By Bill Koch
These days when a college coach is fired the school will make the announcement in a news release. The athletic director may or may not make himself available for additional comment.
But back in 2003, when then-UC athletic director Bob Goin fired Rick Minter as the Bearcats’ football coach, the announcement was made at a Dec. 1 press conference, and Goin was there to take questions from reporters. So was Minter.
“I wasn’t given a lot of reasons why,” Minter said at that press conference, sitting on the same platform with Goin in Fifth Third Arena, “except this is what we’re going to do. I have to respect that. Mr. Goin has been good to me. The university has been good to me.”
Minter had just completed his 10th season at UC, finishing with a record of 53-63-1, which makes him both the winningest and losingest football coach in the school’s history. His teams went 1-3 in bowl appearances. He was looking forward to the Bearcats’ move from Conference USA into the Big East Conference, one of six leagues that were part of the Bowl Championship Series that provided direct access to the national championship game.
He had fought the good fight at UC, handicapped by membership in a mid-major league and an outdated stadium. He didn’t have a practice field or an indoor bubble like the Bearcats have now, and UC received very little in the way of fan support. Now he would be denied the chance to see what he could do in a higher-profile league that would have given him more to sell to recruits.
“We’ve had 10 years and we’re 10 games below .500,” Goin said in explaining why he made the move. “But it’s also, has the building block leveled off and is it time to go a step higher? I became convinced at the conclusion of the season that this was the right thing to do. It came to a point where, when I watched our performance, it’s not the games we lost as much as some of the games we won. We did some hard struggling with some people. It’s an evaluation over the six years that I’ve been here. It’s an accumulation of whether we’re going to make a big jump or not. We had a great start this year and didn’t build on it.”
The Bearcats began the season with three straight wins over East Carolina, West Virginia, and Temple, but lost five of their last seven games to finish 5-7 overall, 2-6 in C-USA. Minter, who was replaced by Mark Dantonio, was terribly disappointed by Goin’s decision, but he left with class and with his head held high. He never got the chance to be a head coach again, but he’s done plenty of coaching.
Since he left UC, Minter has coached at South Carolina, Notre Dame, South Carolina State, Marshall, Indiana State, Kentucky, the NFL Philadelphia Eagles, Georgia State, Florida Tech, the Birmingham Iron in the Alliance of American Football and the St. Louis Battlehawks in the XFL. He also spent a brief time as a defensive analyst at Southern Miss before the pandemic hit last year. He’s 66 now, living in Melbourne, Fla., and currently not on a coaching staff.
But it’s not because he doesn’t want to be. “I’m a guy who for my entire life has worked,” he said.
Nearly 18 years since he was fired at UC, he still wishes he could have had the chance to coach the Bearcats in the Big East. He looks at the UC program now and sees what he envisioned when he was there.
“What turned out at Cincinnati is what we always hoped would turn out,” he said.
But again he says it with no apparent bitterness.
“Dantonio was on track to do good things there when he got the Michigan State job,” he said. “Brian Kelly inherited a pretty good roster and took it to another level. BK is one of the top five coaches in the whole country.”
Under Kelly, the Bearcats rose to become a Top 10 program, played in the Orange Bowl in 2008 and the Sugar Bowl in 2009 when they narrowly missed a chance to play for the national championship.
“I’m disappointed that I got let go,” Minter said, “particularly with that ‘04 team coming on, the Big East on the horizon, and everything that’s taken place there. To say that they made a bad decision with me, no they didn’t, because look what came after and look what is still there today.”
The program slipped after Kelly left for Notre Dame following the 2009 season, but under Luke Fickell the Bearcats, now members of the American Athletic Conference and playing in a renovated Nippert Stadium, are once again a Top 10 program with aspirations this season to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
Minter has watched it all from afar and cheered the Bearcats as they’ve climbed the ladder.
“I’m great friends with Luke,” he said. “They’re doing a tremendous job. That job now is at the top of the line. They need somebody to take them into a Power Five conference or better yet make the American a Power Six conference. I think they deserve that status. That would be the better answer.
“They hired the right guy in Luke Fickell. He’s kind of a Dantonio, Rick Minter type guy - defensive-minded guys, tough, hard-nosed and physical. That’s Luke’s background.”
Minter said the Bearcats’ non-league schedule, which includes road games at Indians and Notre Dame, sets UC up for a shot at the playoffs this fall if they take care of business on the field.
“If they beat IU and beat Notre Dame, and either are possible, they could not deny those guys this year," Minter said. "The difference is that this year they’ll probably start in the top 10 so they don’t have to climb that far.
“They’ve got probably a top five quarterback in the country (in Desmond Ridder). He’s going to possibly be a first rounder (in the NFL draft). They’ve got all the tools in the making to make a run at it. Stranger things have happened.”
Minter said he has no regrets about the time he spent at UC.
“We did a great job there and we set the stage for what did follow,” he said. “I just would have loved to be the engineer of that. But I take pride in positioning the program to be desirable for the Big East. It’s a great place. I wish them nothing but the best. I’m a very avid follower of the Bearcats.”
