Bengals hold work out at UC

The Cincinnati Bengals held a work out, put together by some of the veteran players including Jordan Palmer, at UC’s Nippert Stadium today. Tell me if you know the guy below

Photo from the Cincinnati Enquirer's website, Cincinnati.com. More photos can be found at http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=AB&Dato=20110608&Kategori=SPT02&Lopenr=106080805&Ref=PH&odyssey=mod|galleriespic|umbrella

I do what I can to attract any publicity I can get. Have a good Wednesday.

Notre Dame employs video game system to help quarterbacks

Chances are if you’re a fan of college football and you’re around my age you’ve spent more than a few hours playing EA Sports’ NCAA Football on your PlayStation or XBox. I’m certainly guilty of that “crime,” if you will.

Turns out, not only are nerds like me using the video game to have fun and live out the dreams of chasing a Heisman trophy and National Title, but so are the actual athletes themselves.

*If you’ve read this story before, well, it’s because I’ve written it before. If you go to http://web.coachbutchjones.com/Dev/ and click on the “Inside Football” tab and the EA Sports menu, you’ll be able to see how UC’s quarterbacks have been using the system since Brian Kelly was the head man at UC.

Mark Schlabach of ESPN sat down and watched Kelly and his quarterbacks during a spring practice. Not only does Notre Dame employ the EA Sports Play Action Simulator, developed by EA and XOS Digital, the company that supplies film editing equipment to teams like Notre Dame and Cincinnati, but they also use new “helmet cams” mounted on the quarterback’s helmet so Kelly can break down exactly what each of his signal callers sees on each play.

Yeah, it’s like Madden 64, only, probably a whole heck of a lot better.

I am very familiar with the EA Sports Play Action Simulator, something that we used during the 2009 season where UC ran the table and went 12-0, clinching a second consecutive Big East title and a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

“It’s a good tool to have the night before a game,” Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees told Schlabach. “It’s a good thing to use as a refresher.”

Opponents’ defensive schemes can be programmed into the simulator and, in this case, the Notre Dame offense is installed in the game as well. Before each play, quarterbacks are quizzed on what their pre-snap reads are.

For example, Schlabach noted this instance, which took place in the Notre Dame hotel the night before their Sun Bowl victory over Miami (FL).

“Before taking a snap on a play called “North Squeeze 63 Dolphin,” Rees was asked to identify Miami's pass coverage. His options were: Cover 4, Tampa 2 or 2 Man. After correctly identifying the coverage, Rees had to throw to the correct receiver,” Schlabach noted.

One of the most fun parts about the simulator was the fact that it was in our hands to set up. The UC video staff became very proficient at setting up the games and making sure they worked before guys like Tony Pike, Zach Collaros and Chazz Anderson came into the quarterback meeting room to try it out.

It was fun. Just ask the guys I work with.

--------------------------------------------------

Spring football is winding down in Cincinnati, and the Fifth annual Bearcat Bowl will take place on Saturday. It should be a fun night, so come on out to Nippert Stadium and watch the 2011 Bearcats in action.

Notre Dame bans hydraulic lifts from practices

Notre Dame announced Tuesday that hydraulic lifts, such as the one 20-year-old Declan Sullivan was filming practice from on October 27 when he tragically fell to his death, have been banned by the school.

Instead, the school announced that it will install remote control cameras mounted on 50-foot poles and controlled from a room inside the Notre Dame Athletic Complex. The camera system was designed by XOS Digital—the company that supplies Notre Dame with editing and technical equipment.

Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown told the AP that the call was made to XOS in November. “We went to XOS last November and said, ‘Is there any way to eliminate the use of hydraulic lifts?’” he said.

The boxes holding the cameras will be equipped to protect the cameras from rain and wind, and will also have a wiper to clear the lens. The boxes will also be outfitted with the green shamrock logo with Sullivan’s initials inside it—the same logo the Notre Dame team wore on their helmets last season to honor the video worker.

When Notre Dame starts spring practice on March 23rd, the new camera systems will be in place. Works began drilling holes for the camera poles on Tuesday.

The Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA) is still investigating what caused the lift to fall on the blustery day in late October where wind gusts were over 50 mph.

This new development is an interesting new twist into the current job I hold, and I have mixed feelings about it.

Coaches are control freaks, and if they don’t get their film on time they are not happy campers. The only people to get that done are people like myself and my co-workers who sit at computers and punch keys to cut the film. It’s quick and efficient.

While I know nothing of the new XOS system, I have worked closely with XOS products over the years (including the three-year reign of Brian Kelly at UC) and they are top-of-the-line products. I’m interested to find out more about how these fiber optic cable camera system works.

On one hand, I’m excited to see Notre Dame step up and make a stand on worker safety, but on the other hand, I worry. How many schools will see these systems as a waste of money?

‘Throw a kid up there, it can’t happen to us,’ they may think. They are wrong.

