Preseason lunch with CBJ

[richard k.]

He's always fun to listen to -

a) Biggest concern - depth - likes the first 22, but the team is REALLY young! biggest need, surprise, surprise, defensive tackles.

b) 5 freshmen will play; 2 underclassmen to especially watch: Eric Lefeld, and Trenier Orr -Orr he feels has a chance to be something quite special. He mentioned strong improvement of a number of players - but I simply can't recall all the names.

c) told a terrific story about recruiting Tion Green; too long to go into, but for all those who have historically complained about parental influence pushing kids away from UC, suffice it to say that on signing day Tion had pen in hand to sign with USF, when his mom said "No you don't, I like and trust the coaches at UC, and that's where you are going!"

d) feels we have one of the truly best punters in the country - will mean a lot for improving field position.

e) will name the starting qb tomorrow - would ordinarily have done so earlier, but Munchie and Kay have been pushing each other and they are both continuing to get better - so he let it ride. you haven't seen anything as far as qb competition is concerned - just wait until Norvell (he feels Trent already shows the maturity of a sophomore, or even a junior) and Coney go at it. From what he has seen the qb spot will be in fine hands for many years.

f) terrific camp - recently hardest most physical he's been involved with.

g) sorry to see Williams, go was great friend to UC athletics - but he knows Ono and believes he will, for as long as he heads the university, also be a good friend to athletics - as they both seem to understand that athletics are a major face of the university and a substantial part of the reasons why students pick a school to attend. With new commissioner (he agrees with those who think this guy was an absolute stellar choice) and the negotiating team they hired, the BEast should get a terrific new tv deal - and, yes, other schools are using the BEast turmoil against UC, but -

h) he feels the current recruiting status is the best level he's ever been involved with, and they have upgraded the talent they are recruiting to the extent that they are continually going head to head against top teams.

[CaptainProbasco]

Thanks for sharing.

I'm really surprised that he thinks depth will be a problem. I would think that's the one thing we've got down pat. We're returning 33 guys on the 2-deep.

The Tion Green story says a lot about Butch's character.

I certainly hope that (h) is true. He spent one year at WVU, but other than that the best team coached was 1 year at Rutgers back in the 90's and 8 years at CMU.

[JDBEARCAT]

Great post.
Thanks

[cpawstoney]

Thanks for the update!