(Temple Football / Twitter)
I’ve got nothing.
See you at Nippert. Go Bearcats. #BeatBYU
(Temple Football / Twitter)
I’ve got nothing.
See you at Nippert. Go Bearcats. #BeatBYU
(Aaron Doster — USA Today Sports)
If you’re anything like me, last weekend’s victory over East Carolina has you reinvigorated. The 0–3 start in the AAC was abysmal, and I sensed that even the most diehard fans were having trouble feeling optimistic about the second half of the 2016 campaign. However, Saturday night felt like a watershed moment, and I think things are finally headed in the right direction.
The biggest reason why is the return of Gunner Kiel.
Fans clamored for Kiel for six games, and rightfully so. He finally got his window on Saturday night and he made the most of his first start of 2016, throwing for nearly 350 yards and four touchdowns without a turnover. Suddenly, the biggest question for a meandering 3–3 team has an answer, and nobody knows what to expect from the final five games.
The last time Gunner Kiel played in Philly was near the end of the 2014 season. The Bearcats needed a win in the final road game of the year to help secure a conference championship. The defense turned in a stellar performance to stuff the Owls in a 14–6 win. Kiel finished the afternoon with just 174 passing yards and a touchdown, but made no mistakes in a team victory that helped UC win a share of the 2014 AAC title.
In 2015, Temple sat at the beginning of the slate. The game was an unmitigated disaster for Kiel. He finished with a pair of touchdowns to go with four back-breaking interceptions. A late comeback fell short and the Bearcats dropped the conference opener. It was the beginning of the end for the 2015 season and Gunner Kiel’s tenure as a starter.
Saturday’s bout in Philadelphia against the Temple Owls will not be an easy one, and that’s why I’m excited for it. If the ECU performance was a fluke, we’ll know by Saturday night.
For the third time in three years, the Temple game will be a proving ground for Gunner. This year more than ever, the Owls will be ready. They rank 12th nationally in passing yards allowed per game, giving up an average of just 181 yards. They get after the quarterback like crazy, coming away with sacks on 10.7% of all plays, good for 3rd nationally. Over their last three games, that percentage jumps up to an absurd 19.1%, which is tops in the country by a wide margin. For comparison’s sake, East Carolina is easlily the worst sacking team in the FBS.
Gunner is a guy that seems to perform best when he’s allowed to sit back in the pocket and sling it. East Carolina let him do both of those things. Temple will allow him to do neither.
For a historically fragile QB who loves to rack up yards, a hard-hitting defense that chokes out the passing game is a daunting opponent. It’s even worse when you’ve just started your first game since November 2015.
If there’s a saving grace, it’s this: Temple has not intercepted many passes. The Bearcats defense ranks 4th nationally in opponent interception percentage at 5.3%. Temple’s defense, meanwhile, has picked off throws at a mediocre rate of 2.7%, putting them right in the middle of the pack in the country. The is great news for a guy that threw a handful of picks against this team last year.
If the offensive line can give Kiel time to find a target and get the ball out, we shouldn’t see a rash of turnovers again. He probably won’t duplicate Saturday’s 348-yard performance, but we could very well see a repeat of 2014’s 174-yard outing that earned a victory. For Kiel, minimizing mistakes will be the name of the game, and this Temple defense should let him do it.
The Owls are favored by a touchdown over the Bearcats. To get the victory, we’ll need another good game from the defense and more contributions from the running backs. Between the road atmosphere and the stingly Temple defense, it’ll be an early challenge for Kiel.
I think he’s up for it. I definitely am. Let’s find out what these Bearcats are made of.
(David J. Phillip/AP)
AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco was at AAC basketball media days today, and officially shot down the idea of expansion when asked about it. I understand where he’s coming from. He just dodged a bullet from the Big 12 that may have saved his conference. Right now, he’s happy for stability and probably doesn’t want to immediately go on the attack in expansion.
As armchair quarterback, coach, athletic director, and commissioner, I’m much more aggressive. I think we should add schools and add them now. At the very least, there are a handful of solid basketball-only candidates to add to our awkward 11-team basketball conference to form an even dozen. If you’re feeling crazy, there are a few football programs that could also be plucked from smaller conferences to bolster an AAC group that’s been much better than people originally predicted when it was formed.
So now I ask you: As AAC Commissioner, what are you doing in expansion to improve our conference?
Take the survey here. I’ll update in a few days with the smartest responses and then send them to Aresco to consider. (I lied about that second part.)
(Aaron Doster — USA Today Sports Images)
The Bearcats (finally) got back in the win column on Saturday night with a much-needed victory over the Pirates of East Carolina. Both teams entered winless in the AAC, but it was the Bearcats that were able to turn the ship around with the help of some homecoming home field advantage. I have plenty to be happy about, so this will be more fun than I’m used to. Here are the highs and lows:
Saturday was the first time I felt really good about a game since Week 2 against Purdue. Following that win, the Bearcats went 1–3 with the only victory coming against lowly Miami. There wasn’t much to feel good about until Saturday happened.
The fans needed that. The players needed that. Lord knows the coach needed that. More than anything, Gunner Kiel needed that. The #GunShow is back, and I couldn’t be more excited to see how he fares next weekend against one of the country’s stingiest pass defenses. Temple is ranked 13th nationally in passing yards allowed per game, and they’ll provide an early test for Kiel. I think he’s up for it.
Last week brought us the premiere of Catching Kelce, a new reality dating show starring former Bearcats standout (and current Kansas City Chiefs tight end) Travis Kelce. Episode 1 was full of the types of shenanigans reality TV lovers have come to expect from these shows, and I wrote that I (shamefully) enjoyed it. I’m interested to see where Episode 2 takes us, when they’re not packing 90 minutes of television with drama and plot twists.
As always, I’m just going to hit the bullet points on this one and throw my weekly rankings at the end. Let’s go:
1893 Bearcats football team (UC Libraries)
Bearcats football took the field for the first time on October 23, 1885 in a game against Mt. Auburn. 1885 is a long time ago, and UC football is older than every FBS team but nine. As an ardent lover of old things and Bearcat one-upmanship, I had to seize the opportunity.
The ‘Cats have a bye week and UC football’s birthday is just around the corner, so I figured I’d make a short list of things that came right after Cincinnati football did:
So now if you were a real loser you could say something like, “Hey, do you know why UC’s first football uniforms didn’t have zippers? Because they weren’t invented yet.”
You’d probably come off really smug but it’s worth a shot anyway.
(BuckeyeXtra.com)
After some FOIA requests by local media, UC has coughed up contract details on the extension Tommy Tuberville agreed to in April and signed on October 1, presumably just hours before the ‘Cats got their skulls smashed by USF at Nippert. I won’t debate the merits of this extension, because it makes very little sense and only makes me angry. Instead, let’s look at how we can get out of it:
Tuberville’s old contract included a buyout provision that sat at $1 million until February 1, at which point it would’ve dropped to $550,000. The new contract’s buyout is $2.4 million until December 6. On December 7, it drops to $1.5 million.
[embed]https://twitter.com/vogel_wlwt/status/785945106155245568[/embed]
Don’t let the $2.4 million worry you. It sounds like a lot of money, but it’s absolutely meaningless. That was Tuberville’s assurance that he wouldn’t get fired during this season. Yes, it means he won’t be fired before the season is over. However, he wouldn’t have been fired anyway. Coaching changes rarely happen mid-season in college, and basically never happen at Cincinnati. Anyone expecting to hear news of a coaching move this week was fooling themselves.
The big change here is this: Under his old contract, Tuberville’s buyout following the season was $1 million. Under the new contract, it’s $1.5 million.
