The Bengals defensive past... and future? A Big Daddy sighting

by Josh Kirkendall on Jan 5, 2008 2:12 PM EST in Analysis

I've been away for work related reasons. We have a major project going on right now that will last through the middle of the month. The number of posts will be down. So instead of posting about stories each time they develop, we'll be doing bigger posts to cover items. There's also the diaries to keep in mind. If something happens and we haven't updated yet, then post the Diaries and, as per usual, we'll promote to the main page. With that said... let's talk about the Bengals.

The Bengals interviewed Mike Zimmer. I included a brief history of his record on our updated defensive coordinator search page.

Chuck Bresnahan and Ricky Hunley, the two coaches that the Bengals let go last week, had some advice for the team. They didn't speak on a bitter note about being fired. No. They reemphasized what all of us already knew. Spend money on defense.

"There were things I requested that I didn't get done," Bresnahan told The Enquirer. "We needed to level the playing field between the defense and the offense. To me, we needed to put more money into the defense, so when you start talking about the top-six offense, we could have been a better team with a better defense and, by extension, special teams."

Bresnahan went on to praise the kids on defense, Dhani Jones for (lack of a better word) bailing us out at linebacker and commenting on moving Robert Geathers to linebacker. "We made, by necessity, Robert Geathers an average football player by moving him to (strong-side) linebacker," Bresnahan said.

Hunley spoke about the defensive scheme with the players.

So what is Big Daddy up to these days?

After 13 years in the NFL, former Buckeye great Dan Wilkinson plans to open a string of AAMCO service centers in southern Ohio.

His inspiration? A 1970 Cadillac he bought as a teenager for $250 and then restored.

"It was my high-school pride and joy," Wilkinson, 34, said recently at his station in Lancaster. "In the latter years of my playing career, I really looked at the automotive business."

Wilkinson opened the Lancaster operation in late October. It's the first of seven he plans in southern Ohio in the next few years; one in Chillicothe, on N. Bridge Street, is next in line.

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