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Coach Dantonio hauls in talented class Ohio-style
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Cat's_Claw Offline
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Coach Dantonio and his Ohio State and Big Ten ties combined with our Big East affiliation has paid MAJOR dividends in football recruiting at UC. I highlighted some of the more interesting quotes in the article. UC has done a great job of holding serve at home and that is great news for UC and the Big East. From the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper:

A happy end to the recruiting trail
UC coach Dantonio has hauled in talented class with Ohio flavor


By Bill Koch
Enquirer staff writer

With a week to go before the national signing date, University of Cincinnati football coach Mark Dantonio and his staff have virtually wrapped up recruiting for this year's class.

And indications are that the Bearcats' move to the Big East next season is already paying dividends.

Coming off a 7-5 season and a victory in the Fort Worth Bowl in Dantonio's first season, the Bearcats have landed a class that's heavy on Ohio talent and features 12 players who are either defensive linemen or linebackers.

There are also three quarterbacks, including one from junior college, who will compete to succeed career passing leader Gino Guidugli.

UC also picked up four local players, including Colerain defensive lineman Terrill Byrd, the Enquirer's Player of the Year, and quarterback Dominick Goodman and linebacker Andre Revels, his teammates on the Division I state champions.

The other local player is Elder quarterback Craig Carey.

"I think it's a pretty good class," said Max Emfinger of the National Blue Chips Recruiting Service. "I'd probably rate it somewhere in the top 50. I think it's a big step in the right direction for them."

"This is a very competitive class," said Tom Lemming of ESPN.com, "the first one they've had for a while. It's a very good group.

"The old staff wasn't a great recruiting staff. This one might be."


Dantonio, prohibited by NCAA rules from talking about players until they sign letters of intent, did talk about his approach to recruiting and what he was looking for as he attempts to bolster a roster that loses 25 seniors from last season.

He said he expects to sign 25 or 26 players, beginning next Wednesday, which is national letter-of-intent day. Fourteen of those players are from Ohio.

"We will always start with the Cincinnati area," Dantonio said, "and then move outside of that to the Ohio area and then outside the state. We want to do the very best we can in this area. The high school football is good and very well supported. If we can be successful with those people, we'll have a very good football team."

Recruiting classes don't prove their mettle until they show what they can do on the field, so it's premature to place too much stock in what the analysts say.

But the Bearcats appear to be competing more successfully with schools from other Bowl Championship Series conferences.

Among the top players are:

• Kazeem Alli, a 6-4, 225-pound tight end from the St. Louis area who chose UC over Illinois, Missouri, Michigan State and Georgia Tech. "He's an outstanding tight end," Lemming said, "a great catch for them. I really like him a lot."

• Carey, the Elder quarterback who chose UC over Pitt. "He's got a very strong arm and played for a really good program," Emfinger said.

• Leighton Morgan, a junior-college linebacker who runs a 4.6 40.

• Cedric Tober, a running back from Xenia who runs a 4.4 40.

• Patrick Mimms, a 6-2, 260-pound defensive end from Maryland. "He's a steal," Emfinger said.

• Brad Jones, a cornerback from Canton with 4.4 speed. "He's an outstanding catch," Lemming said.

• Curtis Smith, a 6-2, 241-pound defensive end from Cleveland who had an offer from Michigan State.

"I think there's a big awareness that we're in the Big East," Dantonio said. "We've become a BCS school. That puts us at another level. Then they've come down and seen the facilities that are being built."

For the first time in years, UC has kept its entire coaching staff intact, a major accomplishment for a program that went through 55 assistants in 10 years under Rick Minter, the previous head coach.

And unlike last year, when Dantonio and his staff had only a few weeks to recruit after getting the UC job Dec. 23, this class reflects the labor of a year of recruiting.