I know the $550,000 number is appetizing, but that’s kind of another meaningless number. UC never would’ve made it that far. It didn’t drop to that number until February 1, and you can’t fire your coach and start the hiring process in February. That’s too late.
UC has to pay $1.5 million to fire Tuberville in December instead of $1 million.
Moving the date in which the buyout drops from February 1 all the way up to December 7 is an intentional move on UC’s part. Again, I don’t understand why this extension was offered in the first place, but the decrease in buyout money in December was written with a firing in mind.
Honestly, I almost like the new extension details because they incentivize a coaching change immediately following the season, which is the most likely time to make a move anyways. Rather than entering this offseason and wondering if UC will make a quick move (and fire Tubs in December) or wait until February (and save $450k), now they have every incentive to drop the ax quickly. If Tuberville doesn’t get fired this December, he isn’t going anywhere until the end of the 2017 season. The new deal is very straightforward in that regard. We now have some clarity.
Old contract or new, the most likely time of a firing has always been December. What would’ve cost UC $1 million will now cost them $1.5 million. That’s their fault, and they’ll have to deal with shelling out that extra cash. However, the new contract gives us a D-Day. Circle December 7, 2016 on your calendar. The UC athletic department has every reason to drop Tubs and throw themselves into the 2016 coaching carousel with the rest of the college football world, and now we have a hard and fast date to watch.
UPDATE: Since I’ve seen people saying both, I should clarify that I’m not sure if “D-Day” is December 7 or December 8. The Vogel tweet says “BEFORE December 7” not “December 7 or before.” It sounds like the buyout drops starting on December 7. I haven’t seen the contract to know what the exact wording is, but it’s my impression that the first day UC can afford to fire Tuberville is December 7. I may be wrong, in which case it’s December 8.
Not that it really matters.
(Stephen Slade / UConnHuskies.com)
The tailspin that started in the fourth quarter of the Houston game three weeks ago continued on Saturday in Hartford. More of the same, you could say. In 2011 or 2012, more of the same would mean a win. In 2016, more of the same has come to mean a cripplingly depressing performance against any team that lines up opposite the Bearcats. Against Miami or Purdue, more of the same will still get you the win. Against an AAC that’s getting increasingly stronger, more of the same means losses like Saturday.
If you’ve been following me on Twitter for more than a week, I’m sure you know I’m a Browns fan. My undying devotion to the consistently hapless Browns is bad for my health, but I’ve been able to count on the Bearcats balancing that out. Lately, the two teams seem to be blurring together. It’s a sad state of affairs when Murphy’s Law is taking out my two favorite football teams every weekend. Like so many Browns teams I’ve known, you can count on the 2016 Bearcats to be poorly coached, ridden with mistakes, unenthusiastic, and on the short end of every 50/50 call by the referees.
However, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again here: Like my devotion to the God-forsaken Browns, my love for these Bearcats is unwavering. I’ll be there for homecoming (both physically and mentally) and I expect to win.
I suppose I should wade into the muck that is the UConn game, so let’s go:
(LOL.)
(I’ll try to keep these brief and under control.)
It’s growing increasingly difficult to watch this team, but I implore you guys to stick with them. I’ll be at homecoming, and hopefully a good crowd shows up. If you’d like to voice your unhappiness, the best way to do that is by joining in the effort to #BlackoutHomecoming. The theme for the game is red, but a large group of fans has decided to wear black as a small act of protest against the current direction of the program. I’m on board with this idea because it supports the players and the team while still demonstrating our position as a fan base. There are ways to be heard without simply giving up. Please do not give up. There is a disconnect between talent and production, and this team can still win games if it can close that gap. We’re not dead yet.
Go Bearcats.
Former Bearcats tight end Travis Kelce left Clifton as the latest in a line of great Cincinnati tight ends. He landed with the Kansas City Chiefs, where his career has exploded. Now his public persona is following suit.
I’ve never personally met Travis, but I get the sense that he’s not putting on much of a show here. He’s the bursting-with-energy type of guy, and it only makes sense that he’s fulfilling his destiny as one of the sport’s greatest personalities.
Somehow, E! gave him his own reality dating competition featuring 50 women. It is going to be awesome, and I’ll be delivering hard-hitting analysis to you every week. Rather than turn every Watching Kelce recap into a 3,000-word essay, I’ll just hit the bullet points. Let’s roll.
(GoBearcats.com)
Writing this weekly column and picking out positives from the games grows harder and harder. This week, I don’t even have “a win is a win” to fall back on. The Bearcats lost, decisively, to the South Florida Bulls. On the surface, this isn’t exactly a catastrophe. Despite the reputation that USF has earned among Bearcats faithful, the Bulls are a good team. They have been since the beginning of last year. They should win at least eight games this season.
So, why did an “understandable” loss ignite the most rip-roaring firestorm I’ve seen from UC Twitter? Here’s a closer look.
(Trying to control my rage here.)
(Yikes, this is tough this week.)
[embed]https://twitter.com/OhVarsity/status/782400045010128896[/embed]
I’m not anti-Bearcats, and I never will be. I refuse to give up on UC, ever. That said, for the first time, I’m firmly standing on the anti-Tuberville side of the fence. If this current trend continues, I think it’s time to pull the plug at the end of the season. Do I think they’ll fire him? Not really. Can Tuberville win me back? Sure. Pulling out eight or nine wins and a bowl game this year would probably extend my personal leash.
I’ve always been somewhat annoyed by the entitlement of UC fans. Especially when it comes to basketball, Bearcats faithful seem to think anything short of elite national prominence is worthy of firing. In this case, I think that mentality is a good thing. We all went into the game against #6 Houston expecting to win. That was probably unwarranted, but I love that the expectations for the program remain high.
The only remaining defense of Tuberville’s tenure is that he takes care of lowly teams. At a place like Purdue, that’ll get the job done. At Cincinnati, that’s not good enough. The city, the program, the fans, and the players deserve better than mediocrity. If Tuberville can’t deliver more than mediocrity over the next seven or eight games, he doesn’t deserve to be here. He’s making a lot of money to coach in a conference that’s not immensely difficult in front of fans that are very supportive without applying much pressure to win like at OSU or Texas. This is a good gig, and I think we’re all starting to get the feeling that we’re being taken advantage of.
Do not give up on this team. I know the coaching staff, especially Tuberville, hasn’t earned much loyalty in the past few years. However, if anyone is more disappointed than the fans, it’s the players. These kids had a choice of where to spend their college careers, and they chose the University of Cincinnati. They chose us, so let’s stick with them. It would be easy to give up and stop attending games, but the players don’t deserve that.
Show up at Nippert. Make noise. When the time is right, make your displeasure known. Just remember who your frustration is directed at, and don’t let these kids play in an empty stadium. That would only make things more depressing. We have two weeks off to simmer down and take a break from football in Clifton. Let’s beat UConn, lick our wounds in the bye week, and come out strong to Nippert for Homecoming against ECU. The season isn’t dead yet, and neither am I.
Go Bearcats.
The Bearcats celebrate with the travelling fan contingent following their 2007 win in Tampa. (AP/Mike Carlson)
The South Florida Bulls turned the corner in 2015, winning eight games and returning to national relevance for the first time in five years. The Bearcats, meanwhile, squandered away multiple games before getting blasted by the surging Bulls in Tampa. USF has never beaten Cincinnati in back-t0-back seasons, and the Bearcats will take the field Saturday with the goal of making sure that remains the case. Here’s the Cincinnati-South Florida breakdown and a look at some notable games:
All-time series record: Cincinnati leads, 8–5
First meeting: 2003
Last meeting: 2015
Current streak: South Florida won last year
Record in Cincinnati: Cincinnati leads, 5–1
Streak in Cincinnati: Cincinnati has won the last two
Mike Daniels scores a first quarter touchdown. (AP photo)
The Bulls joined Conference USA for the 2003 season, which set up their first matchup with the Bearcats. UC packed up and flew to Tampa for a Halloween game in front of what looked to be a very sparse crowd.