While many schools will still rely on hydraulic lifts to film practice, at least Notre Dame has made a stance trying to prevent tragedies like Declan Sullivan’s death from occurring to them. It’s a step in the right direction, and I applaud the move by the Irish.
------------------------------------------------
For more on the Sullivan story from ESPN and the AP, click this link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6192497

For one of the best stories I’ve ever seen written in my life, check out Ryan McGee’s “Up in the Wind” story from last year: http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/blog?name=mcgee_ncf_ryan&month=october-2010&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncf%2fblog%3fname%3dmcgee_ncf_ryan%26month%3doctober-2010

If you don’t understand our job, you will after you read McGee’s article.

Oregon wide receiver pays tribute to fallen student

Everyone thinks tonight’s Oregon-Auburn National Title game will be an offensive show, and as a fan of college football, I hope the “experts” are spot on. This game could look more like a basketball game with the Oregon Ducks’ high-powered, quick-strike offense matching Auburn’s Heisman-winning signal-caller Cam Newton and the Tigers’ own high-octane offense.

Everyone wants to root for someone, and I’m rooting for Oregon. Here’s why…

Oregon wide receiver D.J. Davis, a senior, is described as “the consummate team player.” In the team’s final game of the season, against rival Oregon State, Davis caught a touchdown pass that put the Ducks ahead 23-7. A photographer snapped a photo of Davis that made headlines nationwide.

Tucked in Davis’s waistband was a photo of a kid who chased the same dream that Davis can accomplish with a win in tonight’s National Title game. The photo was of Notre Dame student videographer Declan Sullivan, who died on October 27, after the lift he was filming Notre Dame’s practice from fell over in high winds.

Davis never knew Sullivan, but news of Sullivan’s death hit Davis especially hard. “I have a 20-year old brother (Eric) who will be 21 in January and Declan was the same age,” Davis said. “I kept thinking about it a lot and usually God tries to talk to you in some strange ways and give you some messages.

“I just thought He was telling me to use that as some motivation for this year and giving me something else to play for.”

Davis will wear Sullivan’s photo in tonight’s game, and has been in contact with the Sullivan family, learning more and more about the young man he honors every game. “Pretty much when I talked to them, they wanted to let me know what kind of guy he was,” Davis said. “And he seemed like a really good kid from what I've heard from them and just that keeping his memory alive is one of the things they want to accomplish.”

Mission accomplished.

I tip my cap to D.J. Davis for doing something that very few others would even think of doing. “Just knowing someone can have an impact on you without even meeting them is an awesome experience,” Davis said.

I feel that way about D.J. Davis now. Hopefully he and his Ducks teammates have a little extra help tonight. I know I’ll be rooting for them.

Rodriguez out at Michigan: The (college) coaching carousel continues

If you miss a day of college football, you might as well miss a week of noteworthy news. Today in Ann Arbor, Rich Rodriguez was finally let go as head coach at Michigan. This news may have come to the Wolverine fan base as a necessary move, but probably came much to the chagrin of Ohio State fans.

Athletic director Dave Brandon said, “I believe this is the best decision for the future of Michigan football. We have not achieved at the level that I expect.”

Rodriguez left West Virginia after the 2007 season and never really made it click in Michigan, where he compiled a lackluster 15-22 record in three seasons, with only one bowl appearance. It definitely wasn’t what Michigan fans thought they were getting after Lloyd Carr stepped down after the 2007 season.

Sure Carr couldn’t beat Ohio State and wasn’t delivering with the success that his sweatervest-wearing counterpart at Ohio State was doing, but Carr wasn’t doing a bad job either. Michigan seemed to panic and hire a guy who, by all means, was a great coach. Trust me, I’d seen his offenses take the Big East and my own team by storm.

That being said, I’m once again shocked by the fact that this college football world (and the NFL for that matter) has turned into the, ‘what have you done for me now’ type of world. Rodriguez endured some hiccups in his first season, and that was expected because he had to change offensive styles, and recruit young men to fit his spread system.

ESPN.com’s Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg noted, “There’s the counterargument, of course, that Michigan didn’t give Rodriguez enough time to get things on track.” It’s tough to disagree with that, but some athletic programs want to win, and they want to win now.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that college football’s coaching turnover is really, really irritating. And while I understand it, I wonder if Michigan made the right move. Of course if Brandon hadn’t dismissed Rodriguez, next season would have been the make or break season for Rich Rod in the Big House (where he was 11-11 in his three seasons by the way). The media scrutiny would have been just as bad as it has been in the previous few weeks for Rodriguez, and every loss would have been even worse.

When I flipped open the newest copy of Sports Illustrated this week, I read the back page article by Joe Posnanski. He mentioned Urban Meyer’s stepping away and Joe Paterno’s seeming endurance in this crazy world of college athletics. “Not only is Paterno different from Meyer, but he is also likely the last of a breed: the coach who built a life around a single major college-football program,” he wrote.

With constant coaching changes I believe Posnanski is correct in his assessment. Heck, it’s tough to find high school head coaches that stick around their programs for a long time (at least in the Cincinnati area). Doug Ramsey has been the head man at Elder High School since 1997, and although he will probably last another decade or so at Elder, he was once rumored to have looked at other jobs (namely the Mason opening a few years back).