01-26-2005 10:25 PM
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SF Husky Offline
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Great job UC. I am glad Lemmings gave some love to you guys. You guys are getting dissed on rivals.com and insiders.com, both rated your class pretty low. I am sure your coaching stuff got some studs and it sounds like a great class. I hope UCONN can get some OH players down the road. This year we got one - a QB out Cleveland area.
01-26-2005 10:40 PM
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Cat's_Claw Offline
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SF Husky Wrote:Great job UC. I am glad Lemmings gave some love to you guys. You guys are getting dissed on rivals.com and insiders.com, both rated your class pretty low. I am sure your coaching stuff got some studs and it sounds like a great class. I hope UCONN can get some OH players down the road. This year we got one - a QB out Cleveland area.
Picking up UC is going to pay dividends for the Big East. They're going to be able to showcase themselves in Ohio and pick up some players. Ohio is like Florida, it's so loaded you can get the pick of the litter here. UC will get their players and Coach Dantonio will start recruiting hard outside of Ohio as well. It's a win-win for everybody. It's funny about rivals and insiders. They're killing our recruiting class because 1.)They refuse to acknowledge some of the commitments we got and 2.)when we do get a highly touted player they lower his stock. Example, UC has picked up some 4 star and 3 star players. After getting those commits Rivals and Insiders proceeded to drop each of those players a stars. Now, the players that we had that were 4, 3 and 2 star players are now 3, 2, and 1 star players. Pretty pathetic, which is why I don't give some of those recruiting "analyst" the time of day, unlike the national analyst.
01-26-2005 10:45 PM
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WacoBearcat Away
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Actually, Insiders or Scout has UC's class up to 61, so its evaluation is not too bad. Rivals is another matter.
01-26-2005 11:01 PM
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Bearcats fans needs to register at Rivals under Cincinnati as your favorite college team. You will see more effort and attention in update those database, just a few thousands. 04-cheers
01-27-2005 12:36 AM
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UCBearcat4ever Offline
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SO#1 Wrote:Bearcats fans needs to register at Rivals under Cincinnati as your favorite college team. You will see more effort and attention in update those database, just a few thousands. 04-cheers
We don't post on Rivals, because we have no Publisher and pUKe hijacked that board, so we only post on Scout.com
01-27-2005 07:47 AM
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Great job UC! It looks like you guys really cleaned up in Ohio...especially southern Ohio which is your home turf...again nice job

Quote:They're killing our recruiting class because 1.)They refuse to acknowledge some of the commitments we got and 2.)when we do get a highly touted player they lower his stock. Example, UC has picked up some 4 star and 3 star players. After getting those commits Rivals and Insiders proceeded to drop each of those players a stars. Now, the players that we had that were 4, 3 and 2 star players are now 3, 2, and 1 star players. Pretty pathetic, which is why I don't give some of those recruiting "analyst" the time of day, unlike the national analyst.

-- Yeah...that happens to everyone not named FSU, Michigane or USC etc....the best way to find out if you got a player is to see who else offered him and just ingore the star system

-- I know you guys are going to be pretty young next year...but it looks like things are in place for a very solid 2006 squad...

-- Has there been any talk about which BE school is going to be playing UC in its first BE conference game at Nippert? Wouldn't be suprised to see it be West Virginia considering the relationship between our ADs....anway...again congrats on a recruiting job well done


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01-27-2005 08:05 AM
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Thanks guys.

It sounds obvious but Dantonio has hit the local schools hard. Cincinnati HS football is some of the best in the country, or so I've heard. Sure it is obvious that we should be able to recruit in our own backyard, but the old staff never did it very well. I think that is one of the reason we are excited.

On top of that, this should draw some of the local HS football fans down to Nippert to see how their Alumni are doing.
01-28-2005 09:53 AM
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Cat's_Claw Offline
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Bourgeois_Rage Wrote:On top of that, this should draw some of the local HS football fans down to Nippert to see how their Alumni are doing.
And that's the biggest thing. The Big East is good for a 7,500 to 10,000 fan improvement for UC (UC averages 30,000 per game against Big East schools, including drawing 30,000+ for Temple in 2003). The High School football games draw in the neighborhood of 20,000 games for a lot of the big games and thousands for games period. If you can get, say, 5,000 of the local fans interested in UC and bring in the Big East influence, UC is looking at 33,000 to 35,000 fans. That's an outstanding base to build on. If we can start drawing 30,000+ fans and bring in the recruiting classes we bring in, and win, then the sky's the limit for drawing fans.
01-28-2005 07:09 PM
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templefootballfan Offline
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What are you kidding me, UC barely outdrew TU, if at all. I see no diverence between TU & UC for B-E. It proably be wash.
01-30-2005 09:24 AM
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Bearcat 1984 Offline
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templefootballfan Wrote:What are you kidding me, UC barely outdrew TU, if at all. I see no diverence between TU & UC for B-E. It proably be wash.
Who are YOU kidding?

Your school is going to be playing Buffalo and Kent State and Ohio U and and and....

Schools that ought to be div 1aa.

Obviously, your school didn't take much to Big East affiliation. But Cincinnati is excited about it. And we will put the butts in the seats.

Frankly, I can understand that you're bitter about the situation at Temple. But you only have your OWN ADMINISTRATION and YOUR OWN FANS to blame for it.
01-30-2005 09:33 AM
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Quote: I see no diverence between TU & UC for B-E. It proably be wash.

-- Well UC has an on campus football staduim, has been to and won a bowl game in recent memory and has seen a marketed increase in there recruiting once they joined a BCS league....Temple can say none of those things...in fact if truth be told the fan support/quality of Temple football may have declined once they joined the BE


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01-30-2005 11:51 AM
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WacoBearcat Away
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Temple simply didn't make the most of its BCS opportunity. It became complacent, and pocketed the Big East's BCS money without reinvesting it in the football program. Cincinnati will make the most of its opportunity.