Mistakes were a theme, and the Bearcats seemingly did all they could do lose the game. After a defensive stand that forced USF to tie the game rather than take the lead, the red and black worked themselves into field goal position to take a shot at a 41-yard game-winner with four seconds left. The attempt was blocked, and the teams went to overtime tied at 10.
The Bearcat defense, having played tough all night, quickly came unravelled and allowed touchdowns on USF’s first two possessions. Following a UC first down in 2OT, Gino Guidugli’s pass bounced off of the shoulder pad of Richard Hall and into a defender’s hands to end the game. The whole mess is on YouTube, if you’d like to watch.
The win pushed the Bulls to 5–3 on their way to a 7–4 finish. The double overtime victory over the Bearcats was USF’s second of three double overtime victories on the year. The loss dropped the Bearcats to 4–4 on the year, and they’d go on to lose three of their remaining four, signaling the end of the Rick Minter era and making way for Mark Dantonio in 2004.
To be fair, I’m not sure anyone cared about this excruciating loss, because:
(Enquirer, 11/01/2003)
Butler Benton runs for a 48-yard touchdown in the second quarter. (Enquirer/Meggan Booker)
The Bulls made the trip to Nippert for the first time and took their first shot at Bearcat head coach Mark Dantonio. UC swung hard and didn’t miss, storming to a 45–23 victory at home.
After a critical turnover near the end of the first half, USF knotted the score at 17. However, the Bearcats drove 80 yards down the field on the ensuing drive to take a 7-point lead into the break. After halftime, the offense and defense turned things up to pull away for the win behind stellar performances from Guidugli and the entire running back corps.
The win made the Bearcats bowl eligible and helped toward a 7–5 finish. USF limped to their first losing season, a place they wouldn’t return to until 2011.
WR Marcus Barnett slings a 76-yard pass to Mardy Gilyard in the second quarter. (AP/Mike Carlson)
2007 in Tampa was like 2009 in Clifton. Building on years of success, the Bulls finally were getting things to fall into place. They opened the season 6–0 with wins at #17 Auburn and at home over #5 West Virginia. The Bulls had arrived, and they were ranked #2 in the country by mid-October. Then things started to fall apart. First it was a 3-point loss in New Jersey to Rutgers, then a 7-point loss in Hartford to UConn. The Bulls limped home in November to face Brian Kelly’s Bearcats, hoping to get back on track.
On the first drive of the game, USF picked off a Ben Mauk pass and took it 73 yards for a touchdown and a 7-point lead. UC was able to equalize with a 63-yard Mauk touchdown pass, but USF returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, giving them a 14–7 lead.
The Bearcats responded well, answering with a field goal, a blocked punt returned for a score, a 79-yard interception return, and a 16-yard touchdown catch by Dominick Goodman. This was all before the end of the first quarter. UC was suddenly leading 31–14.
The Bulls made it interesting late, but their comeback bid fell short, and their plummet from #2 continued following a third consecutive loss. They never really recovered that season, finishing 9–4 following a loss in the Sun Bowl. The Bearcats couldn’t quite get past #5 West Virginia two weeks later, and settled for a victory in the PapaJohns.com Bowl, capping a 10–3 season.
(AP photo)
The Bearcats returned to Tampa in 2009 as a Top 10 team. The Bulls were a respectable #21, but had won five straight games against ranked teams, two of which were Top 10. The Bearcats were good, but the Bulls liked their chances, especially at home in front of a packed crowd of nearly 64,000 at Raymond James Stadium.
USF scored first, taking a 7–0 lead on a BJ Daniels touchdown pass, but the Bearcats held a 17–10 halftime advantage after two first half connections between Tony Pike and Armon Binns. Early in the third quarter, Pike re-aggravated a 2008 injury and was replaced by sophomore QB Zach Collaros, who promptly split the Bulls defense for a 75-yard touchdown that effectively put the game away.
[embed]https://twitter.com/OhVarsity/status/780815833945735168[/embed]
Collaros scored on another touchdown run for good measure, and the Bearcats got the win in Tampa, pushing them to 6–0 at the midpoint of what would be a perfect 2009 regular season. It was the fourth consecutive win for UC in the series, the longest by either team.
Zach Collaros scores on a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter. (AP Photo/The Tampa Tribune, Fred Bellet)
By 2011, Collaros was a senior, and ready to bookend his Bearcats legacy with another Big East Championship. After a blowout Week 2 loss in Knoxville, the Bearcats headed to Tampa with a 5–1 record to face a team that beat the Bearcats in 2010 and opened 2011 with a win over #16 Notre Dame in South Bend.
The Bearcats started slow, playing to a 10–10 halftime tie. UC let the third quarter get away from them, and the Bulls opened up a 10-point lead to start the fourth. A Collaros touchdown run made it a 3-point game before a touchdown pass to Alex Chisum gave UC its first lead of the half.
The Bearcats had their work cut out for them after a BJ Daniels touchdown pass with 1:27 remaining, but the always-poised Collaros crafted a 7-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that ended with the game winning score with 12 seconds remaining.
Two weeks later, Collaros fell to injury, causing the Bearcats to lose two consecutive games on their way to a 10–3 finish. The Bulls, who had entered conference play 4–0 and ranked #14, finished the Big East slate at just 1–6, capping a disastrous second season for Skip Holtz.
(Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)
The Bearcats’ disappointing 2015 season went from bad to worse in Tampa, as a crowd of fewer than 27,000 had plenty to cheer about in USF’s beatdown of UC. A 44-yard Andrew Gantz field goal saved UC from being shut out in the first half, but the red and black saw only red with the scoreboard reading 51–3 at the break.
Things got a bit better in the second half (which isn’t saying much) as Chris Moore reeled in a 54-yard touchdown pass from Hayden Moore to clinch the Bearcats career receiving touchdowns record.
For the Bearcats, the loss was a preview of what to expect in the Hawaii Bowl. For the Bulls, the win was another stepping stone in the return to relevance. USF won eight games and made a bowl appearance, both of which hadn’t been done in Tampa since 2010.
So far, the Bearcats seem to be much-improved defensively in 2016. The game is in Cincinnati, where USF has just one win in six tries. The Bulls have never beaten the Bearcats in back-to-back seasons. If history and statistics are any indication, I like the Bearcats’ chances this weekend. A win here would likely be the biggest conference win for Tommy Tuberville since the Bearcats fended off Houston at the end of the 2014 season to win the AAC title. UC played strong for three quarters against a Top 10 team two weeks ago. Saturday they’ll have a chance to prove that wasn’t a fluke, and move one step closer to facing Houston again in December.
(Al Behrman/AP)
So I kinda got into it on Twitter last night. Given the bad taste in everyone’s mouth after the Miami win, I figured it was finally time to sit down and sort out my feelings about Tommy Tuberville. It’s something I’ve been avoiding, because I don’t want to hate the guy, and his resume at UC is kind of complicated. In his 43 games in Cincy, my feelings towards him have absolutely run the gamut. I’m sure everyone else feels the same. Without playing psychologist and trying to dissect why everyone seems to have turned on him (and whether or not those reasons are valid), I wanted to bring some kind of semblance to his first 43 games in Clifton. The last 75% of this season is going to make or break his Cincinnati tenure, so I’m here to establish a baseline. Here are the hard facts on Tuberville at UC, personal opinions aside:
[Note: You can’t glean anything––positive or negative––from an FCS game. Therefore, all stats include FBS games only. If there is a stat you think should be added, tweet me.]
