How can we emulate Boise's success?

[Class of 61]

But I don't want to be Marshall!!!

Seriously, can I help the coaches recruit kids? Would they want a copy of every roster in the area, so they can look over the crop of athletes?[/quote]


You're crazy if you DON'T SEND ON A LIST of solid players who can play on the D-1 level... (Preferably, you've actually SEEN them play, rather than listening to their parents).. case in point, Mayfield HS , East of Cleve., has an outstanding kicker who popped THREE FG's of over 40 yards this past Friday...solid leg on kickoffs too; This is the kind of kid that we should take a serious look at, not to mention recruit.

I recall sending Brandon an email on a kid from Twinsburg who was a teriffic punter.... two days after sent the mail, he verballed to.... Michigan (still their doing their punting).

[TexCat]

UC has elevated itself as well, and within Ohio. UC was an utter joke of a football program, with a lousy stadium in a demilitarized zone of a campus, in a city only a few notches above Detroit in some way. They turned the trick however, by spending money that MAC schools won't be able to match. They bought their way into bowl games, wantonly throwing cash at anybody. They leveraged their corrupt basketball program into TV and other deals for football. In short, they burned cash, a heck of a lot of it, and had basketball success none in the MAC can match, all in an urban setting which aided their case.

NW,

I'm just curious, have you ever been to the city of Cincinnati or visited the University of Cincinnati campus including Nippert Stadium? I've been to the Doyt Perry (RIP) Stadium and it doesn't even compare to the atmosphere of Nippert. Cincinnati is a totally first class city with amenities that Bowling Green, Ohio will never see. Secondly, I don't know what you mean by "bought their way into bowl games" and "wantonly throwing cash at anybody". If you have some evidence, I'd be delighted to hear about it. I quit donating money to UC years ago, not because of athletics, but because of it's hard left turn politically with a couple of left-wing presidents. I still support the sports teams.

My prediction is that you don't know crap about the University of Cincinnati or their basketball program today, or under Bob Huggins, or ever.....even including the national championship years when I was in school.

I root for ALL Ohio football teams. ALL of them. I enjoyed watching the Bearcats whack Fresno State. I enjoyed watching the Buckeyes whack Illinois. The BGSU game was a bit of an embarrassment but I still was rooting for them.

Texcat

[TexCat]

Hi everybody,


I feel the single most important fact in the rise of BSU football is location, like others have mentioned. There are 700k people in the Boise area and it is the most remote city in the entire lower 48 states. BSU football is the only show in town. Washington State and Utah are the 2 closest teams, both about 6 hours by car.

The PAC 10 is the only BCS conference west of the great divide, so that means when it comes to recruiting, we recruit against the top teams in the Mountain West Conference (Utah, BYU) and the PAC 10. That is it. I can not begin to think of the recruiting you guys deal with being in the east and going against the Big East, Conf. USA, the B10, the ACC and the other MAC schools.

Also, cal it luck, but our AD may have put together the greatest streak of coaches ever seen for a program of our size when we started in D1A football. Houston Nutt, Dirk Koetter, Dan Hawkins and Petersen. With these coaches the type of player that BSU recruits has changed quit a bit. We started off with some really good football players that were too small for the big schools, or came from little small towns. Our first few bowl wins were big deals, beating Louisville, Iowa State, and probably the biggest one at the time, beating TCU in the Fort Worth Bowl in 2003. That changed the way we started to recruit, IMHO, then we started to outgrow the WAC teams and then we got lucky with some of the players we had in 06 to make a run at the Fiesta. These were recruits that kind of flew under the radar athletically or were from small towns, or were the 2nd choice of big schools, but were good football players and had some speed. These players get developed and before you know it, you've got yourself a top 10 team.

The process that we are going through now is pretty neat to watch. Recently, we have been beating out the big boys for recruits, and the product on the field is getting more athletic, while maintaining the "good, solid football player" approach.

But, it has taken an entire decade for all of this to fall in place. I really enjoy reading this board and hope BGSU can become the King of the MAC and build from there.

A couple of years ago, while Dan Hawkins was still the coach, I read an article in which he described how he went about recruiting athletes. He explained to them over the telephone that Boise was in Idaho. It was not Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas or Houston. The article said that he told them [paraphrasing] "If that's the type of atmosphere you're looking for, don't waste my time, your time or our money by my coming down to visit you or you coming here to visit us." "If you want to play football for a good program and don't need a media spotlight, I'll be glad to talk to you."

Apparently, it worked.

