After Loss in Sugar Bowl, Seniors Depart and Underclassmen Get Ready for 2010

On Friday January 1st, 2010, the Cincinnati Bearcats football program lost the biggest game in their program’s history to the Florida Gators in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Before kickoff, the game has been and was dominated mostly by the headlines of former UC head coach Brian Kelly’s departure, UF head coach Urban Meyer’s resignation and withdrawal of that resignation and UF quarterback Tim Tebow’s final college football game. Looking for a statement to show the nation that their loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship game was a fluke, Florida found it in their 51-24 blowout rout of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

If you were to look at the stat sheet, and not have watched the game, you would have asked what happened. UC quarterback Tony Pike was 27 for 45 for a completion percentage of 60% and threw for three different touchdowns. The problem was that he threw for 170 yards and could not complete the long, big pass plays this offense loves and thrives on. The problem was that Florida’s defense didn’t allow Tony Pike time to make those types of throws and wait for a receiver down field to get open.

The defense could not stop Tim Tebow and the Gators, and that was expected. Next year on the other hand, the defense should be much better, as they will be much more mature and ready for the roles they will play. The offense next year should be star studded once again as sophomores Zach Collaros and D.J. Woods are coming back along with junior wide receiver Armon Binns. The offense, under new head coach Butch Jones will be trying to continue the high scoring spread offense UC fans have gotten used to seeing on Saturdays.

As for the impact of the game, the Bearcats not only let down their fans, but also themselves. I am not the only one that believes UC could have kept up with Florida. The one thing that would have definitely helped the Cats in this game would have been Butch Jones coaching the team, not Jeff Quinn. I have nothing against Quinn, as I like him and I think that without Quinn, Kelly’s system would not have worked as well as he needed it to. But after the game, Quinn leaves and heads to Buffalo and Jones comes here to Cincinnati. Quinn has nothing to coach for in this game as he will have his job regardless of the Bearcats result.

At the same time, the players have no reason to play under Quinn either. I’m not saying that Quinn wasn’t really trying to coach, or that the Cats players didn’t really play hard under Quinn. What I’m saying is that there was no reason for them to play other than respect, glory, an undefeated season and their first ever BCS Bowl win, which in my mind is a whole hell of a lot. If Quinn wins the game, he receives no compensation other than a hand shake and a swift kick out the door to Buffalo. If Jones coaches, he has the chance to start his program off the right way. Underclassmen would have had the chance to see what it would be like over the next few years playing under Jones as well.

All in all, I believe Jones should have been coaching the Sugar Bowl and I know that was definitely not the Cincinnati Bearcats that I saw playing on that field. It seemed like this team forgot who they were, what they did to get here and how they got here. This past year may have been the best season, the UC versus Pitt match up may have been the best game, and the Sugar Bowl may have been the biggest game but the next season is the biggest season in the program’s history. Brian Kelly left, and the Cats lost the Sugar Bowl.

Now with a new coach and a disappointing loss, the Bearcats must show the nation that they are a program and not a coach. Anything less than a 10 win season may place the Bearcats back into the scrap heap of the Big East. Whether or not Quinn should have been kept, there is a reason he has been playing second fiddle to Brian Kelly all these years. There is also a reason he was beat out at Central Michigan, after Brian Kelly departed for Cincinnati, by Butch Jones and here in Cincinnati, following Brian Kelly’s departure by the same man in Butch Jones.

According to FBSchedule.com, the Bearcats will play at least four games in the first six weeks, with the first two being at N.C. State on the fourth of September and at Fresno State on the 18th of September. The other intriguing match up is that of the Oklahoma Sooners traveling to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats for the second time in three years. The game will not be taking place at Nippert Stadium though, as it will be played down at Paul Brown Stadium in late September.

I believe this was just a brief road bump that the Cats will hurdle on their way to being a top 25 finishing team for years to come. I believe that we will be seeing the Bearcats in many more BCS Bowl games, winning their fair share, and will in my mind, be playing for the BCS National Championship in Pasadena in 2012.

