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Kickoff return TD sparks Cincinnati past Vanderbilt in Liberty Bowl

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Cincinnati coach Butch Jones rang the bell on the AutoZone Liberty Bowl trophy, eager to get the Bearcats' party started.

And he knew just the place to celebrate in Memphis.

"We officially get to ring in the new year on Beale Street," Jones yelled.

Isaiah Pead ran for 149 yards and a touchdown, and Ralph David Abernathy IV's 90-yard kickoff return early in the fourth quarter put Cincinnati ahead to stay as the Bearcats edged Vanderbilt 31-24 on Saturday.

The Bearcats (10-3) capped the season with their third straight victory by snapping a two-game skid in bowl games. It was their first bowl win since downing Southern Miss in the 2007 PapaJohns.com Bowl. They also notched their fourth 10-win season in the past five years, bouncing back from 4-8 in 2010 during Jones' first season.

"A 10-win season is very hard to do in college football," Jones said.

But the co-Big East Conference champs had to work to put away Vanderbilt (6-7), a team that tied for fourth in the Southeastern Conference's East Division, despite forcing three turnovers and coming up with two sacks. The Commodores led 21-17 when Abernathy became the first Cincinnati player to return a kickoff for a TD in the program's 13 bowl appearances.

Abernathy is the grandson of the civil rights leader who was in Memphis with Martin Luther King when he was assassinated in 1968 at the Lorraine Motel, a few miles away from the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

Vanderbilt cornerback Casey Hayward called the return a dagger, and Jones called it very fitting for the Abernathy family.

"He really provided a spark for us on that kickoff return. We challenged our kickoff return," Jones said. "We've been close all year, and we told them that today was the day we were going to get one. And obviously, they responded."

Vandy's Archibald Barnes blocked Tony Miliano's 39-yard field goal with 3:58 left, giving the Commodores the ball with plenty of time to go ahead. Nick Temple picked off Larry Smith's pass with 3:15 remaining, and Pead sealed the victory with a 12-yard TD run with 1:52 left.

Pead was the game's MVP, and the senior finally got to celebrate a bowl win.

"It was just a huge burden off of our backs," Pead said.

Vanderbilt kicked a 35-yard field goal with 35 seconds left, but the Bearcats recovered the onside kick to kneel down for the victory.

"It got exciting in the second half," Vanderbilt coach James Franklin said. "It was fairly ugly in the in the first half from our perspective. But we did come out and make it a more exciting game."

George Winn also scored on a 69-yard TD run when he replaced Pead, while the Big East Offensive Player of the Year got his helmet fix. Jones credited the equipment manager as an unsung hero with Winn scoring on the longest run of his career.

Zach Collaros, playing for the first time since breaking his right ankle Nov. 12, threw a touchdown pass but was intercepted twice. He was just 12 of 29 for 80 yards passing, though he moved around well. Pead was just happy to have Collaros back.

"We have all the faith in the world in Munchie (Legaux)," Pead said. "But to have not only your captain and the heart of the team, he was the heartbeat. He was our brother."

Vanderbilt missed notching only its second winning record since 1982 with the loss.

This was only the fifth bowl for the SEC's only private university yet the second in four seasons. But the Commodores had trouble getting their offense going to match a defense that came up with three sacks and two interceptions -- both by Casey Hayward.

Smith replaced Jordan Rodgers at quarterback in the third quarter, and he threw for a season-high 142 yards, including a short pass to Chris Boyd that the receiver took 68 yards up the right sideline before pulling up lame and diving into the end zone for a 21-17 lead with 14:03 left that lasted only as long as Abernathy could sprint down field after the kickoff.

The Bearcats led 14-7 at halftime and couldn't take advantage of two Vanderbilt turnovers in the third quarter.

The Commodores first muffed the opening kickoff before Rodgers was intercepted by Camerron Cheatham. Rodgers, the younger brother of NFL Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, didn't play after that. Franklin turned to Smith, who started the Commodores' Music City Bowl win in 2008.

Rodgers was 4 of 14 for 26 yards passing and ran for 33 yards. The Commodores had 106 yards total offense in the first half but finished with 295.

