11-11-2008, 01:59 PM
Cincinnati is the team that won't quit in Big East football
by Brendan Prunty/The Star-Ledger
Monday November 10, 2008, 6:58 PM
![[Image: medium_pike11.JPG]](http://blog.nj.com/rutgers_football/2008/11/medium_pike11.JPG)
(David Kohl/Associated Press) Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike hasn't let a broken non-throwing arm cast a pall on the Bearcats' season.
This is how well things are falling for Cincinnati these days: It has beaten back-to-back Top 25 teams with a quarterback who has a broken arm.
A broken arm.
Seriously.
Granted, it's Tony Pike's non-throwing arm, but the fact that he is playing at all is a microcosm of Cincinnati's season. The Bearcats had been left for dead nearly a half-dozen times already this year. But now, with a month left in the Big East season, coach Brian Kelly has Cincinnati in a tie for first place with Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
Just don't expect him to revel in the job he's done thus far.
"I probably will (reflect) at the end of the year," Kelly said during the weekly Big East teleconference Monday. "We get so focused on what we're doing the next hour, the next day, that you don't get a chance to sit back and look at it in its entirety and say, 'Whoa, that's pretty good.'"
Much has been made about the Bearcats' quarterback troubles. They lost starter Dustin Grutza to a broken leg in Week 2 against Oklahoma, then lost Pike to a broken left arm against Akron one game later. Kelly was forced to hand the reins to redshirt freshman Chazz Anderson until Pike returned three weeks ago against Connecticut.
But ask coaches around the league if they are surprised by what Kelly's been able to accomplish, none of them is.
"He's done an excellent job," Louisville's Steve Kragthorpe said. "Establishing a system and then taking a guy and just plugging him into it and telling him, 'Hey, you just go play football and deal the cards.'"
"He's made the most of it with Pike and the young kid (Anderson) at times," Syracuse coach Greg Robinson said. "But he's done a real good job. It's obvious."
Kelly, who is in only his second season as Cincinnati's head coach, is cobbling together another winning season despite having few marquee names on the roster.
He's beating opponents who have better players and deeper depth charts. He's doing it with a defensive unit that is second to last in total defense in the conference. But as has been the case all season, Kelly's team has defied statistics.
"I think it speaks volumes for the kids, in that they have enough confidence in themselves," Kelly said, "and that they can get the job done."
And things are now starting to look even better for the Bearcats. Grutza is expected back for Friday night's game at Louisville -- though Kelly has already said Pike will be the starter.
Cincinnati also has perhaps one more hurdle after Louisville -- a Nov. 22 date with Pittsburgh -- to win its first Big East title. After that it's a home game against basement-dweller Syracuse and a road game against 5-5 Hawaii to finish out the season. Two games, in which many believe the Bearcats should be heavily favored.
Still, it is not lost on the rest of the conference what Kelly and Cincinnati have done to get to this point. Getting by on a backup quarterback is one thing; getting by on the third-string quarterback is another. It's a situation that not many coaches would ever want to find themselves in. And even harder for some to imagine.
"I, myself, have never been in that situation as a coach," Kragthorpe said. "My dad was in that situation at Oregon State one year, where he was down to his fourth guy. So I think Brian has done a great job of putting a system in place and plugging the player into the system, and they've been very, very efficient."
http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index....at_wo.html
by Brendan Prunty/The Star-Ledger
Monday November 10, 2008, 6:58 PM
(David Kohl/Associated Press) Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike hasn't let a broken non-throwing arm cast a pall on the Bearcats' season.
This is how well things are falling for Cincinnati these days: It has beaten back-to-back Top 25 teams with a quarterback who has a broken arm.
A broken arm.
Seriously.
Granted, it's Tony Pike's non-throwing arm, but the fact that he is playing at all is a microcosm of Cincinnati's season. The Bearcats had been left for dead nearly a half-dozen times already this year. But now, with a month left in the Big East season, coach Brian Kelly has Cincinnati in a tie for first place with Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
Just don't expect him to revel in the job he's done thus far.
"I probably will (reflect) at the end of the year," Kelly said during the weekly Big East teleconference Monday. "We get so focused on what we're doing the next hour, the next day, that you don't get a chance to sit back and look at it in its entirety and say, 'Whoa, that's pretty good.'"
Much has been made about the Bearcats' quarterback troubles. They lost starter Dustin Grutza to a broken leg in Week 2 against Oklahoma, then lost Pike to a broken left arm against Akron one game later. Kelly was forced to hand the reins to redshirt freshman Chazz Anderson until Pike returned three weeks ago against Connecticut.
But ask coaches around the league if they are surprised by what Kelly's been able to accomplish, none of them is.
"He's done an excellent job," Louisville's Steve Kragthorpe said. "Establishing a system and then taking a guy and just plugging him into it and telling him, 'Hey, you just go play football and deal the cards.'"
"He's made the most of it with Pike and the young kid (Anderson) at times," Syracuse coach Greg Robinson said. "But he's done a real good job. It's obvious."
Kelly, who is in only his second season as Cincinnati's head coach, is cobbling together another winning season despite having few marquee names on the roster.
He's beating opponents who have better players and deeper depth charts. He's doing it with a defensive unit that is second to last in total defense in the conference. But as has been the case all season, Kelly's team has defied statistics.
"I think it speaks volumes for the kids, in that they have enough confidence in themselves," Kelly said, "and that they can get the job done."
And things are now starting to look even better for the Bearcats. Grutza is expected back for Friday night's game at Louisville -- though Kelly has already said Pike will be the starter.
Cincinnati also has perhaps one more hurdle after Louisville -- a Nov. 22 date with Pittsburgh -- to win its first Big East title. After that it's a home game against basement-dweller Syracuse and a road game against 5-5 Hawaii to finish out the season. Two games, in which many believe the Bearcats should be heavily favored.
Still, it is not lost on the rest of the conference what Kelly and Cincinnati have done to get to this point. Getting by on a backup quarterback is one thing; getting by on the third-string quarterback is another. It's a situation that not many coaches would ever want to find themselves in. And even harder for some to imagine.
"I, myself, have never been in that situation as a coach," Kragthorpe said. "My dad was in that situation at Oregon State one year, where he was down to his fourth guy. So I think Brian has done a great job of putting a system in place and plugging the player into the system, and they've been very, very efficient."
http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index....at_wo.html