What people don't realize is that UC did not start making a serious commitment to football until the mid 1990's when Bob Goin (a Mountaineer), was hired as athletic director. UC football has improved dramatically since that time. There is excitement about football at UC. The Big East gives UC football legitimacy that it previously did not have in the eyes of Cincinnati residents. Attedance at UC football games will increase dramatically. Dantonio is getting into the homes of recruits that UC could only imagine about, and Big East membership will lead to a real talent upgrade at UC.

Goin is an athletic director of vision and created a strategic plan for the athletic department that made it attractive to the Big East. Along will improvements at Nippert Stadium, Goin initiated a fundraising drive for the 100 million dollar Varsity Village, which benefits all the sports in UC's portfolio. And the improvements will not start there. A new basketball arena, serious upgrades to Nippert, an indoor practice facility for football, will all be announced in the next couple of years. (Talks are ongoing about these projects).

Goin is known as the Jedi Master among UC fans for his outstanding leadership.

The future is bright at UC. UC and the Cincinnati community will embrace the Big East unlike Temple.
01-30-2005 12:16 PM
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Agree with everything said. TU & UC I tought were in same boat. Not routing against UC, right now it looks like wash. If UC takes advantage of joining B-E I'll be thrilled, sell out Nippert stadium & couple games in Bengals stadium. Maybe TU will realize it can be done & get off thier ******.
01-30-2005 12:41 PM
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Cat's_Claw Offline
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templefootballfan Wrote:What are you kidding me, UC barely outdrew TU, if at all. I see no diverence between TU & UC for B-E. It proably be wash.

UC had similar attendance to Temple and you were playing in a BCS conference with teams like Pittsburgh, Boston College, Miami, Syracuse, and West Virginia. I mean, that speaks volumes. You're crazy if you think it's a wash.
01-30-2005 01:13 PM
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templefootballfan Wrote:Agree with everything said.  TU & UC I tought were in same boat. Not routing against UC, right now it looks like wash. If UC takes advantage of joining B-E I'll be thrilled, sell out Nippert stadium & couple games in Bengals stadium. Maybe TU will realize it can be done & get off thier ******.

UC and Temple in the same boat. UC was drawing similar fans as Temple while in a non-BCS conference then Temple. Cincinnati is coming in with 100+ million dollar facilities upgrades (Varsity Village) and their own stadium, Temple has none of that. UC winning games and being competitive with top teams, Temple has trouble winning. UC upgraded their coaching staff and recruiting class (bringing in a Top 50 recruiting class now in the Big East, compared to the Top 80 recruiting classes before). There is no way it is a wash. The only similarity between Temple and UC is attendance and even that isn't as big an issue. When UC plays Big East teams they average about 30,000 fans per game (West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, Temple), Temple can't draw that while IN a BCS conference. Think about that.
01-30-2005 01:16 PM
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Let me say this:

I truly WISH Temple had done the things necessary to stay in the Big East and compete in the Big East. Temple is perfectly situated in the Big East footprint.

They OUGHT to be in the Big East. I think we all agree with this.

I don't know if Temple football will recover from the downgrade to the MAC, but I hope they do. If they could get their act together then I think they would be a welcome addition to an allsports conference after the anticipated split.
01-30-2005 09:10 PM
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Bearcat 1984 Wrote:Let me say this:

I truly WISH Temple had done the things necessary to stay in the Big East and compete in the Big East. Temple is perfectly situated in the Big East footprint.

They OUGHT to be in the Big East. I think we all agree with this.

I don't know if Temple football will recover from the downgrade to the MAC, but I hope they do. If they could get their act together then I think they would be a welcome addition to an allsports conference after the anticipated split.
As long as John Cheney is coaching at Temple I don't want them in the Big East. He has become nothing but an embarrassment to that university, its students, alumni, and fans.

I have the same political viewpoints as him, but his outburst a few weeks ago was totally uncalled for and embarrassing. Just before his controversial statements he got on Cincinnati radio and said that he hates the state of Ohio and doesn't ever want to play here again because of it being a red state. A couple of years ago he b*tched about UD Arena hosting the A10 tourney because it is out in the "sticks". Apparently playing in front of 1000 fans in Philadelphia for your A10 tourney final is less embarrassing than playing in front of 13,500 fans in Dayton, Ohio. If his fans would have supported the tourney in Philadelphia (and LaSalle, and the rest of the area teams) the A10 wouldn't have had to move it to a city that WILL support basketball. And who can forget his outburst of "I will kill you" to John Calipari?
01-31-2005 08:21 AM
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