01-05-2010, 12:02 AM
I've been waiting to post this. I have been thinking about the majesty of this season for some time. I think some of the luster has been lost by Kelly leaving and the Florida massacre. But this season was so special, it deserves to be re-lived in the context of how unlikely it really was.
The sting of our "ass-handing" by Florida on Friday is starting to wear off. In the end, we just got beat by a better team, with more talent, with their head coach still in place, and coming off a loss that they wanted desperately to make up for. They probably would have beaten us 9 out of 10 times under those circumstances, even if Kelly would have stayed here. Oh well, in my opinion they're the best team in college football this year, and would beat Alabama again if they rematched. They likely would have beaten the Indianapolis Colts on Friday (hyperbole intended) the way they played. So enough of the negative. It's over.
Let's take stock of what an unbelievable season this was. And I don't want to complain about how some of our wins were ugly. They were. But they were wins nonetheless! I want to talk about what you thought you were going to see as we started the season.
Personally, I figured maybe 8-4, at best. MAYBE 9-3 and 2nd or 3rd in Big East. And even that seemed to be just my rose-colored glasses.
Here we were coming off a beating by VA Tech in the Orange Bowl. Returning only 1 starter on defense. Returning a surgically repaired QB who played the worst game of his life in Miami.
I for one, thought we'd probably get beat at Rutgers. My friends were all complaining about how "unfair" it was that we had to open the season with a road conference game.
We didn't lose. In fact, we kicked their sorry asses. It was awesome. It gave me hope. But I certainly didn't think we would repeat as Big East Champs given that we finish with (gasp) WVU, Illinois, and at Pitt.
Then we throttle SEMO as expected. Big deal. Next.
Then Oregon State. Didn't look good early. But we found a way to win. Now I was excited. To go in there and beat them in Corvalis was a rare feat, and it showed me this team learned from their previous year's losses.
Fresno State: Scared the life out of me as we gave up 1000 rushing yards, 6 yards at a time. Like the proverbial "Chinese Water Torture". But the defense came up with the big interception inside the 5-yard line to seal the game. Nice 4-0. Woo-Hoo!
Miami: If you saw this game, then you're lying if you didn't say "holy crap we're going to lose this freaking game to these tools". And we almost did. The final score doesn't reflect it, but that game scared me.
South Florida: Could we play with a team that had 2 potential "all-american" defensive ends? It was close for a while. 65K screaming USF fans. I was there and it WAS LOUD!!! Then Pike gets hurt and we all thought it was over. Really? Collaros? Hell, chalk it up for South Florida. But wait, a 70-something yard run on 3rd and 12 after the first two plays couldn't have been worse. Unreal. Then the team closes it out by running at will on the Bulls. Now I was really excited.
Louisville: How nice it was to beat up on these guys and imagine their fans' misery. Payback is a *****. Just a perfect homecoming.
Syracuse: The Orange march down and punch it in the end zone on their first drive. Uh oh. And then Collaros makes the miracle play on the muffed FG attempt. We escape with a victory.
UConn: Party City for the first 2 1/2 quarters. We could do no wrong. Then...the Fresno State syndrome. Can't stop the run to save our life. Give up the punt return TD, and a couple plays later, UConn is a 2-point conversion away from tying??? But wait, Curtis Young comes unblocked for the big sack! Escape again.
WVU: Pead's TD (by a millimicron) a split second before the fumble. And the fact the refs got it right on the replay is very noteworthy as well. Could totally have seen them saying it "wasn't conclusive". The defense played very well. All is good again.
Illinois: The "trap" game. Our D rears its ugly head again but we win a slugfest.
Pitt: What can I say? The game was over in the 2nd quarter. Pitt, at home, with a 3 touchdown lead, in terrible weather conditions. I was resigned to a loss. But no, Mardy returns a glimmer of hope with his KO Return TD. Still a 2 TD deficit at half. Just an unbelievable finish. I've watched the 2nd half of this game a dozen times on by DVR and it is just as good as the first time. Just a beautiful thing.
And I'm going to cut it off right there. Because NOTHING good happened after that.
But, seriously think about it. Coming into the season, if you said that even in YOUR WILDEST DREAMS, they could possibly go undefeated, you were absolutely dreaming, drunk, or mentally challenged.
