Breaking News: Tresey hired by UCLA

Former Cincinnati and South Florida defensive coordinator Joe Tresey has been hired to do the same at UCLA, head coach Rick Neuheisel announced on Tuesday.

The 52-year-old Tresey spent two seasons in Cincinnati (2007-08), coordinating the defense that won the first of two back-to-back Big East titles in the Queen City. He left for USF in 2009, and spent the 2010 season in the UFL as defensive backs coach for the Omaha Nighthawks.

“Joe has had outstanding success at both Cincinnati and South Florida and I know he is going to be successful here at UCLA,” Neuheisel said in a release. “He has an aggressive style that forces turnovers and negative-yardage plays and I feel our players, especially our youngsters, will benefit greatly from his style of play. He is a fine teacher and I can’t wait for him to get started.”

Tresey’s first UC defense in 2007 led the nation in turnovers gained—a margin of plus 42—and interceptions with 26.

He quickly became one of my favorite Bearcat assistant coaches. His quick wit and humor made for some unforgettable moments in his two years under Brian Kelly. For more of my favorite Joe Tresey memories, see these links:
http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/05/joe-tresey-hired-to-coach-in-ufl.html
http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/10/usf-defensive-coordinator-is-truly.html
http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/03/former-cincinnati-defensive-coordinator.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!

Another "Golden Girl" dies

Yes, occasionally I don’t watch NASCAR races or football games, and in fact, when I have some leisure time I enjoy watching re-runs of the old show, “The Golden Girls.” Well, today fans of the show got some more bad news.

Rue McClanahan, who played Blanche Devereaux, in the show, passed away from a brain hemorrhage in New York City. Last year Bea Arthur passed away. Now the only surviving “Golden Girl” is Betty White, now a pop culture icon, who is 88.

“Golden Girls” is just a fantastic show, and while I’m not going to be a movie or TV critic any time soon, I’d love to share my thoughts on the show. And of course my favorite quote about the show from an outsider.

“You know what,” Joe Tresey, who was at the time the defensive coordinator for the UC Bearcats, said, “That show is what is wrong with our society today. People won’t even take care of their own families now.”

It was more than just that which made the “Golden Girls” such a fun and funny show. It’s just too bad we’re missing out on another “Golden Girl” now. Especially one as funny as Rue McClanahan was on the show.

Tomorrow I’ll be traveling to Columbus, Ohio to watch Elder and Moeller play baseball in the state semi finals. Reports and highlights will be on FOX19 tomorrow night. Check it out. And this will be the second time this week the two schools have met up. Elder is 1-0 and took the state volleyball trophy home. We’ll see who makes it on the baseball diamond.

Joe Tresey hired to coach in UFL

My favorite Bearcat assistant coach of all time, Joe Tresey, the former UC defensive coordinator and USF defensive coordinator, was hired to coach defensive backs for the United Football League’s expansion team in Omaha, Neb., by new head coach Jeff Jagodzinski.

“I’m very excited to be coaching,” Tresey said. “It was a long haul, but it’s good to be coaching again. It’s a new venture, but I’m with a lot of guys with a tremendous amount of experience, both at the pro and college level.”

Tresey came to Cincinnati with now Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly from Central Michigan in 2006. He led the Bearcat defense to one Big East title, then left for South Florida, where he was not retained following the firing of Bulls head man Jim Leavitt.

Tresey will not be the coordinator in Omaha, but he will just stick to coaching defensive backs, something he assisted Kerry Coombs with in Cincinnati. One Cincinnati area player is on the Omaha roster, defensive back DeJuan Tribble, who hails from North College Hill High School, and who played for Boston College before making it into the UFL last year.

The only question I have is…does Omaha need a video guy? Because Coach Tresey would love to have me, I guarantee it. I’d be there in a heartbeat. Congrats to Coach Tresey on landing a job, and here’s to hoping he’s as successful in the UFL as he was in the Big East (at least while he was in Cincinnati).

USF Defensive Coordinator is truly Tresey

Back in March I looked back at some of the finer, funnier moments of the past two seasons of interacting with former UC Defensive Coordinator Joe Tresey. (Read it here: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/03/former-cincinnati-defensive-coordinator.html)
This week Tresey will square off with his former team in what many consider to be the Big East’s biggest game since the Labor Day pounding that UC laid on Rutgers a little over one month ago.

Brett McMurphy of TBO.com wrote a preseason feature story on Tresey and described him as, “a colorful character that prefers to use some, uh, colorful nouns, adjectives and even adverbs.” Definitely not friendly for a family setting such as this. (http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/sports/comments/usfs-colorful-new-dc-tresey-im-a-little-bit-type-a)

But everything else in that article is true. He was intense, he was an excited person, and he got the job done as defensive play caller here at UC in two years. Now comes the hard part for Brian Kelly and his staff; beating their former DC, who led a defensive backfield that was second to none in the Big East, with a Heisman hopeful at quarterback.