Texcat

[always a falcon]

You also have to look at how Idaho and Texas fund their higher education systems. Are budgets always being cut, or are they funded properly? They have different outlooks than Ohio.
It takes a lot of money to have that success, besides all the other things that have been named.

AND, it takes not PO'ing a lot of coaches in the state of Ohio when it comes to recruiting. Coach Clawson and his coaches have a lot of fences to mend and I think they will do so, and our recruiting will produce the type of players we need on our team and in our classrooms.

[SB-50]

I'm not so sure Boise's "location" helps them so much in recruiting. According to Rivals.com, here are the national rankings for the last 4 classes (If not familiar, Rivals ranks kids from 1 to 5 "stars"):

2009 - #72, 2.52 star avg, no 5 or 4-star athletes
2008 - #89, 2.26 star avg, no 5 or 4-star athletes
2007 - #68, 2.24 star avg, no 5 or 4-star athletes
2006 - #70, 2.17 star avg, no 5 or 4-star athletes

Their current roster lists 31 players from California and 33 players from ID and the 6 contiguous states (OR, WA, MT, NV, UT, WY).

It seems as though Boise takes avg athletes, refines an effective offensive system, carefully crafts its schedule (almost no BCS OOC games) and ensures that they dominate their league. This results in a favorable ranking and above average program.

They have carefully built their program, and stick to that model. As mentioned before, the long tenured AD facilitates this. Our "location" should not hurt us, as Boise has not built their program on Blue Chip kids. What they have done is truly impressive!

P.S. NWLB: I caught that Detroit remark!!

[MarkL]

UC has elevated itself as well, and within Ohio. UC was an utter joke of a football program, with a lousy stadium in a demilitarized zone of a campus, in a city only a few notches above Detroit in some way. They turned the trick however, by spending money that MAC schools won't be able to match. They bought their way into bowl games, wantonly throwing cash at anybody. They leveraged their corrupt basketball program into TV and other deals for football. In short, they burned cash, a heck of a lot of it, and had basketball success none in the MAC can match, all in an urban setting which aided their case.

NW,

I'm just curious, have you ever been to the city of Cincinnati or visited the University of Cincinnati campus including Nippert Stadium? I've been to the Doyt Perry (RIP) Stadium and it doesn't even compare to the atmosphere of Nippert. Cincinnati is a totally first class city with amenities that Bowling Green, Ohio will never see. Secondly, I don't know what you mean by "bought their way into bowl games" and "wantonly throwing cash at anybody". If you have some evidence, I'd be delighted to hear about it. I quit donating money to UC years ago, not because of athletics, but because of it's hard left turn politically with a couple of left-wing presidents. I still support the sports teams.

My prediction is that you don't know crap about the University of Cincinnati or their basketball program today, or under Bob Huggins, or ever.....even including the national championship years when I was in school.

I root for ALL Ohio football teams. ALL of them. I enjoyed watching the Bearcats whack Fresno State. I enjoyed watching the Buckeyes whack Illinois. The BGSU game was a bit of an embarrassment but I still was rooting for them.

Texcat

The move to the Big East was the biggest thing that helped UC. I grew up a Bearcats fan and was accustomed to crowds of under 10,000. With the Big East expanding, Cincinnati and Louisville had so much together to offer and that allowed UC to take off in ways previously unimaginable.

Back 2005 and before, I would say the atmospheres between BG and UC were comparable with a slight edge to BG. At this point, though, Nippert Stadium is just electric. I've been to two games in the past two years and couldn't believe it was the same Nippert Stadium. What a difference a move to a top level conference can make - and also hiring one of the nation's premiere coaches.

[Falcon137]

The best thing to ever happen to UC football was watching their basketball program be whittled away to nothing while at the same time Dantonio recruiting like crazy. UC can also thank the Big East lords for the revenue boost allowing them to completely remake Nippert stadium and the surrounding parts of their athletics, including parts of the 5/3rd Arena and the new baseball stadium.

Football became popular at UC after the basketball team hit rock bottom. UC football had the perfect storm, hired Dantonio who did a great job recruiting, basketball fell off the map, then hit lightning in a bottle with Brian Kelly. Most UC fans would still rather win another national championship in basketball, it drives them crazy that they are 2nd fiddle in Cincy to Xavier and 3rd in SW Ohio to Xavier and Dayton.

[TexCat]

The best thing to ever happen to UC football was watching their basketball program be whittled away to nothing while at the same time Dantonio recruiting like crazy.

