C.O.O.L. Clinic rolls into Cincinnati

Some of the best offensive line coaches in football will assemble in Cincinnati this weekend for the C.O.O.L. Clinic. (C.O.O.L. stands for Coaches of Offensive Line) While all the media attention will be down at Great American Ballpark on the Reds and Cardinals with the Civil Rights game taking place on Saturday evening, football coaches from all across America—high school, college and professional—will gather to talk football downtown.

This year will once again feature Friday night “Chalk Talks” with college football offensive line coaches, including Joe Pendry, from this year’s national champions, Alabama. To follow that up, it’s the pro coaches on Saturday, including Super Bowl winning o-line coach Aaron Kromer, from New Orleans, and Super Bowl runner-up Howard Mudd from the Colts.

For the past two years I have sat and listened to these o-line coaches speak about various topics (always making sure we had great video of each speech) concerning offensive line play. Rex Ryan, then the defensive coordinator in Baltimore, gave a speech in 2008. He’s now the head coach for the New York Jets. That same year saw the then New Orleans Saints o-line coach Doug Marrone talk about giving up less sacks. He’s now the head coach of the Syracuse Orange.

Needless to say this clinic attracts some of the best speakers from the college and pro ranks. This year will be another learning experience for all involved—myself included. I’ll glean what I can and report back later this weekend on what I’ve learned.

Expansion? Who cares?

All the rage in college football these days is talk of Big Ten expansion. In fact, without it, I’m relatively sure ESPN would be looking for actual stories to cover right now in college football. Instead, everyone is talking expansion, and the probable demise of the Big East conference.

I’m not having any of it. And neither is Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt.

He met last week with in-state comrade Joe Paterno to discuss Pennsylvania high schools adapting a new practice policy and announcing that the two schools would be hosting high school coaches for clinics.

According to the AP report, “Wannstedt declined comment when asked afterward of rumors that Pitt is a possible Big Ten target. Wannstedt said he has had ‘zero’ discussions about the issue and that any talks would be taken up by school administrators.”

This weekend Tom Luicci, of the New Jersey Star-Ledger wrote an in-depth piece about Rutgers joining the Big Ten. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano took the same route as Wannstedt. “I hear the talk just like you do,” Schiano told Luicci. “But I don’t know anything more. A lot of powerful people are making statements that would lead you to believe maybe. I don’t know.”

On ESPN’s “College Football Live” on Friday afternoon analysts debated hypothetical expansion situations. Four teams from the Big East—Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida—were wrapped up into a larger Atlantic Coast Conference. Two, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, left for the expanded Big Ten. Cincinnati and Louisville were the only two Big East teams to not make a new “super conference” according to the show.

Pat Forde, ESPN.com analyst spoke via phone on the show and noted that Cincinnati and Louisville own three of the past five Big East BCS bow berths, and felt it a little odd that the two schools would be left out of expansion of any kind. Boise State was another perennial contender that would be left out of a “super conference”.

Why should Big East schools want to stay in the eight-team league? Easy, just ask Notre Dame head man Brian Kelly, who, numerous times during his three-year tenure at Cincinnati, noted that the Big East was the easiest conference to win. In order to win and go to a BCS bowl, he’d note, all you had to do was win seven games, and there was no conference title game.

So, why should schools from the Big East want to jump ship to go to a conference where they’d have to play seven games and a conference title game? Money, money, money.

Big Ten teams earned an enormous sum of $22 million per team last season. The Big East earned $33 million by itself, and $20 million of that came from basketball deals. So, for Rutgers, Pittsburgh and other schools named in the hypothetical Big East expansion talk, money literally does talk.

Who will bite? Who will remain in the Big East? Will the Big East fold? Where will UC end up? Where will West Virginia go?

Want my thoughts? Who cares? A poll on UC’s student-run newspaper, The News Record, wanted to know where UC would end up after the Big Ten raided the Big East and the Big East ceased to exist? Four options: the ACC, a redesigned Big East/Other, the Big Ten or Conference USA.

Forty percent of those who voted (59 students) say Conference USA. Thirty percent said a redesigned Big East or other, and 27% said the ACC. Apparently the sky is falling down in Bearcat land.

