Five days until graduation

With just five days until graduation everyone is beginning to get excited about it. To be honest, I’m not very excited about it yet. But I’ve still got a whole “work” week ahead of me to get fired up about walking across a stage and getting a piece of paper. Here’s a look at the No. 5 moment in the countdown to graduation.

Moment 5: “The day the music died”(December 10th 2009)

As we pulled back onto the campus of the University of Cincinnati on that cold night, REM’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it,” played on the car radio. How apropos.

Hours earlier Brian Kelly walked into the Westin Hotel in downtown Cincinnati flanked by police officers and he simply waved to throngs of TV cameras assembled in the lobby. He wasn’t speaking to the folks who all wanted to know the answer to the simple question, “Why?”

Why are you leaving Cincinnati? Why go to Notre Dame? They didn’t even make a bowl game! This team is on the cusp of finishing third in national polls and is undefeated? Why leave your players before the biggest game in program history?

It was his dream.

“Nobody does it like Notre Dame,” he’d say in a press conference the next day in South Bend, Ind., his new home.

On that night in the Westin Hotel it was simply a nightmare.

The whole city of Cincinnati wanted to know. It was so overwhelming that quarterbacks coach Greg Forest had to put out a tweet: “Please stop calling, texting me I do not know anything.”

He spoke for every one of us sitting in the team’s end of the year banquet that evening. It was so bad I turned my phone off, completely.

Quarterback Tony Pike told reporters that evening, “We listen to the radio and the news just as much as everyone else. It’s probably a little harder on us, because we’re getting the calls from our friends and family, wanting to know what’s really happening. It’s hard, because we don’t know either.”

No one knew that evening except for Brian Kelly.

It was the weirdest night anyone associated with this football program has probably ever had to deal with. It was such a fascinating night that even months later we sat in our team hotel and discussed stories from that evening. Everyone has a different take, everyone saw something differently, and every person has their own interpretation of what happened on that night.

I got to speak to Coach Kelly in the middle of April, ironically enough, about 50 feet away from the spot I last saw him in that hotel lobby. Now, as the head man of the program he’d dreamed of coaching for, he still remembered who I was.

That’s the BK we all remember. Ever so camera friendly, except for one night in December of 2009.

I just hope that never happens again. It was awful, but so memorable, and that’s why the night that Brian Kelly left Cincinnati to become the head coach at Notre Dame is the No. 5 moment on the graduation countdown list.

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If you’ve missed any of the other countdown stories, click the links below:

No. 10- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/10-days-until-graduation.html

No. 9- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/nine-days-until-graduation.html

No. 8- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/eight-days-until-graduation.html

No. 7- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/one-week-until-graduation.html

No. 6- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/six-days-until-graduation.html

A Christmas Wish List: Sports and More

One of my favorite parts of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” is where Charlie writes his sister Sally’s Christmas wish list. “If it seems too complicated,” she says, “just send money. How about tens and twenties.”

“Tens and twenties!” her older brother yells. “Oh! Even my baby sister…”

I’m not asking for tens and twenties (yet) but I thought I’d compile a Christmas wish list for my favorite sports teams, amongst others, and by doing so, I’ll create a wish list of sorts for myself.

So, let’s get this thing started…

Dear Santa,

Here’s my Christmas wish list. Don’t send tens and twenties please, save those for people who need them (like Terrelle Pryor or DeVier Posey). Wait, that was mean, oh well.

For the UC Bearcat football team (and fans), a packet of mind-erasing, memory clearing medicine.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a billion times; no one, absolutely no one, could have expected the colossal drop off that the UC football team experienced this season. No expert, real or perceived, could have said Butch Jones was going to take over and win only four games in his first season as UC head coach. At worst UC was a 7-5 team.

Injuries mounted up and the Bearcats imploded. I’d sure love to be planning another BCS bowl trip, but sometimes you don’t get what you want. Santa, please, take us back to a bowl next season!

For Ricky Dobbs, current Navy quarterback, a political advisor.