These days when a college coach is fired the school will make the announcement in a news release. The athletic director may or may not make himself available for additional comment.
But back in 2003, when then-UC athletic director Bob Goin fired Rick Minter as the Bearcats’ football coach, the announcement was made at a Dec. 1 press conference, and Goin was there to take questions from reporters. So was Minter.
“I wasn’t given a lot of reasons why,” Minter said at that press conference, sitting on the same platform with Goin in Fifth Third Arena, “except this is what we’re going to do. I have to respect that. Mr. Goin has been good to me. The university has been good to me.”
Minter had just completed his 10th season at UC, finishing with a record of 53-63-1, which makes him both the winningest and losingest football coach in the school’s history. His teams went 1-3 in bowl appearances. He was looking forward to the Bearcats’ move from Conference USA into the Big East Conference, one of six leagues that were part of the Bowl Championship Series that provided direct access to the national championship game.
He had fought the good fight at UC, handicapped by membership in a mid-major league and an outdated stadium. He didn’t have a practice field or an indoor bubble like the Bearcats have now, and UC received very little in the way of fan support. Now he would be denied the chance to see what he could do in a higher-profile league that would have given him more to sell to recruits.
“We’ve had 10 years and we’re 10 games below .500,” Goin said in explaining why he made the move. “But it’s also, has the building block leveled off and is it time to go a step higher? I became convinced at the conclusion of the season that this was the right thing to do. It came to a point where, when I watched our performance, it’s not the games we lost as much as some of the games we won. We did some hard struggling with some people. It’s an evaluation over the six years that I’ve been here. It’s an accumulation of whether we’re going to make a big jump or not. We had a great start this year and didn’t build on it.”
The Bearcats began the season with three straight wins over East Carolina, West Virginia, and Temple, but lost five of their last seven games to finish 5-7 overall, 2-6 in C-USA. Minter, who was replaced by Mark Dantonio, was terribly disappointed by Goin’s decision, but he left with class and with his head held high. He never got the chance to be a head coach again, but he’s done plenty of coaching.
Since he left UC, Minter has coached at South Carolina, Notre Dame, South Carolina State, Marshall, Indiana State, Kentucky, the NFL Philadelphia Eagles, Georgia State, Florida Tech, the Birmingham Iron in the Alliance of American Football and the St. Louis Battlehawks in the XFL. He also spent a brief time as a defensive analyst at Southern Miss before the pandemic hit last year. He’s 66 now, living in Melbourne, Fla., and currently not on a coaching staff.
But it’s not because he doesn’t want to be. “I’m a guy who for my entire life has worked,” he said.
Nearly 18 years since he was fired at UC, he still wishes he could have had the chance to coach the Bearcats in the Big East. He looks at the UC program now and sees what he envisioned when he was there.
“What turned out at Cincinnati is what we always hoped would turn out,” he said.
But again he says it with no apparent bitterness.
“Dantonio was on track to do good things there when he got the Michigan State job,” he said. “Brian Kelly inherited a pretty good roster and took it to another level. BK is one of the top five coaches in the whole country.”
Under Kelly, the Bearcats rose to become a Top 10 program, played in the Orange Bowl in 2008 and the Sugar Bowl in 2009 when they narrowly missed a chance to play for the national championship.
“I’m disappointed that I got let go,” Minter said, “particularly with that ‘04 team coming on, the Big East on the horizon, and everything that’s taken place there. To say that they made a bad decision with me, no they didn’t, because look what came after and look what is still there today.”
The program slipped after Kelly left for Notre Dame following the 2009 season, but under Luke Fickell the Bearcats, now members of the American Athletic Conference and playing in a renovated Nippert Stadium, are once again a Top 10 program with aspirations this season to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
Minter has watched it all from afar and cheered the Bearcats as they’ve climbed the ladder.
“I’m great friends with Luke,” he said. “They’re doing a tremendous job. That job now is at the top of the line. They need somebody to take them into a Power Five conference or better yet make the American a Power Six conference. I think they deserve that status. That would be the better answer.
“They hired the right guy in Luke Fickell. He’s kind of a Dantonio, Rick Minter type guy - defensive-minded guys, tough, hard-nosed and physical. That’s Luke’s background.”
Minter said the Bearcats’ non-league schedule, which includes road games at Indians and Notre Dame, sets UC up for a shot at the playoffs this fall if they take care of business on the field.
“If they beat IU and beat Notre Dame, and either are possible, they could not deny those guys this year," Minter said. "The difference is that this year they’ll probably start in the top 10 so they don’t have to climb that far.
“They’ve got probably a top five quarterback in the country (in Desmond Ridder). He’s going to possibly be a first rounder (in the NFL draft). They’ve got all the tools in the making to make a run at it. Stranger things have happened.”
Minter said he has no regrets about the time he spent at UC.
“We did a great job there and we set the stage for what did follow,” he said. “I just would have loved to be the engineer of that. But I take pride in positioning the program to be desirable for the Big East. It’s a great place. I wish them nothing but the best. I’m a very avid follower of the Bearcats.”
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