Last week Tresey answered questions to Tampa reporters in a press conference. But, he “politely declined” an interview request from Bill Koch of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Here’s what he told the local media last week.

Tresey was asked about his firing from Cincinnati. He said, “I’m really focused on South Florida, our defense and our football team, not what occurred at Cincinnati.” Tresey was fired in early February from UC where head coach Brian Kelly wanted to switch to the 3-4 defense. Tresey was rumored to have interviewed for the Defensive Coordinator spot at Miami (Florida) which I’m sure didn’t help his position at UC.

Most fans and “experts” on college football will find it strange to see Tresey on the field before the game, sporting a green and white shirt with the USF logo on it when two seasons ago he stood on the opposite sidelines at Raymond James Stadium—a game that UC won 38-33. Tresey said it might seem strange, but after the game gets started it will be back to business as usual.

Tresey, now wearing his USF green, will be in a familiar setting on Thursday night—coaching against the team that he coached for the past two years (Photo from The Tampa Tribune)

“Once the first snap happens, you're just coaching against the team you're playing,” he said. “And no matter who it is, you want to win.” Kelly feels no bad blood between himself and Tresey. In fact, he complimented Tresey last week. “Joe does a great job and he'll have his defense ready to go,” Kelly said. “It’s not about Joe Tresey and Brian Kelly. It's about our players and how they play.”

Don’t tell the media that. I guarantee it will be the major storyline on ESPN’s gamecast too. They’re always up for a good story.

According to reports, the whole USF coaching staff met with Tresey last weekend to discuss the UC team, player by player. USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt felt that even though it was good to hear Tresey’s side that Kelly’s knowledge of Tresey would make the meeting, “a wash. Our advantage is their advantage also.”

Advantage no one? That means this has all the makings of another classic game between two Big East foes.
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For more on the Joe Tresey vs Cincinnati story where I found some of these comments, visit http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/oct/11/110034/cb-usfs-tresey-used-to-be-one-of-them/
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Tomorrow I’ll be looking back at the 2007 UC/USF game, complete with photos of Raymond James stadium and maybe a little more on the Joe Tresey story. After all, as Tresey told me one November morning, “You know, I’m the only defensive coordinator in America that will do that for you Niedameyer. You remember that.”

I have.

UC and USF: Random Musings

Greg Auman of Tampabay.com blogged yesterday that Joe Tresey, (former UC defensive coordinator and current USF defensive coordinator) “was fine talking about [being UC’s defensive coordinator] for about eight minutes Tuesday with local media.” Auman added, “We'll have more on that story next week.”

So, until Auman provides us with Coach Tresey’s insights, or Coach Tresey feels like opening up to Bill Koch (I still didn’t send in a request to interview him…Maybe I should stop joking about it and get it done) I’ve got nothing more than old Joe Tresey stories to share with you. Maybe I’ll work on that for the weekend or for Monday. Either way, hold off on your Joe Tresey enthusiasm until then.

In other UC news, it has been well publicized (across the city of Cincinnati at least) that today UC Head Coach Brian Kelly will be in Bristol, Connecticut at the ESPN Headquarters. They will put him through the, “Car wash,” as GoBearcats.com media personality Tom Gehlerter (or as we call him, Tommy G) said earlier this week.
He will be on some variety of ESPN media all day, so check it out and enjoy Kelly’s wisdom. He should provide a good one liner, or two or three. He’s really good with the media, and he shouldn’t disappoint today.

Pat Forde of ESPN.com weighs in on why Tim Tebow shouldn’t play this weekend on ESPN.com. In the article he mentions that even if Florida wins this weekend they can still make the national title game. And, “Some supposition on a one-loss Florida's potential competition for the two most coveted spots in college football:… [Florida] probably also would win a beauty contest with the champion of the Big East -- even an undefeated champion.”

Well, glad to see the Big East is getting some recognition at least. Heck, last year he wouldn’t have even bothered mentioning the Big East. We’re making strides (the author rolls his eyes).

But, Forde was not the only columnist this week conjuring up the possibility of an undefeated Big East champion getting jobbed out of a trip to Pasadena. Cincinnati Enquirer sports writer (and some would contend legend) Paul Daugherty wrote on Wednesday that, “UC could get Utah-ed. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” said Kelly. “I know the landscape of college football. When it gets down to a national championship game, people want to see the elite programs.”
Well, at least we’d then get to go to the Sugar Bowl like Utah did.

I’d take a trip to New Orleans over Birmingham any day.

More on a USF commercial that is begging for fans to show up next Thursday to Raymond James Stadium, and my look back at what happened when the Bearcats traveled to Tampa in 2007 throughout the weekend. Check back then, have a good day.