One day until graduation

First, if you’ve missed any of the countdown, here’s a look at each day in the countdown:

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.

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.

Notre Dame employs video game system to help quarterbacks

Chances are if you’re a fan of college football and you’re around my age you’ve spent more than a few hours playing EA Sports’ NCAA Football on your PlayStation or XBox. I’m certainly guilty of that “crime,” if you will.

Turns out, not only are nerds like me using the video game to have fun and live out the dreams of chasing a Heisman trophy and National Title, but so are the actual athletes themselves.

*If you’ve read this story before, well, it’s because I’ve written it before. If you go to http://web.coachbutchjones.com/Dev/ and click on the “Inside Football” tab and the EA Sports menu, you’ll be able to see how UC’s quarterbacks have been using the system since Brian Kelly was the head man at UC.

Mark Schlabach of ESPN sat down and watched Kelly and his quarterbacks during a spring practice. Not only does Notre Dame employ the EA Sports Play Action Simulator, developed by EA and XOS Digital, the company that supplies film editing equipment to teams like Notre Dame and Cincinnati, but they also use new “helmet cams” mounted on the quarterback’s helmet so Kelly can break down exactly what each of his signal callers sees on each play.

Yeah, it’s like Madden 64, only, probably a whole heck of a lot better.

I am very familiar with the EA Sports Play Action Simulator, something that we used during the 2009 season where UC ran the table and went 12-0, clinching a second consecutive Big East title and a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

“It’s a good tool to have the night before a game,” Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees told Schlabach. “It’s a good thing to use as a refresher.”

Opponents’ defensive schemes can be programmed into the simulator and, in this case, the Notre Dame offense is installed in the game as well. Before each play, quarterbacks are quizzed on what their pre-snap reads are.

For example, Schlabach noted this instance, which took place in the Notre Dame hotel the night before their Sun Bowl victory over Miami (FL).

“Before taking a snap on a play called “North Squeeze 63 Dolphin,” Rees was asked to identify Miami's pass coverage. His options were: Cover 4, Tampa 2 or 2 Man. After correctly identifying the coverage, Rees had to throw to the correct receiver,” Schlabach noted.

One of the most fun parts about the simulator was the fact that it was in our hands to set up. The UC video staff became very proficient at setting up the games and making sure they worked before guys like Tony Pike, Zach Collaros and Chazz Anderson came into the quarterback meeting room to try it out.

It was fun. Just ask the guys I work with.

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Spring football is winding down in Cincinnati, and the Fifth annual Bearcat Bowl will take place on Saturday. It should be a fun night, so come on out to Nippert Stadium and watch the 2011 Bearcats in action.

Some weekend news, notes and event thoughts

This past weekend is generally a fun and memorable weekend, and while 2010 didn’t disappoint, it left me tired, worn out, and not able to check in here on the blog for a few days. Here’s what went down…

NFL Draft: Boring?
On Thursday evening the NFL Draft got kicked off in prime time, and while at first I was pretty excited about the new format, I quickly became turned off by the idea. What used to be a long and drawn out two-day event became a long and really drawn out three-day event. So, needless to say, I’m not a fan of the new NFL Draft format.

UC players drafted
But that’s not to say I didn’t try to pay attention. On Saturday it was a big day for three UC Bearcats, as Mardy Gilyard, Tony Pike and Ricardo Matthews all got drafted. Gilyard was the first pick of Saturday, and he’ll be playing for the St. Louis Rams. Pike fell to round six, but he’ll have an opportunity to battle the highly touted Notre Dame product Jimmy Clausen in Carolina. Matthews got picked by the Indianapolis Colts in the final round. Good luck to all the former UC players; it was fun watching them on the field, now let’s see what they can get done in the pros.

