This weekend's series against Notre Dame will be Coach Brian Cleary's last as the head coach at UC.

People got their wish

Not surprised.

Would be nice to get a good crowd at Marge Schott Stadium this weekend to send him out. While the record has been poor, the passion he has had for UC is tough to match. He deserves a good send off.

It would have been nice if they would have given him a chance with a full scholarship program.

Nothing like being handcuffed by the previous administration and fired after the announcement to fully fund the program.

CINCINNATI – Brian Cleary has been relieved of his duties as the head baseball coach at the University of Cincinnati, director of athletics Whit Babcock announced Thursday. A national search for a successor will begin immediately.
Cleary will coach the team this weekend as the Bearcats close out the 2013 season against Notre Dame at Marge Schott Stadium.
“Coach Cleary has been a great representative on many fronts for many years. He has been a tremendous ambassador for the University and the athletic department, however, we feel it is time to take the program in a new direction,” said Babcock. “It is never an easy decision to make a change, especially for a coach with the character and integrity of Coach Cleary, but in the end I felt that the program has not achieved at the level on the field we expect.”
This season, Cleary is 22-31 (.415) overall and 4-17 (.190) in the BIG EAST Conference, with a seventeen-year career record of 434-528-1 (.451) and a team grade point average of 3.2 this spring.

Whoever they hire is walking into a good situation. There is a talented young core of players on the team.

Cleary was the Rick Minter of UC Baseball - achieved as much as he could with what he was given. Now that we are stepping it up with support to the team, the university wants to step up the coach. Lets hope the next hire is as good as Danotonio was for UC football.

Hope he finds a good next spot - that is a long time to stay anywhere.

I am going to check the game times to see if I can make it down there this weekend.

(05-16-2013 03:34 PM)bearcatdp Wrote:  Cleary was the Rick Minter of UC Baseball - achieved as much as he could with what he was given. Now that we are stepping it up with support to the team, the university wants to step up the coach. Lets hope the next hire is as good as Danotonio was for UC football.

Ugh... I don't know much about Cleary but Minter could have achieved much more if he hadn't been such an a-hole. There is a reason why his team walked out on him at the Motor City Bowl. Of course, they came back when a handful of assistants begged them to play. Those assistants were fired after the game.

I think any comparison of Cleary with Minter is probably ridiculous outside of the fact that neither will ever head coach a major college program again. If Minter was as good as you claim he was, he would have been hired by someone else as a head coach (and yes, I know he was interim head coach at Marshall 1 season).

(05-16-2013 03:16 PM)subflea Wrote:  Would be nice to get a good crowd at Marge Schott Stadium this weekend to send him out. While the record has been poor, the passion he has had for UC is tough to match. He deserves a good send off.

To add to Sub's statement concerning his passion for UC...how many people would stay to finish the season after being fired? Most people would be out the door.

I don't know for sure but my guess is he was given the option to leave immediately and chose to stay.

(05-16-2013 03:38 PM)Eastside_J Wrote:  Hope he finds a good next spot - that is a long time to stay anywhere.

I am going to check the game times to see if I can make it down there this weekend.

6:30 tonight, 7:00 tomorrow, 4:00 Saturday.

There will be no shortage of good candidates applying for this job. I know a fair number of current college head and assistant coaches and many have been waiting for UC's job to open for some time.

With now being fully funded...and a new coach (if chosen well)...UC can turn the corner quickly in baseball.

I never feel good about anyone losing their job...That being said, 17 years is a long time for coaching at one institution. Probably is as good a time as any for a fresh start and some new blood.

Sad to see him go. A complete class act his entire time at UC. But I'm excited to see who they can bring in.

On another note, I do hope we get more fans in in stands for home games in next couple years. I was at one of the home games against Seton Hall and it almost looked as if there were as many SH fans as UC fans at MSS.

(05-16-2013 03:41 PM)mlb Wrote:  

(05-16-2013 03:34 PM)bearcatdp Wrote:  Cleary was the Rick Minter of UC Baseball - achieved as much as he could with what he was given. Now that we are stepping it up with support to the team, the university wants to step up the coach. Lets hope the next hire is as good as Danotonio was for UC football.

Ugh... I don't know much about Cleary but Minter could have achieved much more if he hadn't been such an a-hole. There is a reason why his team walked out on him at the Motor City Bowl. Of course, they came back when a handful of assistants begged them to play. Those assistants were fired after the game.

I think any comparison of Cleary with Minter is probably ridiculous outside of the fact that neither will ever head coach a major college program again. If Minter was as good as you claim he was, he would have been hired by someone else as a head coach (and yes, I know he was interim head coach at Marshall 1 season).

Minter had his faults but he brought a ton of stability to the program. Won one share of the CUSA title and made multiple bowl games. We cuts ties at the right time but his comparison made sense just because Minter never had the opportunity to recruit/coach with the Big East name attached to the program.

UC clearly made the right decision moving on from Minter, but the guy has nothing but great things to say about the UC program and I will always appreciated his time here...warts and all.

(05-16-2013 03:20 PM)Bearcat Otto Wrote:  It would have been nice if they would have given him a chance with a full scholarship program.

Nothing like being handcuffed by the previous administration and fired after the announcement to fully fund the program.

I agree with Cleary and the full scholarship program. He should have been given more of a chance with more dollars. He has a poor record however. I knew Whit would do something with him during his first couple years. Whit is an ex baseball player. You hate to see such an enthusiastic guy leave, but something had to be done. 4-17 in the Big East pretty much did it. Nice sweep however of Xavier over the last couple of games and nice wins over Nova and Miami.

(05-16-2013 06:20 PM)Vewb1 Wrote:  I agree with Cleary and the full scholarship program. He should have been given more of a chance with more dollars. He has a poor record however. I knew Whit would do something with him during his first couple years. Whit is an ex baseball player. You hate to see such an enthusiastic guy leave, but something had to be done. 4-17 in the Big East pretty much did it. Nice sweep however of Xavier over the last couple of games and nice wins over Nova and Miami.

I completely understand this thought. But from everything, and I mean everything I heard in the baseball world...this wasn't going to work even with the fully funded program. Time is short to show we are ready for the Big12 or ACC. We can turn the corner quickly with the right coach. As good of a person as everyone agreed he was, I don't think Cleary was that guy.

Whit did a tough thing to do, but in this case it pretty much had to be done...unfortunately.

(05-16-2013 07:33 PM)tdbearcat Wrote:  We can turn the corner quickly with the right coach.

With the guys expected to return right now, the right coach could show results within 2 years pretty easily. Of course, you have to see who does in fact come back.

(05-16-2013 07:38 PM)subflea Wrote:  

(05-16-2013 07:33 PM)tdbearcat Wrote:  We can turn the corner quickly with the right coach.

With the guys expected to return right now, the right coach could show results within 2 years pretty easily. Of course, you have to see who does in fact come back.

I will be really interested to see how far away Whit will be willing to go. For sure, there are interested coaches on the West Coast. I assume there are in the SEC and ACC as well. I prefer that he goes to a power baseball conference rather than say...the Big10.

Coaches as far away as the Pac12 rave about the hidden gem in MSS. They believe they can win at UC. I hope he opens the doors wide to all comers.