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Ohio Football Topic
Topic: RIP Coach Brian Burke
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BryanHall
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Posted: 9/23/2025 2:21 PM
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A reliable Facebook group is reporting the death of former coach Brian Burke. He took over a team that had won 4 games in the previous 2 years and went 31-34-1 over the next 6 years. He was 26-26-1 in the conference. He was fired, and the team then went on to win 17 games over the next 10 years. He was a good coach who got a raw deal.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/170151896340394 /
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 9/23/2025 2:43 PM
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I agree that Brian Burke got a raw deal. Admittedly, it's easier to recognize in hindsight, but he was by far the best coach we had in that period of time until we hired Jim Grobe. Sad to hear of his passing.
TWT
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Posted: 9/23/2025 4:55 PM
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University gave him nothing to work with facility wise plus program transitioning to Division 1-A in the early 1980's. They might as well kept him a few more years.
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 9/23/2025 8:22 PM
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TWT wrote:expand_more
University gave him nothing to work with facility wise plus program transitioning to Division 1-A in the early 1980's. They might as well kept him a few more years.
The history: In 1961, the year after winning the College Division National championship, OHIO transitioned to the University Division. We had been placed in the College Division when the NCAA created those two divisions in 1957. So, we were in the College Division for about four years. There was also a year later on when we were reclassified downward for one year due to some technical issue, the details of which I don't recall.
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 9/24/2025 12:00 PM
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TWT wrote:expand_more
University gave him nothing to work with facility wise plus program transitioning to Division 1-A in the early 1980's. They might as well kept him a few more years.
OHIO was already D 1-a or whatever you want to call it in your world in the 1980’s
TWT
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Posted: 9/24/2025 4:44 PM
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OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
University gave him nothing to work with facility wise plus program transitioning to Division 1-A in the early 1980's. They might as well kept him a few more years.
The history: In 1961, the year after winning the College Division National championship, OHIO transitioned to the University Division. We had been placed in the College Division when the NCAA created those two divisions in 1957. So, we were in the College Division for about four years. There was also a year later on when we were reclassified downward for one year due to some technical issue, the details of which I don't recall.
The Division 1-A desgination came with new scholarship reductions and placement in an exclusive group of 105 programs. Before the MAC in football was more like basketball another mid major conference competing mainly against the mid-majors. In the year the MAC outside of Toledo and CMU moved down to 1AA for 1982 was in the middle of Burke's tenure. The evolution of recruiting in a changing environment then I would say parallels the evolution happening right now around NIL and revenue sharing. My opinion but I like keeping a coach in place during a fluid landscape a little longer until things settle down.
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 9/25/2025 10:53 AM
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TWT wrote:expand_more
University gave him nothing to work with facility wise plus program transitioning to Division 1-A in the early 1980's. They might as well kept him a few more years.
The history: In 1961, the year after winning the College Division National championship, OHIO transitioned to the University Division. We had been placed in the College Division when the NCAA created those two divisions in 1957. So, we were in the College Division for about four years. There was also a year later on when we were reclassified downward for one year due to some technical issue, the details of which I don't recall.
The Division 1-A desgination came with new scholarship reductions and placement in an exclusive group of 105 programs. Before the MAC in football was more like basketball another mid major conference competing mainly against the mid-majors. In the year the MAC outside of Toledo and CMU moved down to 1AA for 1982 was in the middle of Burke's tenure. The evolution of recruiting in a changing environment then I would say parallels the evolution happening right now around NIL and revenue sharing. My opinion but I like keeping a coach in place during a fluid landscape a little longer until things settle down.
OK, with this definition, Ohio State transitioned to 1A in 1978 also as that's the year that Division 1 was broken down into D1-A (now FBS) and D1-AA (now FCS) classifications. Seems a confusing way to state it, IMHO.
bobcat 2000
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Posted: 9/27/2025 4:17 PM
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they definetly shouldve kept him for more years. we ended up with cleve bryant as coach and started a bad streak where we had many seasons with only 1-3 wins. its true that prior to grobe and solich we were a losing team. the only good thing about this is we had a paw for a mascot which i thought was way cool.
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