Mardy Gilyard will be playing in St. Louis next NFL season (Cincinnati Enquirer file photo)

UC football alums golf outing another great success
Former UC football players and other notable alums hit the golf course for the 16th annual Jim Kelly Sr. Letterman’s weekend golf outing on Friday. They dodged some rain drops and overall had a blast. If you saw my video on FOX19’s “The Final Quarter” on Friday evening, you’d have caught a short glimpse of the outing, which was fun to be a part of yet again.

And just a note, UC head coach Butch Jones might need to work a little bit on his golf swing. But he’s not getting paid to golf, he’s getting paid to coach football, so I guess we can all be happy that the UC football team is getting a coach dedicated to them, not golf.

UC football team shows off new style of play in spring game
Jones and the UC team showcased their skills and talents on Saturday evening in a rainy Bearcat Bowl IV at Nippert Stadium. Zach Collaros threw 20 passes, completing 18 of them for two touchdowns and over 200 yards through the air (more on Collaros later today). D.J. Woods even got in on the passing game, taking a reverse pitch and heaving the ball down field to former USC wideout Vidal Hazelton on a play called from the stands.

Woods showed that he can catch...and throw on Saturday evening (Cincinnati Enquirer file photo)

I liked getting the fans involved in the spring game, and hopefully the idea of letting fans call plays was just a spring game thing. Ok, well, we might be able to let them call a few when we play Indiana State on September 11th but beyond there, I say coach Jones keeps the playcalling to those on the sidelines.

Basketball season finishes
Yet another year of girls basketball is down and out for me, and my first year of being the head coach didn’t exactly work out the way I planned, but we did win one game. The girls on my team definitely showed some improvement over the season and we played two of our best games at the end of the year.

The only beef I have with our league is the competition level. I understand that at a place like St. William I’ll have a limited number of players and practices to get ready, but we lost at least three games this year by 25 points. The teams that beat us in those games could have been playing in the league above ours and still been competitive. But, I guess life ain’t always fair, so we’ll live and learn from those beatdowns, and come back ready to go next season.

In a letter to the parents of my team I noted that next year is still up in the air for me, but told them if I have the time, I’ll be back like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Other news and notes
-I had some fun filming the Youth Football Mini Camp before the spring game on Saturday. Most of the camp I had a camera hooked up to the video board in Nippert Stadium, and followed around UC’s director of football operations John Widecan with a microphone as we “interviewed” kids for all the parents in attendance to see. It was definitely a fun time.

-The March of Dimes went off without a hitch again as quite a few folks made the trek through Paul Brown Stadium where I was working on Sunday morning. The volunteers who run the event are some of the happiest and most energetic people I meet on a year to year basis, and the lady who is in charge of the volunteers made sure she thanked us for working and told us she looks forward to seeing us every year.

It’s moments like that when I feel I’m just another piece in the puzzle, doing my job, making everyone feel awesome. That gives me a smile

-I didn’t catch much of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wreck fest that is Talladega, but I did catch the final two restarts. Happy to say that Mark Martin came through everything unscathed and finished fifth in the No. 5 car. He got a tremendous push from the No. 6 car—that’s right the same car he drove for years and years in the Cup Series—to finish in the top five. David Ragan finished sixth in the No. 6 UPS Ford and Kevin Harvick nipped Jamie McMurray at the line to win in exciting fashion.

An exciting race with an exciting finish unfolded on Sunday afternoon in Talladega. Packs like this group--taken during Friday's practice--made yet another Talladega race memorable (Getty Images)

I’m just thankful FOX didn’t replay the video of Harvick’s last win before Sunday. Mentioning the 2007 Daytona 500 on air was enough to tick me off (http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/02/1-day-til-daytona-nuts-and-bolts.html)

I’ll be back later today with some UC football news and notes beyond what you see here. Have a good rest of the day, and check back tonight for more.

Defenses in charge of stopping Tebow and Pike have tall order ahead

I’ve never been a defensive guy. I like to think I’m an offensive guy, and it makes sense. In high school at Elder, head coach Doug Ramsey was the de facto offensive coordinator and playcaller. For the past three seasons at UC Brian Kelly pretty much did the same on gamedays, calling the shots for the Bearcat offense.