Even high school seems to be full of coaches that are on the move for one reason or another. All the changes that occur with a coaching transition hurt student-athletes and other staff members who may end up having to look for new jobs when coaching transitions occur.

When Mark Dantonio left Cincinnati after the 2006 season, my current boss, UC video coordinator John Sells, told me he was worried about whether or not Brian Kelly would bring in his own video guy, or if Sells would get to keep the job he had just gotten in June of that year.

“You never know,” he told me. “You think, ‘Is the new guy going to bring in his own guy?’ Because some coaches have their own guy, and some don’t.”

Obviously the carousel of coaches will stop spinning here in a week or two, but plenty of jobs are still open, including Michigan, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, just to name a few. When the wheels stop spinning it’s anyone’s guess as to where coaches and assistants (video guys included—hey gotta keep a look out on the folks I work around) will end up.

I can’t wait for the carnival ride to stop, and honestly, if my life hadn’t been affected so strongly by our own coaching transition last year (albeit not the same as the head coach getting fired, in fact, quite the opposite) I wouldn’t feel so strongly about it.

My advice to fans, athletic directors and anyone else who will take my advice is, be patient, be calm, and maybe, just maybe, your head coach will raise your program up to walk on stormy seas. If you fire him before you get the chance to see if he’ll raise you up, then the onus is on you.

2010 in Review

I love Cincinnati, but forgive me if I seem spoiled by saying after the past few years, this New Year’s Eve in the Queen City will be disappointing. Two years ago we rang in the new year in Miami, and last year it was one wild party on Bourbon Street (which I watched from my hotel room—I wasn’t about to venture down into that craziness) in New Orleans.

So, this year won’t be quite the scene it has been in the past few years, but nonetheless it will be another night to ring in the next year, and hopefully 2011 will be just as much fun and just as exciting as 2010.

There were plenty of highs and plenty of lows, and if you followed the blog, you know most of the upcoming story, but stick around. There are a few good new gems I’ve got planned, including a quick preview of 2011.

As Celine Dion once sang, “God bless us everyone, the good and the bad, the happy the sad.” Whether the moments were happy or sad, good or bad, they were one thing: memorable.

The first day of the year might be remembered by UC football fans as light years ago, and I understand how it feels that way, but the thrashing UC took at the hands of Florida was actually within the calendar year of 2010. The Sugar Bowl was exciting—if you were a fan of the Florida Gators, led on the field by Tim Tebow for one last hurrah.

Well, at least I got to see the greatest college football player of our generation play.

As we rolled toward February, the NASCAR season took over, and what better beginning could you ask for as a NASCAR fan than on day one seeing 51-year-old Mark Martin claim his first Daytona 500 pole?

It was an all Hendrick Motorsports front row in Daytona (Getty Images)

Everything seemed to be going well until that pothole got a hold of the season’s biggest race, turning the 500 into a twice-delayed race on Valentine’s Day. Even though it was sad to sit through almost as much time in delays as we did during the race, it was pretty neat to see Jamie McMurray win.

Rolling into March it was time to begin basketball season, and although my brother and I wanted to win more than one game, we only had the opportunity to win one. Another season starts up in about a month, and we’ve promised to be the best dressed coaches in the league. Let’s see how many wins that gets us.

Also in March of this past year, I began the second internship of my career, this time with FOX19, the city’s smallest TV station. The guys in sports there were more than glad to have me around and we had some good times covering everything from the Reds to the Bengals and the Cyclones. I enjoyed hanging out with Brian Giesenschlag, our producer Rufus, Zach Wells and Dan Wood, and even enjoyed the trip to Indy where Rontina McCann and I worked on some NASCAR coverage together.

We’ll see what 2011 brings, especially with the invite from the guys at Channel 19 to come on back any time I wanted to in order to help them out and get more experience.

Here I am interviewing Elder volleyball player Steve Kent after Elder won the 2010 state title in volleyball

April and May were full of local sports and spending nights at Channel 19, as well as full of school work. As June rolled in, I knew it was going to be one crazy month.

We had football camps, the Nationwide (nee Busch) Series race at Kentucky Speedway, and even a change of address for the UC football video office. To say it was a whirlwind would be an understatement. After finishing camp films, we got the notice from Butch Jones that we’d be moving into his office, and he’d inhabit our much larger office.

It turned into a month-long project for us, moving bits and pieces of our computer equipment into our new, much, much smaller office.

That was compounded by the low point of the year, as I have mentioned numerous times. The July 7th death of my grandfather made the whole year turn on a dime. Even as we moved along throughout the year, there was always that little part missing.

But, not to make it all turn out to be doom and gloom in the month of July. Sure, the summer’s most prominent month began in a rather depressing way, but it ended on a happier note for myself with the trip to Indianapolis, Ind.

