By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

VALPARAISO, Ind. - Day one of the post-Rick Minter coaching era found University of Cincinnati athletic director Bob Goin fielding phone calls from his contacts in college athletics offering recommendations for replacements.

Minter was fired Monday after 10 years as UC football coach and offered a position as an assistant athletic director.

Minter is deciding whether to accept the job under the terms of his contract, which still has three years remaining.

Not accepting the job doesn't mean Minter will forfeit the roughly $465,000 still left on his contract, Goin said.

"There's some legality that if he chooses not take the reassignment, then negotiation has to be done," Goin said. "Then we work something out. The University of Cincinnati and myself are always going to be fair."

Goin noted there has been a lot of interest in the vacant position.

"I know a good many people across this country," said Goin, who made the trip here with the men's basketball team for its Tuesday night against Valparaiso. "I'm getting calls with nominations."

Goin plans to set up two committees to assist him. One will screen candidates, the other will evaluate and recommend candidates.

Ultimately, though, Goin will decide who the new football coach will be, with approval from UC president Nancy Zimpher.

And while the committees will be allowed to do their jobs, it's a safe bet Goin has his own list of candidates.

"If we don't like what we see, I think I owe it to the university to call some people that in my own mind I think will be a good fit," Goin said. "I definitely will do that."

At the same time, he said, he doesn't want to hinder the process by making a predetermination that might keep qualified candidates from being considered.

This is the first time in Goin's six years at UC that he has had to hire a coach from one of the two major sports of football and men's basketball. Bob Huggins has been the basketball coach since 1989 and Minter was hired in 1994 by then-AD Rick Taylor, who left shortly thereafter for Northwestern University.

With Taylor essentially in a lame-duck position, Minter was chosen at the behest of then-president Joseph Steger who, UC sources say, was intrigued by Minter's pedigree as the Notre Dame defensive coordinator.

At the time Minter was hired, UC had just completed an 8-3 season under Tim Murphy, who left to become the head coach at Harvard. That season ended a string of 10 straight losing seasons.

Under Minter, UC went to four bowl games, posted five winning seasons and won a Conference USA co-championship.

Since Murphy left, UC's facilities have been upgraded and are being upgraded again with the construction of the Varsity Village.

But the most attractive aspect of this job, what was lacking the last time the position was vacant, is UC's impending move to the Big East Conference in 2005.

"We have separated ourselves from a lot of other institutions in the state," Goin said. "You've got Ohio State in the Big Ten and now Cincinnati in the Big East. It gives (recruits) a choice. You're going to be Big Ten over here, which is fine. But if you go to the Big East and win that, you're going to play in the Fiesta Bowl.

"That's something we've never been able to offer."

---

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com