"Did you watch the first half?" Franklin said when asked about the change. "It wasn't a whole lot of fun. We weren't doing the things we were supposed to do. I don't mean just Jordan, it was everybody."

Smith nearly pulled it off. He drove the Commodores 52 yards with a couple of key passes to set up Jerron Seymour's 5-yard TD run with 3:53 left in the quarter to tie it up at 14-all.

Zac Stacy also ran for a TD.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=313650238

WHAT A GREAT WIN!

UC tops Vanderbilt to win Liberty Bowl


The Enquirer/Joseph Fuqua II
(Left to right) Bearcats head coach Butch Jones, UC President Gregory H. Williams and running back Isaiah Pead (23) hold up the AutoZone Liberty Bowl trophy.

Written by
Tom Groeschen

MEMPHIS, Tenn. University of Cincinnati seniors finally got their football bowl win here Saturday, with seniors Isaiah Pead and JK Schaffer and true freshman Ralph David Abernathy IV among the heroes.

UC beat Vanderbilt 31-24 in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl for the program’s first bowl win since the 2007 season (PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham), when current Bearcat seniors either were redshirts or not yet in the program.

“We’ve never had a bowl game victory, and it’s like a big burden is off our backs,” Pead said.

Running back Pead was named game Most Valuable Player, with 28 carries for 149 yards and a touchdown.

A near capacity crowd of 57,103 watched in near-perfect weather, with sunny skies and a temperature of 66 degrees at kickoff.

Pead and Schaffer pulled on red “AutoZone Liberty Bowl Champions” T-shirts as they stepped onto the podium for postgame media questions. Linebacker Schaffer was named UC’s defensive player of the game, with a team-high nine tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss.

Abernathy IV, whose late grandfather Ralph Jr. was a leader in the American civil rights movement, returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter for UC’s go-ahead score, making it 24-21.

Senior quarterback Zach Collaros started for the Bearcats, in his first game since breaking his right ankle Nov. 12.

Collaros was a bit rusty, going 12-for-29 passing for 80 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions. Collaros appeared to be moving well on his ankle, although he was sacked three times.

While Collaros was not in peak form, his very presence lifted UC.

“To have the captain and the heartbeat of our team back, there was a joy,” Pead said.

UC coach Butch Jones, who shouted himself hoarse during the game, said of Collaros:

“The perseverance that young man showed to come back and lead his team to victory says a lot.”

UC also got a big 69-yard touchdown run from Pead’s backup, George Winn, for the Bearcats’ first score of the game in the second quarter. Winn was filling in for Pead, who briefly was out with a broken chin strap.

Defensively, UC sacked Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers tiwe and rendering him so ineffective (4-for-14 passing, one interception, only 26 yardes) that Commodores coach James Franklin switched quarterbacks in the second half.

“We just weren’t running our offense,” Franklin said. “I thought their defensive line played well. Defensively, I thought the running back (Pead) was very good and their offensive line played well. That’s the first team all year that was able to run fairly consistently against us.”

UC led 14-7 at halftime, behind Winn’s TD and an 8-yard TD pass from Collaros to wide receiver Anthony McClung with 12 seconds left in the first half.

In the late stages, Vanderbilt (6-7) took a 21-17 lead on a 68-yard catch-and-run TD reception by wideout Chris Boyd with 14:03 left in the game.

Abernathy quickly deflated the Vandy rooting section by returning the ensuing kick 90 yards for a touchdown The PAT kick by Tony Miliano gave UC a 24-21 lead with 13:51 left.

With UC still up 24-21, Bearcats linebacker Nick Temple intercepted a tipped ball and returned it 12 yards to the Vandy 31-yard line, with 3:15 left in the game.

“I thought our defense did a great job of keeping us in game,” Jones said.

Pead put UC up 31-21 on a 12-yard TD run with 1:52 left. A Vanderbilt field goal made it 31-24 with 24 seconds left, but then UC recovered an onside kick.

