Transition Seasons are Hard

 

I feel like I was just writing one of these “don’t panic” pieces about Wes Miller and the basketball program (because I was).  I don’t write about sports very often anymore, but Saturday was one of the most frustrating days as a Bearcat football fan since 2017… so I have a lot to say.  The Bearcats are now 2-4 in the Satterfield era, two years removed from an improbable college football playoff run.  It’s disappointing.  It’s frustrating.  But it shouldn’t be surprising given the roster transition, coaching transition and conference transition. 

Bearcat fans seem to have collective amnesia, completely unable to remember the struggles of past transitions.  In most cases, Year 1 is a terrible year for judging whether your coaching hire will be successful.  That is especially true when you understand the complete talent drain Satterfield walked into at QB, wide receiver, offensive line and in the secondary.  The offense was almost entirely a complete, one year, rebuild… with 10 new starters, most of which were not on the roster last season.  And the results on the field have reflected that situation. 

There is nothing fans love to do more than blame coaches at every sign of trouble.  When things aren’t working it’s always “the play calling” or the “lack of effort” or the “lack of fire” from the staff.  I don’t know whether this staff will be successful long term (it’s too early)… just like I didn’t know whether look Fickell would be successful after his 4-8 first season, or Dantonio after his struggles the first two seasons, or hell, even Tuberville, who managed 9-4 but was playing in the AAC with talent recruited for the Big East… a huge advantage.  What I know, is overreacting in year 1 is really silly, and there are major talent issues on this roster, which is playing the highest level of competition its played since the Big East collapsed. 

 

The story of this season has been a lack of difference makers on offense combined with a middle of the AAC caliber offensive line. 

The dirty little secret of the Luke Fickell era was the offensive line was never particularly good, 2020 was the loan exception, and even then, it really only had one big time player.  It didn’t matter because UC played in the American and the offensive line was middle of the American caliber.  It also didn’t matter because UC had an absurd amount of talent everywhere else on offense.  In 2021 UC had an NFL QB, 3 NFL wide receivers, 2 NFL tight ends, and an NFL running back.  It was more than enough to steamroll even good teams, despite the offensive line issues.  Hell, even last year, UC had 2 NFL wide receivers and 2 NFL tight Ends.  Despite that, the offense finished 73^rd in SP+ adjusted offensive efficiency.  The downgrade at QB, and the loss of a gamebreaker running back just made things significantly more difficult given the offensive line issues. 

When Coach Satterfield was hired none of that remained other than a couple of pieces from a middle of the road AAC offensive line… that now needed to compete in the Big 12.  The offense was cobbled together from the portal with a journeyman 6^th year QB, transfer wide receivers, and some transfer lineman who either played at low level schools or didn’t start for their P5 programs.  There are 10 new starters on that side of the football. 

The staff did an admirable job fielding a semi-competent offense that ranks very similar to last year’s offense, despite last year’s offense having 4 NFL skill guys (something this group is missing).  I don’t like to rip on the guys that chose to be here.  They aren’t bad, there are just no true difference makers among them, and that has made things really difficult for one enormous reasons (and another smaller, but related one).

 

This team can’t seem to make any chunk plays. 

Everything is hard for this offense.  To score, they need to sustain long drives, with a middle of the AAC caliber offensive line.  Until this past week, they managed to sustain those drives but not finish enough with touchdowns.  Going into last week UC led the nation in first downs and were a top 15 team in yards per game.  Despite some major talent liabilities they were moving the ball.

If you are looking for positive signs from this coaching staff in year 1 that is the biggest one.  Last year’s team had similar deficiencies at offensive line and qb.  As a result, last year’s team was pretty terrible at sustaining drives.  However, last year’s team made up for it because it had NFL players at wide receiver and tight end that could turn a few of those 5 yard passes into 40 yard passes and make big chunk plays.  The fact that this year’s offense ranks similar in SP+ despite significantly lesser weapons to me indicates that if the talent can get back to where it needs to be, the offense could be really good in the future. 