Football became popular at UC after the basketball team hit rock bottom. UC football had the perfect storm, hired Dantonio who did a great job recruiting, basketball fell off the map, then hit lightning in a bottle with Brian Kelly. Most UC fans would still rather win a national championship in basketball, it drives them crazy that they are 2nd fiddle in Cincy to Xavier and 3rd in SW Ohio to Xavier and Dayton.

The fall of the basketball program at Cincinnati can be explained in two words. "Nancy Zimpher". She couldn't stand the fact that the basketball coach was known around the country when no one ever heard of her. She couldn't stand dealing with Bob Huggins whether or not he was puking out the door of his car. Wow......a coach who has been drinking after a game.......I've never heard of that before (unless you think of a former BG football coach). She preferred to destroy the program rather than deal with her insecurity. Nancy was hired from tOSU. She's now moved on to New York University system where she will no doubt destroy another athletic program up there. She is a complete dimwit but a woman who continues to progress in the academic community because that's what these people do. It's almost like airline management.

She chose to replace Huggins with a coach who was a Huggins trainee and protogé. Does that make sense? Unfortunately, three classes of recruits bolted from the program saying "I came here to play for Bob Huggins and play in the NBA". This poor sap who replaced Huggins, Mick Cronin, had to basically start all over again. He spent his first year on campus looking for tall kids and asking if they'd ever played basketball. He'll be there in about another year or so and the program will be fine. Mick Cronin is a very good basketball coach and recruiter.

I know this is not a Bearcat forum..........but I thought you should know.

Looking at the record today, I'll bet Mark Dantonio is regretting the day he left the University of Cincinnati for more "exposure".

TexCat

[Falcon137]

UC has elevated itself as well, and within Ohio. UC was an utter joke of a football program, with a lousy stadium in a demilitarized zone of a campus, in a city only a few notches above Detroit in some way. They turned the trick however, by spending money that MAC schools won't be able to match. They bought their way into bowl games, wantonly throwing cash at anybody. They leveraged their corrupt basketball program into TV and other deals for football. In short, they burned cash, a heck of a lot of it, and had basketball success none in the MAC can match, all in an urban setting which aided their case.

NW,

I'm just curious, have you ever been to the city of Cincinnati or visited the University of Cincinnati campus including Nippert Stadium? I've been to the Doyt Perry (RIP) Stadium and it doesn't even compare to the atmosphere of Nippert. Cincinnati is a totally first class city with amenities that Bowling Green, Ohio will never see. Secondly, I don't know what you mean by "bought their way into bowl games" and "wantonly throwing cash at anybody". If you have some evidence, I'd be delighted to hear about it. I quit donating money to UC years ago, not because of athletics, but because of it's hard left turn politically with a couple of left-wing presidents. I still support the sports teams.

My prediction is that you don't know crap about the University of Cincinnati or their basketball program today, or under Bob Huggins, or ever.....even including the national championship years when I was in school.

Where is NW wrong? Having been to UC's campus quite a few times, it was / parts still are in an absolute hell hole.

Thuggy bear ran one of the dirtiest programs around and I can't believe anyone would try to defend it. I do know UC basketball had a mass exodus of fans and season ticket holders after Thuggy was let go, which speaks to the support the PROGRAM had at UC.

Congrats on the hoop accomplishments of the early 1960s.

Nippert stadium was an absolute dump and no one cared about UC football in the 90s and early 00s when they were an Independent and then in CUSA, they did nothing special. Nippert got all the new bells and whistles when they joined the Big East and got to spend some of that BCS money.

I also like how you compare one of the largest cities in the state of Ohio with Bowling Green, OH; Apples meet oranges. Cincinnati is far from a first class city, if it were first class people would elect to live there instead of commuting from the Dayton suburbs and N. Kentucky.

[Falcon137]

She chose to replace Huggins with a coach who was a Huggins trainee and protogé. Does that make sense? Unfortunately, three classes of recruits bolted from the program saying "I came here to play for Bob Huggins and play in the NBA". This poor sap who replaced Huggins, Mick Cronin, had to basically start all over again. He spent his first year on campus looking for tall kids and asking if they'd ever played basketball. He'll be there in about another year or so and the program will be fine. Mick Cronin is a very good basketball coach and recruiter.

I actually liked Cronin for awhile because he seemed like he would change the culture at UC. Until he figured out he couldn't beat Xavier and watched Dayton pass him. Now he is taking a win at all costs mentality by taking high character guys such as, Yancy Gates last year and Lance Stephenson this year. Nothing has changed there.

