Tag: Scott Satterfield

Growing unrest for pair of Big 12 coaches as hot seat warms

It was a tough weekend for two Big 12 head coaches on the hot seat coming into the season.

2024 represents a make-or-break season for both Dave Aranda of the Baylor Bears and Scott Satterfield of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Week 2 did not go well for either head coach, as the hot seat got even warmer after the performances of their teams on Saturday.

Things Are Not Well in Waco

Aranda and his Bears were not prepared for their Big 12 opener. They trailed the Utah Utes 23-0 before getting a field goal just before halftime. The Bears then scored nine points in the third quarter to make it somewhat respectable, but that was largely in part due to the injury to Utah’s Cam Rising.

The Bears quarterback play was miserable, with Dequan Finn completing just 9 of 21 passes for 115 yards in the game. On the defensive side, the Bears looked lost. Rising was torching them all over the field before the injury.

The 47-year-old Aranda has been with the Bears since 2020 and is under .500 in his career. He did have a monster 2021 season with the Bears, including a Sugar Bowl win. But, after back-to-back losing seasons, the folks in Waco are growing tired, and patience is running thin.

The heat will remain on as they host Air Force on Saturday, and then go to Boulder to take on Coach Prime and the Buffaloes on September 21st.

Epic Collapse to Rival not a Recipe for Success

Scott Satterfield was awfully good at Appalachian State and Louisville, but the 51-year-old has really struggled at Cincinnati so far. It may be too early, but a loss to a big rival such as Pittsburgh is many times a death sentence for a head coach. The loss dropped him to 4-10 as the leader of the Bearcats.

Cincinnati scored 27 of the first 40 points in the game. They led 27-6 late in the third. Then, disaster happened. Cincinnati saw Pittsburgh score three straight touchdowns and added a field goal to win the game on Saturday.

Running back Corey Kiner finished with nearly 150 yards but had a massive fumble in the game. The defense was good early, but could not get off the field when they needed to the most. Play calling, and lack of ability to put a game away, almost always falls on the head coach.

The Bearcats are at Miami OH on Saturday. A game they better be ready for, because the MAC has already shown up with big massive wins this early part of the season.

Both Aranda and Satterfield are going to be watched every game the rest of the way. If they can make it through this season, it probably is a miracle with the patience these athletic departments have when a coach is not winning.

Cincinnati needs a big second season under coach Scott Satterfield

Cincinnati Bearcats coach Scott Satterfield on the hot seat entering second Big 12 football season.

When the Cincinnati Bearcats open the season on August 31st, there may not be another head coach in the Big 12 with more pressure on him than Scott Satterfield.

The 51-year-old did not have a banner season with the Bearcats in 2023. He came to Cincinnati from Appalachian State and then Louisville. The former Appalachian State quarterback was 76-48 in his head coaching career and led his teams to seven bowl games in eight seasons before joining the Bearcats.

Satterfield took over for Luke Fickell, who took the job at Wisconsin. The Bearcats started their Big 12 career with just one win in nine games last season under Satterfield. Before he came to the program they had five straight winning seasons, and were 53-11 during that time.

Scooby Axson of USA TODAY Sports put together a list of the Top 10 college football head coaches that were on the hot seat entering the season and Satterfield was squarely on the list.

Moving forward, Cincinnati should be listed as one of the betting favorites in a Big 12 Conference whose two most powerful schools, Texas and Oklahoma, took their egos and brands for the greener pastures of the SEC. This conference is ripe for the picking, but it is tough to win when you aren’t good in any aspect of the game. Then again, the school could be patient and wait until Jan. 1, 2026, to fire Satterfield so that the buyout wouldn’t be as bad.

The Bearcats take on Pittsburgh on September 7th and go on the road at Miami Ohio on September 14th. The first two Big 12 games for the Bearcats are at home against Houston, and then on the road at Texas Tech. Cincinnati gets a break this season and will not face conference favorite Utah at all.

