15 days until graduation

The countdown is getting smaller, and it’s hard to not think of one of the best moments in recent UC football history when you think of the number 15.

With less than a minute left on the clock at Heinz Field, Tony Pike, a hometown kid from Reading High School, stood behind center Chris Jurek with four wide outs to his left, and then-junior Armon Binns alone to his right.

Tony Pike (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)

A perfect season was on the line.

Pike throws (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)

I never, never say this before the ball is snapped, but I quickly glanced away from my camera screen and said to myself, ‘This is a touchdown.’

Binns lays out to make the catch (Cincinnati Enquirer photo)

Pike got the snap, lofted the ball toward the goal line, and the rest is history.

Pike celebrates (Cincinnati Enquirer)

I hope to come up with a top-ten list of college memories, and I’d have to tell you that this moment might be really, really high on that list.

So here’s to No. 15, Tony Pike, as a Bearcat, and the fact that in 15 days, I’ll be able to walk across the stage and call myself a graduate of UC.

UC players discuss Sugar Bowl loss

After going 12-0 and capturing their second straight Big East title the UC Bearcats headed to New Orleans to play in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Awaiting them was SEC runner-up Florida and all-everything quarterback Tim Tebow, playing his final collegiate game.

“We made Tim Tebow look great,” said junior tight end Ben Guidugli after practice on Tuesday. The loss was called “humbling” by numerous players who all told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bill Koch yesterday that the outside situation played on the team’s mindset before the game.

“It was just weird,” Guidugli told Koch, “with the coaches not knowing where they were going and the (returning) players not knowing what to expect after that game. Everybody wasn’t on the same page for that game. We made it that far and then to have everybody just kind of go their own way at the end was unfortunate, really.”

Brian Kelly left for Notre Dame less than a week after the Bearcats clinched the spot in the Sugar Bowl. Kelly stood on the stage at the team’s banquet, accepted the invitation from the Sugar Bowl representative there, and twelve hours later was standing in front of reporters in South Bend, Ind., proclaiming that Notre Dame was his team.

So UC picked up the pieces and named Jeff Quinn, offensive coordinator, as the interim head coach for the Sugar Bowl. Less than one week later, Butch Jones was hired away from Central Michigan (where he took over for Kelly when Kelly came to Cincinnati) but decided to not coach the Sugar Bowl, citing that he wanted to stay in the background, out of the way.

Jones at his introductory press conference stressed that he preaches "family" (Cincinnati Enquirer)

So Quinn went and applied for the vacant Buffalo head coaching job, and was hired before the Sugar Bowl, but Quinn announced he wasn’t leaving Cincinnati.

Quinn jokes with reporters outside a pre-Sugar Bowl press conference in UC's Lindner Center (Cincinnati Enquirer)

All in all, it made for some very tense situations. No one knew of anyone’s plans heading into the game, just as Guidugli suggested. Coaches were either going to Notre Dame or Buffalo, and some even might not have any idea what their futures were. Players didn’t know what to expect from the new regime, and everything showed in the 51-24 loss to Florida.

“It was a humbling experience,” said wide receiver Armon Binns—who hauled in the game winning touchdown pass in Pittsburgh. “It showed us that we can't let the situation of what was going on around us bring us apart. We have to come together in times of turmoil and stay close-knit, like we are now.

“I feel like we could have played with them,” he continued. “It wasn’t that they were that much better than us. Our heads just weren’t in it. There was a lot going on.”

And he’s right. It was one of the most awkward situations we’d ever faced in the video room. Coaches we’d grown to know over the past few seasons were packing up their offices, starting to put plans together to move out. It seemed to us like no one cared, as Binns pointed out.

This season, players and coaches have made it a goal to win the BCS game, if the Bearcats make it back there. Binns feels this team has the tools necessary to compete. “I think this team can be better than last year,” Binns said. “We’ve got the right guys. Guys are older. Guys are more experienced. I feel like this coaching staff is going to instill a certain kind of toughness in us that we might not have had last year.”

Cincinnati native JK Schaffer said, “We’re tired of going through the whole season winning and then ending on a bad note. We’re ready to step up to the next level and get to those BCS games and win them. It definitely gives us a little bit of motivation.”

With twelve practices left this spring the motivation is high for the two-time defending Big East champs. I’m sure we’ll find more storylines as spring progresses here in Cincinnati. Until then check out http://www.gobearcats.com/ for coverage and videos.

Bearcats improve to 12-0; win Big East Title in thrilling 45-44 win over Pitt

I’ve never been so dumbfounded in my life. Have you ever seen a game that was so back and forth, dominated by turnovers and odd plays? Two missed PATs, a kickoff return for a touchdown, heavy snow, a packed Heinz Field.

What more could we ask for?

A Dion Lewis run put the Panthers up 44-38 with two minutes left. Andrew Janocko mishandled the snap and was stopped short of the goal line. Tony Pike and the Bearcats responded, as they have all season. Pike to Gilyard, Pike to Woods, Pike to Binns for six.

Jake Rogers, who earlier missed a long field goal and a PAT of his own, put the ball between the uprights with 33 seconds left to put the ‘Cats up 45-44. The UC defense nearly picked off three Bill Stull passes before getting a game clinching sack on fourth down. All Pike had to do was genuflect to run out the last three seconds and the UC team stormed the field, donning brand new blue hats that proclaimed “2009 Big East Champions”.

How sweet it is…Sugar? Oranges?

It was a game that still has me shaking my head. How did that happen? How did we look shaky at times and come back from a deficit of three touchdowns at one point?

Early in the game it looked to be a shootout between Pike and the UC receivers and the freshman sensation Lewis. Lewis finished with 194 on a Big East record 47 carries and he scored three touchdowns for the Panthers who may end up in the Meineke Car Care Bowl or the Papajohns.com Bowl.

Pike threw for 302 on 44 passes. Pike threw an uncharacteristic three picks on the day. It was a tale of two different Tony Pike performances though. In the first three quarters Pike had flashes of last season’s Orange Bowl where he threw four picks.

In the first 45 minutes of play Pike threw 29 passes, completing only 11 for 174 yards. In the fourth quarter though, Pike turned it on, throwing only four incompletions, going 11 for 15 for 128 and the game winning score—a 29 yard strike to junior Armon Binns.

On that play UC lined up with four receiving options to Pike’s left, and Binns on his right. Pitt decided to roll their safety to the four wide side, leaving Binns one on one with defensive back Jovani Chapel. Binns blew by Chapel and Pike hit him.

It was almost surreal. But even more surreal was winning the game, driving home to see the throngs of students who were lined up to greet the players, and catching the final quarter of the Nebraska-Texas game. Most experts agreed that if Texas won, they’d be playing for the national title on January 7th.

Texas of course needed a last second 46 yard field goal to beat the Cornhuskers. Now Cincinnati and TCU will need help from the human polls and computer polls to leap the Longhorns to go to the BCS National Title Game. That game is played in Pasadena.

Armon Binns’s hometown of course? Pasadena, California. And with one catch Binns gave UC a shot to go there and play for all the marbles. We’ll see if voters agree tonight. (If not, I’ve got a little Nostradamus for you…You wouldn’t believe what I said 14 months ago, and how it has come true this season)