My favorite part of watching the Naval Academy play football is watching their patented triple option offense click at the highest level. It’s been tough to find someone more adept at running this offense than current quarterback Ricky Dobbs. In just a little over an hour he gets to do it one final time.

Oh, and after football, after his chance to serve his country in the Navy and after he gets his shot at the NFL , Dobbs wants to run for President in 2040. Santa, I’ll vote for him. Will you?

For Mark Martin, a Daytona 500 win, a Brickyard 400 win and a Sprint Cup title.

He deserves each of them, and it’s a surprise he hasn’t gotten at least one of the three already. And even though this season was a bit of a downer after the awesome run of 2009, I fully expect Mark Martin to be up on the wheel when we get to Daytona in a few weeks. Let’s see what magic you can pull for us Mr. Claus.

For the NASCAR fans of Cincinnati, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

Oh, wait. That already happened? Shoot. Consider this a typo of habit. We’ve been waiting so long that it’s been on my list for a decade now. Well, we’ll take that one off Santa. Thanks Bruton Smith!

For the Florida Marlins, a fan or two to show up at their games would be nice.

I kid of course with you Santa. I know fans show up to Marlins games, but my goodness. Could any team take more of a beating for their poor home turnouts than the poor Florida Marlins? If someone could find a way to get me tickets to a few games I’d be forever grateful Mr. Kringle. However, my one trip to Joe Robbe Stadium was pretty cool, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

For my two favorite college coaches ever (Joe Tresey and Greg Forest), jobs in the college game.

Sure Coach Tresey is in the UFL, but we’d sure love to see him back in the college game. As for Coach Forest, I said earlier this month that I’d love to see him get a job, and hopefully he’ll be close enough to go to that NASCAR race with us. See what strings you can pull for us Santa, please.

Thanks,
Adam
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P.S.- Merry Christmas everyone. Go Navy!

Former UC coach let go in Buffalo

On Monday afternoon I sat in the video office at UC and happened to have some time to look back at some of my older blog posts. In May I wrote about Joe Tresey, former UC defensive coordinator, who at the time ad just secured a job in the UFL with the Omaha Nighthawks. I mentioned that coach Tresey was, “My favorite Bearcat assistant coach of all time.”

In my four years here, he definitely was near the top of the list. But after giving it a few minutes’ thought, I’d have to say my favorite assistant coach I’ve had the opportunity to work with here in Cincinnati was former UC quarterbacks coach Greg Forest.

Forest (pictured here next to Zach Collaros before the Syracuse game in 2009) was UC's quarterbacks coach from 2007 to 2009. He left Cincinnati for Buffalo in 2010.

He was friendly, approachable, and often would go out to lunch with us (the video staff). He especially endeared himself to yours truly with his love of NASCAR, and often times we’d sit in the office and discuss NASCAR, leaving my co-workers shaking their heads.

In July of 2009, we spent an hour on pit road at Kentucky Speedway during ARCA qualifying chatting about everything under the sun. Football didn’t matter at that time; NASCAR did. It didn’t matter to Forest that we, the video staff, were usually ignored by everyone. He made us feel like we truly were a part of the team.

So, I was shocked when I found out—ironically enough via Twitter—that Forest, who was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University at Buffalo, was fired by head coach Jeff Quinn. Quinn also fired wide receivers coach Juan Taylor.

“It’s never easy in this business to make changes to your coaching staff, but at this time I feel like we needed a change of direction in these areas,” Quinn said in a statement released by the school. “I’d like to thank Greg and Juan for their contributions to UB football and wish them nothing but success in the future.”

A week ago I wrote that college football was turning into a, “What have you done for me lately?” world. Apparently, in Buffalo, Forest’s first year as offensive coordinator wasn’t good enough for first-year head man Jeff Quinn.

Quinn and Forest have coached together since the early 1990s under Brian Kelly at Grand Valley State. Quinn and Forest followed Kelly to Central Michigan and Cincinnati, but were snubbed when Kelly made to move to South Bend last year.

