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Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
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Bruce Monnin Offline
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Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
It is 2:40 pm Sunday and the classic win over Pittsburgh is on ESPN Classic right now.
 
08-11-2019 01:42 PM
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Bruce Monnin Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
Hope has been tough to keep up all game long, even knowing the final outcome.
 
08-11-2019 03:21 PM
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Edgebrookjeff Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
(08-11-2019 01:42 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  It is 2:40 pm Sunday and the classic win over Pittsburgh is on ESPN Classic right now.

You can watch the entire game on YOUTUBE any time you want.
 
08-11-2019 06:44 PM
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Bruce Monnin Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
It's just not the same, for some reason. Knowing that some local non-UC fan might be watching makes it more special.
 
08-11-2019 07:18 PM
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doss2 Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
It was a great drive home. Window Flags on car. Made it back to enjoy dinner and wine at Pitrelli's
 
08-12-2019 07:50 AM
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Dannyboy Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
Listening to the Pitt fans on the radio on the way home was hilarious and sad at the same time.

And now that I think about it, I’ve never seen that game on TV. I saw it live and never watched the recording. That’s weird. I’m weird.
 
08-12-2019 08:11 PM
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Z-Fly Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
(08-12-2019 08:11 PM)Dannyboy Wrote:  Listening to the Pitt fans on the radio on the way home was hilarious and sad at the same time.

And now that I think about it, I’ve never seen that game on TV. I saw it live and never watched the recording. That’s weird. I’m weird.

Same here, on all points. You aren't alone.
 
08-13-2019 05:38 AM
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Jchuges7 Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
(08-12-2019 08:11 PM)Dannyboy Wrote:  Listening to the Pitt fans on the radio on the way home was hilarious and sad at the same time.

And now that I think about it, I’ve never seen that game on TV. I saw it live and never watched the recording. That’s weird. I’m weird.

I remember hearing Pitt fans on the radio cursing Mardy Gilyard and The Wanstache in the same breath. The host could hardly blame them. Hard to feel bad for such a fan base with so much sports success.
 
08-13-2019 06:36 AM
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Cat-Man Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
We've all watched the game time and time again with great joy. But this is a really good read about the game and some of the things that took place behind the scenes:


The following is an excerpt from former Cincinnati Enquirer University of Cincinnati sports writer and author Bill Koch's latest book, "This is What the Top Feels Like".

On December 5, 2009, In the game that would determine the Big East champion, the the fifth-ranked University of Cincinnati Bearcats fell behind No. 14 Pittsburgh, 31-10, at Heinz Field before UC’s Mardy Gilyard returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown just before halftime. As the players walked off the field, Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly turned to quarterback Tony Pike and told him he needed to apologize to his teammates for his poor play in the first half.

Pike to Binns

The Bearcats’ locker room at halftime of the Pittsburgh game was filled with conflicting emotions. There’s no doubt that Gilyard’s kickoff return had provided the team with reason to hope for the second half, but their problems weren’t over, not by a long shot. They still trailed Pitt by two touchdowns, their star quarterback was still struggling, and their defense still hadn’t found a way to contain Lewis.

Some players were angry about the way they had played in the first half. Others feared that their perfect season was about to come to an end. They had just 20 minutes to regroup before the start of the second half. The players had to get their heads straight. The coaches had to strategize. And everybody needed to calm down.

“We came into the locker room, all the coaches went into the office, and there was yelling and screaming going on in the players’ locker room,” Kelly said. “I remember Kerry Coombs leaving the coaches’ locker room and coming back and saying, ‘Mardy’s going crazy in here. You need to come in here.’

“So I walked in, and Mardy was up in arms about how nobody was holding up their end of the bargain. I said, ‘You’ve got to settle down. You take care of what you can take care of.’ He was animated to the point where he was sweating.”

Gilyard was upset mainly because the Bearcats weren’t playing the way he was accustomed to seeing them play.