When I watch football I like to call out formations, personnel packages and offensive plays. I do pay attention to defense, but I’m no defensive expert. When people ask me if I’d ever like to coach football (obviously in the far future) I note that I need someone who knows defense to help me on that side of the ball.

The UC defense had to replace ten starters before the season. For this reason numerous experts said the Bearcats wouldn't be the same team they were last season. Little did they know that the Bearcats would actually be better

So defense isn’t my forte, but I certainly can tell you that both offenses in the Sugar Bowl will provide the opposing defense with certain challenges. Tebow can pound the ball up the middle with his powerful frame. Pike is escapable, slips away from pressure and slings the ball deep down field to his wideouts. So how will each defense go about stopping two of the best offenses in all of college football today?

If I had the answer to that question I doubt I’d tell you. Plus I’d see how much money I could get for my expertise. So I can theorize about both teams, and not lose any money. We’ll see if I’m right on January 2nd after the game is over.

Florida comes into the game with the number twelve offense in the nation averaging 442 yards per game. Florida scores an average of 35 points per game. When Florida runs they prefer the ball stays in the hands of Tim Tebow, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who watches college football. This season Tebow rushed for 859 yards on 203 carries and scored 13 touchdowns. Running back Jeffery Demps ran the ball 96 times for 738 yards.

Tebow runs against Alabama in the SEC Title game. How often will he do this against Cincinnati?

UC has had trouble defending the run as the season progressed, and Pittsburgh nearly made that flaw fatal. The Bearcat defense surrendered 146 points in the final four games of the year (UConn, West Virginia, Illinois and Pitt), but in total the ‘Cats finished 25th in the nation in scoring defense averaging 21 points per game. Something has got to give here.

One of the main reasons that current Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly expressed an interest in switching to a 3-4 defense this season at Cincinnati was to defend the speed of teams like USF and West Virginia in the Big East conference. Little did he know that the switch would also help in a bowl game. Florida will more than likely try to spread the field, and UC should be fine with that. But if Tebow starts pounding the ball between the tackles, UC will need to find the right mix of defensive personnel to deal with the speed and power of Florida.

On the flip side, the Bearcat offense, a much ballyhooed unit, averaged nearly 40 points per game. Tony Pike and Zach Collaros led a passing attack that was sixth in all the land, putting up 320 yards a game. Oddly enough the UC offense was also sixth in total offense. So the edge yardage wise between the offenses goes to UC.

However, the Florida defense is pretty darn good themselves. The Gator defense only gave up 11.5 points per game and held teams to just a hair over 253 yards. So what does the UC offense have to do to defeat the vaunted Gator defense? I think one of the hall marks of the Bearcats this season on offense will have to remain stable in order to beat Florida and that is ball security. In twelve regular season games the UC offense has lost one fumble, and no running back has lost a fumble for UC this year. That has to stay the same in order for the Bearcats to pull off a victory in New Orleans.

When I was a guest on Jake Meyer’s radio show before the Pittsburgh game two weeks ago on WPTS the two guys hosting the sports show with Jake mentioned that they wanted a prediction from me. “I don’t do predictions guys,” was my response. Before the Rutgers game my good friend Greg Metz sent me a text stating, “What’s your prediction for today?” I responded simply, “UC-1 more point than Rutgers. I don’t do predictions Greg, you know that.”

In the game against Pittsburgh sophomore corner Dominique Battle made a diving interception

So if you read all this way looking for a prediction, well, I’ll apologize. I’m just hoping that my statistical insight into the UC and Florida offenses and Bearcat and Gator defenses help you to make your own predictions for the January 1st matchup between the two teams.

Hope everyone has had a great day and the end of the week is near. Got a lot more storylines for this UC-Florida game, so I hope you can tune in and read them all leading up to the big game on New Year’s Day. Tune back in tomorrow and until then, have a nice night.