But they did it. I'm still not sure how they pulled it off, but they did it.
I'll never forget this fantastic season. Thank you Bearcats!
The sting of our "ass-handing" by Florida on Friday is starting to wear off. In the end, we just got beat by a better team, with more talent, with their head coach still in place, and coming off a loss that they wanted desperately to make up for. They probably would have beaten us 9 out of 10 times under those circumstances, even if Kelly would have stayed here. Oh well, in my opinion they're the best team in college football this year, and would beat Alabama again if they rematched. They likely would have beaten the Indianapolis Colts on Friday (hyperbole intended) the way they played. So enough of the negative. It's over.
Let's take stock of what an unbelievable season this was. And I don't want to complain about how some of our wins were ugly. They were. But they were wins nonetheless! I want to talk about what you thought you were going to see as we started the season.
Personally, I figured maybe 8-4, at best. MAYBE 9-3 and 2nd or 3rd in Big East. And even that seemed to be just my rose-colored glasses.
Here we were coming off a beating by VA Tech in the Orange Bowl. Returning only 1 starter on defense. Returning a surgically repaired QB who played the worst game of his life in Miami.
I for one, thought we'd probably get beat at Rutgers. My friends were all complaining about how "unfair" it was that we had to open the season with a road conference game.
We didn't lose. In fact, we kicked their sorry asses. It was awesome. It gave me hope. But I certainly didn't think we would repeat as Big East Champs given that we finish with (gasp) WVU, Illinois, and at Pitt.
Then we throttle SEMO as expected. Big deal. Next.
Then Oregon State. Didn't look good early. But we found a way to win. Now I was excited. To go in there and beat them in Corvalis was a rare feat, and it showed me this team learned from their previous year's losses.
Fresno State: Scared the life out of me as we gave up 1000 rushing yards, 6 yards at a time. Like the proverbial "Chinese Water Torture". But the defense came up with the big interception inside the 5-yard line to seal the game. Nice 4-0. Woo-Hoo!
Miami: If you saw this game, then you're lying if you didn't say "holy crap we're going to lose this freaking game to these tools". And we almost did. The final score doesn't reflect it, but that game scared me.
South Florida: Could we play with a team that had 2 potential "all-american" defensive ends? It was close for a while. 65K screaming USF fans. I was there and it WAS LOUD!!! Then Pike gets hurt and we all thought it was over. Really? Collaros? Hell, chalk it up for South Florida. But wait, a 70-something yard run on 3rd and 12 after the first two plays couldn't have been worse. Unreal. Then the team closes it out by running at will on the Bulls. Now I was really excited.
Louisville: How nice it was to beat up on these guys and imagine their fans' misery. Payback is a *****. Just a perfect homecoming.
Syracuse: The Orange march down and punch it in the end zone on their first drive. Uh oh. And then Collaros makes the miracle play on the muffed FG attempt. We escape with a victory.
UConn: Party City for the first 2 1/2 quarters. We could do no wrong. Then...the Fresno State syndrome. Can't stop the run to save our life. Give up the punt return TD, and a couple plays later, UConn is a 2-point conversion away from tying??? But wait, Curtis Young comes unblocked for the big sack! Escape again.
WVU: Pead's TD (by a millimicron) a split second before the fumble. And the fact the refs got it right on the replay is very noteworthy as well. Could totally have seen them saying it "wasn't conclusive". The defense played very well. All is good again.
Illinois: The "trap" game. Our D rears its ugly head again but we win a slugfest.
Pitt: What can I say? The game was over in the 2nd quarter. Pitt, at home, with a 3 touchdown lead, in terrible weather conditions. I was resigned to a loss. But no, Mardy returns a glimmer of hope with his KO Return TD. Still a 2 TD deficit at half. Just an unbelievable finish. I've watched the 2nd half of this game a dozen times on by DVR and it is just as good as the first time. Just a beautiful thing.
And I'm going to cut it off right there. Because NOTHING good happened after that.
But, seriously think about it. Coming into the season, if you said that even in YOUR WILDEST DREAMS, they could possibly go undefeated, you were absolutely dreaming, drunk, or mentally challenged.
But they did it. I'm still not sure how they pulled it off, but they did it.
I'll never forget this fantastic season. Thank you Bearcats!