It was UC’s first win over a Southeastern Conference team since beating Kentucky in 1996. UC now is 16-44-3 against teams currently in the SEC, considered America’s top college football league.

“Hearing so much about playing an SEC team, it definitely was getting old,” Schaffer said. “We looked at it as an opportunity to show the country that the Big East is a pretty good conference, too.”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20111...berty-Bowl

A return to make family proud
Liberty Bowl notebook


The Enquirer/Joseph Fuqua II
The Bearcats' Ralph David Abernathy IV (19) breaks free as he returns a kick 90 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Written by
Tom Groeschen

MEMPHIS, TENN. — Ralph David Abernathy IV has a name familiar to those who know about the American civil rights movement. University of Cincinnati football player Abernathy IV made his own national name here Saturday.

With the country watching via ABC-TV, true freshman Abernathy IV returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown with 13:51 left to put UC ahead 24-21. UC never trailed again in a 31-24 win over Vanderbilt in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

Abernathy’s late grandfather, Ralph David Abernathy, was a leader in the civil rights movement and right-hand man of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was slain in Memphis in April 1968. Abernathy was with King on the night of King’s assassination.

“It was very special to do that here in Memphis,” Abernathy IV said of his touchdown. “I feel like my grandfather and Martin Luther King and everybody was really watching over me and taking care of me tonight.”

Abernathy IV, who is from Atlanta, was razzed by teammates after being caught by the Syracuse kicker on a kickoff return earlier this year.

“I never got to live it down until now,” Abernathy IV said, smiling. “I just saw that ball in the air, caught it full speed and everybody did a great job blocking. I beat the kicker finally, and took it to the house.

“I feel like I had to step up and really do something for the team to earn my spot.”

UC coach Butch Jones singled out Abernathy during his postgame remarks.

“Ralph Abernathy comes back to Memphis, and he really provided a spark with his kickoff return,” Jones said.

RARE 10: Jones praised UC’s seniors for rallying from last year’s 4-8 season.

“The seniors have meant everything to our football program,” Jones said. “To win 10 games in college football is very very hard to do.”

This marks only the fifth time UC has won 10 games in a season, along with the 1951, 2007, 2008 and 2009 teams.

FANS STEP UP: The crowd was a near-capacity 57,103. UC fans bought more than 10,000 pre-sale tickets and Vanderbilt fans bought about 14,000, according to the schools’ sports information offices.

Vanderbilt is in Nashville, about a 3½-hour drive from Memphis. From Cincinnati, it is about an eight-hour drive to Memphis.

“Our fans were phenomenal, to our band to our cheerleaders to the (pre-game) Catwalk, to the support they’ve given us all week long,” Jones said.

NEW LOOK: UC wore new helmets Saturday, featuring a matte black finish. The usual C-Paw logo was on the left side of the helmet, with the players’ jersey numbers on the right side.

The helmets were for the Liberty Bowl only. UC players will keep the helmets as part of their bowl gifts.

The rest of UC’s uniform was basically unchanged Saturday, as the Bearcats wore white jerseys (black lettering) and white pants.

DOUBLE TIME: UC radio broadcaster Dan Hoard, who also calls Bengals games on radio, is pulling double duty again this weekend.

Hoard did the UC-Vanderbilt game in Memphis here Saturday (3:30 p.m. EST start), then departed for the approximately eight-hour drive home to Cincinnati for Sunday’s 4:15 p.m. Bengals-Ravens game.

“They had a direct flight (Sunday morning) but I didn’t want to risk any delays,” Hoard said. “The NFL actually did me a favor by pushing the game back to 4:15.”

Dave Kelly, son of UC radio analyst Jim Kelly and spotter for UC radio broadcats, was to accompany Hoard and handle the bulk of the drive from Memphis back to Cincinnati.

WARM ONE: It was 66 degrees for the mid-afternoon kickoff Saturday, the third warmest Liberty Bowl on record.

ALL-TIME: It was UC’s 13th appearance in a bowl, and UC is now 7-6 in bowl games.