“They don’t have nothin’ over here in Pittsburgh,” Gilyard said. “They shouldn’t even have got to this point. Now we really got to play. I went to Pike and I said, ‘I have faith in you. I don’t know what’s going on, but we can’t do this without you, period.’ He stood up and apologized for the way he played in the first half.”

Zach Collaros was waiting in the wings in case Kelly decided that Pike just didn’t have it that day. Kelly considered making the switch, but decided to stick with Pike.

“Our best chance was Tony,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t the kind of game that Zach excels at, coming from behind. It was a Tony Pike kind of game. We needed him to snap out of it.”

While Pike was gathering himself for the second half, his parents were moving to different seats. They ended up in a private box, where they watched the second half with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Pike’s not sure how they got in there, but he believes an NFL agent with a connection to Roethlisberger arranged for the move.

“Agents try to contact you during the season,” Pike said. “I told my parents, ‘I’m not talking to anyone during the season. You guys meet with them and pick your top three or four and let me know.’ I’m sure the most pleasant things weren’t being said in the UC fan section. And the fact that Zach had come in and done such a good job (when Pike was hurt earlier in the season), there probably were a lot of people wanting me out of the game. I think my parents moved because they just got stressed out. They could never sit still, especially when I wasn’t playing well.”

The Bearcats went back onto the field for the second half, determined to make the most of the final 30 minutes. Gilyard’s return had given them a chance. Now they had to capitalize on it.

That didn’t happen right away. Pittsburgh got the ball to start the second half and the Cincinnati defense did exactly what it needed to do, forcing a three-and-out and keeping the momentum from quickly shifting back to the Panthers. But when Pike and the offense went out for their first possession of the second half, it seemed as if nothing had changed. Pike’s first pass to Gilyard was incomplete. Then he was sacked for a loss of five yards. On third-and-15, he ran for a 15-yard loss and fumbled the ball, which he recovered himself. Jake Rogers entered the game to punt.

At that juncture, there was no sign that the Bearcats had figured out anything on offense. But apparently they did on defense. After Rogers’ punt, Pitt took over on its 25-yard line. The Panthers were called for holding on the first play of the possession. Ray Graham gained 13 yards to the Pitt 45, but the Bearcats held from there and forced a second punt in as many second-half possessions for the Panthers.

“We were doing some different things in the second half,” said Cincinnati defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. “They showed themselves and gave us an opportunity to put a hat on spots that we hadn’t done in the first half and we got them slowed.”

Then Cincinnati’s offense came alive. On second-and-14 from the Bearcats’ 32, Gilyard made another big play, a 68-yard touchdown pass from Pike. Rogers’ extra-point kick drew the Bearcats to within seven points at 31-24 with 8:12 remaining in the third quarter. The momentum now had swung completely in Cincinnati’s favor.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt had gambled successfully during the first half by guarding against the long pass in the hope that the Bearcats wouldn’t settle for the underneath passes. But now in the second half, the Bearcats were poised to take advantage of what the defense was giving them.

“We made some adjustments,” Kelly said. “They were playing off coverage and dropping eight into coverage. That’s when we started to pick them apart with a lot of drives and crosses. We just methodically started to go down the field patiently.”

“We went back to what we did,” Pike said, “possession by possession, play by play, knowing that we can score quick, we can move the ball quick, knowing that now we’re not counting possessions.”

After Rogers’ kickoff, Pitt started its next drive at its seven-yard line. Again, the Cincinnati defense held, thanks in large part to a 10-yard sack of quarterback Bill Stull by JK Schaffer at the 17, which forced the Panthers to punt again. But Pike was intercepted for the third time on the Bearcats’ next possession when he tried to hit Gilyard at Pitt’s 17-yard line.

