One week earlier, the UC Bearcats defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers in overtime at Milan Puskar Stadium (stay tuned for more on that later in the season) and had a short turn around before a game at Louisville. UC hadn’t beat Louisville since 2002, and in order to keep momentum and set up a “Big East Championship game” with Pittsburgh the next week.
On a rainy, cold, mid-November Friday night (in fact, the night before my own 20th birthday) near the banks of the Ohio River, UC and Louisville fought for the right to hold on to the Keg of Nails.
But before that even happened, there was controversy on the field. After Louisville entered the stadium, the Bearcats walked out to midfield, circling the Louisville Cardinal logo and said a prayer. After the game, Kelly and Kragthorpe had a discussion about the incident.
“I think we can all say the rivalry is back,” Kelly said. “There was a lot of emotion out on the field in this game.”
John Goebel scored with 6:29 left in the fourth to put Cincinnati up for good, 28-20. Dustin Grutza came in for the first time since breaking his leg against Oklahoma in early September, and led the Bearcats to that score. Tony Pike, the starter, completed 19 of his 33 attempts for 250 yards and two scores.
For Louisville, it was the first time since 1997 that the Cards had dropped three straight games, and Kragthorpe was taking heat from fans. “"We're not winning football games, and that's on me,” Kragthorpe said.
It was the beginning of the end for Kragthorpe, and another positive for Kelly. One year later, Kelly was moving to Notre Dame and Kragthorpe was cleaning his office out for Charlie Strong to move in.
For more on the 2010 matchup, stay tuned right here for the weekly preview where WPTS Sports Director Jake Meyer joins me to talk Big East football. It will be up before Thursday.
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