COMING HOME: The Bearcats spent New Year’s Eve night in Memphis, and were scheduled to fly home this afternoon.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20111...t|Sports|s

Vanderbilt loses to Cincinnati in Liberty Bowl
Commodores waste chances to wrap up Liberty Bowl


(JAE S. LEE / THE TENNESSEAN)
Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Larry Smith (10) is consoled by guard Kyle Fischer (72) and wide receiver Chris Boyd after a 24-31 loss to Cincinnati Bearcats during the 53rd annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tenn., Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011.

Written by
Jeff Lockridge
The Tennessean

Vanderbilt Coach James Franklin’s summation was as simple to deliver as it was for fans at the Liberty Bowl to see.

“We didn’t play well,” he said. “I think that’s the one thing that’s hard to swallow.”

The Commodores, who played their best football late in the season to clinch the fifth bowl game in school history, didn’t have enough stored up for New Year’s Eve and fell to Big East co-champion Cincinnati 31-24 on Saturday afternoon.

Isaiah Pead rushed for 149 yards as the Bearcats (10-3) earned their first bowl win since 2007.

“To win 10 games in college football is very, very hard to do,” Cincinnati Coach Butch Jones said. “Our players answered everything we asked them to do.”

The Commodores (6-7) committed three turnovers, pulled quarterback Jordan Rodgers in favor of Larry Smith in the third quarter and didn’t have a drive longer than 31 yards until their 12th possession.

Yet Vanderbilt found itself in front 21-17 with 14:03 to play after Chris Boyd took a receiver screen from Smith and ran 68 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown despite a hamstring injury.

That brought Commodores fans, who accounted for at least 60 percent of the 57,103 in attendance, to their feet. Cincinnati kickoff returner Ralph David Abernathy IV put them back in their seats 12 seconds later. His 90-yard return gave the Bearcats a 24-21 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Pead’s 12-yard run gave Cincinnati a 31-21 lead with 1:52 left when a Smith interception set up the Bearcats with a short field at the Vanderbilt 31. Smith’s pass was to the back arm of a crossing Jordan Matthews and deflected to linebacker Nick Temple.

“I just threw it behind him,” Smith said. “I made a poor throw and the defense made a play on it.”

That came two snaps after Vanderbilt’s final momentum play: a blocked Cincinnati 39-yard field goal by Archie Barnes that kept it a one-score game with 3:58 left and gave the Commodores one more chance to win.

“Big momentum swing,” Vanderbilt defensive back Trey Wilson said. “I thought it was going to get us headed in the right direction.”

The Bearcats recovered a Vanderbilt onside kick to seal it after Ryan Fowler’s 35-yard field goal capped the scoring.

“We didn’t run our offense,” Franklin said. “I thought our defense was put in tough positions. We kept putting them out on the field.

“We talked about it all the last couple of weeks ... you’re going to have to live with it for the next nine months how you play in this last game. That doesn’t take anything away from Cincinnati. We just made too many critical mistakes.”

Smith (8-of-19 passing, 142 yards) entered with 10:22 left in the third quarter.

Rodgers (4-of-14 passing, 26 yards) said he suffered a hip pointer but could have gone back in after throwing an interception in the third quarter.

“He got an injury, but we were making that move anyway,” Franklin said.

Cincinnati quarterback Zach Collaros, who missed the last three games with a broken ankle, was limited to 12-of-29 passing for 80 yards and two interceptions by senior cornerback Casey Hayward in his return to the lineup.

Zac Stacy was held to 57 rushing yards and a touchdown on 18 carries for Vanderbilt, running his school single-season record total to 1,193.

The start to the third quarter had all the makings of a Vanderbilt meltdown, but a pair of pivotal stops kept the Bearcats from adding to a 14-7 halftime lead.

Eric Samuels fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half off his own knee and into the hands of Cincinnati at the Vanderbilt 15. But the Bearcats backpedaled from there and Tony Miliano’s 41-yard field-goal attempt missed.

Vanderbilt’s next possession also ended in a turnover when Camerron Cheatham stepped in front of a Rodgers pass and returned the interception to the Vanderbilt 43. But again Cincinnati was stuffed when Chris Marve charged in for a third-down sack.

