Over the next few days, Rusty Burns will spend a lot of time watching video of University of Cincinnati football games.

        He'll make mental notes, trying to match names with numbers, numbers with faces.

        It's all in a day's work for the Bearcats' new offensive coordinator.

        Burns, a former UC assistant, became the sixth offensive coordinator under Rick Minter, who will begin his ninth season this fall. Burns was quarterbacks coach under Tim Murphy from 1989-91.

        Burns replaces Dave Baldwin, who became the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baylor.

        A box full of Bearcats football game tapes from last season sits in Burns' office. A television hangs on the wall. The bulletin board is blank — for now.

        “I'm behind,” Burns joked with a friend on the phone.

        As of Thursday, Burns didn't know the names of many UC football players.

        But he knows all about quarterback Gino Guidugli, the Conference USA Freshman of the Year.

        “You've got to build from him,” Burns said. “He's a great starter.”

        Burns said he plans to improve the Bearcats' spread offense by cutting back on turnovers and other mental errors.

        “Expect to win,” he said. “I think right now, we're right at the edge, and we've got to win the games we're supposed to win and beat the teams they don't think we can.”

        Burns served as offensive coordinator at Wyoming from 1999 through last season. Under Burns, All-Mountain West Conference quarterback Casey Bramlet threw for 3,069 yards and ranked 14th in the nation in total offense (277.1 ypg) in 2001.

        Burns also has worked as offensive coordinator at Springfield College (1978-79) and Connecticut (1980-88) and as assistant coach at Georgia Tech (1992-94).

        The Bearcats ranked 30th in the nation in total offense in Burns' final season at UC, averaging 380.5 yards a game, seventh-highest in school history. Last season, the Bearcats averaged 416.27 yards a game, good for third all time.

        “I feel good about having Rusty join our staff,” Minter said. “He's been around good offenses.”

        Minter said he probably will fill two more coaching vacancies by Monday.

Huggins to West Virginia? So. Miss looks up to UC Burns returns to UC as offensive coordinator

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