My dad and I had a great view of the 2010 Brickyard 400

If you missed any of my Brickyard coverage, you missed a lot of fun observations and stories about the enjoyable weekend in Speedway, Ind. Jamie McMurray won again, and it was fun seeing Mark Martin run well again.

August is normally the least busy month on the blog, and that’s because I’m stuck in West Harrison, Ind. at Camp Higher Ground going through two practices a day with the UC football team. This year was no different, and we were busier than ever this year with the new coaching staff.

The football season began on Labor Day weekend, and from September on it was fourteen weeks of football, football and more football, with some schoolwork sprinkled in here and there. Even though the season was a disappointment, our video looked great.

And on one windy day in South Bend, Ind., the whole perception of my job was thrown into the national headlines. On October 27th tragedy struck the Notre Dame football program when student videographer Declan Sullivan was killed when the scissor lift he was filming practice from fell.

Everyone I ran into in the days following the incident said the first thing they thought of was me. During our game against Syracuse that Saturday it was the topic of discussion between the two film staffs from UC and Syracuse. At least it was in my lift in the endzone at Nippert Stadium.

We also hung the above banner on our lift and it stayed there throughout the season. It certainly wasn’t the way we ever wanted our job to come to light, and the publicity from the incident in South Bend was quite interesting to read. After all, in three seasons with Brian Kelly, nothing of the sort ever happened to me or any of my co-workers, which was interesting. Even though no official sanctions have been handed down yet, it will be a story I’ll keep a keen eye on.

The disappointing football season ended in the most insane weather I’ve ever filmed in here in my four years in Cincinnati. Inches upon inches of snow fell as Pittsburgh’s Dion Lewis torched the UC defense for 261 yards and four touchdowns.

Jordan Stepp of UC stopped Dion Lewis on this play. It was a rare sight in the snow (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)

It was an entertaining game to film, and the addition of my dad on the lift (it was senior day, and we assumed, incorrectly, that we’d be shown on the video board. Instead the “thank you” to the football staff that was given was rather quick and no one was shown on the video board, much to the dismay of my dad, who hung out on the lift for the entire game) made the game so much more fun, although my counterpart from Pitt made the game enjoyable as well.

All of this added up to a few weeks of vacation in the final weeks of December—after recruiting and our banquet work was finished—and plenty of blogs for you to read.

As we head into 2011, there’s plenty of NASCAR, college football and other things to be covered here. Basketball season will begin, I’m still refereeing volleyball, and who knows what else is in store in 2011. We’ll see what the biggest part of the year holds for us, my expected graduation in June.

Until tomorrow, or next year, have a good day, a safe night and Happy New Year!

The Best Blogs of 2010

Happy 20th birthday to my brother Tony on this lovely Wednesday, and thanks for reading as always.
This year was full of fantastic stories on the blog, and I hope you tuned in to read the 160-plus (and counting) posts I have put up. Throughout the year I have had the chance to weigh in on NASCAR, college football, high school sports and much, much more. Yesterday I went through my posts a month at a time and checked them to find my favorite stories of the year.

Whether they were well written (and let’s be honest, most of them were pretty good—I know, I’m extremely humble) or they were just great stories with awesome storylines, I picked each story because of what it meant to me. Let’s check out some of my favorite stories of the 2010 calendar year.

During my annual Daytona 500 countdown I offered up my reasons on why I love NASCAR drivers, and the sport in general. Stories about Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and my own memories of Mark Martin filled the story, which you can check out here: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/01/as-young-kid-growing-up-in-cincinnati-i.html

It was a fun story to write, but without fans, NASCAR is just another set of grown men driving around with road rage. One of my favorite stories of the year was one I wrote about my friends, the Markaholics. For a class I went in-depth with some members of the Markaholics, who gave me so much information to work with I actually had trouble paring down the info to write a good article! Here’s my favorite story about my favorite Mark Martin fans: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/02/nascar-fans-use-internet-to-connect.html


Also for that same class I did a little “behind the scenes” story on the Elder High School basketball team. Head coach Joe Schoenfeld allowed me to visit a few practices and the game against St. Xavier. At Elder, the all-male Catholic school of 1,000 or so young men, team masses are a big part of the athletic experience. I had the ability to write about the team masses from the perspective of the basketball team, and I got to watch the Panthers defeat their No. 1 rival St. X, all in a good week’s work. Here’s the story on Elder basketball and the tradition of team masses: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/02/elder-basketball-team-learns.html

Speaking of high school sports, one of my favorite high school sports, and one that gets zero publicity, is high school volleyball. In May, while I was interning at FOX19, I had the ability to go out to Moeller High School and talk to four members of the Moeller squad along with head coach Greg Ulland. As a three-year stat guy with Elder’s volleyball team I never saw my team beat Moeller, and I know that the Crusaders are dominant. Six state titles in 13 years equals a dynasty in my book.