15+15=Sugar Bowl Sweetness

One of my favorite things about Christmas time is the annual viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV. One of the funnier parts is when Lucy has to convince Linus why he has to be a shepherd in the school play. She says, “I’ll give you five good reasons, one, two, three, four and five,” as she curls her fingers into a threatening fist.

I’ll give you 30 good reasons to watch the Sugar Bowl—and no violence is required to read on.

Tim Tebow will don his blue #15 jersey for the final time in his storied college career on January 1st in New Orleans. So too will Tony Pike, but of course his #15 jersey will be white. Pike’s rise to national prominence came about through a little hard work, injuries and some luck. Tebow’s national prominence has made many fans sick.

Whether you’re a fan of the outwardly religious Tebow or not, you must admit that he’s had one whale of a run as college football’s premier player the past three seasons. In his sophomore campaign Tebow snatched his only Heisman trophy. He won a National Title in 2007 by being Chris Leak’s backup, but Tebow’s role as the original “Wildcat” quarterback saw him score eight rushing TDs.

He led the Gators to another SEC title and National Title last season, and although they came up just short this season Tebow gets just one more chance to prove why he’s been the talk of the town in college football.

But here to dethrone him is Tony Pike. Pike, from Cincinnati’s Reading High School (the same high school the produced former Gator DeShawn Wynn, whom Tebow handed off to in the aforementioned 2007 National Title game) was not heavily recruited out of high school, but flourished in Brian Kelly’s no huddle spread attack. Pike flung the ball around as Dustin Grutza’s backup last year after Grutza was injured in the Bearcats’ second game in Oklahoma (the team that Tebow and Florida later beat for the National Title).

Pike filled in for Dustin Grutza and then got injured, his comeback and subsequent ability to lead UC to the Orange Bowl was a great storyline for the 2008 Bearcats

While their styles may differ the one thing that will keep fans tuned in to this game is the uncanny ability of both quarterbacks to lead their teams to victory. Down 21 points in the snow and wind at Pittsburgh with the Big East title on the line? No problem, Pike hits Armon Binns with 33 seconds left to clinch the 2009 Big East title and Sugar Bowl berth for the ‘Cats.

Pike celebrates after hitting Armon Binns for the game winning TD two weeks ago in Pittsburgh

With his team tied with Arkansas earlier this season in “The Swamp” Tebow led a similar drive, ending with a game winning field goal and Florida staying perfect.

When Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly was on Dan Patrick’s radio show one week ago (he was still Cincinnati’s Head Coach) Patrick raised two interesting questions about the Sugar Bowl. He asked Kelly who was the better college quarterback. Kelly responded, “Tebow.” But, Patrick asked, with the game on the line and two minutes left in the game, who do you want? With no hesitation he said, “Pike.”

Tebow’s guts and leadership will never be questioned, but the one thing that has been questioned by his critics is his ability to throw the ball. This season he has fared better than most throwing 279 times, completing 182 of those passes for 2413 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also has run the ball for 859 yards on 203 carries, adding thirteen scores on the ground for the Gators.

But Pike still has that ability to stretch the field both vertically and sideline to sideline that scares most defensive coordinators silly. Pike missed four games this season and still threw for 2,350 yards and 26 touchdowns, numbers that would have been higher, and might have earned him a shot at being a Heisman front runner if he didn’t re-injure his non-throwing arm in October at South Florida.

But the debate now isn’t about who has thrown for more yards or who has the better rushing statistics, it’s all about who can lead his team to victory on January 1st in New Orleans. Both teams will put up yards and points, but which #15 will prove to be the MVP?

Pike started off red hot against Rutgers, can he finish red hot against Florida?

Well, you’ll be able to find out by tuning in to the Allstate Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Until tomorrow enjoy your day thinking about how great it will be to see the two senior #15’s battling it out in “The Big Easy” to start the 2010 calendar year.

