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Mike Dontonio (get off my lawn!!!)

Folanator

Brawndo's got electrolytes...
By Bill Koch
Enquirer staff writer

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Colerain High School's Terrill Byrd
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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.

E-mail [email protected]
 
I have a feeling that if we continue to play them once every two years, that it'll be a better and better game each year. The rivalry will really grow, but I'm still waiting to see if they schedule for 2008.
 
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OSU5NC said:
I have a feeling that if we continue to play them once every two years, that it'll be a better and better game each year. The rivalry will really grow, but I'm still waiting to see if they schedule for 2008.

They'd better hurry before YSU takes that slot.
 
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Does anyone think that UC could eventually become a perennial challenger to be ranked in the top 25 if Dantonio can get the job done? With the move to the Big East playing a big role in a lot of these kids' decisions, I absolutely think that UC is a sleeping bear in the world of college football. Look at the talent pool in Ohio. If UC can begin competing with the Big Ten for some of these non-OSU players who want to stay relatively close to home, they could become quite strong. What would happen (and already is starting to happen) when UC lands some players instead of them leaving the state? Walter Reyes, Brad Banks, Brian Cupito, Ernie Wheelwright, etc...throw in the talented players that opt for the MAC. Well, UC is now a BCS school, so you might see more of them matriculate to Clifton instead of Oxford, Toledo, Akron, Kent, Bowling Green, Ohio, and Youngstown State.

These are the players going to UC from Ohio this year:

DE 37 Curtis Smith (Glenville HS) Cleveland, OH 6-2/235/4.60 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
QB NR Craig Carey (Elder HS) Cincinnati, OH 6-4/220/4.70 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
QB NR Dominick Goodman (Colerain HS) Cincinnati, OH 6-2/190 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
DE NR Tyler Clifford (Portsmouth HS) Portsmouth, OH 6-4/215/4.80 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
QB NR Jared Martin (Clyde HS) Clyde, OH 5-10/150/4.60 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
CB NR Brad Jones (McKinley HS) Canton, OH 6-2/190/4.47 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
CB NR Michael Mickens (Wayne HS) Huber Heights, OH 5-11/170 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
OL NR Terrill Byrd (Colerain HS) Cincinnati, OH 6-1/265/4.70 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
OL NR Steve Gawronski (Rogers HS) Toledo, OH 6-4/280/5.10 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
RB NR Cedric Tolbert (Xenia HS) Xenia, OH 6-0/190/4.40 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
WR NR Derrick Stewart (Ursuline HS) Youngstown, OH 5-11/175/4.30 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
RB NR Marcus Waugh (St. Johns Jesuit HS) Toledo, OH 6-1/230 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
LB NR Andre Revels (Colerain HS) Cincinnati, OH 6-1/240/4.69 Verbal Yes Committed to Cincinnati
 
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Bearcats making bowl game statement

Tuesday, October 24, 2006
BY ED DAIGNEAULT
Copyright ? 2006 Republican-American
All of a sudden Cincinnati is talking about a bowl.
Given the improvements the Bearcats have made, a postseason bid is hardly out of the question.
Cincinnati, picked to finish seventh in the eight-team Big East, posted a huge 23-6 victory Sunday night against South Florida. The victory moved the Bearcats to 4-4 overall and 1-2 in the Big East with four games to play.
Let the bowl talk flow, coach Mark Dantonio said.
"We talk about championships here," Dantonio said. "You have to set your sights on goals. We reevaluate our goals every single week. If we get knocked out of reaching one goal, we reevaluate. All I can tell you is we've evened it up at 4-4. That's a positive thing. Now we need to take the next step."