[TexCat]

UC has elevated itself as well, and within Ohio. UC was an utter joke of a football program, with a lousy stadium in a demilitarized zone of a campus, in a city only a few notches above Detroit in some way. They turned the trick however, by spending money that MAC schools won't be able to match. They bought their way into bowl games, wantonly throwing cash at anybody. They leveraged their corrupt basketball program into TV and other deals for football. In short, they burned cash, a heck of a lot of it, and had basketball success none in the MAC can match, all in an urban setting which aided their case.

NW,

I'm just curious, have you ever been to the city of Cincinnati or visited the University of Cincinnati campus including Nippert Stadium? I've been to the Doyt Perry (RIP) Stadium and it doesn't even compare to the atmosphere of Nippert. Cincinnati is a totally first class city with amenities that Bowling Green, Ohio will never see. Secondly, I don't know what you mean by "bought their way into bowl games" and "wantonly throwing cash at anybody". If you have some evidence, I'd be delighted to hear about it. I quit donating money to UC years ago, not because of athletics, but because of it's hard left turn politically with a couple of left-wing presidents. I still support the sports teams.

My prediction is that you don't know crap about the University of Cincinnati or their basketball program today, or under Bob Huggins, or ever.....even including the national championship years when I was in school.

Where is NW wrong? Having been to UC's campus quite a few times, it was / parts still are in an absolute hell hole.

Thuggy bear ran one of the dirtiest programs around and I can't believe anyone would try to defend it. I do know UC basketball had a mass exodus of fans and season ticket holders after Thuggy was let go, which speaks to the support the PROGRAM had at UC.

Congrats on the hoop accomplishments of the early 1960s.

Nippert stadium was an absolute dump and no one cared about UC football in the 90s and early 00s when they were an Independent and then in CUSA, they did nothing special. Nippert got all the new bells and whistles when they joined the Big East and got to spend some of that BCS money.

I also like how you compare one of the largest cities in the state of Ohio with Bowling Green, OH; Apples meet oranges. Cincinnati is far from a first class city, if it were first class people would elect to live there instead of commuting from the Dayton suburbs and N. Kentucky.

I don't know when was the last time you visited the UC campus but I'll bet it was a long time ago. Nippert Stadium is hardly a 'dump' and UC is an "urban" university which is located about seven miles from downtown Cincinnati. It's in an area called "Clifton". I'm not comparing a big city versus a.....uh...... "rural" city in which the major gourmet restaurant is a Wendy's or a Pizza Hut. Big cities do have their advantages. You comment about Bob Huggins running "one of the dirtiest programs" yet you offer not one single example of this corruption or dirtiness. I know......I know......there were the stories of the guy punching the horse. It wasn't true but it makes for a good story. It goes right along with the zero graduation rate.....which also wasn't true but it made for a good story. When Coach K had his entire class declare for the draft and didn't graduate anyone, nobody mentioned it. Why? Well, because it was Duke. When Huggins had kids declare for the draft, it became "a zero graduation rate".

I'd also like you to explain the "hell-hole" parts of the UC campus. I'd predict that you can't. For an "urban" campus, UC is quite nice. As with most urban campuses, it's constantly under construction. If construction sites are considered "hell-holes" to you, have at it. Cincinnati, Ohio is one of the most desirable places in the country to live. I don't live there but I wouldn't mind it. If I were to move back to Ohio, Cincinnati would certainly be one of my top choices. No........I didn't grow up there. Do people commute? Absolutely. I live in The Woodlands, Texas. People commute to Houston (about twenty five miles away) everyday, because that's where they work........but they prefer to live in The Woodlands. What the hell kind of argument is that?

It also seems to me that Cincinnati never really saw any of that BCS money until after winning the Big East Championship. It wasn't presented to them for joining the league. Your argument has many holes in it but I'm running out of time.

Take care,

TexCat

[TexCat]

She chose to replace Huggins with a coach who was a Huggins trainee and protogé. Does that make sense? Unfortunately, three classes of recruits bolted from the program saying "I came here to play for Bob Huggins and play in the NBA". This poor sap who replaced Huggins, Mick Cronin, had to basically start all over again. He spent his first year on campus looking for tall kids and asking if they'd ever played basketball. He'll be there in about another year or so and the program will be fine. Mick Cronin is a very good basketball coach and recruiter.

I actually liked Cronin for awhile because he seemed like he would change the culture at UC. Until he figured out he couldn't beat Xavier and watched Dayton pass him. Now he is taking a win at all costs mentality by taking high character guys such as, Yancy Gates last year and Lance Stephenson this year. Nothing has changed there.