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)

Pike shines in Nippert Stadium finale

Tony Pike was one of sixteen seniors who took the field for the University of Cincinnati on Friday afternoon for the final time. The seniors—who decide which uniforms the ‘Cast will wear—decided upon red tops with black pants, a topic I shall breach later, but no matter what the ‘Cats seem to have on at home, they always come away with a win.

Led by Pike’s six touchdown passes, a new school single-game record, the Bearcats defeated the Big Ten bottom feeder Illinois 49-36. Pike threw 46 passes on the day, completing 32 of them for 399 yards. Two scores went to Mardy Gilyard who broke Dominck Goodman’s career touchdown mark with 24 career TD snags. Gilyard—also playing for the final time in Cincinnati—scored the ‘Cats first touchdown on a kickoff return.

Gilyard dives into the endzone in front of Channel 9 (WCPO) camerman Mark Slaughter

Ben Guidugli, a junior tight end, and brother of the former single game touchdown pass record holder Gino, caught seven passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns. Armon Binns and DJ Woods tallied one TD grab each.

And, for the first time in school history the UC Bearcats are 11-0. They head to Pittsburgh next weekend for the de facto Big East title game. Not to promote myself as the next Nostradamus or anything, but I stated back in March, “The December 5th matchup with Pitt is primed to be another decisive Big East game, at least that’s what the Big East office is hoping for. If this season turns out anything like last season did, then we’ll see the Panthers and the Bearcats duking it out on national television for the Big East trophy. The side pot for this game will then be the “River City Rivalry” trophy.”-- http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-east-football-schedules-cincinnati.html

Even with the Pittsburgh loss last night, this game is for all the marbles. But, we’ve still got one whole week to discuss that one.

Some notes and thoughts on Illinois:
-First, people need to calm down about Brian Kelly to Notre Dame. And stop asking me if he’s going too. I don’t know anything more than you do. When I do, I might tell you, but it’s highly doubtful.

-Second, the uniform selection for this game was stupid. Period, end of discussion. I like our seniors, I love what they’ve done for this program and everything they’ve endured, but we only wear red jerseys once a year, the “Ring of Red” game. No other time should we wear red jerseys. But, I’ll forgive them for the faux pas, we won handily.
-Third, who cares that we didn’t run the ball that much? Obviously Big Ten supporters would proclaim their dominance over the ‘lowly’ Big East by pointing to this game and its end result. One person told me during the game, “My dad is telling me how bad UC would do in the Big Ten right now.” Gee, glad we don’t play in the Big Ten. Of course if we did, we might be the number two team in the nation right now.

-Which brings me to point number four: We need a lot of help to make it to Pasadena. Texas A&M gave Texas a slight scare but couldn’t pull it off. Auburn was about ninety seconds away from creating BCS mayhem on Friday too. So far, UC is fifth in all three polls (USA Today, AP and BCS). UC needs Nebraska to defeat Texas on Saturday and hope that their defeat of Pittsburgh is enough to jump TCU in the Coaches’ Poll to possibly make it into the national title game against the winner of the Alabama/Florida SEC title game. It almost makes your head spin.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Even this week is the final week of classes and I’m going to be quite busy with class and football I’ll try to sneak in some time to preview the UC-Pitt game in depth. You also may hear me on a radio station near you (if you live in Pittsburgh—stay “tuned” for more details).

Hometown kid Pike will lead Bearcats into camp as starting QB

In Brian Kelly’s first two seasons at the helm in Cincinnati he had to worry about who would start at quarterback in his first game. In his third season he’s got his guy coming into preseason camp, and it’s one of college football’s best stories, Tony Pike.

Pike, a 6-foot-5 gunslinger from Reading High School, was told during last season’s fall camp by Kelly that he needed to take football more seriously, or finish school and leave in order to free up a scholarship for the Bearcat program.

