A Tale of Two Road Games

                I wasn’t planning to go to Tampa.  I really wasn’t.  The game was scheduled on a Thursday night, I couldn’t convince my normal travel group to make the trip and I really was broke.  In 2008/2009 I was spending every free dollar on Bearcat football.  Despite making it to 4 of the first 5 games of 2009 and 12 of the 14 in 2008 I was prepared to take this one off.  I can’t even remember how it happened, but I remember a guy I played a lot of pickup basketball with at the UC rec saying he wanted to drive down.  He said it would be a quick trip (he wasn’t exaggerating).  I said, what the hell, I’m in and just like that I was driving down to Tampa to watch the Bearcats play the #21 South Florida Bulls on a Thursday night. 

                When I tell you it was a quick trip, I’m not screwing with you.  We left Wednesday night.  We drove overnight, straight through.  We arrived at one of the people’s friend’s house around noon on Thursday.  We hung out at the pool for a few hours, then made our way into the city.  We tailgated briefly, then walked to Raymond James Stadium for the game.  We watched the game.  Took a few pictures after the game at the Pirate Ship, then got back in the car and drove back to Cincinnati.  We were home somewhere around 36 hours after we left.  But while we were there, we watched another memorable Bearcat performance.

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                It’s crazy how different life is in 2019.  I never even considered making the trip to Houston.  However, even if I had, that would have been vetoed immediately.  My wife’s friend had chosen this day to get married and my wife required my attendance.  With a 3:30 kickoff and a 5:30 wedding, I was generously looking at the prospect of watching the first half then figuring it out for the rest of the game.  Fall weddings remain the bane of my existence.  It was a great time, but it would have been a great time in the spring when I didn’t have to miss some snaps in a UC football game.  For a big midseason conference game on the road, I would be forced to watch what I could of the second half from my cell phone.  A far cry from 2009 when I drove nearly 2000 miles in 36 or so hours to watch in person.

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                In 2009, the Bearcats’ football schedule was backloaded with home games.  They opened the season with a win at Rutgers.  Their second conference game was this road trip to South Florida.  If they could somehow manage to beat the Bulls 4 of their next 5 games would be at Nippert.  The Bulls had opened the season 5-0 including a win at #19 Florida State.  They were ranked 21^st in the country and seen by many as a contender in the conference.  The game was in prime time, on ESPN on a Thursday night.  It was a big game and a huge opportunity.  A win and the Bearcats would be 2-0 having already beaten two potential contenders for the conference championship on the road with a run of home games to come.  If they managed to win, it was hard to see the Bearcats losing before WVU came to Nippert for their second to last conference game.  At that point an undefeated season would be well within their sights.

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                Though this Houston team didn’t come in with the pedigree of South Florida in 2009, it was a similar opportunity for putting UC in the driver’s seat in the conference.  Having already beaten UCF, this figured to be UC’s toughest test before a home tilt with Temple late in the season.  After this week the schedule really opened with a home game against Tulsa, then drawing the three bottom east teams after the bye week.  With that slate of games, winning at Houston could really set UC up so that they could lock up the division at home against Temple.  Because of all the oddities surrounding Houston this had the makings of a trap type game, but the opportunity to set their season on a great course would be there. 

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                There was a really good crowd at Raymond James Stadium.  The place wasn’t full, but I’d bet there were 50,000+ there that night.  I was surprised how many UC fans flooded the upper deck.  A really fun contingent had made the trip.  UC fell behind 7-3 in the first quarter, but as they had done often that year they started to separate in the second quarter.  UC scored a touchdown after an interception put them on a short field to go up 10-7, then scored another TD on a long touchdown drive when Pike found Armon Binns to go up 17-7.  The Bulls added a field goal and UC took a 17-10 lead into the locker room.  However, early in the second half Tony Pike would be forced to leave the game with an injury and the game was very much in doubt.  The Bearcats would have to turn to sophomore Zach Collaros to hold on to the 17-10 lead. 

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                It looked like we might get another repeat of Marshall early against Houston.  The Bearcats met almost zero resistance in marching down the field for an opening drive TD.  The big play on the drive was a 44 yard connection between Ridder and Pierce.  After an interception on their second drive set up a field goal for Houston, the Bearcats struck immediately with a 75 yard TD pass to an utterly wide open Rashad Medaris.  However, the offense seemed to go into a shell for the rest of the half.  The Bearcats punted on 3 straight possessions, where they moved the ball a total of 17 yards.  Houston found the endzone on one of their drives, but the defense set up the offense again for a short field and UC capitalized allowing them to go into half with a 21-10 lead.  Despite the offense puttering for much of the half, the game seemed fairly well in hand. 