The third quarter ended with the Panthers still holding a 31-24 lead. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Cincinnati’s Dominique Battle intercepted a Stull pass on the Bearcats’ seven. After three incomplete passes by Pike, the Bearcats were forced to punt again. Pitt took over on the Cincinnati 32 and needed only four Dion Lewis carries for gains of four, four, nine, and finally 15 yards for a touchdown. Dan Hutchins’ extra point increased Pitt’s lead back to 14 points at 38-24 with 12:26 remaining.

Time was running out on the Bearcats’ perfect season. But then Gilyard came up with another big return, taking the Panthers’ kickoff and returning it 49 yards to the Pitt 23. On first-and-goal from the eight, Pike hooked up with D.J. Woods for an eight-yard touchdown pass. But Rogers’ extra point kick was no good when holder Collaros had trouble handling Mike Windt’s snap, the ball getting pinned against Collaros’ right leg, which disrupted Rogers’ timing. His kick glanced off the right upright. Still, the Bearcats were within one touchdown of the Panthers, trailing 38-30 with 11:09 to play.

“I can’t point any blame at anybody,” Rogers said of the missed extra point. “It was just an operational issue. We just didn’t click on all cylinders on that. It’s me who missed it, so I’ll take the heat.”

With 5:46 remaining, Cincinnati tied the score at 38-38 on a seven-play, 68-yard touchdown drive that ended with Isaiah Pead’s one-yard run. Pike then passed to Gilyard for the two-point conversion. The Panthers reclaimed the lead on Lewis’ five-yard touchdown run with 1:38 left, but holder Andrew Janocko, a sophomore backup quarterback, bobbled the snap, preventing Hutchins from making the extra-point kick, and providing the Bearcats with the opening they needed. They trailed by only six, 44-38.

“Everything that we did to try to get the momentum back, it didn’t work,” Wannstedt said. “And then, at the end of the game, we fumble a snap. It’s icy and snowy. He mishandles it. So again, that’s another momentum opportunity that we lose.”

The Cincinnati offense was huddled on the sideline, getting ready to go back onto the field when they saw Pitt had botched the extra point. The Panthers still led, 44-38, but the Bearcats knew that a touchdown and an extra point could win the game.

“There was nothing said. There was just a look,” Pike said. “You could just tell that everyone knew what was going to happen. All of sudden, it was now we can go win this game. That changed everything. We’d done this a million times in practice and in games.”

The Bearcats began their final drive at their 39-yard line after Gilyard returned the kickoff 26 yards. Almost as if on automatic pilot, Pike passed to Gilyard for seven yards to the Cincinnati 46. He passed to Woods for 10 yards to the Pitt 44. On first-and-10, he threw again to Gilyard, who was cutting across the middle, to the Pitt 29.

“I was pushed out of the pocket rolling out right,” Pike said. “They tell quarterbacks to never throw back across your body over the middle, but I had seen Mardy break off his route and come back over the middle. I was able to make a throw to him, which got us in position.”

The Bearcats called timeout with 29 seconds remaining. The Panthers feared Gilyard so much at that point that they altered their defensive structure in an attempt to prevent him from making still another big play. It turned out to be a big mistake. As Pike approached the line of scrimmage, he noticed that Pitt was cheating a safety toward Gilyard, leaving Armon Binns one-on-one with cornerback Jovani Chappel.

“Armon for much of the second half of the year was the go-to guy,” Pike said, “but Mardy in that game had been so electric with the kickoff return and the receiving touchdown and the two-point conversion. So even though a lot of times teams would play base even coverage, toward the end of the game they were rotating a safety to Mardy’s side to kind of double-team Mardy.

“I don’t know exactly what play was called, but as we broke the huddle we lined up so quick that teams couldn’t hide their defense. The safety was already rotating to Mardy’s side, and I knew on the backside they were in man-to-man on Armon. I don’t care who the corner would be, I would take Armon one-on-one against anyone in the country. I signaled to Binns to change his route to a fade. From then, I knew I had it. The first three steps I had to look to the left to hold the safety. There was no turning back to see if Armon’s there. It was just knowing that he was going to beat his guy. From there, it was pitch and catch.”