2013: 8–4
2014: 9–4
2015: 6–6
2016: 2–1
Total: 25–15 (.625)
2013: 6–2
2014: 7–1
2015: 4–4
2016: 0–1
Total: 17–8 (.680)
2013: 2–2
2014: 2–3
2015: 2–2
2016: 2–0
Total: 8–7
2013: 1–1
2014: 3–2
2015: 1–6
2016: N/A
Total: 5–9 (.357)
2013: 6–2
2014: 5–0
2015: 3–0
2016: N/A
Total: 14–2 (.875)
(Wins by 21 points or more.)
2013: 3
2014: 4
2015: 2
2016: 0
Total: 9
(Losses by 21 points or more.)
2013: 2
2014: 3
2015: 2
2016: 1
Total: 8
(Wins by eight points or less.)
2013: 2
2014: 4
2015: 2
2016: 1
Total: 9
(Losses by eight points or less.)
2013: 2
2014: 0
2015: 3
2016: 0
Total: 5
(Any game played at Nippert or Paul Brown Stadium.)
2013: 4–1
2014: 5–1*
2015: 4–1
2016: 1–1
Total: 14–4 (.778)
(Any game played outside of Nippert or Paul Brown Stadium.)
2013: 4–3
2014: 4–3
2015: 2–5
2016: 1–0
Total: 11–11 (.500)
(Games with five or fewer days to prepare.)
2013: 0–0
2014: 0–0
2015: 0–1
2016: 0–1
Total: 0–2 (.000)
(Games with nine or more days to prepare.)
2013: 2–3
2014: 2–1
2015: 0–2
2016: 2–0
Total: 6–6 (.500)
2013: 2–1
2014: 4–0
2015: 1–4
2016: 0–1
Total: 7–6 (.538)
2013: 6–3
2014: 5–4
2015: 5–2
2016: 2–0
Total: 18–9 (.667)
August: 1–0 (1.000)
September: 6–5 (.545)
October: 9–4 (.692)
November: 8–2 (.800)
December: 1–4 (.200)
(I’ve defined “big games” as games against Miami OH and Louisville, games against conference teams with 8+ wins that season, and bowl games.)
2013: 2–2
2014: 3–2
2015: 1–5
2016: 1–0
Total: 7–9 (.438)
(This stat does include FCS teams. You “must win” against FCS teams, Miami OH, and teams who were not bowl eligible that season.)
2013: 7–2
2014: 5–0
2015: 4–0
2016: 2–0
Total: 18–2 (.900)
(I don’t know what else to call these, but they’re the games that are talked about in the national media: Bowl games and games against ranked teams.)
2013: 0–2
2014: 0–2
2015: 0–2
2015: 0–1
Total: 0–7 (.000)
(Games against teams currently in a Power 5 conference.)
2013: 2–3
2014: 0–3
2015: 1–1
2016: 1–0
Total: 4–7 (.364)
(Games in which Gunner Kiel started and did not leave due to injury.)
2014: 6–2
2015: 5–3
Total: 11–5 (.688)
(Games in which Gunner Kiel started and left early due to injury.)
2014: 3–2
2015: 1–1
Total: 4–3 (.571)
(UC/Joseph Fuqua II)
In the 2015 edition of the Battle for the Victory Bell, redshirt freshman Hayden Moore committed four turnovers before collecting himself and driving the Bearcats down the field to victory in the fourth quarter. In the 2016 edition, redshirt freshman Ross Trail committed three turnovers before collecting himself and driving the Bearcats down the field to victory in the fourth quarter.
It was a maddening game for a bevy of reasons, but we pulled it out and there are a handful of things I’m pleased with. Here are the ups and downs:
Despite the rocky start to the season, the Bearcats are 3–1 with a chance to make a name for themselves against one of the conference’s better teams next weekend at Nippert. I think there are signs this team can be really good, and next week will be an opportunity for them to prove it.
UC-Miami 2013 (Madison Schmidt/News Record)
With the Battle for the Victory Bell looming this Saturday, I’ve seen the debate bubble to the surface on Twitter yet again. I hear it every year now: UC needs to do something about the Miami game. Why? Because for the last decade, not only have the RedHawks not been able to beat the Bearcats, but they haven’t been able to do anything else either. One winning season since 2005, poor attendance to go with fan support that has never been particularly strong, and the simple fact that they compete (or don’t) in the MAC, while UC has played major (or kinda-major) college football. The game is built into the Bearcats’ schedule, and it does very little to benefit them in the current landscape of college football. Let’s play athletic director and look at our hypothetical options.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, this is what will happen. If you’re an athletic director with 25% of your out-of-conference games scheduled for you, I bet you’re pretty happy. When the game is in Oxford, it’s a short ride for your team and a short drive for your fans to see a road game. When the game is in Cincinnati, you get yourself a nice little spike in attendance because it’s a “rivalry” game. Besides, eventually Miami is going to get better. They’ll always be a MAC school, but if you look at their history, the past decade has been an outlier for them. It’s unlikely they’ll remain this bad forever. At some point––like most MAC teams do––they’ll start winning. When they do, it’ll be nice to have a rival on the schedule who’s winning 10+ games. Besides, there’s way too much history in the rivalry.
There’s some merit to this one, but I’m not a fan. Playing the game every other year may mitigate some of the negative effects, but it’s also going to put a serious dent in a rivalry stretching back to the Grover Cleveland administration. Plus, imagine the scenario I mentioned above. Miami gets everything clicking and a perfect storm like 2003 comes to Oxford. They’re looking at 12 or 13 wins, and… UC doesn’t play them that season. No thanks. Sounds even more frustrating than the current set-up.
Easily the worst idea, and one that makes no sense. If this is your plan as hypothetical athletic director, you are nuts. Delete your account.
This is what the teams did from 1899 to 1970, and it worked at the time. Now that we’ve been alternating, you can’t go back. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. Miami would never agree to this, and I don’t really blame them. They’ve seen the benefits of bringing the game to Oxford, and they can’t afford to lose that completely. Besides, one of my biggest gripes with the rivalry is that Miami doesn’t have enough fans that care about football. Move the series to Cincinnati and that will get even worse.
Alright, here’s what I’m doing as hypothetical athletic director. It’s a more complicated set-up, and one that Miami won’t like, but they have no leverage at this point. UC should alternate two years at Nippert with one year in Oxford. After the last decade, it’s fair. When the game is at UC, it’s usually sold out or very close to it. It’s almost always broadcast on television, even if it’s just ESPNews (like this season). When the game is in Oxford, you’re lucky to hit 20,000 fans for a game broadcast on ESPN3, and then you have to drag your team and fans up there to make Miami money in the biggest game of their season. There’s no give and take. I went to the 2013 game in Oxford, and I swear UC brought more fans than the RedHawks average by themselves. It’s not fair. They’re lucky to win four games in a season, and now here comes UC with a bag of cash. If Miami starts winning eight or nine games again, we can switch back. Until then, this is what UC deserves if they’re going to keep this rivalry going.
I also like this option, especially when combined with Option 5. A major gripe among fans is that the RedHawks are so bad that playing them can only hurt us. I agree, and I think the best way to alleviate this is to cancel the annual FCS game for the time being. Treat Miami as the annual cupcake team and schedule three competent G5 or P5 teams to fill out the rest of the out-of-conference schedule. The issue with this solution is two-fold. 1) Now you have to pay a better team to come in place of an FCS team. 2) By eliminating the FCS game, you eliminate an automatic home game every year. To make Option 6 work, I think you have to combine it with Option 5.