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                The Brian Kelly era is certainly the pinnacle of Bearcat football in my lifetime.  UC was in a BCS conference, ended up winning the conference twice in three years, going to two BCS bowls and ran up a 34-6 record in games Kelly coached.  The Brian Kelly era was known for winning, constant winning.  However, if there is another thing that seemed to constantly pop up during Kelly’s time at UC it was dealing with injuries to their quarterbacks. 

                The first season, much of that was brought on by the decision to bring in Ben Mauk.  Mauk was an injury plagued, graduate transfer from Wake Forest.  Mauk was incredibly fun to watch and played with a swagger that instantly endeared him to UC fans.  Who could forget him chopping wood at Rutgers?  However, I remember constantly reading stories about Mauk missing time in practice, or Mauk throwing a smaller ball to protect his arm during the week.  Despite ongoing injury concerns Mauk managed to start nearly every game that year, but when he was unable to go Dustin Grutza filled in admirably.  Grutza started and helped dominate when UC destroyed Miami and started and split time with Mauk in a dominant win against Marshall the next week.  Mauk battled through those injuries playing most the way the rest of the season. 

                2008 will forever be defined by winning the Big East Championship and making the Orange Bowl, but it was incredible for the QB issues UC faced game after game.  Grutza started the year as the man and in his second game at Oklahoma had a very good first half as UC tried to keep up with an incredible Oklahoma offense, getting it to the locker room at 21 to 13.  Grutza was knocked out of the game in the second half with what looked like a season ending injury and the Bearcats turned to Tony Pike.  Pike came in and kept the Bearcats rolling against Miami only to suffer an injury of his own the next week at Akron.  Pike would have to have surgery and miss 3-4 weeks.  The Bearcats replaced him with Zach Collaros, who helped finish a drive that got them in position for a field goal which turned out to be the game winner.  However, Zach wouldn’t keep the job.  The next two weeks the Bearcats turned to Chaz Anderson pulling out wins over Marshall and Rutgers (the later will forever be the Kevin Huber game to me…a real punt fest).  Pike attempted to come back to disastrous results against UConn, but was able to get it together for the end of the season, starting every game in the Bearcats’ five straight wins to lock up the conference.  Ultimately, he would struggle in their final game against Hawaii and Dustin Grutza would come back from the injury to lead a great fourth quarter comeback.  Four QBs, each contributing to wins in an 11 win season, culminating in an Orange Bowl.

                In 2009, Tony Pike had taken every meaningful snap going into the USF game.  UC was rolling and he was a huge reason why.  Up until that point, the only time UC fans had watched Collaros was that brief stretch at Akron.  And so it was, that Zach Collaros stepped in against USF, hoping to hold onto a 17-10 lead, on the road against the number 21 team in the country.

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                The talented USF defense seemed ready to make a play, when Collaros entered the game at QB.  The Bearcats ran the ball twice to start his day.  Pead lost a yard then Collaros ran for no game.  UC faced a third and eleven on their own 25.  Then came what I still consider the biggest (non Pitt game) play of the 2009 Bearcat football season.  I remember watching the play from the upper deck at Raymond James Stadium and the elation flowing through me as I saw the field open up.  Collaros took the snap and UC ran a designed sneak.  He caught a couple of blocks upfield, then sprung free.  He had a first down and was in a footrace for the endzone.  Collaros prevailed in the footrace giving the Bearcats a 24-10 lead they would never look back from. 

                Zach would later throw an interception and set USF up for a short TD drive to make it 24-17.  He immediately responded with a six play, 70 yard touchdown drive of his own.  On the drive he ran twice for 14 yards including his second TD rush of the day.  He completed a 43 yard pass to Ben Guidugli and a 15 yard pass to Isaiah Peed.  After the defense forced a three and out Collaros would lead the Bearcats on another long drive, this time settling for a FG to put UC up 34-17.  That would be the final score.  Pike had gone down and Collaros had answered the bell.  He would do so time and time again that season until Pike’s return.  The Bearcats were 2-0 in the Big East, having already beaten two contenders on the road.  They had a lot of games at Nippert on the horizon.  The feeling that this team could run the table and even be in the national title hunt was building. 

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                Houston came out in the second half against Cincinnati determined to make it interesting.  On their 4^th play of the drive they connected for a 69 yard TD to cut UC’s lead to 21-17.  The teams traded punts, before UC missed a field goal on its second drive of the half.  UC’s offense had failed to score on 6 of its last 7 drives.  Its only TD came courtesy of the defense forcing and interception and giving UC a very short field.  UC’s biggest issue and the one glaring thing that holds this team back right now is the offense goes through stretches where it is very ineffective.  However, this season when that has happened (outside of the OSU game) the defense has bailed them out.