Here’s what UC coach Scott Satterfield has to say about new Browns DT Jowon Briggs

Briggs gets high praise heaped on him by his former head coach

Selecting him with the 243rd pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns reached their hand just south of Cleveland to select Cincinnati defensive tackle Jowon Briggs. And after the Browns drafted him, Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield had some high praise for the defensive tackle:

“I’m excited for Jowon and his family to realize his dream of playing in the NFL. I fully expect him to make an impact with the Cleveland Browns because he has already carried himself like a pro for years. He has an outstanding work ethic and was a great leader for us. He’s also one of the strongest players I’ve ever been around. I look forward to watching him play on Sundays.”

The attitude and leadership of Briggs has already been singled out by Browns’ brass as well, as Briggs wrote the organization a text of gratitude after he visited Cleveland during the predraft circuit. That has now been resounded from Satterfield as well.

Off the field, the Browns got a good one. Briggs is going to work hard to make sure they get a good one on the field as well.

Power ranking 10 candidates for Michigan State football’s head coaching job: Version 2.0

Power ranking 10 candidates for Michigan State football’s head coaching job: Version 2.0

November is here and Michigan State’s coaching search is about to start ramping up in a big way.

In this series, we have ranked the potential candidates that could be in the running to take over Michigan State’s job. The list will be capped at ten names along with a few other honorable mentions, and will fluctuate based on how coaches are performing this season along with any rumored or confirmed interest from the Spartans.

Check out where we see the rankings at heading into the final month of the college football season:

Cincinnati Bearcats Color Analyst Jim Kelly breaks down the Week 4 matchup

The Sooners take on the Cincinnati Bearcats and Color Analyst Jim Kelly lets us know what to expect.

The Oklahoma Sooners open [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] play against the [autotag]Cincinnati Bearcats[/autotag] in their first true road game of the season. The Bearcats come in with one of the best defensive lines in all of college football.

They also come in with the No. 8 rushing attack and the No. 12 overall offense. Many people will look at last week’s loss to the Miami (OH) Redhawks, but in that game, Cincinnati beat themselves. In the Bearcats seven trips to the red zone, they only scored two touchdowns and a pair of field goals.

Color Analyst for the Bearcats, [autotag]Jim Kelly[/autotag], talked with me on my podcast, Eat. Sleep. Bedlam. He said the offense was the unit hurt the most when former Head Coach Luke Fickell left.

“Most of that affected the offense,” Kelly said. “That’s the side of the ball that we thought, we don’t really know what to expect. The defensive side, a lot of folks stayed.”

Two of the guys Sooner fans better get to know are [autotag]Dontay Corleone[/autotag] and [autotag]Jowon Briggs[/autotag]. Those two both play along the defensive line and most likely will be playing on Sundays in the future.

New Head Coach [autotag]Scott Satterfield[/autotag], who was the head coach for the Louisville Cardinals a year ago, brings over an entirely new scheme. Kelly said they are a staff that usually likes to bring pressure.

“They like to blitz a lot, although they’ve played it more straight this year,” Kelly said. “Brian Brown is the defensive coordinator. He came from Louisville with coach Satterfield. They led the nation last year in sacks. So he plays a really aggressive style. However, I don’t think he feels like he has the corners, particularly against a team like Oklahoma and what [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] was able to do last week.”

There’s no question the Sooners are going to have to attack this secondary. The running game will probably have to be more outside runs, and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby may opt for short, quick passes to supplement the running game.

Offensively they have to stop the run. Make [autotag]Emory Jones[/autotag] beat you with his arm. They have three really good running backs to go along with Jones running the ball.

If the Sooners are able to do that, we could be looking at another rout. I don’t expect that. I expect this one to be closer than many people think.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

CBS Sports Big 12 Hot Seat Ratings: ‘Pressure is mounting’ for Brent Venables

In their updated hot seat rating for the 2023 season, CBS Sports believes “pressure is mounting” for Oklahoma’s Brent Venables.

Coming out of a 2022 season where the Oklahoma Sooners had their first losing season since 1998 with one of the worst defenses in the team’s history, it’s not unreasonable to have questions about the direction of the program.