The favorite option among Bearcats #HotTakers is to cancel the rivalry altogether. “You suck and we won’t play you!” I see the frustration, but I can’t bring myself to do it as hypothetical athletic director. You don’t cancel a rivalry after a lopsided decade. Miami didn’t do it to us when we were terrible. I know college football is different now and the conference landscape has all but cemented the RedHawks will be permanently beneath the Bearcats in stature, but we’ve seen enough rivalries cancelled because of expansion and TV money. I can’t imagine losing this one, too. Cancel the Miami game and Jimmy Nippert will roll over in his grave.
(Note: Now that I’ve written this, I’m fully prepared for Miami to beat us by 20 this weekend. Because karma.)
(UC/Joseph Fuqua II)
I’m not in the business of recapping a game everyone saw. If you want the rundown, check here. I’ll just jump right into positives and negatives.
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Overall, I’m not anywhere near to jumping off a bridge after that game. Through three games, this team, especially its defense, is much better than I anticipated. We’ve got some things to work on, to be sure, but if we play with the intensity of the Purdue and Houston games, we’re gonna do a lot of winning this season. The Battle for the Victory Bell is just around the corner, which is always fun. I’m having a hard time feeling down. Go Bearcats.
Ray Jackson lunges for a touchdown against Houston in a game on 10/7/2000. (AP photo)
We have ourselves a showdown. The #6 Houston Cougars are coming to Nippert Stadium on Thursday night. The Bearcats have a history of springing the upset, but let’s take a look at the history between Cincinnati and Houston.
All-time series record: Houston leads, 14–10
First meeting: 1957–58 season
Last meeting: 2015–16 season
Current streak: Houston won last meeting
Record in Cincinnati: Bearcats lead, 6–4
Streak in Cincinnati: Bearcats won last six meetings
Here is a look at some of the important games in the series history:
(Enquirer)
The first meeting between the two teams took place at Nippert Stadium, and the heavily-favored Cougars edged past the Bearcats thanks to a fourth quarter touchdown. “It was by far the greatest effort a Cincinnati team has shown in three years of Coach George Blackburn’s regime,” wrote the Enquirer’s Dick Forbes. The teams finished the season with matching 5–4–1 records.
(Enquirer)
In the first game of the series to take place in Houston, the injury-riddled Bearcats beat themselves with stupid mistakes. After a first quarter touchdown by Steve Rasso––who would later coach at St. Xavier High School and mentor a young defensive backs coach named Urban Meyer––the Bearcats missed the extra point. They tacked on another six in the second quarter on a touchdown grab by RB Ed Kovac, but the two point conversion failed. Houston slammed the door on the Bearcats offense in the second half and scraped out a win.
Cincinnati RB Errol Prisby dives for yardage in the first quarter, 11/28/1964. (AP photo)
The Bearcats got their first win in the series on the final day of the 1964 season in Houston. The win capped off an 8–2 campaign and a MVC Championship, the best year for the red and black in a decade.
Legendary Bearcats QB Brig Owens led the effort, and UC scored on its first possession and never looked back. The only Cougar score came on a desperation heave as time expired. RB Al Nelson––who would go on to a successful eight years with the Philadelphia Eagles––used the game to cap off his historic season. His 973 rushing yards were good for #1 in Cincinnati history and #4 in the country in 1964. His 13 rushing touchdowns were good for #2 in the NCAA (behind Brian Piccolo).
Bearcat defenders close in on Houston QB Gary Mullins, 9/25/1971. (Dick Swaim/Enquirer)
This was the first meeting since the 1968 season, where the #12 Cougars decimated the Bearcats in Houston, 71–33. This time the game was in Cincinnati, and the Bearcats were determined to put up a fight. UC kept the Houston offense at bay for three quarters, leading 3–0 heading to the fourth. On the first play of the final frame, UH scored a touchdown which they matched on their next possession. Cincinnati’s upset bid in Clifton fell short, but the Cougars haven’t won there since.
Bearcat RB David Small fumbles on the goal line, but UC would recover, 11/13/1993. (Tim Johnson/AP)
Between 1975 and 1993, the series took a long hiatus before Conference USA would bring the two together in 1996. A crowd of fewer than 11,000 people gathered at the Astrodome to see Houston get railroaded by the visiting Bearcats.
RB David Small was the game’s MVP, amassing an impressive 31 carries for 201 yards to go with four touchdowns, pushing him to first on the UC career rushing touchdown list (a spot he later surrendered to DeMarco McCleskey). UC buried the Cougars from the start, as Small tacked on his third rushing touchdown early in the second quarter to push the lead to 24–0.
Houston only managed a single win in 1993. It was a renaissance year for the Bearcats, who finished the season at 8–3, narrowly missing a bowl game but amassing their best record since 1976 and first winning season since 1982.
WR Cornelius Bonner celebrates with QB Chad Plummer after a first quarter 2-point conversion, 11/14/1998.
(AP photo)
The Bearcats were riding high following a decisive win over Utah State in the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl. The wheels fell off the following year, as the Bearcats lost their first nine games to open the 1998 season, in which they would finish with the nation’s worst defense. It was a nightmare for a program that seemed to be finally coming into its own. One Saturday afternoon in November, things turned around.
The Bearcats and Cougars started fast and played to a 14–14 tie after the first quarter, but Houston pulled away before halftime thanks to a 75-yard touchdown run and a 22-yard touchdown pass. UC tacked on a field goal on the half’s final play, but faced a 27–17 deficit at the break.
The Bearcats added a touchdown in the third quarter, but two impressive scores from the Cougars made it a 41–24 game heading into the final frame. UC was facing an 0–10 start to the season.
Then came the comeback.
McCleskey opened the fourth quarter with a touchdown run, bringing the game to 41–31. The defenses battled it out for nearly 10 minutes of game clock before Nathan Wize reached the end zone for another touchdown, bringing the score to 41–37. Looking for an extra point to make it a one-possession game, disaster struck as the Cougars blocked the kick and returned it 95 yards for two. Instead of needing a field goal, now the Bearcats needed a touchdown, down 43–37 with 4:19 left.
The Bearcats got the ball back and sophomore QB Deontey Kenner engineered the game-winning drive, completing all three of his passes to push the Bearcats 68 yards down the field where McCleskey punched it in to tie with a minute remaining. This time, the extra point wasn’t blocked and UC held on to win. Several hundred of an estimated 2,000 fans remaining at Nippert stormed the field.
“We had guys laughing, guys crying,” said Bearcat DT Kevin Ward. “Some guys were so confused, they didn’t know what to do.” Head coach Rick Minter called it one of the best games in Nippert Stadium history.
QB Munchie Legaux celebrates the conference title, 12/6/2014. (Mike DiNovo/USA TODAY Sports)
The two programs parted ways following the 2004 season, with Cincinnati moving to the Big East and Houston remaining in Conference USA. The Bearcats and Cougars met in Houston in 2013, their first meeting in 11 seasons. It was the 2014 game that was important. The Bearcats had beaten the Cougars four straight times and eight out of the previous ten. None of that mattered if they couldn’t pull out a win in chilly Paul Brown Stadium with an AAC Championship on the line.
The red and black opened the scoring as freshman RB Mike Boone found pay-dirt early in the game before Houston tied it later in the quarter on a run of their own. Two Gunner Kiel touchdown passes in the second quarter offset at Cougar field goal, and UC took a 21–10 lead to halftime.