He stepped in during the Oklahoma game after starter Dustin Grutza went down with an ankle injury. Two games later Pike rolled to his right against Akron and went down awkwardly on his throwing arm. He was diagnosed with a broken arm, but made it back four weeks later—much faster than first thought.

Brian Kelly uses a system he’s coined as, “Next Man In,” for all positions on the field. When Grutza went down, Pike stepped in, and when Pike was out two redshirt freshman—Chazz Anderson and Zach Collaros—stepped up to the plate. It was much publicized that UC used five quarterbacks last season, the only Division 1 school to do so.

However, is Kelly ready to put Collaros or Anderson—who will both battle for the #2 job during the next two weeks—in just in case we have a repeat of 2008 on our hands? Well, ESPN.com Big East blogger Brian Bennett answered a question a few weeks back about the back-up situation at UC.

“Hopefully, Pike will stay healthy. But it's hard for any quarterback to make it through a whole season without some sort of injury…” he wrote. “Pike isn't the biggest guy in the world either. I'd say Zach Collaros would get the first crack if something were to happen. He had a strong spring for the Bearcats.”

Anderson subbed for Pike by winning two games in a row, a Friday night game at Marshall and the homecoming game, the Big East opener against Rutgers. Collaros came in to close out the Akron game and subbed for Pike late in the USF game after Pike’s arm began to hurt. Anderson played the second half of the lone Big East loss for UC last year at UConn.

I poured over some statistics yesterday evening to see what kind of experience that both Anderson and Collaros got last year. If Pike were to go down the two guys behind him—Collaros and Anderson, the only QB’s on this year’s roster to see any career action beside Pike—have limited experience.

Let’s be honest, Anderson’s role last year was to manage the two games he started and not make any mistakes. Kelly was admittedly less aggressive with his playcalling too. But, it still worked.

Between the two of them they saw almost 190 game snaps. Anderson took nearly 170 of the close to 190 snaps. Brian Kelly is known for what he referred to as his, “Coast to Coast” offense in his first season at UC. He likes to spread it out and run a majority of his plays from the shotgun—as is the trend in most of major college football today. With Collaros and Anderson it was no different. Almost three quarters of the snaps that either took were from the shotgun.

Of those shotgun plays nearly 70% were passes. Kelly’s offense was tailored to the two youngsters, both of whom were a part of his first recruiting class. When Collaros or Anderson lined up under the center and took direct snaps nearly every time they turned and handed the ball off. There were only two snaps that were taken under center—both by Anderson, both in the Marshall game. Both of those passes from under center were touchdowns.

Maybe if UC needs to go to option number two or three and that option is Anderson, he needs to line up under center and pass the ball. After all, he is perfect in that situation, but I jokingly digress.

Pike took nearly half the snaps last season for the UC Bearcats, but if he goes down this season Kelly will need to rely on his two backups. He made his “Next Man In” theory work to near perfection last season, and I have no doubt that he could make it work this season if need be.

Of course the optimal situation is to have Pike stay healthy and use what he learned as a starter last season to make another run at yet another Big East title and BCS bowl berth. The first steps start today when the Bearcats kick off fall camp.
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Today starts one of the busiest periods of the year for myself and the rest of the video staff. I’ll attempt to check in throughout camp and give you a look back at last season. I will not, however, give you much insight into what is happening at camp with players, which is why I’d like to focus on last season.

Some of the things I’d like to talk about (a tentative list)
-Which one of the four running backs at UC will be a good fit for the UC offense?
-At Big East media days Brian Kelly mentioned he’s wanting to run more four wide receiver sets, so what does that mean for the tight ends on the roster?
-The defensive line returns many players who saw significant action in last season’s historic title run. How did they do last season, and what does it mean for this season?
-Will standout sophomore DJ Woods become a standout kick or punt returner?
-How did now sophomore Dominique Battle do last season at cornerback and will that translate to success in year two?

Hopefully there are enough statistics and stories to keep you interested in college football for the upcoming few months. It’s going to be busy, but it should be a fun time too.