So I did my first ever video report for the FOX19 website, and I also ran the story on the blog. Here’s my story on the Moeller volleyball dynasty, but you have to go to the link at the top to see my smiling face on the video: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/02/elder-basketball-team-learns.html

I also took a class during the spring in Holocaust Literature. It was quite interesting, and we had the ability as a class to listen to a local Holocaust survivor give his memories about the horrible experiences he had as a German Jew during the Holocaust. The day was full of thoughts from a man who had seen possibly the worst period of human history. Here’s the story: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/05/holocaust-survivor-werner-coppel-shares.html

Then came Father’s Day, and this year was a different year. As you may know, my 87-year-old grandfather was in failing health and so I did the only thing I could think of: write. It’s a story that was shared to all my family members, including one of my cousins, who told me it was “professional grade stuff.” FOX19 Sports Director Brian Giesenschlag told me it reminded him of a story he wrote when he was in college about his grandfather. Get your tissues ready, here’s my Father’s Day Wish: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/06/fathers-day-wish.html
Then came the low point of the year, when my grandfather passed away. Again, all I could do was write about it. Except, I had a difficult time putting words down on paper; it was that tough to write about. But, the end product was a blog that was once again shared by my family before my grandfather’s funeral, and a number of my mom’s relatives said they were crying as they read the story. Here’s the story “In Memory”: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-memory.html

July was also a happier time for myself, as I once again got to attend the Brickyard 400, again with a media pass. In 2009 I wrote a story about Mark Martin’s coach driver Bart Starr (not the quarterback) and this year I decided to do a long profile story on a woman that all Mark Martin fans have become acquainted with via Twitter, his media relations manager Kendra Jacobs. On a hot and sunny afternoon in Speedway, Ind., I stood in Mark Martin’s hauler and chatted with Kendra. Here’s the story: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/07/kendra-jacobs-media-manager-and-top.html

Some of my less well written pieces are my rants and ramblings about college football stadiums that we’ve visited with the UC football team. Here are all of my stories, complete with photos of course:
Fresno State: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/09/fresno-state-stadium-photos.html
NC State: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/09/carter-finley-stadium-best-in-four.html
Louisville: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-papajohns-cardinal-stadium-still.html
West Virginia: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/11/post-400-country-roads-take-me-home.html
Connecticut: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/11/they-say-its-not-over-til-fat-lady.html

Speaking of college football, a profound incident occurred on October 27 of this year in South Bend, Ind. During a Notre Dame practice, a 20-year-old student videographer, Declan Sullivan, died when the scissor lift he was filming practice from toppled in high winds. The story hit especially hard for myself, being that I too perform the same job as Sullivan, and did for three years under Brian Kelly. While I had no time to write a response to the incident, I found an article by ESPN.com’s Ryan McGee, called “Up in the wind,” and it was so good that I shared the link via my blog. Here’s McGee’s article (and it’s one of the finest bits of reporting I’ve ever read, and definitely the best story about the Notre Dame tragedy) http://espn.go.com/ncf/blog/_/name/mcgee_ryan/id/5740321/up-wind
As the football season wound down and the first term of my final year as a student at UC wound down I had the ability to write a story about Dave Allen, the “West Side Musical Maestro,” as I called him. Dave Allen impacts hundreds and hundreds of lives each year with his work as Elder Glee Club director, St. William childrens and adult choirs director and director and conductor of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra. My story about DA can be found here: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2010/12/dave-allen-west-sides-musical-maestro.html

I hope you’ve enjoyed each and every post I’ve put up this year. It’s been a fun year, with plenty of ups and downs, as you can see from browsing my short list of the best posts of 2010. I’m compiling a few more stories to post before the crystal ball drops on Friday night to ring in 2011, and check back for those posts. Enjoy your day, and tell my brother Happy Birthday if you see him around town.

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.

Rentschler Field site of final nail in UC’s coffin

They say ‘It’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings,’ but on Saturday afternoon in Hartford, Conn., for fans of UC football, it was the sweet sounds of Bing Crosby, crooning the Bearcats to their ultimate demise.
“I’ll be home for Christmas…”

With a 38-17 loss to the Big East leading UConn Huskies, the two-time defending Big East champions are now 4-7 and not eligible to make a bowl game, with only one game left (vs. Pittsburgh, noon on Saturday).

“You can plan on me…”

UConn’s Rentschler Field was once described to me as a pro stadium that was halfway finished, and nothing has changed since my last visit to the northeast. The only thing that made the trip unbearable was the stiff, stiff breeze that made the air temperature hover near or below the freezing mark all game long.

“Please have snow and mistletoe…”

So, nothing out of the ordinary for this final road trip review of 2010. I’m sure I could find more to say, but there’s not much more to say about the Rent. It’s a nice place, and I’m always interested to see the lines of cars out on the old landing strips behind the stadium’s pressbox. It reminds me of a NASCAR race.

The two above photos show the mass of cars and tailgaters near the two (former) runways behind the pressbox area

“And presents on the tree…”

So, even though the trip ending with a loss means I’ll be home for Christmas, there’s one last game to go, one final home game hurrah, and it should be a blast. Check back later this week for more Big East news, including thoughts about TCU joining the conference.

