
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Great energy surrounding our football program right now. Very exciting. I was talking to my brother last night, who isn't a UC fan, and he was going on and on about how impressed he is with these early hires. He was like man, makes me wish even more that Marvin Lewis would get fired so the Bengals fans could get a fresh start like this and get re-energized. That's how I feel, re-energized. Things were blah at best and downright terrible at worst around here for too long. I'm so excited to have a competent coaching staff full of experienced coaches who can't wait to recruit and teach.
Bearcats Sports
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Al Washington is a great hire for many reasons. Boston College has had a lot of success from local St. X players, so hopefully Al can land some big time players from X and the rest of the GCL.
JasonS
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I'll say this about Fickell, he gets it. He understands that to win at UC you have to be able to recruit the Cincy area (and the rest of Ohio). He is assembling a staff that has proven they can recruit in Ohio. It's refreshing after TT just flat out refused and ignored, almost out of arrogance, to recruit Cincinnati.
Guys, I am really excited and enjoyed following the coaching search and watching who is being hired as assistants. I mean much much bigger basketball fan but this has been extremely exciting!
I really hope we dominate OH (outside of OSU). I feel kinda bad that I am a little hesitant to go all the way in. Was hoping for a splash DC (I know LF will also coach D). Would have been a nice luxury if Freeman was the LB coach, asst DC.
Do we have anyone whom can recruit GA and FL? Someone with JUCO ties? You Fball crazies, what are you hearing? Any former cats gonna be on the staff?
Looking forward to hearing about more excellent coaches! Go Cats!
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JackBauer151
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Joker Phillips is known as a very good recruiter and his forte is the south. Georgia in particular and was a coach at Florida so he knows the state well. Coach Fickell and Freeman also have experience recruiting the south. Denbrock was a national guy with ND who did a lot of their west coast recruiting. Dont imagine he will be going out west for Cincy. Fickell basically is focused on Ohio and then branching out from there. Phillips, Freeman, Denbrock, Tenuta, and Washington all have ties to recruiting the Midwest and Ohio in particular. But he has also found guys who have different specialties as well. Get the best ohio kids you can and try to find skill guys with speed in the south. I like the strategy.
Robert
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Coach Fickell is saying and doing all the right things. I don't think he is a coaching prodigy, but he has the respect of a lot of people in the coaching profession and has recruits excited to come here. I am confident he will put the right people in the right positions and recruit at a high level. I haven't been this excited about Cincinnati football since Brian Kelly.
Thanks for all the info, guys!
I agree, not a prodigy, but solid and will WORK the recruiting circuit.
So will the OC run the spread BK ran when he was here? They were grad assistants together at Grand Valley State. Was he part of those national championships?
Looks like he coached DII or was a GA until 2003. Harvard OL from 2003-2010, Stanford TE/tackles from 2011-2012, and WVU since then.
He has gotten at least 5 commits from the state of Ohio since his time at WVU so he has some ties here.
He has gotten at least 5 commits from the state of Ohio since his time at WVU so he has some ties here.
Bearcat_NTS
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So we've snagged assistants from Notre Dame, West Virginia, Boston College, and Virginia. All P5 schools. That sure beats the Grad assistants Tubby was hiring.
jacobkdoyle
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Purdue too
AZ BEARCAT
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His commits should double.
UCBearcats
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Luke's ability to assemble a staff has been impressive. It shows that he's highly regarded in coaching circles. Early on in the process I was high on Fickell, and I felt all along he could do a fantastic job of recruiting here at UC. I think his staff brings a lot of credibility to the table and we should be able to really step up our recruiting in the next few seasons.
I wasn't big on the decision to bring in Fickell when the time came because I liked other options better and it felt to me like Bohnhead was taking the easy way out. Considering his ability to assemble a very strong staff it still bothers me that it took this long for someone to make him a HC offer and ultimately the results will be what matters most. At least for now and the staff he's assembled I'm very excited about the future of our football program.
I wasn't big on the decision to bring in Fickell when the time came because I liked other options better and it felt to me like Bohnhead was taking the easy way out. Considering his ability to assemble a very strong staff it still bothers me that it took this long for someone to make him a HC offer and ultimately the results will be what matters most. At least for now and the staff he's assembled I'm very excited about the future of our football program.
2bearcatdad
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And maybe we should ease up on the Bohnhead rhetoric.
If Fickell turns out to be a good hire - and I certainly like what we've seen so far, then I think the entire process with Tubs / Fickell has been handled well.
I also think he's done well with the 5/3 transition (so far) and working with FC Cincy regarding the changes to Nippert.
I personally could do with less derision regarding our AD unless his performance warrants it. I haven't seen much to support the negativity.
FWIW.
jacobkdoyle
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Fickell may just be in the perfect spot at UC. He wanted to be a permanent HC but perhaps he is thought of more as a regional candidate due to his lifelong Ohio ties. And based on the landscape (yes I am using the landscape talking point) of college football, he couldn't walk right into a P5 job, but is also above the MAC schools. He had it pretty good at OSU, so maybe the lack of HC offers had partially to do with him not aggressively pursuing anything, like he did the UC job. I don't know if there's anything to any of that or not, just a thought.
Helicopter
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I recall there was an article about Fickell after he took the UC job specifically discussing his reluctance to market himself prior to 2016.
FWIW this dude is approaching the gig the right way in that he will recruit and win with superior athletes (compared to AAC tier) as opposed to primarily schema. He's also putting all his recruiting eggs in the Ohio/Midwest basket which I think will be a homerun. It's worked before; it will work again.
FWIW this dude is approaching the gig the right way in that he will recruit and win with superior athletes (compared to AAC tier) as opposed to primarily schema. He's also putting all his recruiting eggs in the Ohio/Midwest basket which I think will be a homerun. It's worked before; it will work again.
Patrick Bateman
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Fickell putting together a better staff than PJF could have.
In interview with Hoard he said he told his wife years ago that Cincinnati would be a good landing spot for HC position