Forest tweeted last night, “I want to thank all the people that are giving me support. I appreciate all that everyone has done for me.”

Given all the coaching openings and transitions occurring right now in college football, I have a great feeling that the man we called “G Money” will land somewhere. I wish we had an opening at UC. I’d love to have him back.

There is a NASCAR race in Kentucky in July. I guarantee “G Money” would love to join me in Sparta…again.

Week 5 in the Big East: Tune Up Week

Only five Big East teams are in action on week five of the college season, and the two-time defending champs have the week off. So this will be light on the UC coverage, but my thoughts on this week are definitely satiated with some UC flavor.

Week five features a bye on the schedule for Syracuse as well as Cincinnati and West Virginia. Here’s a peek at week five for the Big East member schools

Week 5 Big East Schedule
Sat Oct 2-Rutgers vs Tulane
Oct 2-USF vs Florida Atlantic
Oct 2-Louisville at Arkansas State
Oct 2-Connectict vs Vanderbilt
Oct 2-Pittsburgh vs Florida International
**Oct 2-Buffalo at Bowling Green (MAC)**

AN: This week, Jake has to take an approved break to work on school projects, so I get to talk about Pitt and one more game, all by my lonesome.

But, before we get to head coach Mario Cristobal and his Florida International Panthers (and sophomore linebacker Larvez “Pooh Bear” Mars) into Heinz Field for a little gridiron matchup, ESPN.com Big East blogger Brian Bennett leaves us with this comment.

“You can’t call Week 5 “Showdown Saturday” or “Monster Saturday” or anything like that in the Big East,” he wrote. “It’s more like, “Tune-Up Saturday”

So, conventional wisdom tells me Pitt should roll, as well as Rutgers, USF and Louisville. But conventional wisdom has been wrong this year for fans of the Big East. Two-time defending Big East champ Cincinnati is 1-3, Pittsburgh looked bad last week on national TV against Miami, and Rutgers has had a stagnant offense this season.

Dave Wannstedt told the media yesterday in Pittsburgh that shuffling the offensive line came after some big time meetings with his players. “We’ve had some serious heart-to-heart conversations with some players. Let’s watch the tape: who is producing? Who is getting the job done when the lights come on? That’s the point that we’re at right now with everyone. We have to be very honest about it and play the best players that will give us the chance to win at this point.”

I have a feeling that the FIU game will give Wannstedt and the Panthers to get their feet under them and let their “new look” O-line get some time to jell on the field.

As I mentioned in our last preview, Buffalo actually might as well be a Big East team. Look at the coaching staff former UC offensive coordinator, and now Buffalo Head Coach, Jeff Quinn has put together in upstate N.Y.—his offensive coordinator is former UC quarterbacks coach Greg Forest, and his defensive coordinator is William Inge, former UC linebackers coach.

Former graduate assistants Marty Spieler and Mike Daniels now coach tight ends and running backs respectively. Adam Shorter, who was a GA under Quinn in 2007 and also played for UC, is coaching the o-line, and Ernest Jones, who once coached the running backs at UC, is coaching defensive backs.

Got all that?

Well, even if you don’t just keep in mind that Buffalo’s coaching staff is full of former UC assistants. With the UC bye week, I was hoping to have the time to travel to Bowling Green, Ohio to watch the Bulls take on the Falcons. Unfortunately, with a Saturday morning practice, it seems that I won’t be able to get to see the Bulls in person.

That doesn’t change the fact that I’m certainly a Buffalo Bulls fan this season, and as long as Quinn and Forest, et al, are running the show in Buffalo.

And, I picked that game because, with no offense to any of the Big East teams, this week is rather bland on scheduling. But, as Bennett said, the Big East needs a tune up, and what better way to tune up than with some bland opponents.

I hope you enjoy the fifth week of college football, and keep your eyes and ears pinned here for the week six preview coming up in the next seven days. Thanks for reading.