Leon is right...great piece. It promises to be a fun ride under Saul...

"At JerryWorld, during the Wisconsin game, the Ohio athletic director showed him the contract.

“What do you think?” the (Ohio) athletic director said.

“Get me a pen,” Saul said, then signed it right there, on a disabled beer tap near one of the end zones."




Perfect. He's going to love Halloween

The language might have been different, but Gentleman Jim was very friendly to strangers in all kinds of circumstances. I could also see Groce doing something like this. However, I agree with your basic premise. There is something very unique about Saul's personality. He's much more gregarious -- and even slapstick -- than Snyder and somewhat more gregarious than Groce. I think both Snyder and Groce were basically introverts who learned how to be more extroverted, but that Saul is naturally an extrovert. (Pop psychology lesson now over.)
One of my first thoughts, though, upon meeting Saul right after he was hired was that he has the same type of charisma that Snyder had and I immediately thought that this would bode well for recruiting. So far that seems to be panning out. It was often said about Snyder that he could sell refrigerators to Eskimos. Saul could probably charm a bird out of a tree, or sell coals in Newcastle. ;-)

It's impossible not to love the guy and his emotion and enthusiasm, but I wonder how long his honeymoon will last if the team starts slow and/or has a disappointing season. The amount of excitement for this season seems disproportionate to the on-paper potential of the team. We have some great players and some major question marks.

Both O'Shea and Groce would say hi whenever they passed by.

I would counter that your excitement for this season is disproportionately low considering the on-paper potential of this team.

Maurice Ndour is a potential SUPERSTAR. We have the always important combo of a dominant post player and a proven (senior) point guard in Stevie Taylor. In addition to those two, we have three players in Campbell, Bean and Setty who have proven they can give OHIO good minutes. Beyond just 'good' minutes, I think each of those guys have flashed moments of greatness. If just one of those three can take their game to the next level, we are going to be an exceptionally dangerous team.

You mention "some major question marks" but I believe it is just one major question mark. Depth. We do not have ANYONE proven after the five players I mentioned above. That IS scary. With that said, I think it is incredibly unlikely that we don't have players capable of providing quality minutes in our roster of unproven talent. While some my call this "blind faith" I think the more accurate outlook is "faith in Phillips and Christian to recruit talent." I absolutely believe that somewhere on our bench, we have guys ready to play this year. One great thing about Saul Phillips is that he seems like a coach who can help a guy realize his talent.

We have the potential to be a very good team this year.

I couldn't agree more with this statement. Ndour's ceiling is high, no doubt. I'm hoping the game slows down a little for him this year. I thought last year he got a little quick at times, moving his feet (and eyes) before he caught the ball, as a result he either lost the ball or it slipped out of his hand and he ended up out of position.

That being said, I'm really glad Ndour is OUr team! :)

I don't mean to pick on you OCF, but it is time. Time to end this bizarre trend of randomly inserting an apostrophe into his weirdly spelled to us Americans but actual and real last name.

Let's get it right for his senior season...we owe it to him. I ask you to join me in my vow to help kill the random apostrophe.

Holy crap, I never noticed it on his jersey. Is it still there? I am humbled and ashamed, perhaps I was judging people for being wrong, when in fact I was the wrong one all along?!

It may be a situation where it is truly just Ndour back home, and that spelling/pronunciation is not abnormal in Senegal...but the apostrophe is added in America to help the name fit into the English language? Was the apostrophe on his Senegal jersey? What about his Monroe CC jersey?

I'm not above just tweeting him and asking for a definitive conclusion.

Monroe listed him as N'Dour. His Twitter account features no apostrophies.

Phew, my stance is correct (and apparently whoever puts the names on the uniforms is wrong?):

@AndrewRuck23 Ndour...Thank you— Underated NoiseMaker (@TooHotFiDem) October 23, 2014

OK, It'll be Ndour from now on. I was doing what I thought was right but it was wrong, so I'll mend my ways.