good hire. Moala and Jackson should come back..

KABOOM!

Art Kaufman is the DC hire that Sonny made.The Kaufman hire gives me hope for the defensive side of the ball. It is absolutely an upgrade over Buh. I'm interested to see who will fill the rest of the defensive coaching positions. Sonny has to be feeling a little better about going into next season with this hire. Experience and success trumps inexperience and youth.

KABOOM!

:gobears:

BearNIt;842268128 said:

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KABOOM!

Art Kaufman is the DC hire that Sonny made.The Kaufman hire gives me hope for the defensive side of the ball. It is absolutely an upgrade over Buh. I'm interested to see who will fill the rest of the defensive coaching positions. Sonny has to be feeling a little better about going into next season with this hire. Experience and success trumps inexperience and youth.

KABOOM!

:gobears:

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I'd like to see Kaufman hire position coaches who are good recruiters and have recruiting connections in California/Hawaii/Texas.

BearNIt;842268128 said:

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KABOOM!

Art Kaufman is the DC hire that Sonny made.The Kaufman hire gives me hope for the defensive side of the ball. It is absolutely an upgrade over Buh. I'm interested to see who will fill the rest of the defensive coaching positions. Sonny has to be feeling a little better about going into next season with this hire. Experience and success trumps inexperience and youth.

KABOOM!

:gobears:

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its kabam! not kaboom

4 schools in 4 years - this article paints a different picture of what just happened here ...

http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2014-articles/january/tuberville-shakes-up-coaching-staff-fires-defensive-coordinator.html

bearblast;842268146 said:

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4 schools in 4 years - this article paints a different picture of what just happened here ...

http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2014-articles/january/tuberville-shakes-up-coaching-staff-fires-defensive-coordinator.html

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Interesting

bearblast;842268146 said:

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4 schools in 4 years - this article paints a different picture of what just happened here ...

http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2014-articles/january/tuberville-shakes-up-coaching-staff-fires-defensive-coordinator.html

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That is interesting. So the turn-arounds he produced are a bit hyped it seems. Still given Cal was at the very bottom on D, getting to #50 would be a huge improvement. At least Cal would be moving in the right direction. My guess is he'll be at Cal for a couple of years and move on, either by choice or if this staff gets the shaft in a year or so.

bluehenbear;842268115 said:

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We will see if we are like Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of **** and came out clean on the other side or like Brooks...

Maybe he knew he was done, but the article announcing his contract wasn't being renewed...... is Jan. 4.

Today is Jan 22 and there was some talk on BI that he was hired last Thurs. /Fri.
That is two weeks!!!

Cal moved quickly imho.

As long as those 26 points don't come in the 1st quarter alone..

The fact he held teams under 26 means we should all be excited...

We have and can get much better talent than Cincinnati.

I'm not buying the 'recruit the midwest' line. Everyone recruits Texas. It is easier to build new recruiting ties to a region than hire a great coach. Something smells here.

That said, this is a good hire on its face for all the same reasons the Buh hire was a horrible hire on its face. We'll have to wait to see how it turns out, but at least the hire was good.

tequila4kapp;842268175 said:

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I'm not buying the 'recruit the midwest' line. Everyone recruits Texas. It is easier to build new recruiting ties to a region than hire a great coach. Something smells here.

That said, this is a good hire on its face for all the same reasons the Buh hire was a horrible hire on its face. We'll have to wait to see how it turns out, but at least the hire was good.

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Yes, the hire was good. Some aren't so sure but beggars can't be too chosey. Considering where we are, the hire is probably outstanding. Now if we can ever get back to where we were in the initial Tedford years, we can attract more talent....in fact, I think we're doing fairly well recruiting wise considering the clusterphuck season we had.

FrankBear21;842268171 said:

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We have and can get much better talent than Cincinnati.

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That may be true, though academic restrictions can work against that, and we also play against better teams than Cincinnati does.

2013 Sagarin Ratings

California strength of schedule #4
Cincinnati strength of schedule #111

Either way, welcome AK. Guardedly optimistic.

bearblast;842268146 said:

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4 schools in 4 years - this article paints a different picture of what just happened here ...

http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2014-articles/january/tuberville-shakes-up-coaching-staff-fires-defensive-coordinator.html

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In those 3 years (we would be his 4th) he never had a worse Def than 38th or something like that. As for the other parts of the article...

He dominated bad teams... So what we didn't dominate one team so it could be much worse.

Scheelhaase threw for a million yards... This is true probably their worse Def game of the year, but still only Scheelhaase's 4th highest passing totals and it was only the second game of the year.

They held Louisville below their points average and yardage average despite going to OT

every time they gave up over 26 points they lost... They lost 4 times last year meaning they held their opponents to 25 or under 9 times including a 9, 7, and 0 points given up! Our lowest total given up was 30, 33, and 37 our only games where we gave up under 40. The bearcats gave up over 40 points once.. 47 lower than our average per game right?

Lets look at those 3 games they lost giving up 26+... USF they allowed 241 yards of offense and two of the scores were a blocked FG for a TD and a fumble for a TD along with 4 FGs.... Louisville 24 regulation points to the #1 NFL draft pick... Illinois in the second game of the season with a new coach and they did have their worst Def performance... Against North Carolina in their bowl game they gave up 39 points, but 15 points game off a Safety, Kick return TD, and Punt return TD not to mention 3 came off a fumble in FG range that they didn't move the ball.