After the first play of the second half, Kiel left the game with leg cramps and headed to the locker room for an IV. He wouldn’t return, so the game was on the shoulders of Munchie Legaux, the senior who was coming off a devastating knee injury in 2013. Boone and Houston QB Greg Ward Jr. traded rushing touchdowns in the third before Boone’s third TD of the game gave UC a 35–17 lead heading into the regular season’s final quarter.
The Cougars battled to make it a one possession game with a shot to tie, and drove all the way to the UC 11-yard line. The Cincinnati defense held, as Ward missed the end zone three straight times. The Bearcats were conference champs.
The win helped UC finish the 2014 regular season 7–0 to win its sixth conference championship in eight years.
Bearcats students and fans swarm the field following a 30–11 upset win over #7 Rutgers, 11/18/2008. (Mark Lyons/Getty)
As you may have heard by now, the Bearcats have a date with #6 Houston this Thursday night. There’s nothing quite like the opportunity to face a highly-touted team, because the potential for something magical to happen is endless. The Bearcats have nothing to lose. If they can’t find a way to derail the Cougar locomotive, nobody is going to hold it against them. Houston, on the other hand, has everything to lose. If this season goes just right, they’re looking at a potential College Football Playoff appearance. An early slip-up in Historic Nippert Stadium would almost certain put a hole in that balloon.
By all reasonable expectations, the Bearcats should not win this game. Top 10 teams should never lose to unranked teams. That said, the Bearcats have some recent history in springing the upset. Here’s a look at all the times Top 10 teams have come to Clifton.
Pre-BCS Bearcats football is usually something to shield your eyes from. The Bearcats are unique in that they’ve earned a reputation as a consistently successful team over the past decade despite the fact that the first 120 or so years of Bearcats football was a veritable wasteland of success. The ‘Cats stack up well with some of the best teams in the country since 2006, but it’s brutal looking back earlier than that.
Scenes at Nippert Stadium in 1942, dates unknown. (UC Libraries)
While the globe was wrapped up in World War II, the 1942 Georgia Bulldogs were the first AP-ranked team the Bearcats faced in program history. Georgia would go on to finish the season 11–1 with a Rose Bowl win, and were recognized by several publications as National Champions. (9–1 Ohio State was given the crown by the AP.) The Bulldogs raced out to a 21–0 lead in the first quarter, which essentially killed any hopes of an upset. The Bearcats were able to fight for the next 45 minutes and the score over the next three quarters was a very respectable 14–13. The Bearcats went on to finish 8–2 that year, becoming the best UC squad since the red and black went 9–1–1 in 1897. Because of the ongoing World War, there would be no Bearcats football in 1943 and 1944.
Cincinnati vs Florida State official game program
In November 1979, the Seminoles of Florida State ran out onto the Nippert Stadium AstroTurf as the first Top 10 team to visit Nippert Stadium in more than 37 years. The ‘Noles were led by Bobby Bowden in his fourth of 34 years as head coach in Tallahassee. A crowd of 14,539 gathered in Clifton and had no idea what they were in for. “Cincinnati just scares the daylights out of me,” said Bowden. His fear was justified. An early Bearcats turnover and a long touchdown drive put Florida State up 7–0 after the first quarter, but the tides quickly turned.
The Bearcats, having not registered a first down in the opening quarter, came to life. Tony Kapetanis was a scrambling QB, and would finish his career with 19 rushing touchdowns to just 10 through the air. He found freshman WR Ralph Williams for a touchdown, one of three TD passes on the season for Kapetanis. Following a quick fumble by Florida State, Kapetanis put another TD on the board for the Bearcats, this time on a nine-yard scramble. Late in the first half, a 39-yard run by RB Ellis Johnson helped to power a long touchdown drive that ended when Kapetanis plowed his way into the end zone again on a one-yard run. The Bearcats found themselves entering halftime with a 21–7 lead over the nation’s #6 team.
After a scoreless third quarter, Florida State woke up. Following a pair of fourth-down conversions, the Seminoles found the end zone. For some bizarre reason, they elected to attempt a two-point conversion and failed. The score was 21–13 in favor of UC with 11 minutes remaining. The ‘Noles engineered another long drive on their next possession, finding the end zone via the air again. They attempted another two-point conversion––this time to tie the game––and failed again. Clinging desperately to a 21–19 lead, the Bearcats mustered a first down on their next drive before being forced to punt.
In the pivotal play of the game, Seminoles punt returner Gary Henry returned the ball 38 yards and into Bearcat territory. Three plays later, Florida State was in the end zone for the game-winning score.
If this defeat weren’t crushing enough, the Bearcats lost in a nearly identical fashion the year before in Tallahassee. In that game, the Seminoles also enjoyed a 26–21 victory in which they also came from behind to escape the Bearcats. In 1978, the winning score came on a 4th-and-29 play with 1:29 remaining. (Thank God I wasn’t alive for that.) In 1979, the winning score came with 1:38 remaining. If it’s any solace, the Houdini maneuver didn’t impress voters, and FSU slipped to #7 in the following week’s poll. Florida State was happy. In the week following the game, they offered Bowden a $125,000 contract, which he signed.
The Bearcats finished just 2–9 in 1979, and the FSU loss was the first of a 12-game losing streak that stretched into the 1980 season. The Seminoles finished the regular season undefeated before losing to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
(Enquirer)
The #1 Miami Hurricanes, powered by eventual Heisman Winner Vinny Testaverde, made a stop at Nippert Stadium on their march to the 1986 National Championship Game. A sellout crowd of nearly 30,000 (the best in stadium history at the tiem) came out to see the nation’s top team, who was in the midst of a season where they steamrolled everyone they played.
The prior week, the Bearcats nearly sprung the upset on #5 Penn State in Happy Valley, losing 23–17. UC didn’t have enough ammo for the high-powered Hurricanes, who threw up 14 points in the game’s first two minutes. In all honesty, it could’ve been worse. The ‘Canes dropped 61 points on Texas Tech earlier that season, and 58 points on West Virginia the week before. Considering the ‘Cats were in the middle of their fourth of ten-straight losing seasons, they did well to keep this one respectable.
Miami eventually lost in the National Championship to the same Penn State team the Bearcats nearly knocked off.
How amazing is this picture? Richie Anderson dives over the line, 9/5/1992. (The Sporting News)
The first thing to know about this game is how bad the previous meeting in Happy Valley was. In 1991, the Bearcats lost at #5 Penn State 81–0. Seriously. Here’s proof. “It was a helpless feeling,” said head coach Tim Murphy about that game. “We were coming off seasons in which we went 1–9–1 and 1–10. And then that. We were groping for straws trying to keep the players together because we had nothing tangible to go on.”
“After that game,” said UC linebacker Nate Dingle, “I felt less than human.”
The Bearcats were outscored by opponents 132–16 in the first two games of the 1991 season, but Murphy was able to rally the troops to close the season 4–3, creating some momentum into the 1992 campaign in which the Bearcats opened the season at a newly-renovated Nippert Stadium in front of the Penn State team that humiliated them the year before. They wanted revenge.
The Nittany Lions strolled into a rainy Nippert Stadium ranked #8 on opening night, and a crowd of better than 29,000 came out to show support for the red and black. The Bearcats returned the game’s opening kickoff 69 yards, setting up a quick score. After getting shut-out in the previous meeting, the Bearcats led 7–0 against the 8th-ranked Nittany Lions.
PSU entered the game shorthanded, as starting QB Kerry Collins (yes, that Kerry Collins) broke his finger in August playing volleyball. The team’s backup QB, John Sacca, injured his throwing shoulder on a scramble in the second quarter. Turning to freshman QB Wally Richardson, the Nittany Lions were forced to scrap most down-field passing plays. Knowing Penn State would be leaning on their running game, the Bearcats stacked the box with as many as eight defenders, committing themselves to holding the hobbled PSU offense at bay. It worked, and the halftime score was 7–7.