At the same time, it’s only been one year, and we haven’t seen Venables’ recruiting classes take the field and play significant snaps yet. The team may not have much success to speak about on the field yet, but the coaching staff has done a tremendous job off of it on the recruiting trail.

They’ve put together two top 10 classes, and with the way things are shaping up, the Sooners are looking at a third straight top 10 class in the 2024 cycle.

Ahead of the 2023 season, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd took a look at every head coach in the FBS and determined where they stood on his “hot seat rating system.”

It’s a system that rates coaches from 0-5. “Zero” represents coaches that are untouchable, like Nick Saban or Kirby Smart. “Five” represents coaches that are in must-win mode heading into 2023.

Here’s a look at where the 14 Big 12 coaches stand heading into 2023. We also included where each coach ranked in CBS Sports’ head coach rankings in the Big 12 and overall and their career winning percentages.

2023 Season Preview: Oklahoma Sooners welcome Cincinnati to the Big 12

Next up in our 2023 season previews, the Oklahoma Sooners welcome the Cincinnati Bearcats to the Big 12.

In this opponent preview, we look at the Cincinnati Bearcats. Cincinnati is one of four new Big 12 teams added to the conference this year.

The Sooners face the Bearcats and the BYU Cougars on the road. Cincinnati is replacing a great deal of talent and its coaching staff after Luke Fickell departed for Wisconsin.

New head coach Scott Satterfield has substantial experience at Appalachian State and Louisville. Back in 2019, Satterfield and the Mountaineers beat UNC and South Carolina in nonconference matchups to lead App State to a 13-1 record. His time with the Cardinals offered mixed results, he never finished better than 8-5 and went 2-1 in bowl games.

The Bearcats rank 124th in the nation in returning production, according to ESPN (ESPN+). They return 42% of their offense, which ranks 121st, and 49% of their defense, which ranks 107th.

Gone is starting quarterback from last season, Ben Bryant. In is former Florida Gators and Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Emory Jones. Jones is entering his sixth college season.

Last year he threw for more than 1,500 yards, seven touchdowns and four interceptions. He also added four rushing touchdowns

They also have to replace leading rusher Charles McClelland, who ran for more than 800 yards and seven touchdowns.

They lose almost their entire receiving corps, replacing them with transfers. Of the six players listed in the two-deep, only one played last season for the Bearcats. That was Chris Scott, who caught four passes for 32 yards.

Defensively they have five transfers listed in their two-deep depth chart while replacing leading tackler in Ivan Pace Jr, who was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent. Defensive tackle Dontay Corleone is the player to watch for the Bearcats on defense.

Corleone was named to the preseason All-Big 12 team and is the highest-graded defensive tackle returning for 2023 in the Big 12.

Aside from the highly-regarded defensive tackle, though, Satterfield has his work cut out for him. Their season will depend on how quickly the incoming transfers get up to speed and gel.

This is a game I could see Oklahoma’s defense struggle in. The program, historically, has struggled with mobile quarterbacks, and Jones brings that to the table. It was a major issue in 2022. If the Sooners slow Jones and the quarterback run game down, it could be an encouraging sign that the defense will be improved in 2023.

It will be the Oklahoma Sooners only trip to Cincinnati as a conference opponent, so the Bearcats would love nothing more than to send them back to Norman with a loss.

Score Prediction: 34-20 Oklahoma

Predicted Record: 4-0

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

CBS Sports ranked every coach in the Power Five, how did the Big 12 fair?

How did Brent Venables and the Big 12 fare in CBS Sports ranking of each Power Five coach?

The expansion to 14 teams for the 2023-2024 academic year provides a unique environment for the Big 12 in its final year with Oklahoma and Texas. New teams mean new faces in the coaching ranks.

Over at CBS Sports, they ranked each coach in the Power Five, so we’ve collated where the Big 12 head coaches stack up ahead of the 2023 season.

CBS Sports coach rankings No. 26-69.

CBS Sports coach rankings No. 25-1.

