How do you rate Fickell's first season?

[Crusaders]

Disappointing? As expected?

[fish82]

Expectations met.

[Arrogate]

If UC is going to have Barker as their starting an next year they are in trouble.

For their sake I hope he never sees the field

[bigkat]

will do a good job.....Tommy Tuberville, left that program in a MESS

[WinstonSmith]

I’d say better than expected, bust almost solely because of the recruiting. Hard to imagine he got that many recruits to buy in based on the previous regime and on field performance.

[DB 04]

Originally Posted by Crusaders

Disappointing? As expected?

Some people are better assistants than HCs. He is one of them. I’m not a hater of Fickell. I like him as a coach and he did a very good job as an assistant at Ohio State. Some people are just better DCs or OCs than head coaches.

[ronnie mund]

What didn't he do well this season?

For what he was given, I'd say this season was a success, primarily recruiting. No one expected much on the field. Next year I'd say expectation is .500 or better.

[nwwarrior09]

They have one of the 2-3 best recruiting classes among the G5 schools. For that reason alone his first year has to be regarded as a step in the right direction. I'd imagine the target for year two is to be bowl eligible. With the way the program had been trending, I'd think 7-8 wins would be regarded as a pretty nice season.

[Michael Bluth]

The only way to judge how well he did this year is to see how the recruiting class pans out. Getting an infusion of talent into the program and re-establishing the Ohio pipelines into UC is his primary job right now. I'll judge their on field results in a couple years

[brianwr112]

I coach wrestling and I'm not a UC fan. I honestly don't remember hearing the guys that also play football talk so highly about a coach. It's not just the program I coach in but all over SWO. Kids love that he's stopping by schools and not only hitting up the top recruits but making some time for every player on the team. That freshman/sophmore with nobody looking at them will remember that when their body matures and find their true position. UC's going to have SWO on lock as much as I hate to say it.

[Monclova Steve]

Marvin Lewis, no matter what you may think about him, has a saying that I like very much.
"I can see much better than I can hear"
That's how I feel about Coach Fickell.
Yeah, I hear great things about him, in spite of a probably to be expected lousy W/L in 2017. I have great hopes for him as a HC, but I'm on the fence. A 7-5 year would be OK but I'd feel much more confident about his abilities with a W/L of 8-4.
Everybody brags about the incoming recruiting classes. Seeing will be the proof in the pudding.

[IronEagle82]

Going 4-8 with very little talent, but playing hard in every game is what was expected. He definitely went above expectation with a phenomenal recruiting class.
The key to winning at UC is locking down the local talent. Tuberville lost tons of local guys to Kentucky, Michigan St., and lower Big Ten schools. I'm rooting for Coach Fickell and believe UC will be in a bowl game this next season.

[cabezadecaballo]

Originally Posted by Michael Bluth

The only way to judge how well he did this year is to see how the recruiting class pans out. Getting an infusion of talent into the program and re-establishing the Ohio pipelines into UC is his primary job right now. I'll judge their on field results in a couple years

This is the way to look at it.

What's the best way to recruit as a non-Power 5 ? Does anyone on his staff attempt to identify next-tier recruits that would be interested in UC's strongest fields of study and sell the whole school, not just football ?

[nwwarrior09]

I'd think a huge selling point has to be city and/or regional identity. For a few brief years that was the calling card of Herman's program at Houston. I'd imagine the same could be found at UCF and USF.

As mentioned above, UC needs to manage to beat UK, Michigan State, and other regional programs such as lower-tier Big 10 schools like IU and Purdue head-to-head for 3 star and lower 4 star recruits in SWO that are below big three level (OSU, Michigan and Notre Dame) and national power level.

Luke and Co. should be in the building constantly at the GCL-S schools, Colerain, Winton Woods, Lakotas, Mason, Hamilton, Middletown, Wayne, Centerville, Springfield, Northmont, Alter, C.J., etc. The kids from those schools who have been going to UK, Michigan State, Louisville, Indiana, etc. are the guys that he needs to be the foundation of a successful UC program IMO.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[cabezadecaballo]

Don't link this site - https://cincinnatiisadump.wordpress.com/about/

[Saint Columban]

i was very disappointed in fickells first season. He's making up for it on the recruiting trail, but his HC learning curve appears to be significantly more long term than I expected for a guy who had a year to learn how to be a head coach at osu as well as long time coordinator experience under the likes of both Tressel and Meyer. ill give one example: several times this season I saw us have to burn a timeout AFTER a tv timeout because our offense didn't know what play they were running. WTH? you expect a new coach to struggle with some time management situations as he often did, but after a tv timeout? unacceptable even for a rookie and it happened multiple times. Hopefully he develops as a HC at the same rate his recruits advance and within a few years he'll have it figured out.

im trying to stay optimistic because I remember some of dantonios head scratching decisions his first couple years and look how great he became. but dantonios seemed far more competent out the gate than fickell has so far.