                And that is again what happened Saturday.  After UC missed its field goal, the defense forced a fumble.  The Bearcat offense capitalized going 34 yards in 7 plays for a touchdown.  However, Houston struck back with a TD of their own to make it a five point game.  They missed the two point conversion that would have cut it to three.  Nine minutes left in the game and everything was very much in doubt.  It was good to see the Bearcats respond with at least a field goal on their next drive.  Tre Tucker had a nice return and despite two penalties before the ball was even snapped, the Bearcat offense overcame the 1^st and 20 picking up a few first downs before kicking a field goal to go up eight.

                By that time the cocktail hour at the wedding had ended and I was sitting at the table as salad was being delivered, with my phone in my lap and youtubetv streaming.  I was trying not to make it noticeable, but my wife made a few annoyed comments about it.  No surprise the Bearcat defense came up with another huge play to ice it.  The pass was deflected behind the line of scrimmage and Perry Young ran under it as if that was how the play had been designed the entire time.  He caught the pass and waltzed into the endzone.  UC fans could breathe easy. The Bearcats were escaping Houston with a hard fought win.  I threw my fist in the air and did a couple fist shakes, before putting my phone away for the rest of the wedding. 

                As the Bearcats enter the back half of their schedule, it is hard not to start looking ahead.  The next four are against probably the four worst teams in the conference.  Tulsa has shown flashes, but UC gets them at home.  A trip to ECU after a buy week should be scare free and UConn might as well not even get off the bus on November 9.  USF has shown some signs of life, so that game on November 16 may be a bit scary when it gets there, but as we stand it’s hard to imagine UC not going into the Temple game 9-1 with a chance to clinch the Eastern Division of the AAC.  UC’s win at Houston successfully got them through a potential land mind, and now the next four games are about taking care of business against lesser teams.  If they do, they’ll set up an exciting last 2 (hopefully 3 games including the AAC Championship) and an opportunity to be playing in a major bowl for the first time since 2009. 

Are We Ready to Believe?

                We thought this could be a special season for the Cincinnati Bearcats.  Last year’s 11-2 ascension seemingly came out of nowhere.  That wasn’t happening this year.  UC had a target and the look of one of the favorites in a deeper than ever American Athletic Conference.  The Bearcats were very up and down to start the year, but beat the teams they should have beat to keep their season on track.  The trip to Marshall gave a taste of what could be and then Friday night, in front of a sell out crowd at Nippert stadium the Bearcats made us believe.  The Bearcats became the first AAC team the last 3 seasons to beat UCF and in doing so put themselves firmly in the AAC conference race.  Friday night at Nippert was a celebration of Bearcat football and hopefully a return to something truly special.

                It really started a week prior.  We were waiting for this Bearcat football team to give a top performance from beginning to end.  That Saturday night in Huntington, West Virginia they delivered.  Most Bearcat fans thought Marshall would be a real test.  They went to Boise State and held Boise State to 14 points, losing by a touchdown.  They were the favorite in Conference USA.  The Bearcats dispatched with the Thundering Herd before you could even blink.  It was the kind of performance UC hasn’t really delivered despite their success the last two seasons.  Too often UC has started slow and sluggish.  This time they scored nearly every time they touched the ball running out to a 42-0 lead and never looking back.

                What I really appreciated about the Marshall performance was UC going against tendency early in the game.  Too often UC has started slow, running into stacked fronts, not pushing downfield when teams sell out to stop the run.  Against Marshall they came out and put pressure on the back of the Marshall defense.  Ridder delivered with maybe his best overall performance as a Bearcat.  UC ran out to a huge lead and the running game was as affective as always as the game went on.  That win set up Friday at Nippert, an opportunity for the Bearcats to get their first win over a ranked team in a decade (since 2009 in fact, where the Bearcats beat 3 ranked teams on their way to an undefeated season).

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                Our tailgate group has gotten smaller in recent years.  I do think the Tuberville era is a part of it as it got less fun for many to come to Nippert.  The other issue has been people moving out of town making it harder to get to the game.  This week instead of setting up our own tailgate behind Martinos where we have been tailgating for a decade, we joined up with another tailgate on The Grid.  I’ve been on The Grid a few times, but never for a full tailgate.  UC has just done a great job with it.  The place is packed and active.  The catwalk is amazing.  It was great getting to party on The Grid. 

