No. 10- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/10-days-until-graduation.html
No. 9- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/nine-days-until-graduation.html
No. 8- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/eight-days-until-graduation.html
No. 7- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/one-week-until-graduation.html
No. 6- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/six-days-until-graduation.html
No. 5- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/five-days-until-graduation.html
No. 4- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/four-days-until-graduation.html
No. 3- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/three-days-until-graduation.html
No. 2- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/two-days-until-graduation.html
Moment 1: “The Game” (Dec. 5, 2009)
It was cold and somewhat snowy when I opened the shades in the Pittsburgh hotel room I was sharing with fellow video team member J.P. Hummer. My dad had just texted me to say that he and my mom were up and headed to breakfast on a chilly morning.
I’d hoped for the best, but I knew it was going to be a tough battle. We were on the brink of a perfect season and a shot at the BCS National Title game. These were unforeseen and nearly unbelievable times in the Cincinnati football program. And I was in the center of it all.
We packed the meeting rooms up, and headed down to the buses to put away our things. In just hours, the ball would be kicked, and the 60-minute journey to perfection would be right in front of our very eyes.
Setting everything up at Heinz Field was just like normal: I headed to my endzone area, two guys headed to the TV truck, and John Sells, video coordinator, headed to his spot in the sideline video booth. Minutes later we all hooked up in the Heinz Field pressbox for breakfast.
WPTS Sport Director Jake Meyer, a good friend of mine, met me there. The previous night Jake and I hung out and watched the MAC title game, featuring a highly-touted Central Michigan squad, led by quarterback Dan LeFevour and head coach Butch Jones. The Chips defeated Ohio University, and little did any of us know the significance of that game at the time.
Jake and I made our way to the radio booth where I met his co-anchor for the day, Dan, who I’d talked to on the radio earlier that week when I was a live guest on Jake’s weekly sportscast on WPTS radio in Pittsburgh.
For three years I called into the radio show, live from practice. Dan and Jake asked me what it would take for UC to defeat the Panthers. When I got into the radio booth that morning to chat with the guys, Dan said, “The first one to 45 wins this game.”
Funny how things work out some times.
I headed down to the field to join my actual co-workers with about 45 minutes until kickoff. ‘If this is the biggest game I’m ever a part of,’ I thought, ‘I might as well go down on the field and soak in some of the atmospohere.’
I talked to some local news folks on the field, including WCPO sports anchor Dennis Janson, who was about to go live for a one-hour special preceding the game on ABC. DJ was one of the nicest guys I had the opportunity to work with at Channel 9, so I stopped by and said hello.
Oh, and then there was a game to be played. I found my way back up to my film booth, which was somewhat heated, but since we had the front windows open it wasn’t the warmest place in the world. However, I felt bad for the folks sitting out in front of us.
And I felt bad for my mom and dad, who, for some reason, got stuck in the very top row of Heinz Field. I thought my dad was kidding when he sent me a text that said, “Look out to your left. We’re in the top row of seats.”
Holy cow, they were. (“It was colder than hell,” my mom will still tell you)
When the game kicked off it was business as usual. Start recording, watch the play, stop recording. Repeat. It’s what I had done all season, nothing new.
Except the fact that what we hadn’t done all season was get beat, like a drum. We were tied after one quarter at 7-7, but in the second the Pitt Panthers decided that the Bearcats of Cincinnati didn’t deserve the perfect season we had our sights on. The rattled off three touchdowns and a field goal, and led 31-10 with 1:26 showing on the clock in the second quarter.
Brian Kelly, who had his sights on a job in South Bend, was suddenly looking like a normal human being, not the super coach that every national media outlet had made him out to be.
After the touchdown that put Pitt up 31-10 I received a text from John Sells, my boss. While I forget exactly what it said, the message basically said, “This one is over. We’re going to Charlotte, bye bye BK.”
I wanted to respond, but I just couldn’t think of anything to say.
And I didn’t have to say much, because seconds later the play on the field said it all.
Mardy Gilyard stood on the UC goal line with a perfect season in his hands. He received the kickoff, and the rest, as they say, is history. The play that saved the perfect season took all of 16 seconds. Gilyard covered 99 yards and sprinted into the endzone away from me for a Bearcat touchdown.
“Why are you so negative?” I immediately responded to Sells.
From there, the momentum shifted. But it wasn’t the final time momentum would shift in the game.