I suspect his ceiling will be similar to butch jones. great recruiter and motivator, average coach. a combination that's good enough to compete for conference titles yearly but never good enough to push all the way through to the top. fortunately for him as long as uc is in a lower conference it will be good enough.

[redskin17]

Some of you are putting way too much stock into year one of recruiting. When a new coach comes in recruiting usually will tick up for the first class and sometimes into the second class. There is a buzz and a recruiting honeymoon period. Look at UK, year 1 they had the 17th best class according to rivals, following year 35, then back to 26,28,27, still better than their "normal" yet he is 26-36 in his time there.

[Taco MacArthur]

Use 247, who uses the composite scores to rank the classes. It's less the buzz and more about the fact Fickell isn't ignoring the local talent that has previously escaped Cincinnati because Tuberville was a re tard.

[Arrogate]

Originally Posted by redskin17

Some of you are putting way too much stock into year one of recruiting. When a new coach comes in recruiting usually will tick up for the first class and sometimes into the second class. There is a buzz and a recruiting honeymoon period. Look at UK, year 1 they had the 17th best class according to rivals, following year 35, then back to 26,28,27, still better than their "normal" yet he is 26-36 in his time there.

Kentucky being in the top 50 in rankings is a huge win for them. It allows them to beat South Carolina.

[redskin17]

Originally Posted by Arrogate

Kentucky being in the top 50 in rankings is a huge win for them. It allows them to beat South Carolina.

Kentucky should be in the top 50 every year, they just need to win games, which they still cant do.

[redskin17]

Originally Posted by Taco MacArthur

Use 247, who uses the composite scores to rank the classes. It's less the buzz and more about the fact Fickell isn't ignoring the local talent that has previously escaped Cincinnati because Tuberville was a re tard.

That's fine and well, but do it in year 2/3 and beyond. As I said honeymoon effect with a new coach.

[Arrogate]

Originally Posted by redskin17

Kentucky should be in the top 50 every year, they just need to win games, which they still cant do.

Bowl games are much better than it was under Joker, even if they lose. Just be somewhat competitive is what UK fans want.

[Arrogate]

If only they got to play South Carolina every game they'd be bowl participants every year

[redskin17]

Originally Posted by Arrogate

If only they got to play South Carolina every game they'd be bowl participants every year

17-11, uk has had a nice run for 4 years, but it is up. Let me know when they run off 10 straight vs Carolina. BTW I feel like you bringing that up would be like me bring up the fact Carolina just beat UK and made the Final Four last year....

[Taco MacArthur]

Originally Posted by redskin17

That's fine and well, but do it in year 2/3 and beyond. As I said honeymoon effect with a new coach.

Or he's continuing the same thing he did at Ohio State.

[redskin17]

Originally Posted by Taco MacArthur

Or he's continuing the same thing he did at Ohio State.

Really? It is a lot easier to recruit at osu than uc. If he is still pulling in kids and winning year 2/3 then give him tons of kudos. It really is nothing against Fickell, its more how recruiting works.

[Arrogate]

Originally Posted by redskin17

17-11, uk has had a nice run for 4 years, but it is up. Let me know when they run off 10 straight vs Carolina. BTW I feel like you bringing that up would be like me bring up the fact Carolina just beat UK and made the Final Four last year....

Just ribbing ya a lil. But yah I encourage you to send it back.

Florida called they said we got a 40 year streak, beat that!

glad they did make the FF and I am happy they beat them this year. This year's team needs to blow a few games so Cal can get their attention.

[redskin17]

Originally Posted by Arrogate

Just ribbing ya a lil. But yah I encourage you to send it back.

Florida called they said we got a 40 year streak, beat that!

glad they did make the FF and I am happy they beat them this year. This year's team needs to blow a few games so Cal can get their attention.

I am not happy, I want Martin gone!

[Arrogate]

Because of the Adidas thing?

[redskin17]

Originally Posted by Arrogate

Because of the Adidas thing?

A lot more than that, can't recruit at a high level, or keep players.