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Quote:AAC 2018 Rankings:
1) Ken Niumatalolo, Navy
2) Mike Norvell, Memphis
3) Charlie Strong, USF
4) Willie Fritz, Tulane
5) Sonny Dykes, SMU
6) Philip Montgomery, Tulsa
7) Geoff Collins, Temple
8) Major Applewhite, Houston
9) Randy Edsall, UConn
10) Luke Fickell, Cincinnati
11) Josh Heupel, UCF
12) Scottie Montgomery, ECU

Luke Fickell: The downside is Fickell's debut as Cincinnati's coach was a dud. The upside is he brought in the top recruiting class in the conference, per 247Sports Composite rankings. Considering that the program was in rough shape when he took over, 2018 might be more like Year 1 for Fickell.

AAC FB Coaches Ranking

I don't know that you can argue CLF's ranking with only 4 wins last year. Granted, Crapperville's mess didn't help. How many wins will it take to consider it a move upward and forward for the program? IMO, anything more than 4 wins will be considered a positive trending to the 2019 season.

Needs at least six wins and a bowl game. Can’t lose to Miami or Ohio U. Coach Fickell can’t have another awful year or the loser label is going to be used against him.

UC cannot struggle to beat teams like Austin Peay or be dominated by teams like Marshall like they were at Nippert last year.

And they need to have a pulse against the upper echelon AAC teams.

After Randy Edsall found a way to lose against us last year, I wouldn’t put him above CLF.

(06-06-2018 08:44 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  Needs at least six wins and a bowl game. Can’t lose to Miami or Ohio U. Coach Fickell can’t have another awful year or the loser label is going to be used against him.

I’m concerned about the OU game. While we should run their defence over, they have some offensive playmakers at QB, RB, and WR.

(06-06-2018 08:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

Quote:AAC 2018 Rankings:
1) Ken Niumatalolo, Navy
2) Mike Norvell, Memphis
3) Charlie Strong, USF
4) Willie Fritz, Tulane
5) Sonny Dykes, SMU
6) Philip Montgomery, Tulsa
7) Geoff Collins, Temple
8) Major Applewhite, Houston
9) Randy Edsall, UConn
10) Luke Fickell, Cincinnati
11) Josh Heupel, UCF
12) Scottie Montgomery, ECU

Luke Fickell: The downside is Fickell's debut as Cincinnati's coach was a dud. The upside is he brought in the top recruiting class in the conference, per 247Sports Composite rankings. Considering that the program was in rough shape when he took over, 2018 might be more like Year 1 for Fickell.

AAC FB Coaches Ranking

I don't know that you can argue CLF's ranking with only 4 wins last year. Granted, Crapperville's mess didn't help.

It is fair to question Fickell's coaching ability, as he now has 2 seasons as a head coach under his belt. I am hoping it is bad situations, and growing pains holding him back. For the first time since maybe Dantonio I feel like we are building a program. We are getting a lot of talent into the program, and hopefully we will see some flashes of what is to come this year.

Granted.. there were a couple game management issues last season, but overall I did not feel the staff or Fickell did a poor job coaching. They just did not have enough talent on the field.

OL that is high school-caliber...
QB with below average decision making skills...
WRs with a case of the butterfingers...
Slow DBs...
Undeveloped and undisciplined players across the board...

All of those factors were out of Fickell's control last season. What was in Fickell's control is that we never gave in. I don't think I have to convince anyone here, but that writer from CBS was a bit too harsh. Ranking CLF lower than Edsall is definitely questionable.

(06-06-2018 08:44 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  Needs at least six wins and a bowl game. Can’t lose to Miami or Ohio U. Coach Fickell can’t have another awful year or the loser label is going to be used against him.

Eh.... I don't think Ohio is a must win. Ohio's projected S&P+ is better than SMU, Temple, Navy, Tulane, Tulsa, UConn and ECU.

I think UC needs to beat Alabama A&M, Miami (OH) and ECU.

I think UC needs at least 3-4 from Ohio, @Uconn, Tulane, @Temple, @SMU, USF and Navy. (4-3 in that group would likely mean a winning season).

I think it would be really nice to steal one from @UCLA or UCF but that would just be icing on the cake.

(06-07-2018 09:36 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(06-06-2018 08:44 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  Needs at least six wins and a bowl game. Can’t lose to Miami or Ohio U. Coach Fickell can’t have another awful year or the loser label is going to be used against him.

Eh.... I don't think Ohio is a must win. Ohio's projected S&P+ is better than SMU, Temple, Navy, Tulane, Tulsa, UConn and ECU.

I think UC needs to beat Alabama A&M, Miami (OH) and ECU.

I think UC needs at least 3-4 from Ohio, @Uconn, Tulane, @Temple, @SMU, USF and Navy. (4-3 in that group would likely mean a winning season).

I think it would be really nice to steal one from @UCLA or UCF but that would just be icing on the cake.

^^^
This is pretty realistic, I think.

(06-07-2018 09:36 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(06-06-2018 08:44 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  Needs at least six wins and a bowl game. Can’t lose to Miami or Ohio U. Coach Fickell can’t have another awful year or the loser label is going to be used against him.

Eh.... I don't think Ohio is a must win. Ohio's projected S&P+ is better than SMU, Temple, Navy, Tulane, Tulsa, UConn and ECU.

I think UC needs to beat Alabama A&M, Miami (OH) and ECU.

I think UC needs at least 3-4 from Ohio, @Uconn, Tulane, @Temple, @SMU, USF and Navy. (4-3 in that group would likely mean a winning season).