Bearcats Top #10 UConn; Stephenson Continues to Shine

Last night, the Cincinnati Bearcats beat the Connecticut Huskies in a thriller that was closer than it should have been. The ‘Cats led by 10 or more points on multiple occasions only to leave a lane open to the hoop allowing UConn to make a comeback each time. Lance Stephenson continued his rookie domination scoring 21 points with two of those points coming via free throws with 0.7 seconds left to put the Cats up. Stephenson also had four rebounds and three assists.

Senior guard Deonta Vaughn came out of his shell and ended his 3-for-23 behind the arc skid as he was 3-5 from the three point line and finished with 17 points before fouling out towards the end of the game. Sophomore forward Yancy Gates didn’t show up in this game, as he scored just six points to go with three rebounds while struggling with four fouls on the night.

The Cats will need more consistent play from the team to compete against the likes of Syracuse, West Virginia and Georgetown in the Big East. Vaughn and Stephenson will need to play this way every game while red shirt freshman guard Cashmere Wright will need to step up his game, shoot smart shots and make them. Same goes for Yancy Gates and Ibrahima Thomas, as Gates is very inconsistent throughout his young career. This game was Thomas’ fifth game of the year, and besides the Lipscomb and Winthrop games, has missed way too many shots that include a 1-6 performance in the overtime loss to Xavier and 1-7 from the field in last night’s win.

The win puts the Bearcats in the right direction after two very disappointing losses to Xavier and UAB. A win against a top 10 conference opponent to start conference play definitely helps build confidence for the younger players on the team, as the Big East Conference is loaded with nine, ten and eleven plus win teams. At the current moment, the Big East has four teams in the top 10, and five in the overall top 25. Georgetown is currently #13. Besides Providence and DePaul, each team in the Big East has at least nine wins and other than Providence and DePaul, Marquette is the only school in the conference with more than three losses.

If the Bearcats plan on making a late run in March, the conference games ahead need to end up like this one; long, hard fought battles that end in our favor. Strong showings against teams like Syracuse, West Virginia, Villanova and UConn could lead to strong showings against the likes of Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, Duke and UNC. But before looking two months ahead, the Cats need to focus on now, and that’s playing well and playing smart and not beating yourself, but beating the other team.

David vs. Goliath is What We Wanted, Right?

For the last two seasons, Cincinnati Bearcat Football fans have heard rants and raves from other colleges, fans, sports networks and sports blogs from around the nation regarding our team’s true “greatness.” Bearcat and Buckeye fans would go back and forth, exchanging words, gestures and eventually punches to prove which team owns the right to call themselves the “real football school of Ohio.” Certainly over the past two years, including this year’s undefeated season, the Bearcats are looking to bump the Buckeyes off their pedestal and claim the title of Ohio’s best, but for the Bearcat’s to have that chance a Sugar Bowl win is needed to help heal the wounds from the three disappointing losses of 2008 and prove all the naysayers wrong.

If Sam Bradford were still playing, I would love to see a rematch as I think the ‘Cats would give the Oklahoma Sooners a true run for their money. Fact is, Bradford’s done and NFL bound and the Bearcats have no chance to get redemption for last year’s 26-52 pounding the Sooners put on them in the second game of the year. That was the first true test for the Bearcats in former Head Coach Brian Kelly’s pursuit to the top, as facing the number 4 team in the nation and upsetting Bob Stoops’ crew could have done wonders. But that loss, along with another blowout loss to the mediocre UCONN Huskies showed the nation this team wasn’t ready for the big time.

As Big East Conference Champions, the Bearcats were given a BCS Bowl bid and boy did they disappoint the Bearcat Nation and receive the “I told you so’s” from all across the nation. In their first ever BCS Bowl, the Bearcats received an eye-opening and tear jerking loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies in the 2009 FedEx Orange Bowl.

Not only did three losses, one of those in the biggest game of the program’s history and the other two coming against the team that went on to lose in the BCS National Championship game to the Florida Gators and the other against an 8-5 Connecticut team. With the losses, the Bearcats were forced to start the year outside of the Top 25 and must now remain content with being undefeated and not playing for a national championship.