Satterfield referenced it last week that the running backs just aren’t the explosive guys that are going to get you those chunk plays.  That’s perhaps even truer of the wide receivers.  It’s a tough combination that requires the offense to be mistake free and nearly perfect in their execution to score points…because they have to sustain long drives over many plays.  I think the wide receivers and running backs are solid players, but they aren’t difference makers that can stretch the field and make the defense respect their ability to make big plays. 

Basically, I think the staff has done a good job of scheming yards with long drives, despite having a mid-tier AAC offensive line and no playmakers.  But without the big plays one mistake and the drives stall without points (or with 3 instead of 7).  That also gets into the other issue which is redzone scoring.  For me the redzone scoring issues come down to two big things.

1.      The offensive line doesn’t move people so when the field condenses and the schemed/manufactured yards go away, we don’t have an answer.

2.      Our skill guys aren’t able to create separation in tight spaces. 

That combination has been the biggest issues I’ve seen all season long.  It’s been true in every game except this past weekend against Iowa State when UC couldn’t move the ball at all.  So let’s talk about that disaster.

 

Iowa State may have just been a really bad matchup for UC (which was compounded by UC’S big mistakes). 

 

The great folks at Bearcatjournal alluded to this even before the game and it played out how some of the fears from the pregame coverage thought.  Iowa State is a borderline elite defense.  The rank 12^th in SP+ adjusted defense, and their secondary in particular is excellent.  When you are going against an elite (or near elite) unit, sometimes talent is the only answer. 

Bearcat fans should be familiar with this.  Sonny Dykes is viewed around the sport as a pretty elite game planner and offensive schemer.  In 2021 and 2022 he had a couple very prolific offenses that even featured some NFL talent at wide receiver.  In 2021, the Bearcat defense held its starting QB to 66 yards on 26 passes, and held SMU scoreless for 3 quarters.  In 2020 the Bearcat defense held them to 13 points.  To some degree I think this is what UC ran into on Saturday.  This was the best defense UC will see all season.  The wide receivers couldn’t get separation and the offensive line couldn’t block them.  TheY dared UC to beat them over the top, or make someone miss in space and UC never could. 

Iowa State on offense is a big play dependent team that struggles sustaining drives.  Of course, the Uc defense has struggled at preventing the Big play all season.  In this case, a few of the big plays came on special teams meltdowns that really hurt, but Iowa State still managed some big down field passes.  And perhaps most frustrating when UC got the stops the needed, theY either committed a penalty (a really weAk Roughing the Passer was a tough one) or allowed a successful Fake fg, or had some other breakdown. 

Saturday was bad.  It was bad in many aspects.  But it also may have been a particularly bad matchup for this team. 

 

Transition Seasons are hard.

That’s what I titled this post initially, but it bears repeating.  And this is not a normal transition year.  Uc is not only navigating a coaching change, it is navigating massive roster turnover (particularly on offense), and a significant increase in competition.  Uc has transitioned coaches many times since I’ve followed Uc football.  let’s look at those.

Minter went 2-8-1 the year after UC went 8-3.

Dantonio went 7-5 with maybe the most talented front seven UC has had on defense (Trent Cole, Andre Frasier, Mike Wright, Tyjaun Hagler all with long NFL careers) and senior year Gino Guidugli. That team lost to an Army team that was on basically a 3 year winless streak at the time. And had the most embarrassing UC loss of my lifetime at Louisville (70-7).  (But the most relatable season to this one might actually be Dantonio year 2, which I’ll explain soon)

Brian Kelly handled the transition best.  I’d argue he easily had the best combination of returning talent and roster stability (and he was our best coach…let’s not kid ourselves).  Dantonio’s last team played a loaded schedule and held up well, despite being relatively young.  Kelly jumped into a program ready to roll.  However, even he lost back to back games to Kragthorp and Weinstandt.