I just have to get things straight here. Gates is recruited by Cincinnati, Duke and North Carolina. He chooses Cincinnati. Stephenson is recruited by Cincinnati, Duke, Arizona and North Carolina. He chooses Cincinnati. Apparently, those other schools must have missed the "character" issues that seem to disturb you. Duke, North Carolina and Arizona all must have missed something.

You people are nuts, jealous......or blind.

TexCat

[NWLB]

She chose to replace Huggins with a coach who was a Huggins trainee and protogé. Does that make sense? Unfortunately, three classes of recruits bolted from the program saying "I came here to play for Bob Huggins and play in the NBA". This poor sap who replaced Huggins, Mick Cronin, had to basically start all over again. He spent his first year on campus looking for tall kids and asking if they'd ever played basketball. He'll be there in about another year or so and the program will be fine. Mick Cronin is a very good basketball coach and recruiter.

I actually liked Cronin for awhile because he seemed like he would change the culture at UC. Until he figured out he couldn't beat Xavier and watched Dayton pass him. Now he is taking a win at all costs mentality by taking high character guys such as, Yancy Gates last year and Lance Stephenson this year. Nothing has changed there.

I just have to get things straight here. Gates is recruited by Cincinnati, Duke and North Carolina. He chooses Cincinnati. Stephenson is recruited by Cincinnati, Duke, Arizona and North Carolina. He chooses Cincinnati. Apparently, those other schools must have missed the "character" issues that seem to disturb you. Duke, North Carolina and Arizona all must have missed something.

You people are nuts, jealous......or blind.

TexCat

Or maybe we are right and your insecure and blind. But maybe we can understand that, I mean, how is that all-time series with Xavier? How are those all-time records with virtually every football team in Ohio? What is it like having UK and UL fans pinching you between them and Ohio State? You can have Larry Flint, keep the goose stepping politicos, the over-priced airport, and the Bengals.

You want evidence? It is called Google. Go have fun looking up graduation rates, real attendance figures, crime rates, and most everything in between.

[Flipper]

Getting into the Big East saved Cincy football...it's all about the $$$ and the exposure. When Dantonio became able to sit down in front of kids and tell them they could realistically play in a BCS game, the Bearcats began winning the recruiting battles for the high ** and *** kids that they were consistently losing to the MAC schools.

Generally speaking, they're now the third option behind OSU and Michigan but ahead of the rest of the Big 10 and Notre Dame for quality kids here in Ohio

[Falcon137]

She chose to replace Huggins with a coach who was a Huggins trainee and protogé. Does that make sense? Unfortunately, three classes of recruits bolted from the program saying "I came here to play for Bob Huggins and play in the NBA". This poor sap who replaced Huggins, Mick Cronin, had to basically start all over again. He spent his first year on campus looking for tall kids and asking if they'd ever played basketball. He'll be there in about another year or so and the program will be fine. Mick Cronin is a very good basketball coach and recruiter.

I actually liked Cronin for awhile because he seemed like he would change the culture at UC. Until he figured out he couldn't beat Xavier and watched Dayton pass him. Now he is taking a win at all costs mentality by taking high character guys such as, Yancy Gates last year and Lance Stephenson this year. Nothing has changed there.

I just have to get things straight here. Gates is recruited by Cincinnati, Duke and North Carolina. He chooses Cincinnati. Stephenson is recruited by Cincinnati, Duke, Arizona and North Carolina. He chooses Cincinnati. Apparently, those other schools must have missed the "character" issues that seem to disturb you. Duke, North Carolina and Arizona all must have missed something.

You people are nuts, jealous......or blind.

TexCat

http://tinyurl.com/yap5ojc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks to me like Cronin will keep the Thuggy bear tradition alive. Maybe he can be the next Art Long in Clifton. Watch out police horses.

Gates was also recruited by several other schools including Xavier, which cooled on him because routinely got tossed, was suspended, and went after officials in high school.

I personally think UC has some of the worst fans, not because they are jerks to other teams fans but because they would throw their own program under the bus to try and make a point. Congrats to UC fans for dumping all your season tickets and needing thousands of Xavier fans to sellout your biggest rivalry because you are still mad she took your beloved drunk from you.

Good luck catching back up to Xavier, UD, UK, OSU and Louisville.

Oh and by the way, I was down in Clifton this year, if you love crime and not being able to get far off campus, then UC is the school for you.