I think it would be really nice to steal one from @UCLA or UCF but that would just be icing on the cake.

Can’t lose to mac schools in Cincinnati. Damages the brand.

6-6. That would be progress. 5-7 would be too, but I want them back to .500 with a surprise bowl game. When Fickell was hired, I wanted to see no quit and some improvement in the first year, knowing the lack of discipline the previous staff instilled. We saw that. I have always said I wanted to see 6-6 in the second year and then competing for conference championships by the 3rd year. They won't necessarily win them every year but there's no reason they can't be top 2-3 every year. Without comparing the 2017 to the 2016 squad side by side, the writer likely saw no improvent. I did (I think we all did). Bottom 4 is realistic now but with a 6-6 finish and another good recruiting class Fickell will be top 4 next year. Edsall is a joke though.

Cincinnati runs football.

(06-07-2018 09:43 AM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:36 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(06-06-2018 08:44 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  Needs at least six wins and a bowl game. Can’t lose to Miami or Ohio U. Coach Fickell can’t have another awful year or the loser label is going to be used against him.

Eh.... I don't think Ohio is a must win. Ohio's projected S&P+ is better than SMU, Temple, Navy, Tulane, Tulsa, UConn and ECU.

I think UC needs to beat Alabama A&M, Miami (OH) and ECU.

I think UC needs at least 3-4 from Ohio, @Uconn, Tulane, @Temple, @SMU, USF and Navy. (4-3 in that group would likely mean a winning season).

I think it would be really nice to steal one from @UCLA or UCF but that would just be icing on the cake.

Can’t lose to mac schools in Cincinnati. Damages the brand.

Agreed. That might be the most important game of the year, perception-wise.

Must win:
Foreskins
Bobcats
AL
ECU

and 2 more

6 wins is a must to keep minimal fan interest and to show recruits we are moving up.

If CLF takes this team to at least 6-6 and gets to a bowl game then his coaching rankings and national perception will skyrocket. It certainly is possible and I would like to think that he and the staff will improve in some areas due to having a full season under their collective belts. Would love to see them get a few wins early to build the excitement and momentum for the season that has been lacking for the past several years.

(06-07-2018 09:43 AM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:36 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(06-06-2018 08:44 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  Needs at least six wins and a bowl game. Can’t lose to Miami or Ohio U. Coach Fickell can’t have another awful year or the loser label is going to be used against him.

Eh.... I don't think Ohio is a must win. Ohio's projected S&P+ is better than SMU, Temple, Navy, Tulane, Tulsa, UConn and ECU.

I think UC needs to beat Alabama A&M, Miami (OH) and ECU.

I think UC needs at least 3-4 from Ohio, @Uconn, Tulane, @Temple, @SMU, USF and Navy. (4-3 in that group would likely mean a winning season).

I think it would be really nice to steal one from @UCLA or UCF but that would just be icing on the cake.

Can’t lose to mac schools in Cincinnati. Damages the brand.

UC has to beat the mac schools on the sched. The local media will eat up a UC loss to ou or cry-ami. Both are must wins.

(06-07-2018 07:09 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  If CLF takes this team to at least 6-6 and gets to a bowl game then his coaching rankings and national perception will skyrocket. It certainly is possible and I would like to think that he and the staff will improve in some areas due to having a full season under their collective belts. Would love to see them get a few wins early to build the excitement and momentum for the season that has been lacking for the past several years.

It's going to take a lot more than 6-6 for the team's and coaches' perceptions to skyrocket imo.

(06-07-2018 09:48 AM)bearcatdp Wrote:  When Fickell was hired, I wanted to see no quit and some improvement in the first year, knowing the lack of discipline the previous staff instilled. We saw that.

You must have left at halftime with the other 15,000 people. Unprepared for Marshall, and the wheels came off for most of the season. That last game was a complete embarrassment.

(06-07-2018 09:11 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 07:09 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  If CLF takes this team to at least 6-6 and gets to a bowl game then his coaching rankings and national perception will skyrocket. It certainly is possible and I would like to think that he and the staff will improve in some areas due to having a full season under their collective belts. Would love to see them get a few wins early to build the excitement and momentum for the season that has been lacking for the past several years.

It's going to take a lot more than 6-6 for the team's and coaches' perceptions to skyrocket imo.

With low expectations for this season, the recruiting successes and in just Year 2 after the Crapperville mess I think it would. 6-6 means beating someone in the AAC other than ECU or UConn for starters. Making a bowl would be UC's first since 2015 - winning the bowl would be even better. Personally, I would be happy with 5 wins and a few close losses as a sign of trending in the right direction.

(06-07-2018 09:27 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:11 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 07:09 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  If CLF takes this team to at least 6-6 and gets to a bowl game then his coaching rankings and national perception will skyrocket. It certainly is possible and I would like to think that he and the staff will improve in some areas due to having a full season under their collective belts. Would love to see them get a few wins early to build the excitement and momentum for the season that has been lacking for the past several years.

It's going to take a lot more than 6-6 for the team's and coaches' perceptions to skyrocket imo.

With low expectations for this season, the recruiting successes and in just Year 2 after the Crapperville mess I think it would. 6-6 means beating someone in the AAC other than ECU or UConn for starters. Making a bowl would be UC's first since 2015 - winning the bowl would be even better. Personally, I would be happy with 5 wins and a few close losses as a sign of trending in the right direction.

5 wins and a few close losses in a G6 league. How far we have fallen. And was vehemently told that would never happen. UC would dominate. Lol

And before the LF apologists rail on this post, just look what Scott Frost did at UCF in his 2nd year after an 0-12 season in 2015.