Butch Jones inherited a team that ran the table the prior regular season that had a ton of talent back and managed to guide them to a 4-8 campaign.

Tommy Tuberville had a 9-4 campaign, that in a vacuum looks fine, but he also inherited a great situation from a roster standpoint.  All those players were recruited to play in a BCS conference and now got to play an AAC schedule.  If you’re judging Tommy by year 1 you might have been somewhat encouraged, but it’s another reason we can’t overreact to year 1.

Luke Fickell went 4-8 and was very close to 1-11.  That Miami win in particularly came at the helping of one of the most epic, choke jobs I’ve ever seen. 

Other than Brian Kelly’s first year, I remember many fans being pissed at the coaching in every one of those seasons.  Because that’s all many fans seem to know when things go wrong… blame the coach.  My point isn’t that Satterfield will work out.  My point is it is way too early to make any kind of judgment in that regard.  His success will depend on his ability to bring in and develop talent (like every coach that takes a job).  It is just impossible to have any idea of that in year 1. 

 

The last time we jumped from a middle of the road conference to a power conference year 1 was a lot worse. 

The season that keeps coming back into my head when I watch this team is not actually Dantonio’s first year… it’s his second.  Dantonio’s first year he had a really talented senior class and a ton of roster stability and he had a decent enough season (though a couple huge low points and he probably underachieved relative to that talent).  But year 2 had a lot of similarities to this one in terms of the roster issues and the jump in competition.   That’s because UC lost nearly all its best players that offseason at the same time UC made the jump to the Big East. 

The Bearcats went 4-7 in their inaugural Big East season.  These were their losses:

At Penn State 42-24

At Miami (OH) 44-16 (Yikes!)

At Pitt 38-20

Louisville 46-22

West Virginia 38-0

At South Florida 31-16

At Rutgers 44-9

 

The Bearcats weren’t only losing to everyone in front of them, they were getting destroyed.  I don’t think the roster was in as bad a shape this time around, so things have looked better (even if the record is similar).  I think the front seven on defense has been Big 12 caliber from day 1.  I think the transfer portal allowed Uc to at least have back tier Big 12 type guys at the skill positions and even QB…but Uc has no big 12 level difference makers on offense, has an AAC offensive line, and a secondary that isn’t Big 12 ready.  Uc is struggling with those issues.

And Uc isn’t think only team.  The four teams making the leap from the AAC to the Big 12 have combined for one win over the Big 12 teams that were already in the conference.  That win was courtesy of a Hail Mary for Houston at home against WVU.  All three of those teams are in the middle of extended periods of coaching and roster stability.  They aren’t replacing their entire coaching staff and starting 10 new offensive players, most of which were not on the roster last year.  These kind of jumps almost always come with growing pains (see TCU and Utah back in the day).  When they are combined with huge roster issues and a brand new coaching staff… well use some common sense.

The National Media, Vegas, and the Big 12 media all saw these issues coming.  UC was picked 13^th out of 14 in the Big 12.  Their over/under from vegas was 4.5 wins.  This wasn’t an accident.  The roster issues were evident.  It’s not always coaching when things don’t go your way.  Ultimately, the best coaches are going to struggle when there are major talent deficiencies. 

What level of coach is Satterfield?  I don’t know.  And I wasn’t going to know one way or the other this season.  If they’d struck gold on their secondary and offensive line transfers and this team was 4-2 instead of 2-4, I would have just as little of a clue about what it meant for the long term future of the program.  Transition seasons almost always tell us very little.  Until Satterfield has had time to recruit and develop players over multiple season, we just won’t know. 

But this season was bound to be hard.  Fans can have collective amnesia and pretend that their issues have to be coaching related, but I will remember past transitions…understand that the circumstances of this one are probably the hardest any Uc coach has had to deal with in year 1, and reserve judgment on the future of the program until the coach is given time.