Just don’t tell Athletic Director Mike Thomas that. “It’s difficult to speculate on what will happen,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bill Koch a few weeks ago. A lot of “experts” think college football is headed to four 16-team “superconferences” to decide the national title. Thomas thinks UC would be one of those 64 teams.

If you came here looking for my opinion, well, you already got it: Who cares? When a co-worker of mine came into the office and said, “Bring back Rick Minter, we’re going to be in Conference USA,” I was shocked. I asked, “What the heck are you talking about?” He responded, “The Big Ten is going to raid the Big East and we’re done.”

Well, glad to know people who work on BCS level football teams are thinking the same thing. Hey, call me back when things actually happen. Maybe then we’ll do some talking. Until then, let’s sit back and talk about football—not hypotheticals.
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Sooner or later I’ll begin looking at the Big East football schedules. This year I have decided to offer last year’s guest blogger, and WPTS Sports Director, Jake Meyer another shot at looking at Big East football. We’ll be looking at each team here shortly. When I have the dates, you’ll know. Thanks for reading.

The spotlight is on Brian Kelly at Notre Dame: Will he succeed?

I came across a few good articles about Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame football program last weekend. The only reason these pieces jumped out at me was because of a few things Brian Kelly had mentioned in the articles.

First thing is first, I have written numerous times about how the way BK left here wasn’t exactly the best way to pull it off, and it’s tough for me to harbor any ill feelings toward him. But I know come October 23rd I’ll be rooting hard against him, and for the Naval Academy. And Dave Curtis of the Sporting News noted, “The goal is to win national championships and graduate NFL draft picks/Nobel Prize candidates (though these days, beating Navy and USC would suffice).” See, I’m not the only one thinking it.

I still remember the first time I met Brian Kelly. He walked into the video office and introduced himself to me. He made sure to get the background on me, and noted that I shouldn’t wear so much Elder purple anymore. He was glad to see my Bearcat shirt on.

In three years I grew to know the ins and outs of the Brian Kelly way—the five minute periods for practice that never went longer than two hours. The constant pressure to get everything right, and his occasional smart aleck remarks that kept us laughing.

Enough of the personal narrative, let’s get down to business.

Now that he’s in South Bend, the pressure is on him to elevate the school he grew up rooting for back to national prominence. He’s starting by cutting all ties to the previous regime. “Everybody looks at Notre Dame and assumes it's special,” Kelly told Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun Times.

“I'm still defining 'special.' It's about team, team, team. I'm trying to get it to where they understand this is about Notre Dame, your teammates, your family and then yourself. I think they had it flipped the other way. It started with 'me,' and Notre Dame was at the other end.”

Kelly noted too that the previous Notre Dame coaching staff often promoted an NFL future to recruits, which was alluring, but the former UC Bearcats head man says he knows what it take to win at this level, and that’s what’s important right now. “[Weis] had great credibility to do that,” he said in an SI.com story. “I can't pitch that because I don't have that background. Mine is, 'I know how to get you to a BCS game.’”

Brian Kelly received much of the credit for guiding UC to the Allstate Sugar Bowl in January, but he left for Notre Dame before the game, leaving a sour taste in many Bearcat fans' mouths

And as someone who has attended two BCS games partly because of Brian Kelly, it’s tough to argue with that fact. But Coach Kelly made a comment that made me think about the way he left Cincinnati. He said this about the kids he’s now coaching in South Bend: “My impression, in the short amount of time I've been here, is that guys were playing for themselves,” he told SI.com. “‘Selfishness’ and ‘entitlement’ are two words that would be apropos.”

The first BCS Bowl BK and UC went to in 2008, the 75th Orange Bowl, didn't go as planned. UC lost to Virginia Tech 20-7

To be fair, wasn’t Kelly’s departure from Cincinnati about selfishness and entitlement? I loved Brian Kelly, and I loved the way he ran his football program while here in the Queen City, but the way he left town made a bad impression on a lot of people.