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                The story of the first half was the Cincinnati defense in the redzone.  For a half, UCF moved the ball up and down the field.  The first drive was largely aided by penalties, but time and time again in the first half UCF moved into scoring position.  And nearly every time the Bearcat defense held.  UCF settled for a field goal on their first drive.  Then on the second drive they marched down the field again before a Cam Jefferies INT at the goal line and big return flipped the field.  In the second quarter UCF had drives of 10 plays and 8 plays end in field goals.  Their only touchdown came on a short field (12 yards) after a Ridder interception.  Though UC trailed 16 to 10 at the half, the defenses ability prevent touchdowns had kept them in the game.

                I thought the offensive gameplan was conservative and put UC at risk in the first half.  Like UCF, UC’s only first half touchdown came on a short field after forcing a turnover.  Other than that, the Bearcat offense did very little all half and seemed reluctant to challenge UCF down the field.  UC’s first two drives ended with 2 yard dump offs to Michael Warren on Third and 10 and third and 14, respectively.  On their final drive of the half UC could have at least taken a shot at the endzone with a Hail Mary, but chose to go in the locker room down 6.  It was a generally frustrating game plan from the offense, but the defense had kept UC in it by preventing touchdowns and creating the only UC touchdown drive by giving them a 16 yard field.  And it turned out, the Bearcat defense would be even better in the second half.

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                And Nippert was rocking.  The energy of the crowd was felt from kickoff until the final snap.  The students were there and loud early.  Every third down, hell almost every down, the crowd was in it, making noise and trying to help disrupt the UCF offense.  I sit in the corner of the endzone near the field and the noise on the field is always evident from that spot.  As someone who has been lucky enough to travel the country and visit some great stadiums, it’s always impressive how truly exceptional Nippert Stadium can be. 

Photo From @chadbrendel https://twitter.com/ChadBrendel/status/1180503929462951936

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                That energy was in full force in the second half, when the Bearcat defense suffocated the great UCF offense.  However, it was the offense that got things started.  The Bearcats came out aggressive in the second half completing their first two passes and quickly moving into UCF territory.  Those completions lead to some success running the football.  Ultimately the drive stalled largely because of a holding penalty, but the Bearcats kicked a field goal to get within three.  

                The Bearcat defense really took over from there.  They forced two straight three and outs where UCF lost 21 yards.  Then on their third drive of the second, Gabriel tried to throw a quick pass to the sideline and Ahmad Gardner made the play of the season to this point, stepping in front of the pass and taking it to the house.  Suddenly UC had a lead.  UCF had the ball 5 times in the third quarter.  They lost 21 yards in the first 3 possessions and threw a pick six.  They had 1 first down in the quarter, punted 4 times and were intercepted 1 time.  This might have been the single best quarter of football I’ve ever seen a Bearcat defense play.

                Then on the last play of the third quarter the truck busted free.  A couple quick cuts and Warren was into the open field.  The end of the play was particularly great as his last cuts forced to pursuing defenders to take each other out, colliding into each other.  The Bearcats then scored on the first play of the fourth quarter when Ridder found Alec Pierce in the corner of the endzone.  Just like that UC was in control. 

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                It only took the dominant week one win over Rutgers for most UC fans to realize 2009 could be an incredibly special season.  This was the week when that idea became real in 2019.  UCF made the game interesting at the end.  They had a quick touchdown drive and two point conversion to get within three.  UC got the ball back trying to run the clock out.  Twice it looked like they picked up the first down but twice the refs spotted the ball just before the sticks.  That left Fickell with a fourth down decision that I don’t really believe was a decision at all.  UC needed a few inches to ice the game.  They lined up and got those few inches.  Despite my concerns regarding the staff too often being passive and playing to tendency on offense, this is the kind of situation where they always make the right call.  They trust their guys to finish instead of putting the game in the hands of the opposing offense.  The staff has a ton of great qualities, but this is one that has consistently stood out. 

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                Weeks 4 and 5 in 2009 were less interesting than this year.  UC took care of Fresno State at home then went to Miami and beat the Redhawks for a 5^th straight season.  Five games in and the Bearcats were finished with their nonconference slate.  Similarly, the Bearcats have finished their nonconference slate this season.  From here on out, the Bearcats will be playing conference games.  They likely need to run the table to have a shot at a major, New Year’s Bowl.  In 2009 the Bearcats were facing a trip to Tampa against the 21^st ranked South Florida Bulls.   This year’s Bearcats head to Houston, a team many thought would contend in the league, one capable of scoring in a hurry.  Next week is an enormous game, particularly when it comes to winning the east.  A win and suddenly UC has a slate where they can run off some wins before the two huge games to close the season.  A win next Saturday and a Division Championship will be firmly in their sights.