Kelly keeps rolling with “Next QB In”

In my second trip to Tampa Bay, Florida in three years I expected the expected from UC and USF. I should have known to expect the unexpected when it comes to UC football and quarterback injuries. By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the masterful job of Stuebenville’s Zach Collaros, who came into last week’s 34-17 win over South Florida for the Bearcats and led Brian Kelly’s team in the second half.

With a brand new computer program (Windows Live Photo Gallery) I was able to make a bunch of pictures into one. The next one will come from Syracuse, NY in a little over a week.

His signature move was a 75-yard touchdown scamper on a 3rd and 11 quarterback draw. With a playcall that made Doug Ramsey envious, Collaros followed a block from senior running back Jacob Ramsey and didn’t stop running. The ‘Cats took the lead 24-10, and didn’t look back after that.

Bottom line is UC wins, and takes a commanding step toward heading to another BCS Bowl game

Then the BCS rankings came out on Sunday and the UC Bearcats found themselves in 5th. National Title talks have been tossed around, people are in a “Bearcat craze,” and local radio station 700 WLW is running very inflammatory anti-Ohio State ads that would make even the slightest Buckeye fan cringe.

But back to seven nights ago. It was nothing new from Tampa Bay; the warmth of a summer day in the midst of a mid-October night, and of course, the Pirate Ship in the endzone.

The "Pirate Ship" at Raymond James Stadium, as viewed from the field

It was nice to see a near full-house at Raymond James Stadium. A crowd of 63,976 enjoyed watching Collaros go toe to toe with the kid he emulated the week before for the UC scout team, USF’s B.J. Daniels—who was as easy to tackle as a proverbial greased pig for the UC defensive line. It’s shaping up to be one heck of a rivalry in the near future.

But of course it was all about the here and now seven nights ago and Kelly’s out witting of USF defensive coordinator Joe Tresey—the same man who patrolled the UC sidelines for the past two seasons—was one whale of a battle. I almost would have paid to see it, but with my job, it was more along the lines of getting paid to see it. Bonus time…

Tresey (in the middle, in a white shirt) was dejected after the game according to reports, and he did not have a chance to talk to his favorite UC student video staffer

The final line read UC-34, USF-17, and Brian Kelly’s Bearcats moved to 6-0 on the year and 2-0 in the Big East. At the halfway point of the season the Bearcats are the national story of the year in the Big East, the state of Ohio and possibly the Midwest.

Can we keep it up in the next seven weeks? I’ll be back in tomorrow to tell you about my first home game as the endzone video guy in 2007. A game that has almost a scary comparison to this weekend’s game. We’ll see if you agree…