The Commodores got things turned around when Smith directed a 52-yard scoring drive to tie it at 14 on Jerron Seymour’s 5-yard run. Miliano answered with a 44-yard field goal to put Cincinnati back up 17-14.

Cincinnati went up 14-7 after scoring with 12 seconds left in the first half. The Bearcats covered 56 yards after Vanderbilt failed to convert a fourth-and-2, capping the drive on Collaros’ 8-yard pass to Anthony McClung.

The Commodores’ previous series was kept alive when punter Richard Kent scooped up a low snap and ran 17 yards on fourth-and-15 from the Vanderbilt 31. But Vanderbilt’s next fourth down didn’t go well when Stacy’s jump pass to tight end Brandon Barden — a trick play that had been practiced this week — was to his wrong shoulder and dropped incomplete.

Vanderbilt led 7-0 when Cincinnati reserve running back George Winn’s 69-yard run down the left sideline on the Bearcats’ first play of the second quarter evened the score with 14:17 left in the half. Cincinnati managed an interception and four punts from its first five offensive series.

Stacy’s 7-yard touchdown run up the middle staked Vanderbilt to its early lead. He capped a three-play, 22-yard scoring drive at 7:34 of the first quarter.

Vanderbilt’s bowl record slipped to 2-2-1.

Reach Jeff Lockridgeat 615-259-8023 or jlockridge@tennessean.com.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/201201...ext|Sports

Vanderbilt's run defense can't contain Cincinnati


(JAE S. LEE / THE TENNESSEAN)
Cincinnati running back Isaiah Pead cuts between Vanderbilt defenders Chase Garnham (36) and Eric Samuels in the third quarter.

Written by
Greg Sullivan
The Tennessean

Vanderbilt’s normally stout run defense had an unusually poor performance in Saturday’s 31-24 Liberty Bowl loss to Cincinnati.

The Commodores struggled. Mostly, they missed tackles.

The passing defense held Cincinnati to 80 yards and got two interceptions from cornerback Casey Hayward. But the SEC’s fourth-ranked rushing defense allowed 221 yards, nearly 100 more than it averaged during the season.

Bearcats running back Isaiah Pead finished with 149 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries and was named the game’s MVP.

“We were picking up their runs,” said Vanderbilt linebacker Archibald Barnes, who finished with a team-leading 10 tackles. “We were getting good hits on the running back. But he’s a strong runner.

“(Pead) ran angry. We’ve got to play angrier than he was. That’s all on us.”

Pead’s 12-yard score with 1:52 to play stretched Cincinnati’s lead to 31-21.

He averaged 5.3 yards per carry, helping the Bearcats sustain drives against a Vanderbilt defense that trails only LSU, Alabama and Georgia in the conference for rush defense.

But it wasn’t only Pead. Backup running back George Winn hurdled a diving Vanderbilt defender and ran down the sideline for a 69-yard touchdown early in the second quarter.

“They weren’t doing anything we didn’t expect; we’ve just got to tackle better,” said senior linebacker Chris Marve, who played high school football at White Station in Memphis. “We got guys to their running backs; we’ve just got to bring them down because they were breaking a lot of tackles.

“I don’t care if it’s a Super Bowl team versus the worst team in the NFL, if the (Super Bowl team) is missing tackles, it’s going to be a long day for them. That’s what happened today.”

Marve said the struggles could not be blamed on Cincinnati’s fast-paced spread offense, either.

“The no-huddle didn’t affect us,” he said. “Fatigue wasn’t a matter at all. It was just a matter of execution.”

The only game this season when the Commodores gave up more rushing yards than Saturday was their 44-21 win over Army (270).

Most of the damage on Saturday was done in the second quarter (115 yards), largely coming off Winn’s long touchdown run.

“We gave up a touchdown late in the half and that was a momentum killer,” Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Bob Shoop said. “We’ve got to do better than that.”

Pead’s 149 yards was the seventh-best rushing total in the 53-year history of the Liberty Bowl.

