UC adds Vince Suriano to football staff

UC adds Vince Suriano to football staff

Published Feb. 19, 2013 9:12 p.m. ET

University of Cincinnati football coach Tommy Tuberville added Vince Suriano to his staff Tuesday, bringing a valued local connection to recruiting battles.

Suriano, a former head coach at Anderson High School and assistant at Division III programs Mount St. Joseph and Thomas More College, has been named director of high school and player relations. According to a press release from UC, Suriano's responsibilities will be to manage the Bearcats' on-campus recruiting program and focus on outreach and relationships with high school programs within the Tri-State area.

"We are very fortunate to hire Vince into this role," Tuberville said in the release. "His vast experience and dedication to the game of football along with his knowledge of high school football in the local community will be an invaluable resource as we continue to build our recruiting base within a 200-mile radius of UC's campus."
Tuberville left Texas Tech and was hired on Dec. 8 to replace Butch Jones following Jones' resignation to take the job at Tennessee. He has 17 years of head coaching experience, including 14 seasons in the Southeastern Conference at Mississippi and Auburn, and has compiled a 130-77 overall record. He spent the past three seasons at Texas Tech, going 20-17.

Suriano built the Anderson program into a perennial playoff contender over 21 seasons. He led the Redskins to 12 conference championships, nine playoff appearances and three undefeated regular seasons. He is scheduled to be inducted into the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame this June.
 
The fact that Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and assistant Kerry Coombs, formerly the head coach at Colerain and an assistant at UC before joining Meyer's staff, are actively focused on the Cincinnati area meant Tuberville needed someone on his staff who knows the lay of the recruiting land in his own backyard.

Ohio State will play its spring game at Paul Brown Stadium on April 13. Meyer stirred the ire of many UC fans when he told 700 WLW Sports Talk host Lance McAlister on Feb. 7 of his intentions.

"Ohio State hasn't been in Cincinnati in a while," said Meyer in his interview. "We're going to smother (Cincinnati). I'm a Cincinnati guy, Kerry is a Cincinnati guy. Ohio State should own Cincinnati and we're going to do the best we can to make it the home school of Cincinnati."

Tuberville's initial recruiting class of 22 includes five Ohioans. Four of those five are from the Cincinnati area: defensive back Zach Edwards (Middletown), offensive lineman Ben Flick (Hamilton), linebacker Rasheen Jones (Northwest) and offensive lineman Kyle Williamson (Madeira). Edwards and Williamson enrolled at UC in January and will participate in spring practices, which begin on March 5.

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