But now, with the 12-0, third ranked Bearcats facing off against the 12-1, fifth ranked Florida Gators, who are still probably the best team in college football, the Bearcats can prove once and for all that they belong in the top ten and in the same conversation of Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC, LSU, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas etc. The ‘Cats can show the rest of the world exactly what the fans in Cincinnati have been cheering about all year.

This is the perfect stage for the Bearcats to come out of their shell and became a yearly contender, a national power, and a recruit’s dream school. It’s a David vs. Goliath story which could only make the win sweeter. You have the Florida Gators who have been the National Champions in the 06-07 and 08-09 seasons with the Heisman trophy winning quarterback and the Cincinnati Bearcats who are 23-3 in the last two years, undefeated this past year, and entering their second ever BCS Bowl looking for redemption after last year’s debacle. The Bearcats are 12 point underdogs in the contest and have been since the day following the BCS Bowl Selection Show.

The stage is set, the players are ready and the time has come for the Cincinnati Bearcats to live up to the hype and finish what was started in the beginning of the season. A bowl win to cap off the undefeated season, complete with the Allstate Sugar Bowl Trophy that would look beautiful in the trophy case next to the two Big East Championship Trophies is the only thing that’s missing in not only the player’s mind, but the fans’ also.

A Week to Reflect, and All Eyes Are Now on Sugar Bowl

On Thursday, December 10th, 2009, the University of Cincinnati Football Program received it’s biggest lost in the history of the program, losing Head Coach Brian Kelly to Notre Dame. We all know what Kelly did here and the great things he did for our program. But that was eight days ago. Since then, the Bearcats have returned to the practice field under Interim Head Coach Jeff Quinn and have started preparing for the match-up against the Florida Gators in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

The biggest thing for fans to do is forget about Brian Kelly. It’s not fair to these players to see and hear fans bickering and complaining that Kelly left. It’s not fair to the players that played their hearts out for 12 games, winning them all, earning a BCS Bowl Bid and ending the year as the third best team in the country. This is the game, the moment, the time in which fans, and the nation for that matter, will find out whether or not UC Football is a program or a coach. As I’ve said earlier, at the end of the day, the game is won by the player’s, not the coaches. Come January 1st, 2010, the true test arrives for the football players of UC.

Before BK gets the fans wrapped around his finger again, let’s move on to the Sugar Bowl. I haven’t seen the line lately, but last I knew was that the Bearcats were underdogs. Boy, that didn’t take long. I would like to think that the Bearcats will play better as underdogs, and who knows, they may. The biggest test of the game will be mentally. Getting Brian Kelly out of their mind and focusing on the game is the key. Many players have come forward and been very disapproving of what BK did. But they need to forget about it and move on. If they mull over it, and let it eat at them, they won’t be ready to play, mentally or physically.

It’s going to take a lot to beat the Florida Gators. The Gators, who are led by 2007 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow, have won two BCS National Championships in the last three years, winning in 2007 and in January of this year. The defense is just as good too, as they allowed more than 20 points once, and that was to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Quarterback in waiting Zach Collaros could learn from watching Tebow from the sidelines, as next year UC will march out the “run first, pass second” quarterback. With the way Tebow executes the play fake, and then runs through the middle or to the side, it would benefit Collaros greatly to experience Tebow and watch him from the sideline.

Cincinnati’s quarterback Tony Pike will have to find his inner Heisman like he did in the comeback victory against the Pittsburgh Panthers in the Big East Championship Game. Hopefully Pike finds that inner Heisman at the start of the game this time though, because I’m not sure how many times, if any, the UC defense will be able to stop the Gator offense. Pike will have to pick his spots and throw only when the window is there, as this defense gets after the ball.

The receiving corps of Mardy Gilyard, Armon Binns, D.J. Woods and tight end Ben Guidugli will need to create separation, run the right routes and catch the ball to keep in the game. I’m not writing this team off just yet, but a mistake or two and the Bearcats could find themselves in a hole they might not be able to climb out of.

I hope Gilyard brought his running shoes, because his ability and necessity on special teams is important to the Bearcats victory. In the Pitt game, it was Gilyard’s kick return that brought the momentum back to UC’s side and kept them in the game.