Reflections On This Season

[Bearcat Chris]

1. Worse game of the year was tonight. It is still going on and I couldn't mentally take it anymore. Defense was non existent. No breaks went our way.
2. UC never beat a team with a winning league record this season.
3. 80% of the starters were seniors. Next year's cupboard will be very lean. We don't have the NIL money to buy and quickly "make a team" like Indiana and Vandy.
4. Dave Curry, I mean CSS has to go. No way on earth will he bring better and bigger results next year w/ so many players graduating. He has never resonated with the city or recruits.
5. Had we stayed in the AAC, we would have been at the top of the pack, and likely a top 25 team. Doesn't matter now, and I know most of you guys don't agree with me on this.
6. If CSS is cut loose, UC should also cut loose the brilliant mastermind of this creation, John Cunningham.
7. Highlight of the season.... honestly, I can't think of any. Perhaps beating Iowa State??? Beating bad UCF and Baylor types teams is not a highlight.
8. Enjoy the "Irrelevant Bowl" against Old Dominion or New Mexico State. I won't be there, and I doubt many UC fans will be either.

B.C.

[Rufus]

It's like watching a game from last year or the year before. Same bat time, same bat channel. The entire sports scene in Cincinnati is absolutely putrid.

[longtimefan]

My guess is they’ll point to win totals his first three seasons, 3, 5, 7 with a bowl game, as an excuse to bring CSS back next season.

[Cliftonite]

My guess is they’ll point to win totals his first three seasons, 3, 5, 7 with a bowl game, as an excuse to bring CSS back next season.

It's up to how long 5-7 wins as a ceiling, are the supporters/alums/fans going to put up with, year after year. I don't see it getting better as-is next season. He's technically improved every year, so yeah he'll probably get by on that for another season. But if he regresses next year, not sure he can survive that. And that is looking likely to be the case, given the roster losses (unless they do some crazy portal shopping/spending somehow).

[JohnFrancis]

College football itself is an interesting study in how a program can go from the penthouse to the outhouse ...this can happen suddenly one season to another or gradually over a period of years - just look at UCF, UC, OK State and FSU, even Clemson and the rollercoaster of wins and losses over the last 7 to 10 years...and some players getting 5,6 or more years of eligibility - crazy.

Some schools never get back to the top of the mountain - when I was young, Nebraska was a perennial power. Since Urban left Florida it's been one coach after another. Tennessee, before Heupel, went through Dooley, Jones, Pruitt and others. I remember when WVU was pretty decent EVERY year. Now James Madison and Old Dominion have respectable programs and have regularly trounced Virginia Tech which has been really bad lately...Franklin can no doubt recruit, and getting to the top of the ACC will be easier than the Big 10.

App State, Coastal Carolina and Liberty have had their days in the sun - very good 2 to 3 year runs then a fade - sometimes due to coaching change or the transfer portal, bad recruiting, NIL or a combination thereof. I expect North Texas, Tulane and USF to come back to earth if they lose their coaches and good players follow them. I just find it interesting how some programs emerge while others fade. Texas AM had great recruiting classes under JImbo but it took a coaching change to get them into title contention. Given their resources and recruiting area, FSU and Florida are the most perplexing to me.

The hard truth is that currently, UC is not as good as other river cities college teams such as Pitt and Louisville. UC might not even be as good as Memphis - I don't know for sure. I do know it's difficult to stay on top unless you're an O$U or Oregon.