The Announcing Flow Chart

We here at Sports Blog Cincinnati love Thom Brennaman and his dad, but we do not agree with his choice to fantasize about Tim Tebow while he is on the air.  If ol' Thom would like to continue broadcasting our Reds' games, he may want to find a new college quarterback to fantasize about.  Zach Collaros anyone?Thanks to Mo Egger for the flow chart. 

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.

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.