Quarterbacks White and Mauk put on show in 2007 WVU-UC game

Ben Mauk picked apart the West Virginia defense to the tune of 323 yards and two touchdowns while his counterpart Pat White ran for 155 yards and two touchdowns of his own two years ago when the Mountaineers visited Cincinnati. West Virginia took the game 28-23 and handed the Bearcats their third and final loss of the 2007 season.

It was also the last time Brian Kelly and the ‘Cats lost a home game.

West Virginia rushed for 295 yards total and held onto the ball for just over 36 minutes, keeping Mauk and the high powered Bearcat offense off the field. Mauk completed 19 of his 34 throws for an average of 17 yards a completion.

It was once again the Marcus Barnett show for the ‘Cats. The redshirt freshman from Upper Marlboro, Maryland caught ten of Mauk’s passes for 210 yards. He scored both touchdowns through the air.

West Virginia’s 3-3-5 “stack” defense—which became a staple under then Mountaineer and current Michigan Head Coach Rich Rodriguez—didn’t give UC fits through the air, but the ‘Cats only ran for 84 yards. Granted, much of the time UC was trailing and had to throw to get back in the game, but West Virginia’s defense did not hesitate to yield some yardage to the Bearcats through the air.

UC trailed 28-10 early in the fourth and was able to narrow the gap to 28-23 with 2:26 left on the clock but Jake Rogers’s onside kick fell in the hands of the Mountaineers’ Franchot Allen. Steve Slaton and company picked up a few first downs and the game was over.

Everyone who remembers last season’s tilt in Morgantown will recall that the Mountaineers scored 13 points in the final 1:11 to force overtime. West Virginia had to settle for a field goal and it took UC just three plays (Pike to Goodman for 10 yards—with a roughing the passer penalty, Ramsey rushed for five yards to the WVU two, and Pike hit Kazeem Alli for the two yard score) to win the game 26-23.

Alli celebrates after he caught the winning pass from Tony Pike last season in Morgantown

What kind of game will unfold this evening? Since the game is sold out, I suggest you tune in to ESPN2 at 8PM to see how everything turns out.

And remember…Country Roads, Take me home, to the place, I belong

UC spoils Orange Senior Night with offensive outburst in ‘07

Heading into the final game of the 2007 season—Brian Kelly’s first at the helm of the Cincinnati Bearcats—the ‘Cats were 8-3, looking at sewing up a berth in the Sun Bowl. Or so we were told. On the day after Thanksgiving we boarded our Delta charter flight and made the short trip to upstate New York where there was a layer of snow on the ground. Good thing the Syracuse Orange play indoors.

My first trip to the Carrier Dome, which might be more famous right now for the basketball team which plays in it than the football team, was a learning experience to say the least. I’ve never been to a domed stadium, and I got a crash course in domes when I walked into the facility. In order to get to the field, and steps to my endzone filming area, we needed to walk through a hallway where we had to open one door (which was tough because of the air pressure difference) and let it close before proceeding through the next door.
Needless to say, it was a learning evening.

That game between an 8-3 Cincinnati and a 2-9 Syracuse was played at 7 P.M. televised on ESPNU. Tell me about a game very few people had an interest in. I’m willing to be more people tuned in than appeared in person to watch UC play the ‘Cuse though.

The final listed attendance was 30,040, but for some reason I remember far less folks than that actually showing up. After all, the Carrier Dome holds about 50,000 fans for football games and I doubt the place was even half full for that game. If it was it would have been a much louder environment and more interesting game.
The final score that evening read UC-52, Syracuse-31, but the game was a little tighter than the score might show. With eight minutes left in the third the Orange scored to make it 35-31 UC with the lead. After receiving the kickoff the Bearcats ran three plays that gained eight yards and took less than a minute before Kevin Huber had to punt.

Syracuse, with a chance to actually go ahead in the game, faced heavy pressure from the UC defense and Corey Smith knocked sophomore quarterback Andrew Robinson to the turf. Robinson dropped the ball and Angelo Craig returned it sixteen yards to the house, putting the Bearcats up 42-31 with six minutes left in the fourth.

The ‘Cats never looked back.

Putting up 52 was no easy task, and quarterback Ben Mauk had a career day indoors. He threw for 431 yards and four touchdowns, three of which went to Marcus Barnett, who caught 11 passes for 127 yards on the night. Mauk’s 431 yards ranked second in UC history for passing yards in a game and his 436 all purpose yards also ranked second in UC history, behind Greg Cook’s 1968 performance against Ohio where he threw for 554 yards.

That finished the season for UC and Syracuse, one has gone straight to the top of the Big East while the other has fired that head coach and hired a former player. Can Doug Marrone’s new look Orange with former Duke guard Greg Paulus at quarterback defeat the Big East’s best team? We’ll find out in a little over 24 hours when UC steps back into the Carrier Dome for the first time since the drubbing that Ben Mauk and company put on the Orange on their senior night in ’07.

Pictures to follow sometime next week. Enjoy your weekend and tune into ESPNU tomorrow at noon to watch UC continue their bid for a BCS bowl game and Big East title when the ‘Cats go to battle with the Orange in Syracuse.

Southeast Missouri State gears for rematch with Cincinnati

Two seasons ago the University of Cincinnati opened their first season with Brian Kelly as head coach by defeating Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) by an astounding score of 59-3. Kelly—a relatively lesser known head coach for a newer BCS football team in the lowly Big East—brought a new style of play into town. He dubbed it the “Cat Attack,” and often referred to his style of play as the “Coast to Coast” offense.

Kelly brought in former Wake Forest quarterback Ben Mauk, who transferred to UC under a since rescinded rule, and Mauk lit the scoreboard up that season, throwing for 3121 yards and 31 touchdowns in Kelly’s pass happy offense.

But, he had to start somewhere, and that was the season opener against the Football Championship Subdivision’s (formerly D-1AA, and the division also known as FCS) Redhawks of SEMO.

Mauk, who had broken his arm in harrowing fashion one year earlier in a game against Syracuse, took the reins of the new no-huddle, spread attack and threw for 244 yards and two scores in the opener. He showed the 20,223 fans that showed up that day that Kelly—and the rest of the Bearcat team—were for real.

His opening game was also my first game as a video guy, and it was an interesting day to say the least. Gameday in college football is so much different than gameday was in high school. Not to mention, my job had changed slightly, but my job was relatively easy at UC, so I sat back and soaked in the gameday environment.

In two years, however, it has changed dramatically. Last year, on November 22nd a Nippert Stadium record 35,098 fans showed up to watch UC battle it out with Pittsburgh. Two seasons ago on opening night tickets were easy to come by, and in just two short seasons Kelly has changed the mantra in Cincinnati.

During last season's titanic tilt with Pitt, over 35,000 fans stuffed into Nippert Stadium

It’s a school that was most known for its 1990’s basketball success before Kelly showed up and changed what was thought to be an also-ran football program into a league champ and national contender. Last year’s first game brought in 26,000 plus fans, and tomorrow’s home opener might just sell out.

I’ve been there for the upswing, and although many writers and experts feel Kelly is on his way to a bigger name program, I just have a feeling that he’ll ride out his stay at Cincinnati until he finds an easier route to the national title. Of course, if every game this season goes the way Monday afternoon’s beatdown of Rutgers did, we could be well on our way to a national title this year.

Tony Pike saw action against SEMO in 2007 as the backup quarterback to Ben Mauk. This time around the senior QB will get the nod as the starter.

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