I'm liking me some JC so far.  Love the winning team - losing team reference with his wife in the stands and the nice comments about the administration. 

I lost track of time answering emails and I just started watching. What have I missed?

It's kinda tough to hear the questions being asked, but gauging by his answers he's looking at this as a great opportunity. I've got a feeling this guy is going to be here for a while and keep this program at a high level. Also sounds like his wife had a lot of influence on his decision.

Said he met with team today and he's not going to "reinvent the wheel." He likes the staples of the program that are in place, just the terminilogy may be a little different.

Also, he's really committed to making regular season titles something that should happen.

So... are we ALL IN?

I am.

Elton was probably gritting his teeth so hard he was physically incapable of asking a question.

1)  I'm just not some guy.  I'm the reigning BobcatAttack Bracket Pool Champion!  That has to carry some weight around here, right?  (It better not actually - it was a complete shot in the dark)

2)  Dr. Hays can speak his mind.  Absolutely.  And I can speak mine and tell you I think his opinion is flat wrong.  If he would like evidence to back up my opinion, he is more than welcome to join myself and ~25,000 others on October 13th, 2012 in Peden Stadium.  Most of them will probably agree with me that atheltics definitively enhances the college experience.  Had he been in Nashville or St. Louis in the last few weeks, he could have met others that do not share his opinion as well.  No need to argue, as this thread is not the venue.


JC killed it.  I really didn't expect much less.  Looking forward to seeing how he fills out his staff, and if he locks down the current players and recruits.  I'm excited.

Looks like a keeper.  Handled himself very well in the presser.  My internet connection was bad .... very jumpy.  I probably should have checked out the exact location of the event a little earlier and gone in person.   I think he's going to do very well at OHIO, and I doubt we'll lose a single player.   Recruiting should be interesting.  How many open scholarships do we have?  We get that lost one back, right?

We have the scholarship for Caris Levert, who I really want to keep. We have the Gouard scholarship now and the one from the APR loss. So Levert +2?


Edit: i forgot Green, so make it 1?

Correct. One available scholarship for this coming season.

This will be an interesting next few weeks.  Task 1:  Assembling staff.  Very important, but  I don't think it'll be that difficult.  This is now the premier program in the MAC, JC should have pick of many applicants. 

Task 2:  Acquainting with and evaluating current players.  This is where things will become interesting.  Despite his statement indicating "no need to reinvent the wheel,"  a change or two in the current roster would not be surprising and is perhaps inevitable.  There probably will be a player or two who is uncomfortable with the new coach and his staff.  The flip side of that coin is that the new staff has nothing invested in any of the current players.   If the staff doesn't like what it sees...

Personally, I think the one player to watch here is Ethan Jacobs.  I can recall when he was first recruited that someone posted a comment on this board assuring everyone that Jacobs was not a project.  Unfortunately, that's exactly what he turned out to be, and after 2 years, still a project with no end in sight.  Does the new staff see a player that has even the potential to get off the bench in the next 2 years?  Or a player that can do little other than fill out the second 5 during practice?  Again, JC and co. have absolutely nothing invested in this kid.  What they do have is only a single scholarship available for next year.

I don't think that JC would yank his scholarship.  But it would not be a surprise that--if he doesn't see real potential--JC has a facts-of-life meeting with Jacobs and his family in which his position on the team is made clear and other options are suggested.  

To a far lesser extent, Cooper bears watching.   He was pretty much allowed to do anything he wanted on offense.  What happens when JC "suggests" he might want to do a better job with shot selection.  I think they are both mature enough to work it through, but one never knows.  

We have hired a tough, hard-nosed coach and are paying him A LOT of money to be successful.  I've observed this program for over 40 years and this is perhaps the most serious the administration and the athletic department have been about "taking it to the next level."   And as far as JC is concerned, he knows he MUST succeed here.  If he doesn't, I doubt he'd get another D-1 job, even at Bryant.

If everyone is committed to making Ohio University a mid major power, there may be some steps taken that perhaps wouldn't have been considered in the past, and might be uncomfortable for those who like the status quo.  It certainly will be interesting... 

Couldn't agree more! The more exposure the sports programs get (i.e. tournament games, televised games, etc) brings in more recruiting, and more recruiting means more exposure. Exposure is essentially FREE advertising.

Ohio had met the 2011-2012 enrollment quota by January of this year (for the 2012-2013 school year), and enrollment keeps going up. The more students, the more tuition. The more tuition, the more money for academics. It's basic trickle-down economics, only in sports-academia.

Also, being in Nashville myself, I can vouch for the fact that there were more Bobcats in attendance than any other school. Also, my boss (who is also an OU alum) went to Saint Louis and said (besides Kansas, who bought most of the "general admission" tickets) that Ohio had the highest attendance. Far more than UNC or NC State.

I think it's safe to say that Athletics is ENHANCING OUr school, not hindering it.

It seemed to be a healthy mix of students, former players (including Devaughn Washington), parents and alum. A lot of the alum I met at the Bobcat Bash, pre-game, had moved away from Ohio and were excited at the possibility to see the Bobcats play again near them.

I am fortunate enough to have only left Ohio in November of last year, so them coming down here was like a late Christmas present to me.