May 26th Jump Off

Bearcat News

Ceremony brings out Gilyard's FPC pride - High School Sports
Great story about Mardy's return to his former high school, where his #7 jersey was retired.

Shumate heads to Murray State
Director of Student-Athlete Development Chris Shumate has left UC to begin an assistant coaching position at Murray State. The Bearcats are going to miss Shumate more than most people think. Good luck to him!

Grading the Big East New Hires - Butch Jones - Big East Coast Bias
Pat over at Big East Coast Bias grades Cincinnati's hiring of Butch Jones. While I don't disagree with the grade Pat gives, I do disagree with what he is grading. Like recruiting classes, coaching hires shouldn't be graded until at least 3 years into the job. Giving Cincinnati a C- for hiring Coach Jones after only his first season seems a bit presumptuous. Instead, I would have given the performance of Coach Jones and the Bearcats in 2010 a C- and graded his actual hiring as TBD.

Scout.com: 2011 Rutgers Preview
Another preview of a Bearcat opponent. Scout previous Rutgers' 2011 season. I think Rutgers will be a better team in 2011 but I don't know if I can trust Frank Cignetti's offense, which wasn't exactly barn burning at Pitt.

Recruiting

OSU NFTC: Offensive standouts
Lots of love for UC commit Deionte Buckley out of Warren Central. There's that school again! Gotta love the inroads UC has made there. Anyways, he appeared to be the most complete back at the camp.

Ohio State Nike Camp Top Performers: Defense - CBSSports.com
CBS ranks the top 3 players at each position at the Nike Camp at O$U. UC safety commit Marcus Foster ranked 3rd among DBs. Coach Jones and Coombs were smart to get in on this kid early because his recruitment is likely to explode throughout his senior year.

Around the BEast

UConn coach Jim Calhoun predicts Big East split, says UCF isn’t `sexy’ expansion candidate – Knights Notepad – Orlando Sentinel
A Big East candidate doesn't necessarily have to make a splash. They only have to add some kind of defined value to the conference that warrants them getting an extra slice of the Big East pie. If TV markets and media deals weren't a factor, I'd take ECU in a heartbeat: Rabid fanbase (even more so than WVU), they recently expanded their stadium to 50k and are looking to add another 7k seats, solid football program, long football history, and they are in the dead center of the ACC country.

Army, Navy might hold key to Big East football expansion - NCAA Football - CBSSports.com
Not only is preparing for the triple-option a bitch, but the first thing I think of when someone says Army or Navy is 'chop block'. So yea, not going for it.

WVU looking into alleged incident at track  - Sports - Charleston Daily Mail - West Virginia News and Sports -
Making Holgorsen-Huggs jokes is just too easy. Still though, not exactly the kind of press you want before your first season at the school.

2011 Women’s NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Regional Preview > The BIG EAST Conference > News
Cincinnati has a good chance of taking some victories in these events. The only question that remains is if they can live up to the hype I've just placed on them.

Around the Nation

Mike Slive's Oversigning Proposals Revealed - Team Speed Kills
A review of what is purported to be Mike Slive's proposed regulations on oversigning and roster management.
Oversigning is a hot issue when it comes to the SEC and Team Speed Kills graciously indulged us on SEC commissioner Mike Slive's proposals. I think one thing is abundantly clear- Not matter what decisions they make, they are definitely in the right direction. I mean, come on. How can signing classes like this and this possibly be legal?