I’m sure this won’t be the last time I write about BK, and knowing a lot of the coaches who are up there, I’m sure I’ll pay attention to the Fighting Irish, but the question is, can I root for them? I know on at least one occasion I won’t be. Go Navy.

USF finds out about Kelly's tricks of the trade in 2007

What could have been a potential top ten matchup between the schools turned into a mid-afternoon struggle between two teams looking to back on track in Big East play. What could have been a primetime game on ABC, what could have been a game where ESPN’s College Gameday broadcasted their show from the “Pirate Ship” in Raymond James Stadium, turned into a shootout between new Big East foes.
But enough about what could have been.

In 2007 Brian Kelly’s UC Bearcats started off 6-0. The ‘Cats rose to national prominence and a #15 ranking, unheard of in recent memory for UC fans. In mid October they dropped two games in a row, to rivals Louisville and Pittsburgh before a bye week. After the bye the ‘Cats traveled to Tampa, Florida and tried to right their ship.
USF had a dream season in 2007 as well. They rose to #2 in the country before dropping games to Rutgers and Connecticut. They came into the game against the Bearcats ranked #18 and favored at home.

The parallels between that matchup and this one are very few and far between, but the Bearcats are coming off of a bye week heading to Tampa and the Bulls are ranked #21—close to 18th—in the polls.
But that game in 2007 was one of the wildest games I have ever witnessed. A game that saw Brian Kelly throw out every play in the playbook, including a fake punt and fake field goal, in order to pull off a stunning 38-33 victory.

The first quarter took over one hour to complete. USF struck first on a 73 yard “pick six” five minutes into the game. Two-and-a-half minutes later Ben Mauk hit Antwuan Giddens for 63 yards and a touchdown. The ensuing kickoff was returned 100 yards by the Bulls’s Mike Jenkins and that quickly the game became a track meet. It was 14-7 with 10:30 showing on the clock.

We needed a TV timeout or two just to catch our breaths after watching the first five minutes, but the fireworks were not over yet. The Bearcats scored 24 straight first quarter points, including a blocked punt which was recovered in the endzone by Giddens and a “pick six” of our own by Mike Mickens.
After one it was 31-14 and the ‘Cats seemed like they were clicking on all cylinders even coming off of a bye week. But after two field goals by USF and one UC touchdown in the second quarter it was 38-20 at halftime.

The first half was as crazy as it sounds. Kelly, who doubles as UC’s playcaller on gamedays, threw everything his mind could imagine at USF. On one fourth down in my end of the stadium he let Kevin Huber—now with the Cincinnati Bengals—fake a punt. The play was supposed to be a short pass from Huber to blocking back Doug Jones. Jones tripped on the play and Huber sprinted, well ok, he ran, for a first down instead.

Kelly also called a “flea flicker” pass where Ben Mauk handed the ball to Jacob Ramsey who was going to run forward into the line and toss the ball back to Mauk, who would then heave it down the field for a receiver. Ramsey fumbled the ball and the Bulls took over.

One other play featured Mauk swinging the ball out to wideout Marcus Barnett who then launched the ball down field to Mardy Gilyard. Gilyard got tripped from behind just short of the goal line.

On fourth and 13, with less than half a minute left on the clock, UC up 38-33, and at the USF 28, Kelly took a timeout. He wanted to kick a field goal, or did he? If you were watching on TV you may have seen ESPN do a close up shot of Kelly who uttered the phrase, “Let’s fake it.”

And they did.

Huber was the holder and he got the snap from long snapper Mike Windt. Instead of placing the ball on the ground he flipped it over his head to Rogers who swung behind him. Rogers was ready to throw the ball deep to Craig Carey—who was still a quarterback at the time—but was hit for a loss on the play and South Florida took over from there.

After two futile shots at the endzone with only seconds remaining, the UC players flooded the field, escaping Tampa with a 38-33 victory. It was easily the most exciting game in the Kelly era to that point. “We said it was going to be exciting,” he said. “We certainly are not cookie cutter when it comes to the way we play the game of football.”
And if that game was any indication, we’re in for a treat when the two teams meet tomorrow evening on ESPN at 7:30. I have a feeling that we won’t be seeing any more fake field goals with thirty seconds left on the clock.