“The first and third quarters, we played our butts off,” Shoop said. “We knew Pead was going to make plays. But to give up (more than) 200 yards rushing (total) is disappointing.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/201201.../301010087

Cincinnati beats Vanderbilt, 31-24, in AutoZone Liberty Bowl


Photo by Nikki Boertman
Cincinnati's George Winn hurdles Vanderbilt safety Kenny Ladler on his way to a 69-yard run for a touchdown in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

Cincinnati kick returner Ralph David Abernathy IV has always been aware of the civil rights legacy of his namesake grandfather Ralph Abernathy Jr.

So when Cincinnati was named to play in the 53rd AutoZone Liberty Bowl, he knew all about Memphis since he'd visited The National Civil Rights Museum where his late grandfather was in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel.

"My grandfather was able to change the history of the world; he made his dreams come true," said Abernathy IV, whose stunning 90-yard TD kickoff return early in the fourth quarter regained a lead that the Big East co-champions never relinquished in a 31-24 victory over gritty Vanderbilt on Saturday in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

"I felt like he and Martin Luther King Jr. were watching over me tonight. This is the first time my grandmother has had a chance to see me play in person in college."

Abernathy's return wasn't just great timing for Grandma, but it absolutely stuck "a dagger," as Vanderbilt cornerback Casey Hayward put it, in the Commodores after they'd just taken the lead.

Despite playing what first-year Vanderbilt coach James Franklin called "not our best game," a 68-yard TD pass from backup quarterback Larry Smith to hamstring-tweaked wide receiver Chris Boyd gave Vandy a 24-21 lead with 13:51 left to play.

At that point, 60 percent of the crowd of 57,103 dressed in the black and gold of Vanderbilt exploded with energy. Franklin raced down the Vanderbilt sidelines and screamed "Let's go!" to his senior defensive leaders like Hayward, linebacker Chris Marve and strong safety Sean Richardson, who couldn't wait to get back on the field and get the ball back again.

But they had to stand there helplessly and watch Abernathy grab the kickoff at the 10, start upfield, make a slight cut through a seam to his left, make Vanderbilt kicker Casey Spear miss and follow the sideline in front of the Cincy bench to the end zone.

When Abernathy returned to the bench, he was greeted by smiles, hugs and plenty of laughs.

"In the Syracuse game (on Nov. 26), he was on his way to a touchdown when he got caught by the kicker," Cincinnati running back Isaiah Pead said of Abernathy IV being run down by Syracuse's Ross Kruatman. "So every day at practice since then, we'd tell him 'Don't get caught, don't get caught.' "

After Abernathy's clutch return, Pead, the Big East's Offensive Player of the Year, put the Bearcats on his back. He had 61 of his game-high 149 yards rushing in the final quarter, including a 12-yard TD run with 1:52 left that salted away Cincinnati's first bowl win since 2007, and first under second-year coach Butch Jones.

"Last year at this time (when Cincinnati finished the 2010 season 4-8), I text messaged everyone of our players and said '2011 -- be a champion, we're going to be back in a bowl game'," said Jones, whose '11 Bearcats finished at 10-3. "Our players answered everything we asked them to do."

Vanderbilt was a two-point favorite entering the game, but both Jones and Franklin felt the game would be relatively even.

And it was, with Cincinnati holding a slight edge in total offense, 301-295. Both teams completed 12 passes, both threw two interceptions. Both had long-distance scoring plays.

So the fact that the Commodores fought the Bearcats tooth-and-nail to the final horn made Franklin proud of his 6-7 team.

"In 12 months, we took a team that won a total of four games the two previous years and we went to a bowl game in our first year," Franklin said. "We have come a long ways in short period of time. If you look at all the things that are going on in our program right now, this is just the start."

-- Ron Higgins: (901) 529-2525

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/201...erty-bowl/

loved it, 1 second they had the Mo, next second UC's got it, a great play

Abernathy reminded me of Gilyard on that play! Hope he continues to do well, he's only a freshman! Would love to see him set a record for kickoff returns for UC. How many did Gilyard have?

Abernathy's kickoff return was as big of a momentum changer as Mardy's against Pitt. I hope Abernathy has a successful career at UC.