Binns knew “a go route” was always an option depending on the coverage. Anytime Pike saw that he had one-on-one coverage on Binns, he could check the play at the line of scrimmage. So as soon as Pike gave Binns the signal, he knew the ball was coming to him. Then it was up to him to beat Chappel, who was from Dayton, Ohio, about an hour drive up I-75 from Cincinnati. At 5-foot-9, Chappel was surrendering six inches to the 6-foot-3 Binns.

“He was a pretty physical guy,” Binns said. “He wasn’t real tall, but he was strong. He was a stocky kid. He was pretty good at the point of attack, so they used him on the short side of the field and that’s usually where I was, so we were matched up the majority of the game. Mardy had been doing it to everybody all year long. You kind of had to pick your poison, and Mardy was the more established guy at that time because he had started the whole year before. They felt like they would take the chance and leave everybody else in one-on-one matchups.”

Binns made a quick step inside against Chappel to keep him off his back, then headed toward the right sideline. As Pike prepared to throw the ball in Binns’ direction, he could see that Binns had Chappel beaten by a step or two. He knew all he had to do was get the ball over Chappel’s head. Binns would take care of the rest. He didn’t have to worry about the safety showing up to intercept it, but he had to make sure he didn’t under throw it, which could have given Chappel a chance to swat it away or pick it off.

He took two steps back, then moved up in the pocket and lofted the ball perfectly over Binns’ left shoulder. Chappel fell down as the ball dropped into Binns’ hands, his arms slightly extended. As Binns caught the ball with 33 seconds left, his momentum carried him to the ground in the end zone. He rolled over, then he held the ball up for all to see as the Cincinnati fans erupted in celebration.

Here’s how Dan Hoard, the long-time play-by-play radio broadcaster for Cincinnati, described the catch for his WLW-AM listeners: “Twenty-three-year-old Tony Pike waits for the snap, has the football, short drop, lofts one down the sideline for Binns. He’s got it! Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown! Armon Binns catches a perfect throw. There’s a penalty flag back at the 30-yard line. It’s on Pitt. Touchdown!”

Pike pumped his fist into the air as he danced his way down the field toward Binns with the score tied at 44-44.

“In the moment, I wasn’t thinking about anything but catching that football,” Binns said. “I was always taught to look up in the air for deep balls, but don’t look back toward the quarterback, so I looked up and I tried to find the tip of the football and just focus on it all the way in. It was such a beautiful throw, man. He hit me right in stride. I didn’t have to overextend.

“It was so sloshy, that field. That Pittsburgh stadium field, even on good days, can be a little hectic. I was just trying to keep my balance. I didn’t know how close the cornerback was, but I knew he stumbled a little bit. The whole play he was right there trying to grab on my arm. I was just trying to make sure I held onto it and protected it when I caught it.”

When Pike saw the penalty flag, he initially thought the call was offensive holding, which would have wiped out the touchdown, but it was offside on Pitt defensive end Greg Romeus, the Big East co-defensive player of the year. It wasn’t until Pike watched the film later that he noticed Cincinnati left tackle Jeff Linkenbach had still managed to block Romeus, even though he was offside, giving Pike the time he needed to push into the pocket and make the throw.

“Jeff Linkenbach holding that block long enough is just as big a part of that play as Armon making the catch,” Pike said.

Pike had come a long way. Two years earlier, Kelly had felt compelled to confront him in the dining room at Camp Higher Ground and issue an ultimatum to get him to reach his potential. During Pike’s first year as a starter, he was frequently reamed out on the sideline by Kelly for not making what Kelly thought was the correct read. Now, with an undefeated season on the line, he had made the adjustment at the line of scrimmage that resulted in the biggest touchdown pass in Cincinnati football history.

“That was Tony Pike,” Kelly said. “He would take what he was given. He was really an extension of what I could see from the sideline. He was the coach on the field. He made the right check. He deserves a lot of credit there, certainly.”