My first 40 (plus) games

It all started with one split-second decision. “Put me there,” I told video coordinator John Sells. And the fact that he had enough faith and trust in the kid who had just screwed up the video at San Diego State, to put me in the endzone in the first Big East conference game of 2007, told me a lot. I’ve been there ever since.

San Diego State-2007, the final game I was on the sideline

Forty games later, I have been through a lifetime of memories, hundreds and thousands of miles of air and bus trips, and have three shiny rings to show for the work that I have put in.

When people ask me what I do, it’s tough for me to explain. Teachers don’t understand my job, but they must yield to my “get out of jail free” absence excuse forms. My friends don’t get it, well, most of them don’t, but even parts of my family don’t understand exactly what I do.

But my dad has the best line of all, if you ask me. “When they say we’re going to go watch film, that’s him,” he’ll tell friends, family and co-workers. I’ve adopted the line and use it as my own.

Hawaii from 2008

Also, let’s be honest, there’s not much I can do to influence the outcome of games, and my stellar record in the endzone mostly has to do with the genius of the current Notre Dame head coach, Brian Kelly. And although UC fans were afraid Butch Jones wasn’t going to be as great after the 1-3 start, everyone is beginning to see the Bearcats turn around, and they now believe that a third straight Big East title is still within reach.

Forty games and 40 different experiences. No one game is exactly the same. But this much is true: I’ve had a blast.

In 40 games, I’ve seen 30 wins and 10 losses. I’ll take a 75% winning percentage. In conference play, I’ve been a part of 18 Big East wins, and only 4 losses. I have seen two conference championships and two BCS bowl games.

The view from the New Orleans Saints practice facility in prep for the 2010 Sugar Bowl

Going undefeated last season certainly didn’t hurt my overall record and my conference record.

I took over in 2007 for the Rutgers game in early October, a game that we won 28-23. The next two games were losses. My record was a less than stellar 1-2. By the end of the PapaJohns.com Bowl in 2007, my record was 4-3.

So I wouldn’t take full credit for being mediocre, but as we joked about these seemingly meaningless stats, Sells and fellow video team member Joe Stanek both noted that maybe we should have pulled me from the endzone.

The box we use to keep rain off our laptop, from West Virginia in 2008

Problem was, no one else wanted to do it, or knew how.

In 2008, we went 11-3, and won our first Big East title at 6-1 in conference. Losing to Oklahoma on the road was no big loss—after all, they played Florida for the National Title that year. Losing to UConn in Connecticut was not good, but hey, we ended up with the ring, and that was all that mattered that year.

Then there was the perfect regular season last year, 12-0 and 7-0 in conference play. Even with a loss to Florida in the Sugar Bowl (and the second head coach I ever worked under, even though Jeff Quinn was technically the “interim” head coach) it was a very successful season.

Sitting at .500 this year has certainly been somewhere many UC fans aren’t used to after two years of almost nothing but winning. But, the Bearcats are beginning to turn the corner. This is neither the time nor the space to discuss that.

Oddly enough, I’m a perfect 3-0 on Thursday nights. USF is 0-2 against yours truly on Thursday nights (for more on the 2008 Thursday night UC/USF duel, check back later this week). And the other game was the ’08 opener against Eastern Kentucky, an FCS opponent, who we beat soundly.

Friday nights, including the most recent win over Louisville**, have also been nice to me. I’m 4-2 including 4-0 in the regular season. The two BCS bowl game losses were both Friday night games. I’ve been a part of one Monday game, the thrashing of Rutgers in 2009 that began the perfect season that propelled Brian Kelly to South Bend.

The Oregon State set up last season

As for my “stat junkie” need to explain more, I broke down my record against opposing conferences as well. Here they are:

ACC: 0-2
Big Ten: 1-0
Big East: 18-4
Pac Ten: 1-0
Big 12: 0-2
SEC: 0-1
Conference USA: 2-0
WAC: 2-1
MAC: 4-0
FCS Schools: 3-0

And if you missed my overall record by year, here it is in more plain sight:
2007: 5-3
2008: 11-3
2009: 12-1
2010: 3-3

The ultimate question is, does the impressive record of the UC football team have anything to do with my video? Probably not, but it’s been a fun ride.

And it’s not over yet.
--- --------------------
**Note, after doing some quick math, it turns out that I’ve been in the endzone for 41 games, and this Friday’s game will be number 42. But, nonetheless, it was fun compiling some stats.

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.

Cincinnati’s ‘Oregon Trail’ ends successfully with victory over Oregon State

In front of a crowd of 41,909 fans, mostly clad in orange and black—the same colors some Bearcat players adorn on Sundays while rooting for the hometown NFL team—the Cincinnati Bearcats defeated the Oregon State Beavers last Saturday afternoon.
In the process the ‘Cats moved up to #14 in the AP Poll and even had one writer claiming that they’d be playing in Pasadena for the national title.

