12 Days until graduation

On February 17, 2008, Ryan Newman and his father teamed up for the biggest win of Newman’s career. Newman, driving the No. 12 for Roger Penske, won the 50th Daytona 500, with his dad as his spotter.

Newman no longer drives the No. 12, and in fact, no one is driving the No. 12 this season at NASCAR’s highest level, but that moment in 2008, during the winter of my freshman year of college, was one of the coolest Daytona 500 moments I’ve seen in a long time.

I had the pleasure of watching the Daytona 500 with my dad, and of course, as only I could, thought, ‘Gee wouldn’t it be cool if my dad and I could do that one day?’
That of course will never happen, unless I suddenly find myself a top-notch ride in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but it was certainly an awesome moment in NASCAR’s history that evening.

It just wouldn’t be the graduation countdown without mentioning the No. 12’s role on the gridiron for the UC Bearcats the past few seasons. In a 2008 game against Akron in the final season of the, uh, well, infamous Rubber Bowl, Tony Pike went down with a broken arm. Who stepped in to lead the eventual Big East champs to a win?

Steubenville, Ohio’s own Zach Collaros.

Collaros's run against USF was a key moment in the '09 season (Getty Images for Yahoo! Sports)

Collaros also subbed for Pike in the 2009 game in Tampa, Fla., against the South Florida Bulls. On the third play he was in the game the then-redshirt junior took a quarterback draw 75 yards to paydirt, helping turn the tide in what was the second straight Big East title winning season for the Bearcats.

Collaros put up wild numbers against UConn (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)

Collaros started the next four games (Louisville, Syracuse, UConn and West Virginia) in place of Pike, whose arm was again too battered to play with, and won all four. He put up staggering numbers against UConn, torching the Huskies for a video game like 555 yards, including 447 passing yards (second best in schools history).

Is your head spinning yet? I’ll slow down and let you catch up.

So, with 12 days until UC congratulates the class of 2011 on receiving their diplomas, I tip my cap to Ryan Newman’s emotional Daytona 500 win on Feb. 17, 2008 and Zach Collaros’s efforts as UC quarterback in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Oh, and Collaros is back in 2011. You’ll probably hear about him a few more times.