Ten years later, Wannstedt still questions his decision to shift the safety to double Gilyard.

“We knew we were in a mismatch there with Chappel,” Wannstedt said. “We had been playing Aaron Berry, who played in the NFL, locking up on Gilyard. He was doing a heck of a job, so I felt good about that. But at the end of the game, rather than play zone and help out the undersized corner, we played man and we tried rushing four. Our guy was there. He wasn’t fooled. He wasn’t tripped. Pike made a great throw and Binns made a great catch. You always second-guess yourself as a coach. We left the kid alone. It was not his fault. He was physically in a mismatch.”

There was so much joy among Cincinnati’s players and fans after Binns’ catch that it seemed the Bearcats had already won. But there was still the matter of Rogers kicking the extra point, which was anything but automatic in this game, each team having already failed to convert one of its attempts.

“When we went out, I told Mike Windt, ‘Let’s get this snapped,’” Rogers said. “I told Zach, ‘Just get the ball down and I’ll kick it. I promise.’ I think it was probably a pretty slow operation, but I was sure when the ball went down that I was going to put it through.”

This time the snap was true, the hold was perfect, and Rogers’ kick sailed through the uprights.

“I still get goose bumps when I watch that game,” Rogers said. “It’s just an unreal feeling. I didn’t think that I hit the game-winner, I thought, ‘Holy crap, our team just came back from a deficit and came through for the win.’”

Cincinnati led by one point with 33 seconds to play. All that remained was for the Bearcats’ defense to keep the Panthers from making a last-ditch push into field goal territory.

Rogers kicked off to Pitt’s Ray Graham, who managed to get back only to the 18-yard line, where he was run out of bounds by Charley Howard. With time running out, Lewis’ running was largely neutralized at that point. The Panthers had no choice but to pass and hope for a breakdown in the Cincinnati secondary. But Stull’s three passes -- intended for Cedric McGee, Dorin Dickerson, and Baldwin -- all fell incomplete. On fourth-and-10, Stull dropped back for his final pass only to be sacked by Alex Daniels with three seconds remaining.

The Cincinnati offense came back on the field and Pike took a knee to kill the final seconds. The Bearcats were Big East champs for the second straight year. They had overcome the weather, the Heinz Field crowd, Lewis’ running ability, and their own spotty play in the first half. They were headed for their second straight appearance in a BCS bowl game, having completed the first perfect regular season (12-0) in school history.

“In the second half, our defense, we totally turned it around,” Daniels said. “It wasn’t what the coaches did. It was what the players did. We got together and we said we’re not going out like this. All we kept saying is, ‘We’re not going to a (crummy) bowl. We’re going to the BCS.’”

The Bearcats had outscored, Pitt 28-13, in the second half to post a 45-44 victory.

Lewis ran for 194 yards and three touchdowns on 47 carries.

Pike finished 22-for-44 for 302 yards and three touchdowns, with three interceptions. After an abysmal first half, he went 14-for-21 in the second half for 218 yards, and two touchdowns with one interception. Pead gained 76 yards on nine carries with one touchdown. Woods led the Bearcats in catches with seven for 61 yards and one touchdown. Gilyard caught five passes for 118 yards with one touchdown and finished with 381 all-purpose yards. And Binns caught five passes for 104 yards and the game-winning touchdown. The Cincinnati defense held Pitt to 137 yards in the second half.

“That game stands by itself as the most unbelievable football game I’ve ever watched in my life,” said Jim Kelly Jr., Hoard’s partner in the radio booth.

After Binns got up off the Heinz Field turf, the first person he saw was tight end Ben Guidugli.

“I didn’t have time to react to anything because he tackled me,” Binns said. “Eventually Sam Griffin and everybody started piling up. The moment got so emotional to come back like that in a game that meant so much. There’s a picture of me, Mardy and D.J. all huddled up. We were so passionate. We put so much into it. It was so special with the type of year we were having.”

