Cincinnati Bearcats Reportedly Hiring Alum Jerrod Calhoun As New Head Coach To Replace Wes Miller
CINCINNATI — The Bearcats got their guy.
Austin Malutic reports that Utah State Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun is headed east and taking the head coaching position at his alma mater. Multiple reports also expect him to have an NIL budget around $10 million for the 2026-27 roster to start jolting this program back into the NCAA Tournament right away.
On top of the hiring, Malutic reports Calhoun is bringing longtime Chief of Staff Paul Molinari with him to Cincinnati. Expect multiple Utah State players to come with the coaching exodus as well.
It’s a whole new look for Cincinnati Bearcats basketball.
Alum Coming Home
Calhoun graduated from UC in 2004 and was part of multiple Bob Huggins staffs at Cincinnati and West Virginia before rising to a head coaching role last decade with Youngstown State.
He previously spent seven seasons at Youngstown State before the past two with Utah State, compiling a 118-106 record in Ohio, and claimed the first-ever regular season conference championship in YSU program history in 2022-23.
At Utah State, Calhoun held a 55-15 record during his two years at the helm. The 10-seed Aggies suffered a 72-47 loss to 7-seed UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season and fell in the second round to Arizona this season.
The Aggies won both the Mountain West regular-season championship and the conference tournament this season, all while playing a pretty difficult schedule for a mid-major (82nd-hardest schedule on Sport Reference). He just signed a new deal with USU last year and should get another big raise to coach in the Big 12. Calhoun’s original deal with Utah State was worth about $925,000 annually. Last March, he signed a new deal worth $7.55 million over four seasons.
USU (28th) actually rated higher than UC (32nd) on Bart Torvik this season. They were well-balanced on both sides of the ball (26th in offensive efficiency, 55th on defense).
He brings the fire too. Calhoun was not happy his team got slotted into an 8/9 seed matchup in the first round this year.
“Really happy with the location for our fans and for our players—obviously San Diego is close—but I think the seed was absolutely atrocious,” Calhoun said on Selection Sunday. “The one thing we don’t have is the (Quad 1) wins, but we’ve got great metrics on both sides of the ball. We’re top 30 in offense, top 50 in defense. I thought for sure a six or a seven (seed), was really hoping for one of those.”
Calhoun coached about as well as possible in late-game situations. USU went 8-1 in close games this season and 9-3 in close games last season.
Wes Miller was under .500 on that front in every season of his career at UC. The late-game coaching upgrade alone could be enough to finally get Cincinnati back in the NCAA Tournament and beyond the rest of this decade.
The Cincinnati alum is coming home.
Bookmark Bearcats Talk for the latest news, breakdowns, and so much more. Be sure to check out our YouTube page as well, starting with the video below.
Also, don’t miss the podcast, Bearcat Blitz, wherever you get your shows!
Apple: http://apple.co/4fI26zj
Spotify: http://bit.ly/3OqvD4l
YouTube: http://bit.ly/414XiQ6
—–
Be sure to keep it locked in on Bearcats Talk, as we cover the trials and tribulations of the Big 12!
Follow Bearcats Talk on Twitter: @BearcatsTalk
Like Bearcats Talk on Facebook: Bearcats Talk
First Appeared on
Source link
