CatsClaw
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Cincinnati’s Next Test Is Maintaining Its Hard-Earned Gains
Cincinnati’s Next Test Is Maintaining Its Hard-Earned Gains
By PETE THAMEL
Published: December 30, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/sports...l?_r=1&hpw
NEW ORLEANS — To understand how far Cincinnati has risen from the college football abyss, one just has to look back at Sept. 7, 1991, when the Bearcats lost to Penn State, 81-0, in Happy Valley.
The former Cincinnati strength coach, Mickey Marotti, was on the sideline that day and saw Joe Paterno looking helplessly across the field at Cincinnati Coach Tim Murphy. “I remember this like it was yesterday,” Marotti said. “Paterno put his arms up like he was sorry. They were just giving it to the fullback, and we still couldn’t stop them.”
Less than two decades later, Cincinnati has emerged as an unlikely national power. The No. 4 Bearcats (12-0) will play No. 5 Florida (12-1) in the Sugar Bowl on Friday night — their second consecutive Bowl Championship Series game — but they find themselves at a crossroad: can they sustain their prominence after the departure of Coach Brian Kelly, who replaced Charlie Weis at Notre Dame?
This is a conundrum that not even the most wide-eyed Cincinnati optimist could have predicted. In the 1990s, the Bearcats were placed on probation by the N.C.A.A. and had significant scholarship reductions. And it was not a good sign for the moribund program when the coach (Murphy) left for Harvard.
But Cincinnati has transformed itself from a lost independent into what appears to be a solid upper-echelon program. The Bearcats joined the Big East Conference in 2005, exploited its fertile recruiting base and are optimistic that they can stay highly competitive.
“I think it’s there to sustain at a high level,” Cincinnati Athletic Director Mike Thomas said. “Does the high level mean a steady diet of Big East championships and B.C.S bowls? I hope so. I think our infrastructure is a work in progress, and we’re going to continue to do things to sustain the success that we’re talking about.”
Cincinnati finds itself in the awkward position of luring prize recruits after losing two successful coaches, Mark Dantonio to Michigan State and Kelly.
“There’s a number of Division I schools in Ohio, but until recently there’s only been one that’s been in a major conference,” said Nick Carparelli Jr., associate commissioner of the Big East. “Now that Cincinnati has the platform of the Big East to elevate itself, it can compete for the highest level of recruits. They can’t all go to Ohio State.”
The hiring of Coach Butch Jones should help. Plucked from Central Michigan, where Kelly coached, Jones runs a similar spread offense that will fit the personnel. The Bearcats will lose their two top players in the N.F.L. draft — the all-American receiver Mardy Gilyard and quarterback Tony Pike are both expected to be high picks. But the consensus in the program is that there will not be a significant drop-off.
“The talent has gotten so much better,” the sophomore linebacker J. K. Schaffer said. “Just watching the guys from three or four years ago until now. We’re starting to get the talent that some of the bigger name programs have now.”
Schaffer then pointed to the sophomore tailback Isiah Pead, saying that three years ago there was no way the Bearcats could recruit a player like him. Pead provides a strong building block for the future along with the sophomore quarterback Zach Collaros, who shined when Pike was out with an injury this season. Collaros, versatile and athletic, should be an ideal fit for Jones’s offense.
Collaros said it was “really cool” that Jones called him on Christmas to let him know how much he was looking forward to the next two years. Jones told Collaros that they would be spending a lot of time together in the off-season.
Collaros said that Kelly raised the program to this point, but added, “We’re here to stay.”
“I think we have a better system now that complements the talent that we have,” he said. “I think we can be better next year. You can’t be better than 12-0, but no one wants to go 11-1 or 10-2.”
The program has also gone through a radical transformation in recruiting, facilities and perception. Marotti said that in the 1990s the Bearcats were losing recruiting battles to Kentucky, Indiana and even Miami (Ohio).
Thomas said that ground had been broken on a $15.5 million indoor-outdoor practice field, one that will make Cincinnati competitive in terms of facilities in the Big East.
But perhaps the biggest change has come in the city, where the Bearcats were an afterthought, overshadowed by the Bengals and even high school football. Schaffer, who grew up in the city, said he can see the difference. “Everywhere you go, there’s flags and people wearing Bearcat shirts and sweatshirts, he said. “It’s just crazy how the tradition is building in the actual city.”
(This post was last modified: 01-03-2010 06:36 PM by CatsClaw.)
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