OK, I admit I was wrong....

[Bearcat Chris]

..... on the C-USA thing. But my "sources" have indicated to me that BK is still in the top 3 for Michigan, and his name has been mentioned for ND. The fans at ND are very upset about the "*** whoopins" they are getting every weekend!

Doubt me if you wish, but I believe my record (aside from the bad prediction on the C-USA thing) has been fairly good.

Still no vibes on SD. As soon as I am done with my "rain dance", I will look for a vision for this weekend !:)

B.C.

[bcatwilly]

No offense Chris, but even if your "sources" are right about rumors of any interest in Coach Kelly can't we just enjoy the Bearcats run right now without immediately jumping to this stuff?

If and when that truly becomes an issue then we can all push panic buttons and consume message board chatter with it. Of course anything is possible, but I do believe that there is a very large buyout already in place if Coach Kelly would try to bolt after a single season. Yeah these are schools that would scoff at that kind of money even, BUT they also could have their pick of pretty much any coach out there that they want too.

And assuming worst case at least the Bearcats would be coming off of a season where they FINISHED in the Top 25 (which is exactly what it would take for Coach Kelly to end up a serious final candidate for either of those jobs IMO) and be holding a bag of cash for another coach (and yes searching would suck because Kelly is clearly special) Let the AD handle anything related to this and for now GO BEARCATS!

[Jose_Jalapeno_on_a_Stick]

OK, I admit I was wrong....

That's all we (or at least I) ask Chris! I will leave you alone about C-USA for here on out.

[tophat]

BC, I think your buddy Kerry Combs needs to work harder on our pass defense. If Bernard Morris can find open receivers without difficulty I fear what BE qbs are gonna do to us.

[Bearcat Cafe]

Per Kelly's contract, buyout after the first year is $2 million. Goes to 1.5 mill in year #2. He is not going anywhere but to the bank to cash the check for the contract extension he is going to get in January.

[swilsonsp4]

BC, I think your buddy Kerry Combs needs to work harder on our pass defense. If Bernard Morris can find open receivers without difficulty I fear what BE qbs are gonna do to us.

Don't underestimate Bernard Morris. He's a very good QB; better than anyone we have. Morris couldn't unseat Pat White or Brian Brohm, but he'd fit in just about anywhere else in the BE.

[Big B]

[QUOTE=Bearcat Chris;6213. But my "sources" have indicated to me that BK is still in the top 3 for Michigan, and his name has been mentioned for ND. The fans at ND are very upset about the "*** whoopins" they are getting every weekend!B.C.[/QUOTE]


Your sources are going to be way off on this. It would cost ND 10's of millions to buy out Weis's contract in which most is guaranteed. No matter how bad they do Weis is the coach unless he quits.

The coach for LSU - Les Miles, be the only canidate for the Michigan job. If they win out the rest of the year then Lloyd will hold on to his job a couple more years.

Hopefully the admin. will lock Kelly up into a smiliar contract as Weis has.

[mlb]

I'm not too worried about Michigan or ND taking Kelly (neither want a spread offense kind of guy anyway), but I would be concerned about the domino effect and what opens up after all of that...

Either way, if he leaves UC then UC will have had a GREAT year and have some good options themselves on head coaches.

and lets not hear about how Kerry Coombs should be the next head coach for UC, he doesn't have enough experience to even warrant any kind of coordinator job yet.

[nachoman91]

Am I the only one who thinks the talk of a contract extension for BK is a bit premature. He has yet to coach a Big East game. There is plenty of time to talk contract extension after we see his coaching ability in a few tough games. So far he has 5 wins under his belt against mostly inferior teams.

[STKohls]

Am I the only one who thinks the talk of a contract extension for BK is a bit premature. He has yet to coach a Big East game. There is plenty of time to talk contract extension after we see his coaching ability in a few tough games. So far he has 5 wins under his belt against mostly inferior teams.

Inferior teams?

One of the 5 was a bowl, Oregon State is in the Pac-10, we beat Miami in Oxford for the first time since '99, and Marshall is frequently a bowl team. I'll grant you SEMO was inferior. The other 4 games would typically spell a 2-2 record in Clifton.

True, these teams are not West Virginia and Rutgers, but an important facet of coaching ability is the knack for winning games you're supposed to win. I'm sure Lloyd Carr and Marvin Lewis would agree.

