The Morning Line, 9/23
Posted 9/23/2009 7:14 AM EDT on Cincinnati.com
Wow, are the Bearcats getting a little full of themselves?
Someone asked Isaiah Pead Tuesday if UC were the best quasi-amateur football team in the state. From the AP:
“Hey, if we ever have to strap it on with them, we're going to win,” Pead said, not even flinching when the question was raised.
“I think as long as you're in the state of Ohio and you're not looked at as an equal or partner, you're going to play with a chip on your shoulder,” Brian Kelly said Tuesday. “And I'm not saying we should be looked at as an equal or a partner. But our players sense and feel that every day by who they talk to and who they see at the mall and, 'Did you see the Ohio State-USC game?' 'Yeah, did you see our game?'
“So they're going to carry that (chip), and I'm certainly not going to tell them to change the way they think because as a coach, I kind of like that role that we have.”
Buckeyes? Or Bearcats?
“I liked the situation they have here,” the sophomore running back said. “They were an up-and-coming team and I love the coaches. The coaches were nice, whereas the OSU coaches were, 'If you come here, you come here. If you don't, then that's fine, we'll get the next guy.' I felt these coaches, they cared about you.”
That might be true. And it's fun -- in an almost bizarre, through-the-looking-glass-backward way -- to see UC getting fresh with the boys from up north. But c'mon. The Bearcats are having a great run. Ohio State has a great program. If BK left tomorrow, UC football would swan-dive the day after. If Tressel left, OSU would keep on keeping on. The only place in Cincinnati where the program is bigger than the coach is Xavier.
Now, if BK stays and succeeds another 5 years, maybe the story changes and UC becomes less of a little bro. For now, it's the UC Kellys.
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll...innati.com