There was a flyover before the game, just the way flyovers should be done. They were extremely low and right on time

And, while all that is nice, they must re-focus on academics (UC began classes on Wednesday, which explains the tardiness of this post) and on a new opponent, Fresno State. Pat Hill’s Bulldog squad got beat in Fresno last Friday night, a game that most of the UC coaching staff and players watched while lodging at the team hotel on Friday night.

Fresno got into a shootout with Boise State, and indications are that tomorrow’s game could be the same way.

But enough about tomorrow, let’s look back at UC’s 28-18 win in Corvallis. That’s a place where USC and Pete Carroll haven’t won in their past two trips (2008, 2006).

The Oregon State scoreboard/videoboard was just another videoboard in the run of obnoxiously large video screens

Reser Stadium reminds some folks of a European soccer facility. The ‘overhangs’ on the sidelines keep a lot of noise down inside the stadium. And let me tell you, I was quite concerned with the crowd as the game kicked off. It was an intense atmosphere, just the way college football should be played.

The way it shouldn’t be filmed however, is inside a building standing just inches from boosters and alumni.
That’s my stand during the game right there. I was inside that building with the windows pulled out of the way, as you can see below. My view was as good as it could be of the victory.
So overall I was impressed with Reser Stadium and the Oregon State fans. They were very cordial after the game, and their video staff was very helpful before the game began. West coast trips are never easy, but we pulled out a victory on the road, that’s all that matters.
--------------------------------------------------------
I’ll try to get my photos of the Oregon Statehouse up when I can find the time over the next few weeks. On Friday night we stayed in Salem, Oregon, the capital of the state. Our hotel was within walking distance of the statehouse and I walked down with the free time that I had. My impressions to come later.

On to racing at Dover this weekend. I’d prefer to write about another Mark Martin win on Sunday night. We’ll see if that happens on Sunday.

Rutgers new stadium expansion is nice and team was bad

When we pulled up to Rutgers’ stadium on Sunday afternoon for the team walk through, we saw a completely different look to the place that we visited in 2007. Rutgers has added about 12,500 seats in their endzone, which became a sea of red clad students yesterday.

Rutgers students packed their new endzone seats yesterday. They left disappointed

The whole stadium looked very nice, and very red. It seemed to me that most everything had been painted, and just as I noticed the fresh red paint, I turned to see a man painting the sideline camera box, where the team video is shot from.

It's tough to see here, but the very left side of the booth isn't painted yet

I don’t remember seeing “banner” scoreboards on either side of the stadium either, but they were there this year, and they added to the “big game” feel at Rutgers stadium.

The banner type scoreboards proclaim "Rutgers: The Birthplace of college football" before each game

Overall, I’d have to say the fans were loud and excited, providing a heck of an atmosphere for about a quarter and a half…and then UC pulled away. The game got boring as the Bearcats hung 47 points on the Scarlet Knights, the most UC has scored against any Big East opponent in Brian Kelly’s reign as head coach in the Queen City.

Even though I said it yesterday to many folks, including my counterparts at Rutgers—Steve and Alex—Brian Bennett, the ESPN.com Big East blogger (who, by the way, we met before the game) might have said it best when he wrote, “I’m not sure even the most optimistic Cincinnati fan could have predicted this kind of performance in the season opener.”

And he is right. Even the video guys couldn’t have predicted that kind of game. In fact, as we talked with Bennett before the game, I answered a text message from Elder High School head stats guy Greg Metz. He asked me simply, “Score prediction?”

I responded, “UC-at least one more point than Rutgers…You know I don’t predict scores that well.”

All in all, the road trip turned out well. No video glitches, the highlight video fired the team up and the flight was smooth. Nothing could be better. Well, winning a few more games in the fashion we did yesterday would be.
---------------------------------------
Check back in later for more Rutgers photos and on Thursday for a recap of the 2007 game between UC and this week’s opponent Southeast Missouri State—aka SEMO. Thanks for reading and make sure you enjoy today.

Brian Bennett, ESPN blogger mentions UC video technology

We spend a lot of time in the football video office checking websites for funny stories, funny pictures, hilarious videos...and reading college football news. Brian Bennett, of ESPN.com, focuses strictly on the Big East in his blog which can be found here: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast

The guy might be better than me. Ok, he's way better than I am, and today he broke a story about the UC football video technology. (Read the story here: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/2175/video-game-technology-helps-cincinnati-prepare)

Bennett got to interview my boss, UC video coordinator John Sells (who has appeared a time or two on this blog) who spoke about our newest tech acquisition--a video game type simulator.

Bennett describes a little bit about the simulator, and I don't know much about the new technology, but the one time I looked at it, I found it to be pretty sweet.

The UC staff can program actual plays into the computers and put opponent's plays on the system as well. Players can take mental reps on the game. The game can be programmed to quiz players as well. It's a cool teaching tool, one they didn't have back when I was in grade school.