It would be nice to see some sort of 'rolling extension' like Huggins used to have. Perhaps even a rolling 'buy-out', so that when the top programs come calling (and they will) UC has a better chance to keep him around. If Kelly is as good as we hope he is, when UC renews/raises his contract, they can correspondingly increase the buy-out.

[bobestes]

Before we anoint BK as the second coming of Sid Gillman, what are his recruiting classes going to be like? Keep in mind, he's coaching Dantonio's players.

[shaunsimpson]

I like the way he is recriting. We are seeing a lot of speed that will play well into the defense and offense. I, like many, would like to see more 3 and 4 star players, but it appears that Kelly is going to be getting players, redshirting them, developing them and then using them.

[Bearcat_DF]

He already has 17 recruits who have made a verbal commitment. This is lightyears ahead of where UC has ever been in terms of recruiting.

These early commitments mean that UC is able to start spending more of its recruiting resources on recruiting the 2009 and 2010 classes.

Given our recent success, I think they will be finding a lot more recruits who are eager to listen.

Go Cats!
DF

[Big B]

One of the reason why the team is successful this year is BK is putting players back in their natural positions. Just think if MD was still here we would have never seen Ramsey do his thing or even known he was a running back.

As to the inferior competition, I would bet money that under Minter or MD this team would be 2-2 at best. For example 2001 season under Minter, 1st four games against Purdue, Army, Miami, Tulane. The 2005 season under MD, Eastern Michigan, Penn St., Western Carolina, and of course Miami. Again 2-2 record.

There were 8 players committed when BK was signed last year, 3 opted out and the rest were recruited by BK. So the 2007 class should be consider BK's.

We've had 8 coaches in the last 31 years and none of them have lit up this program like BK. He deserves an extension.

[nachoman91]

Inferior teams?

One of the 5 was a bowl, Oregon State is in the Pac-10, we beat Miami in Oxford for the first time since '99, and Marshall is frequently a bowl team. I'll grant you SEMO was inferior.

Remember, I said "mostly" inferior teams

SEMO - D1AA (or whatever they call it)
Miami - 1-3 with blowout losses to UC and Colorado. Only win is against a very bad Minnesota team in OT
Marshall - 0-4 with a loss to a 1AA team.

Those are inferior teams. I don't care what they've done in the past, they are inferior this year.


One of the reason why the team is successful this year is BK is putting players back in their natural positions. Just think if MD was still here we would have never seen Ramsey do his thing or even known he was a running back.

This is part of the reason the why UC's defense is so strong. Dantonio took all the talent and put it on the defensive side of the field. Mike Mickens is the best example. He was a QB in high school if I remember correctly. BK is doing a nice job of trying to balance out the talent now on both sides of the ball.

[Bearcat Cafe]

Am I the only one who thinks the talk of a contract extension for BK is a bit premature.

Yep....Lock him up just for the off field buzz he created long before their first game. That's been lacking since before we were int he top 25 last.

[Bearcat_DF]

Remember, I said "mostly" inferior teams

SEMO - D1AA (or whatever they call it)
Miami - 1-3 with blowout losses to UC and Colorado. Only win is against a very bad Minnesota team in OT
Marshall - 0-4 with a loss to a 1AA team.

Those are inferior teams. I don't care what they've done in the past, they are inferior this year.


Nacho,

Chill out, don't burst my bubble yet. I grant that 3 of the 4 victories are over paper tigers (Miami actually lost to a very bad Minnesota team. They beat Ball State and are dreaming of a MAC championship).

But that is part of the fun of this type of an OOC schedule. Who really knows how good this team is?

But here are 5 things I like about this team.
1) They beat Oregon State
2) They win decisively, not playing down to the competition.
3) Good defense.
4) Take care of the ball (few turnovers).
5) They are winning even when they haven't played well.

Bonus - They are highly efficient in the Red Zone!!!

Let's get a win Sat and get excited for a real test against Rutgers!

Go Cats!
DF

[Bearcat85]

Sometimes this game is weird. How in the world does Miami beat Ball St, and then the Cardinals go out and nearly knock off Nebraska?

I agree with nacho; we've beaten inferior competiton this year. Oregon St doesn't seem to be the team it was last year with the QB struggles. O.K., they're a PAC 10 team, and I'll take that, but Minnesota's a Big 10 team, but look how awful they are (not to mention Northwestern, apparently). Losing in Oxford a couple times since '99 - 2 Big Ben years; one horrid rebuilding year with freshmen all over the place for us.

I don't know. Maybe we really are that good this year.