He was very good last year and you can't deny that.

aceman;842268095 said:

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question.....how much are we paying buh as LB coach? still the same as before? then how are we paying kaufman?

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I think we're still paying Buh the same amount, but we're probably losing a DL coach (we had 2, will probably just have 1 now), which is about $200K, and we're getting $150/year from Tedford's NFL deal. Plus there's Kabam money. Plus even if we end up losing a little cash over the next year or two, we need to make this investment in our football program for the long term. Sticking with Buh just for the money would be penny wise and pound foolish.

sixtiesbear1;842268035 said:

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Willing to eat a little crow. I like this hire.

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agree.. Kaufman looks to be as good as we could hope for.

bear7707;842268183 said:

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agree.. Kaufman looks to be as good as we could hope for.

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As the song says "love the one you're with".

If his only success was at Cinci these arguments about weak schedule would be more concerning, but he's got a pretty long track record to lean on.

FrankBear21;842268171 said:

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We have and can get much better talent than Cincinnati.

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I hope so cause I think we play against stronger competition.

tequila4kapp;842268187 said:

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If his only success was at Cinci these arguments about weak schedule would be more concerning, but he's got a pretty long track record to lean on.

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Yeah Kaufman seems like a good hire and seems to have the pedigree, though collectively, the Pac-12 will probably represent the toughest opposition he will have faced as a DC. But that would be true for most of our potential hires. For kicks:

Sagarin 2012:
Kaufman@Texas Tech SOS #36
California SOS #10

Sagarin 2011:
Kaufman@North Carolina SOS #51
California SOS #29

(and from above)
Sagarin 2013:
Kaufman@Cincinnati SOS #111
California SOS #4

bearblast;842268146 said:

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4 schools in 4 years - this article paints a different picture of what just happened here ...

http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2014-articles/january/tuberville-shakes-up-coaching-staff-fires-defensive-coordinator.html

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After reading the notice from University of Cincinnatti, my guess is that Kaufman had a soft spot in his heart for Cal, now he does not have to get rid of all his shirts that were monagramed with the Cincinnati logo: "[SIZE="5"]UC[/SIZE]"

RollOn;842268060 said:

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This looks like an excellent hire. Really like the fact that he's been able to come in and turn around poor defenses in the past and is familiar with the pairing of a fast paced offense. I believe with the players that we will have back from injury, and his coaching ability that we will see a HUGE improvement on that side of the ball.

One thing that I didn't see mentioned - is he traditionally a 3-4 or 4-3 guy?

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He is a 4-3 guy

Cal was a sieve last season, giving up 44.5 ppg. I'll take a twenty point reduction here from new DC Art Kaufmann. GO BEARS!


_______________________________________________________________

bearblast;842268146 said:

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4 schools in 4 years - this article paints a different picture of what just happened here ...

http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2014-articles/january/tuberville-shakes-up-coaching-staff-fires-defensive-coordinator.html

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Schroeder71;842268203 said:

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Cal was a sieve last season, giving up 44.5 ppg. I'll take a twenty point reduction here from new DC Art Kaufmann. GO BEARS!


_______________________________________________________________

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Exactly. At least we should still be in the game in the first quarter with Art.

I like the hire. He seems to have experience and good/great results with wringing the most out of slim pickings which is where I think the Cal defense sits right now. So as far as a fit goes, I think this is a good choice as we stand today to help get the D moving in the right direction.

I'm happy too that I think I was wrong about my belief that we'd end up with a young up and comer with nothing to lose. Happy to be proven wrong, and that the program was able to attract more than a few possible names for the position.

The whole fire Buh/hire somebody process was really kind of odd all in all, and watching the last few months it's hard to come away feeling anything other than a sense that Dykes is still a bit lost, but we seem to be seeing glimmers of progress here and there. Still hoping SD is able to turn things around and turn the program into something. Lol, all that first year pain has to pay off somewhere in the future right? right??

Like Grizzledbear, I'm intrigued that they went for someone with more experience as opposed to an up-and-comer. Art's strengths do seem like a good fit for Cal's needs, so "good job" to the Cal folks who did this.

You never know. But maybe the opportunity to help grow a program might appeal to him at this point in his career. And right about now, Northern California has to be looking pretty good from Cincinnati, at least in terms of weather (no knock on Cincinnati otherwise intended). And looking at where he's worked this looks like his first gig on the west coast. Hmm.

Welcome Coach Kaufman and family! I hope you can get settled in and enjoy what Nor Cal has to offer. This fan base is starved for success and will be rooting for you to succeed.

Best,

Ktownbear83

bearblast;842268146 said:

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this article paints a different picture of what just happened here ...

http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2014-articles/january/tuberville-shakes-up-coaching-staff-fires-defensive-coordinator.html

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If there is a weakness, it might be pass D. Hiring Akina would go a long way to shore that up, both in terms of development and recruiting. Otherwise, a solid hire!

gobears725;842268138 said:

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its kabam! not kaboom

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Yes, I know it's kabam, but KABOOM, we have a DC with experience!:p

Anyone with knowledge know if the incoming DB coach is already signed and coming? Or are they really still searching?