It has not been the greatest month for the conference, despite six of eight teams earning bowl bids. The headline team, Cincinnati, came shockingly close to securing a spot in the BCS championship game before settling for third place overall and a trip to the Sugar Bowl, where they will face an angry Florida team. They will do so without head coach Brian Kelly, the winner of the Home Depot Coach of the Year award, who has departed for his next gig. Kelly is now saying that he is unsure if he would have taken the Notre Dame job if Texas had lost in the Big 12 title game and the Bearcats were playing for the national title. Kelly's abandonment of the Bearcats has not gone over well in the "Queen City," although residents there were slow to respond to the coach's work building the program as Cincinnati football tickets were always pretty easy to get. At least until this year's historic, undefeated run.
The coaching situation at Cincinnati may be better than that at South Florida, where head man Jim Leavitt's 13-year run in Tampa has hit a major road bump. Special teams player Joel Miller, through his father, accused the coach on December 3 of grabbing him by the throat and hitting him twice in the face during halftime of the Louisville game on November 21. The Millers have since softened their story a bit, but the school is investigating the incident. Leavitt coached with Mark Mangino, who resigned from his position as head coach at Kansas after allegations of being verbally abusive of players, at Kansas State under Bill Snyder.
Today we were reminded that if and when the Big Ten expands to 12 teams, Rutgers is one of the targeted programs. Adding the Scarlet Knights will allow the conference to stake a claim into metropolitan New York City, while adding a program that will be competitive yet not tip the balance of power in the conference. Rutgers has improved their facilities and produced wins while graduating players and not having kids get arrested. The Big East would not want to lose an improved Scarlet Knights program, especially in light of stated desires to invite two more teams to the conference even if the Knights stay. Programs like Memphis and East Carolina are already under consideration, but the conference fears losing its identity if it has to bring in three new teams on top of the three schools--Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida--that came on board five years ago.
Good news? Well Louisville is pretty happy to have Charlie Strong join them as their new head coach. Strong's ability to coach defense and recruit are assets strongly in need with the Cardinals.
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