Four Big 12 coaches landed in the top 25, but none made it into the top 10. It’s a pivotal season for several guys. Here’s a look at how the Big 12 coaches faired in CBS Sports Power Five head coach rankings.

The college football bowl game Vin Scully would have eagerly watched this year

We will watch the #FenwayBowl on Saturday and think of Vin Scully, whose iconic career was launched by a college football game played in Fenway Park. #Bearcats #Louisville

The world lost Vin Scully in 2022. As the year comes to an end, we want to keep Vin Scully’s memory alive in any way we reasonably can. This is not a baseball site, but one happy fact about Vin Scully’s broadcasting career is that it was launched by a college football game. Since college football is priority number one here at Trojans Wire, and since a lot of USC football fans care about and appreciate Vin Scully — as Angelenos generally do — it’s certainly worth it to note that Vin, if he was still around, would be watching one bowl game in particular this Saturday.

The first-ever Fenway Bowl was not played last year due to the pandemic. Vin wasn’t able to watch a bowl game played in Fenway Park. This year will launch the event. Cincinnati and Louisville will play at 8 a.m. Los Angeles time on Saturday, beginning a set of seven bowl games on December 17.

Fenway Park was the site of a college football game which propelled Vin’s legendary broadcasting journey.

Here’s the story: A big Notre Dame-North Carolina football game in November of 1949 was supposed to be assigned to one broadcaster, but that broadcaster fell ill. Vin Scully’s mentor, Red Barber, did not yet know Scully at the time. Barber was the sports director for CBS Radio. Barber reassigned Ernie Harwell — who would become the iconic radio announcer for the Detroit Tigers — to the Notre Dame-North Carolina game. He therefore needed someone else to call the game between Boston University and Maryland in Fenway Park.

Here’s Red Barber’s recollection of the story:

“We needed someone to go up to Boston,” Barber told the Los Angeles Times. “I asked Ted Church for the name of that red-haired kid he had brought in. He didn’t know. I asked around, and nobody knew. I remembered he’d said he had attended Fordham, so I called Jack Coffee, the Fordham athletic director. That’s how I got Scully’s name and number.”

Scully braved very harsh and cold conditions on the Fenway Park roof — he was not placed in a warm, heated press box — and did such a great job that Barber took notice. Barber took Scully under his wing and developed him as part of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ broadcast team that next spring, in 1950.

Scully would call Dodger games for the next 67 seasons.

When Barber left after 1953 to call New York Yankee games, Scully — in 1954 — became the Dodgers’ No. 1 play-by-play announcer and would remain in that position for 63 years. Scully and Jerry Doggett were the two principal Dodger radio announcers from 1957 through 1987, joined by Ross Porter in 1977. Doggett retired after the 1987 season. Scully and Porter were joined by Don Drysdale, then by Rick Monday. Porter’s run ended in 2004, with Scully continuing through 2016.

It all started at a college football game in Fenway Park. We’ll definitely watch the Fenway Bowl and think of Vin Scully.

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LSU’s bowl opponent at center of coaching carousel rumors

Jeff Brohm’s Purdue Boilermakers are set to face LSU in the Citrus Bowl, but Brohm’s name is popping up with Louisville.

LSU will face Purdue in Orlando for the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 2, but the man opposite [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] is at the center of silly season.

Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm’s name is once again getting tossed around with Louisville.

Brohm played for Louisville, and it seems his name pops up with this job every year.

It’s resulted in some big raises for Brohm at Purdue, but with the Cardinals’ job officially open as of Monday, when Scott Satterfield left to take the Cincinnati job, Louisville could be ready to make another push for the hometown legend.

You never want to assume anything this time of year, but Louisville could still be in the early stages of its search. Bowl season is always chaotic, but not having Brohm on the sideline in the Citrus Bowl could be a significant hit for the Boilermakers.

Brohm is seen as one of the game’s top offensive minds and always has some tricks up his sleeve against more talented opponents.

Were Brohm suddenly not to be calling plays, it might not be as simple promoting someone to call Brohm’s system and could even knock the spread a few points more in LSU’s favor.

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