In perhaps the turning point of the game, the Bearcats lined up for a 37-yard field goal with 10:30 remaining in the third quarter, aiming to take a 10–7 lead. Nittany Lion nose tackle Vin Stewart blocked the attempt, and the Lions drove 66 yards for a touchdown on the ensuing drive, putting PSU ahead 14–7. These kinds of swings in momentum are nearly impossible to recover from in upset bids.
In the fourth quarter, Bearcat RB David Small grabbed an 8-yard touchdown pass to bring UC to within three, 17–14. After Penn State jumped ahead 24–14, the Bearcats brought it back to a one-possession game on a 2-yard rush by QB Paul Anderson with 1:08 left. They couldn’t muster any late-game heroics, and again UC was on the short end of the stick in a shot at a monumental upset.
Like the Florida State game 13 years prior, the Bearcats near-upset knocked the opposition down the rankings, as Penn State fell from #8 to #10 in the following week’s polls. PSU fell apart in October that year, losing five of their final seven games en route to a 7–5 finish. The Bearcats closed 1992 at 3–8.
In 1994, Rick Minter took the reigns of Bearcats football. After a lousy 2-win effort in his first season, Minter managed winning records in 1995, ’96, and ’97. Things seemed to be on the up-and-up in Clifton, until a disastrous 1998 campaign that saw the Bearcats lose nine consecutive games to open the slate. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, the Bearcats lost at Nippert to FCS Troy State on September 11, 1999. Looming large the following week were the mighty Badgers…
QB Deontey Kenner (7) celebrates the upset, 9/18/1999. (Ernest Coleman)
The Wisconsin Badgers came to Nippert Stadium in 1999 surrounded by a ton of hype. RB Ron Dayne, en route to a Heisman Award and an NCAA career rushing record, was poised to steamroll a hapless UC team coming off a loss to FCS Troy State. Nearly 28,000 Bearcats faithful filed into Nippert Stadium expecting to see a bloodbath. Instead, they got their money’s worth.
Early in the second quarter, the Bearcats took a 7–3 lead on a 51-yard dash by senior RB Robert Cooper. Somehow, they never looked back.
Late in the fourth quarter, reality nearly came calling. Leading 14–12, UC defensive back Tinker Keck nearly intercepted a Wisconsin pass, but forced the Badgers into a fourth down. On the ensuing punt, Keck tried to field the ball inside his own 10-yard line and muffed it. Wisconsin recovered the ball, giving them incredible field position, trailing by just two points. On the second play of the drive, the Bearcats were able to jar the football out of the giant mitts of Dayne on the 2-yard line, getting themselves out of extreme danger. UC failed to score on the following drive, and were forced to punt. This time it was the Wisconsin returner who muffed it, and the Bearcats fell on the ball, eventually leading to a 41-yard field goal by freshman kicker Jonathan Ruffin that gave UC a 17–12 lead that would hold up.
Joy in Clifton.
Fans storm the field after the Bearcats knocked off #9 Wisconsin at Nippert Stadium on 9/18/1999. (Ernest Coleman)
Enquirer columnist Tim Sullivan wrote the following day:
Paul Klaczak had tried to plan for it. During an athletic department meeting last week, UC’s associate athletics director/operations had said if the students decided to storm the goalposts, he wanted campus security to get out of their way. The campus police laughed at his presumption, convinced the Bearcats were 26-point underdogs for a reason.
This was the same UC team, after all, that had lost the preceding Saturday to Troy State, a Division I-AA team presumably playing above its station. If the Bearcats couldn’t beat a podunk school like that, what business did they have on the same field with a Big Ten power such as the Badgers?
Answer: plenty.
Of all the improbable wins in Bearcats football history, this has to be the most unlikely. The ‘Cats pulled this one out of thin air. In the Enquirer, Mike DeCourcy laid it out:
Although the Badgers held the ball for 15 more minutes, gained 164 more yards, produced nine more first downs and drew 231 rushing yards from All-America tailback Ron Dayne, who played part-time because of an ankle injury, they left town with a defeat they could not have conceived.
UC students storm the field and bring down the goalposts, 9/18/1999. (Ernest Coleman)
Of all the bad luck UC has experienced over the years, this one seems awfully lucky. They escaped every bad break unscathed and relied on a few incredibly unlikely mistakes by the Badgers.
Wisconsin lost to #4 Michigan the following week, and then ran relatively seamlessly through a tough Big Ten schedule, finishing 10–2, winning the conference, earning a victory over Stanford in the Rose Bowl, and finishing the season as the AP’s fourth-ranked team. The Bearcats, after knocking off a championship contender, finished the season just 3–8.
“Is this an upset? Well, we’re not upset,” said Minter. “You’d have to ask someone else if it’s an upset.”
The Bearcats travelled to Madison the following season for a rematch with the #4 Badgers, but needed Nippert’s magic. They lost 28–25 in overtime.
Students and fans storm the field following the upset over Rutgers, 11/18/2006. (Brett Hansbauer)
Nine days before playing in Cincinnati, Rutgers knocked off #3 Louisville in New Jersey, launching themselves to #7 in the polls, right in the thick of the National Title conversation. On November 18, their hopes came crashing down in Clifton, inside a packed Nippert Stadium.
Senior QB Nick Davila, starting his first career game, piloted the Bearcats to an upset of college football’s newest Cinderella, the 9–0 Scarlet Knights.
Leading 3–0 late in the first quarter, a 38-yard pass from Davila to Derrick Stewart helped set up a 1-yard QB sneak for a touchdown early in the second quarter. The Bearcats were up 10–0 with some momentum.
Rutgers began to move the ball on the following drive, nearly working their way into the red zone. Facing a 3rd-and-2, Rutgers QB Mike Teel’s pass was picked off by DeAngelo Smith, who sprinted 84 yards for a touchdown, putting the Bearcats up 17–0. The Knights were in shock, and the halftime score was 17–3.
Late in the third quarter, the Bearcats received a punt at their own 17-yard line. One the first play from scrimmage, Davila flicked a pass to TE Brent Celek, who scampered 83 yards for a touchdown, pushing the lead to 27–3.
Rutgers finally found the end zone and grabbed a touchdown and a 2-point conversion, but the game was well out of reach. Bearcats students hopped the brick wall and prepared to storm the field after the final whistle:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogkBy9tdgkM[/embed] [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdukxMs6zck[/embed]
Ben Mauk uncorks a pass, 11/17/2007. (GoBearcats.com)
That’s right, the Bearcats once faced two Top 7 teams at Nippert Stadium in less than a calendar year. My, how times have changed.
The 2007 NCAA football season was wild. You may remember 2007 as the year #1 Ohio State lost their second-to-last game, at home, against unranked Illinois, and still worked their way back to #1 to appear in the National Championship. In September of that year, the West Virginia Mountaineers were ranked 5th and coughed one up to #18 South Florida in Tampa. Because of the massacre happening to Top 10 teams that season, all it took was a month for WVU to work their way back to #5 in time for a Big East showdown in front of a sold-out Nippert. The Bearcats were ranked that season for the first time since 1954, and the fans were hungry for a repeat of 2006’s upset win.
The high-powered WVU offense, led by QB Pat White and RB Steve Slaton, stormed down the field to take a 7–0 lead on their first possession. At the end of the opening quarter, the ‘Cats responded when QB Ben Mauk found WR Marcus Barnett for a 70-yard strike to even the score. The Mountaineers found the end zone twice more and entered the half with a 21–10 lead over UC.
