P-Doc states calls for Tuberville's head are premature.
The UC fans demanding Tommy Tuberville's head – "Go see my good friends at Robert Jones hatmakers, tell 'em Tommy sent-cha'' – need to breathe deeply and think happy thoughts of Gunner Kiel being here a couple more years.
It's bad now, but it's going to get better.
It's terrible now, actually. Statistically, the Bearcats have the worst defense in all of Division I football. Their defense is closer to Titanic than titanic. They couldn't stop an igloo fire.
The team that was picked to win the American Athletic Conference very likely won't come close. The Bearcats have had off-field trouble and tragedy. Their home games are on the road, they play in a league that doesn't stir passion. It's disappointing.
That doesn't equal dismissing the coach.
It's impossible to judge a college football coach in two seasons. Even Year 3 is iffy. For at least two seasons, you are playing with people your predecessor brought in. Ideally, you redshirt your first recruiting class. They don't play at all.
Tuberville landed in town in December 2012. That first year of recruits was a hodge-podge. New coach, new staff, kids scratching their heads. The second year the Bearcats recruited well, according to those who make a living judging such things. This year, "We've got 22 committed and they're better than the ones we got last year,'' Tuberville offered this week.
That might be so, or it might be homespun Tubs hokum. The larger point is, a season and a half is not enough to judge a coach. Especially one with Tuberville's pedigree.
CINCINNATI
UC's Tuberville: We will win here
On Tuesday, I presented Tuberville with a page of media notes that included his two-deep roster. That is, his first- and second-team players. "How many guys did you bring in?'' I asked.
Eleven, he said. Recruits and transfers. Eleven out of the 22 starters.
When Butch Jones went 4-8 his first year, did we ask for his head? He followed that up with 10-3 and 9-3, partly because he recruited well.
Brian Kelly was ultra-successful immediately. Some of that owed to Mark Dantonio, who left the cupboard full. Maybe Jones left Tuberville in need of groceries. Or, maybe Tommy really has lost his mojo, a notion he refutes strongly, as you'd guess he might. "I've worked my tail off since I've been here,'' he said.
Point is, we don't know. We won't know for another year, at least.
"It takes four years to get all your players fine-tuned,'' Tuberville said. "You can win games with other people's players. You can lose games with other people's players. You don't define a program until you get three or four years in.''
Is that a self-serving statement? You bet. That doesn't make it false. Nor does it excuse the losses and the hideous play on defense. Dear UC assistants: Please get your players to tackle better. Thank you.
But college coaching is about recruiting. You can't cut players or trade them or sift the waiver wire for replacements. You get what you get. Recruiting is about building relationships and establishing who you are and what your program is all about. That takes time.
"You can't recruit that first year,'' Tuberville said. Especially when you arrive in December, as Tuberville did. "You're selling all new kids on a new staff. This will be our second class, realistically. You can't play with 18-year-olds. They don't know how to work. They don't know how to focus.''
Ideally, a big-time college program redshirts all its freshmen, giving them a year to adjust, get stronger and stop worrying about Homecoming dates. Tuberville hasn't had that luxury, but he has red-shirted as much as possible.
"We had an excellent recruiting class. I'm not going to put them in there. They don't know what they're doing. They don't have enough time to grow up and learn how to play right now. I need them for that extra year,'' he said.
That doesn't help now, of course. As Tuberville admits, "We're not good enough to win now.'' And now is a delicate time. For the sake of perception, the Bearcats simply can't afford to get crushed by Memphis at home, or at middle-of-the-ACC-pack Miami. That won't impress the Big 12.
But demanding change doesn't do anything except lower a fan's blood pressure, temporarily. Ideally, all D-1 football coaches should get five-year contracts. They can't leave before five seasons; nor can they be fired.
That's an entire recruiting cycle. Time enough to make a fair assessment of the coach.
But two years? The man's just getting warmed up. "We do have a clue what we're doing,'' said Tuberville. "Sometimes, it doesn't look like it.''
He deserves time to make the picture clear. It's only fair.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../17318581/