Carson Field Football Board

I'll take Campbell from Toledo or Taggart from WKU. Both are young up and comers who are more exciting to me then the rest.

I tell you what, tressel or petrino would sell tickets. If our goal is to upgrade nippert in the next 5 years, selling tickets now for a dog and pony show for a few would be much more valuable than a hot commodity young coach. we can go that route after the next hire.

I absolutely support this way of thinking. As well as getting into a bigger conference.

I'm in the Executive Search business and I can tell you transition conversations go on every hour of every day. In fact, prudent, intelligent, intuitive people should always be looking at putting another brick in their wall and assessing their own personal ROI. There is absolutely no downside to a conversation. You want to get ahead in life ? - you gotta learn, leverage, transition. You owe it to yourself and your family. Surprisingly, very few folks do this, yet they envy the guy who does.

Kelly started talking to Swarbrick about a year before he left. Swarbrick was already working on the contingency that he would have to fire Weiss. This was all done covertly through Kelly's agent and at mutually agreed neutral sites. I suspect that Butch's agent, Trace Armstrong, was talking with multiple schools as it was clear they would be making changes at season's end. CO, TN, AR, CAL, AUB, were obvious ones. Same M.O. - covertly and at neutral obscure sites. When Armstrong had sold his client ( Jones ) into the running for each, he waited to get the season over and get Jones on the interview trail. Unfortunately in today's instanteous media world, this was hard to conceal, but it could have been done a ton better. Armstrong wanted TN to know that Butch was in demand, cause that was the Holy Grail. That was the job they both wanted. The other's were just fluffer.

I suspect that Whit was fully aware of this....especially the day that RU left to the B10 and UL to the ACC. It had to have hit Whit right between the eyes ( or between his legs ) . There had to be zero doubt that Jones was going to pursue an open job. This was not rocket science. ( In fact Whit himself was / is probably thinking , maybe I should get off this slow boat to nowhere. )

Having said that, I suspect that Whit has a short list. I suspect that UC's Search firm has already vetted them. I suspect that Whit has already interviewed the contenders. It was reported that Whit was at the BE meetings all last week. I say, thats horsemanure. He was interviewing Jones replacements.

The fact that Jones dicked around exiting actually gave Whit and the administration more time to get their heads around the candidates and our programs directional needs. I hope and trust that they've used that time wisely.

I've said all along and I'll said it again. Yes, our stadium needs upgrading, but it's not about that. It's about our conference future. A top 100 institution with a $ 1B endowment, 4 top 25 colleges in it, 43,000 students, and we can't get in a BCS-level conference ? Are you kidding me ? WTF ? Unfortunately, this is a result of an accrual of 40 years of ambivalent and neglectful administrators who held jobs as BOT, but had zero LT vision.

As Mark Twain was famously quoted ( and I paraphrase ) , " Cincinnati has no sense of reality. It's the perfect place to be when the world's end is coming cause no one there would know it. "

That old man was pretty damn wise back in 1880. Seems like nothing's changed. Cause no one here wants to change it. Shame

Well said. I'm going to buy tickets to the Belk Bowl, though I don't believe I will be able to attend. That said, this coaching hire is HUGE. It has to have the right mix of forward thinking, and sex appeal. I'm not sure what it is about Cincinnati fans and I won't use "fair weather' because I think thats too easy...I think it's something a bit deeper, but whatever it is, we do rally around a winner. Above all else we must hire a WINNER. In every sense of the word.

Canuck, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist and your comment "Unfortunately, this is a result of an accrual of 40 years of ambivalent and neglectful administrators who held jobs as BOT, but had zero LT vision" is interesting to me. I've never lived in Ohio and don't know the politics, but could there be a tacit protection of tOSU by the BOT going on here?

"Character and Competence" was what Whit said.

Yep this would eliminate Tressel and Petrino.

Does it really matter, in regards to long term retention, if the coach has big time experience or has coach at a MAC school? The reason we are stepping stone is because of our facilities, fan base and conference affliation.
Change those and the odds of retaining a coach go way up.

And likely Coombs.

Why? Serious question.

I just hope Whit has the stones to get the right guy even if it looks like a stretch. Take some heat and let the actions speak for te decision. This is a huge hire for Whit.