The Bearcats will have to do that on the backs of the defense, the unit that has kept them competitive all year. Cincinnati held high-powered South Florida to season lows of 92 rushing yards and 219 total yards. That against a South Florida team that had scored at least 35 points in three of its five victories.
Thanks to a 39-yard fumble return for a touchdown by senior linebacker Kevin McCullough, the league's defensive player of the week, the Cincinnati defense outscored South Florida by itself.
For Dantonio, one of the many coaches who is a slave to defense, the play of his defense is nearly what he had hoped when he arrived at Cincinnati.
"We're getting closer," Dantonio said. "We've played well in almost every football game. We're getting closer and closer."
The Bearcats led after three quarters at Virginia Tech, hung with Ohio State until the fourth quarter and held Louisville to just 23 points. The defense has been doing its job, and now the young offense is starting to come together.
After failing to score more than 15 points against its first three BCS conference foes, Cincinnati has scored 17 and 23 points, respectively, in its last two games. At the start of the season, some opponents may have chalked up Cincinnati as a sure victory.
That would be a mistake now.
Showdown looms: Nov. 2 was the date circled by followers of the Big East. That's the Thursday night on which No. 4 West Virginia plays at No. 6 Louisville. The teams are a combined 14-0 and have a bye date this week to get ready for the league's marquee game.
 
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Cincinnati Slips Into Bowl Hunt

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Moves 2 Wins From Eligibility With Victory Over South Florida
October 24, 2006
By DESMOND CONNER, Courant Staff Writer
Don't look now but the Cincinnati Bearcats are trying to sneak into a crowded party - Big East teams that will be bowl eligible.

If you were watching the World Series or had fallen asleep during the first half of the South Florida-Cincy game Sunday night - in which the Bearcats had a 2-0 lead at the break - you missed a team that got itself back into the bowl picture.




The Bearcats (4-4, 1-2) snapped a five-game Big East losing streak, dating to last season, by beating the Bulls 23-6 at Nippert Stadium.

"One win in the Big East Conference puts us into a situation where we can control a little bit of our own destiny as we move forward for bowl implications and things of that nature," Bearcats coach Mark Dantonio said on a conference call Monday.

With two more wins, Cincinnati would be heading back to postseason play for the first time since 2004, just before joining the Big East.

The Bearcats delayed USF (5-3, 1-2) from gaining its required sixth victory for bowl eligibility. Louisville (7-0, 2-0), Rutgers (7-0, 2-0), West Virginia (7-0, 2-0) and Pittsburgh (6-2, 2-1) are Big East teams already in.

The position the Bearcats are in today may come as a surprise because they were an extremely young bunch last year. But they obviously learned through the experiences of a 4-7 season in 2005, and a three-game losing streak this season.

The Bearcats lost to Pitt 33-15 but played tough in the first half. They lost 37-7 to top-ranked Ohio State, but it took the Buckeyes awhile to distance themselves. Virginia Tech 29, Cincy 13 was another game closer than the score indicates.

Then there was the 23-17 loss to Louisville in which a pass in the final seconds was broken up in the end zone.

The Bearcats still have dates with Rutgers and West Virginia, but they also play Syracuse and UConn, both winless in the conference.

Week Of Anticipation

The West Virginia-Louisville game is Nov. 2. Both teams are off this week, adding to the anticipation of the matchup between the nation's fourth- and sixth-ranked teams.

The conference championship and BCS bid will be on the line when the teams meet in Louisville, Ky.

"When we started the season, you don't want to talk about it. You want to take one game at a time, but you're always thinking, `Well, if we can get there 7-0, it should be a huge game,'" Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. "It's here, and now I just have to do a great job of preparing for it and make sure our kids are ready and go in and enjoy it."

West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez has the same task.

"This will be an easy game to get, I'm sure, both teams motivated and focused and preparing very hard for," Rodriguez said.

Cardinals quarterback Brian Brohm could use the extra week to get ready. He has been inconsistent since returning from a hand injury ahead of schedule Oct. 14.

"There have been times where he looks just like himself in executing and making good decisions throwing the ball, and then there have been a couple of occasions where it looks like he's pressing a little bit, trying to make plays when there isn't anything there," Petrino said. "So I think that's why it's so important that he played before this West Virginia game, and I think that will help him tremendously by the time we get there next Thursday." ... Louisville receivers Chris Vaughn and Scott Long were suspended after police said they fired a paintball gun at people coming out of a downtown Louisville hotel. They were arrested on charges of second-degree assault after the incident early Sunday. ... Rutgers tailback Ray Rice (39 carries, 225 yards, one touchdown), Cincinnati linebacker Kevin McCullough (39-yard fumble return for a TD, four tackles and a sack) and West Virginia kicker Pat McAfee (13 points against UConn) were the Big East offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week.
 