Heck, if they had that, I would have considered playing football when I was in third grade, and not soccer. Either way though, it's pretty cool to know that sometimes the guys who do some behind the scenes work, guys that rarely get their name in the paper (or online) get some recognition.
-------------------------------------------
UC plays Rutgers on Monday afternoon on ESPN at 4PM. I expect you'll be watching. Other highlights of the weekend that you'll want to keep your eyes on:

-The Navy/Ohio State game will kickoff tomorrow at Noon on ESPN. You've gotta watch this game just to see if ESPN's crew can pronounce Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo's name. That's knee-uh-mah-tuh-low-low. (And a Kaipo Noa Kaheaku Enhada reference won't hurt either!)

-Sunday at noon the "Westside Goes Worldwide" as the Elder Panthers host the Colerain Cardinals in a matchup of Cincinnati high school powerhouses. Tune in to ESPN to watch that showdown. I wish I could be there to see it.

-Sunday night, as I mentioned just a few minutes ago, is the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Check here for more details :http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/09/atlantas-second-race-will-be-make-or.html

“Next Man In” takes team video to new level

Last season UC head coach Brian Kelly was hailed from coast to coast as he played five different quarterbacks in game action on the Bearcats way to winning 11 games and their first Big East title. In 2007 though, his philosophy of “Next Man In”—a saying which adorns the side of the Big East title ring that each member of the 2008 team received—was put to the test when the team traveled to Rutgers in the first weekend of October.

Coming off a huge 48-28 win over San Diego State the Bearcats were ranked in the top 25 for the first time in many years. Kelly’s new style of offense and transfer quarterback Ben Mauk had the Bearcats sitting at 5-0 heading to Piscataway for the first Big East matchup for UC in the 2007 season.

The Bearcats will be in Piscataway on Monday afternoon to start their Big East title defense

What’s even more stunning is that Kelly had to start a true freshman in that game in a position that he had no prior training at. But the story wasn’t covered by any writers, the kid wasn’t heavily questioned by the media, and very few people even knew about how he got into his position. The reason…?

The true freshman was me. And, I wasn’t playing. I was just thrust into a spot I was very unfamiliar with, shooting the endzone copy of the UC/Rutgers game.

It’s a position that I have rightly held for the past season and a half since that date. How it came about is a story in and of itself, but here is the short version. Our fifth year senior endzone guy, Josh, had an appendectomy on Tuesday of game week.

Someone needed to do the endzone, but I had never done endzone in my life. When the news was broken to us by Director of Football Operations John Widecan, I offered to take over in the endzone, even though I had no idea how to do it. I watched the tape of previous games that Josh had done that season, learning exactly how to film from the endzone, and practiced by shooting endzone film at practice—a position I still hold today.

After the game video coordinator John Sells and I waited in line at the airport, copying files on our gameday laptops, with Coach Kelly waiting behind us. Widecan walked up and had to tell Kelly that I took over in the endzone for this game because of what happened to Josh.

His response, “Next man in,” as he chuckled and looked at special teams coach Mike Elston. Elston echoed, “Next man in.”

My dad often jokes that his son is a first team starter at a major college football program. When people ask him what he means he has to explain that all I do is stand behind a camera, but technically I’m still a starter.

We won the game that night 28-24 thanks to a big game from QB Ben Mauk and WR Dominick Goodman

As unimportant as some of my co-workers try to make our job seem, the job of gameday film is very important. It’s not just important for our coaches to watch and make improvements to the gameplan, but it’s also important for other teams who scout our team off of our film.

We won the game in Piscataway that night, improving to 6-0 on the season. It was a night that very few people know the backstory to; the true freshman taking over as a starter at a position he had very little practice at. But, it was the start of a mini-career for me, a mini-career that will continue this season, my second full season in the endzone.

The post game handshake between the two teams in 2007... from my endzone view

There’s no better spot to start than the place I first started—at Rutgers.
-----------------------------------------
Tomorrow you’ll get two posts, one featuring the NASCAR boys who travel to “Hot-lanta” this weekend for the penultimate race in the “regular season” in the Sprint Cup Series. Eight drivers battle for six spots in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

You’ll also get a bonus post about Big East football and video technology, featuring someone mentioned above, who will be a minor celebrity come tomorrow morning.

Brian Kelly's new contract

Well, it's been a while, but long story short, my home computer broke down and then we started our football camps so I got really busy. But, I thought I'd stop by and give you my 15 minutes of indirect fame.

UC head football coach Brian Kelly signed a contract extension yesterday, and although it was good news, this blog post by Brian Bennett was even more cool: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigeast/0-5-69/More-on-Kelly-s-new-contract.html

In the post, Bennett mentions the clause of Coach Kelly's contract that calls for more funds for things like video equipment. He writes, "The contract also calls for raises for Kelly's assistant coaches and more money for operations such as video technology. "You can't do it yourself," Kelly said. "It's not a one-man show. You've got to have continuity in your staff and in your support staff. This contract signifies our ability to maintain and keep quality people here at the University of Cincinnati that are associated with our football program. That was absolutely crucial."

Needless to say, we made it to the proverbial big time now. Enjoy the hot summer days, and I'll work on a contingency plan to put up some Kentucky Speedway pictures and thoughts plus I'm getting ready to start the Brickyard 400 countdown.