The third quarter was scoreless, and West Virgnia scored again early in the fourth quarter to take a 28–10 lead with less than 11 minutes remaining in the game. The ‘Cats needed points, and they needed them in a hurry. Following the West Virginia touchdown, Mauk engineered a 71-yard drive of his own, capped by a 13-yard touchdown pass, again to Barnett. Two crucial fumbles by White allowed the Bearcats to hang around, and RB Bradley Glatthaar punched it in with two minutes remaining, bringing the score to 28–23. An onside kick attempt failed, and the Mountaineers survived Clifton.
The Bearcats got their schadenfreude two weeks later, as WVU choked against arch-rival Pittsburgh on the doorstep of a National Championship. The Bearcats won their final game in Syracuse, ensuring a bowl appearance, where they beat #23 Southern Miss.
LaDaris Vann outruns Purdue’s Ralph Turner for a 20-yard TD in the first quarter of a game on 9/2/01
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(AP photo)
This Saturday, the Cincinnati Bearcats pack their bags and head up to Purdue for the first time in their 131-year history. The 1–0 Boilermakers await, as the Bearcats look to calm the nerves of fans after a less-than-convincing 28–7 Week 1 victory over the UT-Martin Skyhawks. On their end, the Boilermakers cruised to a 45–24 win over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels and hope to keep momentum moving in the non-conference before a crushing Big Ten schedule greets them in October.
All-time series record: Tied, 1–1
First meeting: 2001–02 season
Last meeting: 2013–14 season
Current streak: UC won last meeting
Record in West Lafayette: N/A
Streak in West Lafayette: N/A
These two teams met for the first time in 2001, despite co-existing as programs since 1887. Considering just 181 miles separate Nippert and Ross-Ade, you’d think the two teams would’ve found time to play in those first 114 years.
To set the scene in 2001, the Bearcats were coming off a 7–5 campaign in 2000 that ended with a crippling loss to Marshall in the Motor City Bowl. They opened the 2001 season on September 2nd against Purdue. (The next week’s game was against––of all teams––Army, in New York just three days before 9/11.) Fans packed Nippert hoping to see a win against a Big Ten team. A sellout crowd of 35,097 was the largest in stadium history.
The fans got a treat. The teams traded long touchdown drives on their first possessions to knot the score at 7–7 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the UC defense bent but didn’t break, allowing field goals of 25 and 39 yards to enter the half trailing 13–7.
Purdue increased its lead with a 16-yard touchdown run by Joey Harris in the third quarter, but a failed two-point conversion left the score 19–7. The Bearcats answered back with a 17-yard touchdown pass to LaDaris Vann, his second of the game, to bring the score within five headed to the fourth.
On the last play of the game, a pass intended for Tye Keith is intercepted in the end zone, sealing the Purdue victory on 9/2/01. (AP photo)
Late in the fourth quarter, looking to take the lead and spring the upset, the Bearcats beat themselves. “In the most crucial play of perhaps the biggest football game in the school’s history,” wrote Bill Koch in the Enquirer, “The Bearcats grappled with the most basic element of the game — placing the proper number of players on the field.” Following a timeout, the Bearcats sent 10 men onto the field. The 11th, running back Ray Jackson, wasn’t able to scamper onto the field and get set in time, spurring an illegal shift penalty that negated a long fourth down conversion that would’ve put the Bearcats on the Purdue six yard line.
“It was a blunder,” head coach Rick Minter said after the game. “It really was.” Uhhh, yeah.
The Bearcats would get another shot at the upset on the game’s final play, but an Adam Hoover pass was picked off in the end zone and Purdue escaped with a 19–14 victory.
The teams would meet again in 2013. Again it was a season opener in Cincinnati, and again it was a sellout crowd. 36,007 fans––a new stadium record––packed Nippert Stadium on August 31st to see the first game of the Tommy Tuberville era.
They were not disappointed this time.
Freshman Tion Green finds the end zone in the fourth quarter of a game on 8/31/13. (Lisa Ventre/UC)
After a scoreless first quarter, QB Munchie Legaux found the end zone on a 10-yard scamper to give the Bearcats the lead. Purdue would equalize with 3:26 remaining in the half, but the Bearcats slammed on the gas, finishing the game on a 35–0 run for a 42–7 victory over the Boilermakers.
Scoring touchdowns were TE Blake Annen, RB Ralph David Abernathy IV, DB Adrian Witty, RB Hosey Williams, and RB Tion Green. Green notched his second career TD in that game, and faces Purdue on Saturday as a senior looking for number 18.
Saturday’s contest determines who takes the lead in this brief three-game series. Maybe Tuberville and crew can recapture 2013’s magic and lay a beating on the Boilermakers. I think the team, and the fan base, needs it. In 2001, the Bearcats followed a disappointing bowl game with a heartbreaking loss to Purdue. Last season’s Hawaii Bowl was a disaster. I’m not sure any of us can handle a tragedy in West Lafayette.
UC’s last loss to an FCS team, vs Troy State on 9/11/99, in front of 16,091 fans. [Ernest Coleman/Enquirer]
Never whine after a win. It can always be worse.
Here’s the thing: I understand that Thursday’s 28–7 win over FCS UT-Martin wasn't ideal. I understand that a weeknight game against an FCS team with the Bengals playing down the road meant attendance was the worst it’s been in a few years. I understand that the Bearcats allowed a long touchdown drive to start the game and looked sluggish through the first half, heading back to the locker room trailing 7–6. I understand they didn’t exactly slam the door in the second half, scoring 22 unanswered points but allowing many doubts to linger. I understand.
That said, watching (some) Bearcats fans melt down on Twitter Saturday afternoon as Houston (a very good team) blew the doors off of Oklahoma (another very good team) was frustrating. Houston has not beaten the Bearcats in 2016. Houston has not accepted a Big 12 invitation, leaving UC in the dust. Houston got a great win, we should be really jealous, and we should be itching to play a Top 10 team at Nippert Stadium in two weeks.
I’m not going to turn into the guy that calls people out, telling them how to be a fan or how to feel about their team. However, I feel that we need to put the past few days into perspective. Stick with me here, I’m going to try to make you feel better.
The Bearcats did not lose on Thursday. They won fairly decisively, and currently are 1–0 with many positives to look at. After the first drive, the defense looked surprisingly stout, allowing 248 yards, forcing three turnovers and a turnover-on-downs, and holding UT-Martin to zero points. (Last year, the Bearcats had three turnovers after three games.) Tion Green finished with one of the better games of his career after starting with a fumble, and looked reinvigorated in the new offense. Veteran Nate Cole impressed with six grabs for 66 yards and a touchdown. Newcomer Devin Gray made a splash with five catches for 111 yards. Avery Johnson had just two catches for 38 yards, but had an impressive TD called back after he couldn’t quite tiptoe the line.
The offense as a whole was far from pretty, but certain growing pains are to be expected. You can’t judge a new offensive system after a single game. The Eddie Gran era opened at UC with a 42–7 flogging of Purdue, and look how that ended. Now he’s at Kentucky, where his offense fell completely stagnant in the second half, helping to cost them a football game.
Speaking of Kentucky, here are the teams I’m glad I’m not a fan of after Week 1 of the college football season:
These are all programs that are where UC is trying to get (the Power 5) or where UC is trying to leave (the AAC). They all had miserable opening weeks. The Bearcats didn’t thrill me on Thursday, but let’s remember that it can always be worse. The Bearcats have been there. One rocky win isn’t a sign that we’re headed back.
The Bearcats are undefeated. Their first road game is very winnable, and will be filled with Bearcats fans. A Top 10 team has a date with Blackout Nippert in less than two weeks. UC is still a Big 12 expansion favorite. Cheer up. Let’s beat Purdue.