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Bowl Conscious

4-4 Bearcats thinking beyond regular season
Tuesday, October 24, 2006By Dave Rahme
Staff writer
Cincinnati football coach Mark Dantonio hands out goal cards to his players every season and discusses them liberally, asking the Bearcats to adjust them as events dictate.
Eight games into the season they have drawn a line through the national championship at the top of their cards and realistically the Big East championship underneath it. But goal No. 3, an invitation to a postseason bowl, is still very much in play as the team prepares to play Syracuse at noon Saturday (Time Warner 26).
"We talk about championships here," Dantonio said Monday morning. "Our goal is to win a championship. I think you have to set your sights on goals. We re-evaluate our goals every single week. This is a four-game schedule right now. We can't really look behind us at what's happened. All I can tell you is we've evened it up at 4-4. That's a positive thing right now, where we're at. And we need to take the next step."
The Bearcats are .500 despite a roster dominated by freshmen and sophomores and a killer early schedule that featured non-league games at No. 1 Ohio State and Virginia Tech and a mid-season conference game at No. 6 Louisville.
"We chose to embrace that schedule and to continually tell our players that we would have opportunities in those games to win," Dantonio said. "And our players built confidence from those games early on, because we were in that situation. We were beating Virginia Tech at Virginia Tech at the end of the third quarter, and at Ohio State we were hanging in there with them. So because of that I think we gained some confidence."
They gained the .500 mark Sunday night by defeating South Florida 23-6 on national television, their first league victory a week after a hard-fought 23-17 loss at Louisville the week before.
"You've got to give Cincinnati a great deal of credit," USF coach Jim Levitt said. "They really did a great job defensively. It was a 2-0 game at halftime, and we go into the third quarter and we drive all the way down and we have a chance to go up . . . it was first-and-goal and (we) threw an interception and kind of took the wind out of our sails. We stop them, get the ball back and now we drive it and we throw an interception and they return it all the way for a touchdown, so Cincinn- ati's defense is up 9-0 on us."
It has been a recurring theme for the Bearcats (4-4, 1-2), who have played tough defense all season under Dantonio, the third-year coach who was the defensive coordinator at Ohio State when it won the national championship in 2002. On Sunday, they held USF to a season-low 219 yards of offense.
"I got to watch that game last night," Syracuse coach Greg Robinson said. "They are a team that plays with a lot of passion. I just like the way they play. They're quick. They play from sideline to sideline."
Because the Bearcats played Sunday night, Dantonio professed to have little knowledge of the Orange other than to say he believed it to be much improved. He and his assistant coaches were about to dig in and study SU after he got off the phone. With No. 5 West Virginia and No. 16 Rutgers still ahead, though, he knows his team needs to knock off Syracuse if it wants to keep goal No. 3 on the table.

"As I said to our players earlier, when we won this last game the window was going to open for us a little bit in terms of bowl games, and if we lose a game it closes," Dantonio said. "We need to continue with that thought process. We have a four-game schedule in front of us, and Syracuse is the next one up."
 
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Cincinnati not afraid of bowl talk



By Pat Eaton-Robb, Associated Press
October 25, 2006
While some coaches shy away from bowl talk at this time of year, Cincinnati coach Mark Dantonio is embracing it. "We talk about championships here," he said. "Our goal is to win a championship and I think you have to set your sights on goals. You have to have goals."
Cincinnati (4-4, 1-2 Big East), needs two wins in its last four games to become eligible for a bowl. The Bearcats host Syracuse on Saturday.
Dantonio said he thinks his team has gained some confidence from a tough early season nonconference schedule. The players now understand that they can control their own destiny, and will have chances to win every game, he said.
"We were beating Virginia Tech at Virginia Tech at the end of the third quarter, and Ohio State, we were hanging in there with them," he said. "I think that?s how you build a foundation, and I think that?s what has happened."
 
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