With 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter an almost perfect Jake Rogers missed a PAT attempt to bring UC within seven. The Cats trailed Pitt 38-30. (Highlights from ESPN.com can be seen here: http://espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=293390221)
With less than six minutes left the Bearcats had the ball on the one yard line. Zach Collaros, who had played masterfully in replacement of Pike when Pike re-injured his left arm earlier in the year, came in to run the UC offense on the goal line. He handed the ball on a read option to Isaiah Pead for six. We trailed by two.
And who stepped up on the two-point conversion? None other than Mardy Gilyard.
Pike flipped the ball to Gilyard for two points, and the score was tied with 5:46 left in the game.
Pitt’s Dion Lewis punched the ball in from five yards with 1:33 left on the clock, leading my counterpart at Pitt to look at me and say, “Damn, bro, this is crazy! I think we left you with too much time though.” There was too much time for Pike and Gilyard to tie the game and send it into overtime.
Enter Andrew Janocko, Pitt’s third string back-up quarterback, and PAT holder. Janocko bobbled the snap and Dan Hutchins couldn’t put the PAT through the uprights. Pitt still led 44-38, but they needed to keep UC out of the endzone if they wanted to keep their hopes of securing the Big East title alive.
But with 33 seconds left on the clock Pike stood behind center Chris Jurek with four wide outs to his left and Armon Binns to his right. Binns, a junior from Pasadena, Calif., was only looking at one cover corner on his side of the field.
I don’t normally do this, but I glanced away from my camera for a split second and looked down at the field. ‘Oh…my…God. He’s singled covered!’ I thought. ‘Throw it to Binns Tony, throw it to Binns. This is a touchdown.’
Pike got the snap and lofted the ball for the right corner of the endzone. It fell into the arms of Binns in stride. The crowd in front of me—mainly Cincinnati fans—was pumped.
Pike celebrates (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)
Jake Rogers came on and nailed the PAT, leaving my counterpart from Pitt to once again utter, “Damn bro. This has been one of the craziest games I’ve ever seen.”
I couldn’t agree more.
When Pitt got the ball back with 33 seconds remaining in the game, they had to throw the ball. Bill Stull was pinned on his own 18-yard line, and Bob Diaco, whose defense had been torched all day on the ground, sent out the best pass coverage guys he could get on the field.
Stull’s first pass dropped incomplete. His second fell to the turf, also incomplete. On third down he turned to Jonathan Baldwin, who had been a stud for the Panthers all season; that pass also went incomplete. With just ten seconds remaining, Stull dropped back with the game on the line.
The Cincinnati Bearcats celebrate after defeating Pitt in 2009 (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)
He was sacked by Alex Daniels to end the game. Someone in front of me popped a cork on a champagne bottle. The party was on.
I leaned out of the video booth and waved at my mom and dad. I got the thumbs up from my dad. We had done it, so long as Tony Pike didn’t give the next snap to Pitt and let them run it into the endzone.
Brian Kelly sent the offense out onto the field and Pike took a knee. The clock said 0:00, UC-45 Pitt-44. For the second straight year I was headed to a BCS bowl game as the Big East champion.
Kelly and Jeff Quinn share a hug after beating Pittsburgh. (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)
“Good luck wherever you end up,” said my counterpart from Pitt. “And represent [the Big East] well.”
“Same to you guys,” I said as we left the video booth.
I walked down a few steps and my mom and dad were waiting. I think my mom hit me numerous times saying, “I drove all this way and you guys almost lost!”
Almost.
I said goodbye to them and headed down the elevator toward the locker room to set my stuff in the equipment truck. The first person who greeted me was co-worker Joe Stanek.
The Big East champs hold their title in the locker room (from the Twitter account of Tom Gelehrter aka Tommy G)
He picked me up and gave me a huge hug. “Can you believe we did it!” he said, as excited as I was that we were a part of something so very special.
I’m not sure what my response was, but I know it’s almost unbelievable still. We were a part of one of the best college football teams in America that season.
And that, is the best moment I’ve ever been a part of in the past four years at UC.
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Disagreements? Comments? Concerns? Questions? Leave a comment below, and as always thanks for reading.
Check back tomorrow on graduation day for a special post. This has been a fun countdown to produce and organize. You’ve seen the good and the bad, the happy and the sad moments that I’ve lived through the past four years. These posts are only a small look into what I’ve experienced in the past four years, but it’s been a blast. I can’t wait to put some more memories in as I go through grad school. One more game like this one wouldn’t be too bad.
Have a good Friday.
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