The handshake line was quiet after the game. The Panthers had to be in shock over what had just happened, and the Bearcats did their best to keep from gloating. There had been little taunting during the game.

Moments later, the same Cincinnati locker room that had been the scene of so much passionate angst a few hours earlier was awash in emotion of a different kind.

“It was all celebration,” Pike said. “Brian Kelly was in there celebrating with us. We sang the fight song like we did after every game. The talk in the locker room was that we had done something that no one could ever take from us. Brian Kelly came up and gave me a hug and told me how proud he was of me. These were emotional times, because there’s so much on the field and you’re sharing that moment with teammates and friends and family. You’re doing it on someone else’s field, which makes it even more special. You erased a 21-point deficit. There was just that relief that we did something that had never happened at UC before.”

Kelly told the players in the locker room that he was honored to be their coach. Notre Dame had fired Charlie Weis five days earlier, and speculation about his replacement had continued to focus on Kelly. When he arrived at his post-game press conference, he was immediately asked about a report on ABC-TV during the game that said he had agreed to talk to Notre Dame officials about their coaching vacancy.

Reporters were simply doing their job, which Kelly should have understood. But the Cincinnati coach didn’t like the question and lashed out at reporters for overlooking what he and his team had just accomplished.

“I’m not going to talk about my job situation,” he said. “If anybody else wants to ask a question, here’s the response you’ll get. Let’s talk about back-to-back championship teams and these kids. That’s the focus. It’s going to be on these kids. There is more misinformation out there and you folks need to get a handle on it because it’s ridiculous.”

Kelly remembered his outburst.

“I was angry,” he said, “because I wanted to enjoy the moment with our players. That was more important to me than anything else. We had come so far. We had experienced a lot during the season and overcame some adversity. That’s what you work for and you want to share it with your players because it goes so fast. It was what you want when you spend 80 hours a week with your team. That’s the way you want to finish it.”

Coombs and Brad Jones hugged each other when Coombs toted the Big East championship trophy into the locker room.

“My journey of competing and trying to be a starter and be productive, it all ended in winning the Big East championship,” Jones said. “I was able to fight with those guys and win. Just getting embraced by Kerry and hugging each other and saying, we did it. It was awesome.”

When Pike saw Binns in the locker room, he noticed that his left shoulder was in a sling. He assumed that Binns had injured the shoulder as he fell to the ground after making the game-tying catch. In fact, Binns had hurt his shoulder earlier in the game when Pike threw a pass to him off a fade route in the corner. After making the catch he fell on his shoulder, then the defender fell on top of the shoulder and separated it.

“I tried to block on the next play,” Binns said. “I had the most agonizing pain I had ever felt to that point. A little bit before halftime, they took me in and worked on it and got me back on the field. I was able to grind it out. The momentum and everything that goes into that type of game, you’re not thinking about injuries at that point. You’re just trying to do whatever you can to get back out there. Thankfully, I was able to. I played the whole game. I didn’t have a lot of range of motion. I could barely lift my hand over my head. The next morning when I woke up I couldn’t even lift my arm to scratch my face.”

Over in the Pitt locker room, Wannstedt was trying to find the right words for his players after the crushing loss.

“I spun it as fast as I could,” he said.

He told the Panthers they still had a chance to post a 10-win season for the first time since 1981 if they could win their upcoming bowl game, which they did, defeating North Carolina, 19-17, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

“I just told them, ‘You know what? We had a chance to make plays, guys,’” Wannstedt said. “It wasn’t any one thing that really let us down. We gave up a play on defense. We gave up a play on special teams. We mishandled a snap. Our players looked in the mirror. The team lost. It wasn’t one guy or one play.”

There would be more drama before the day was finished. The Bearcats had begun the day ranked No. 4 in the BCS standings, behind No. 3 Texas, No. 2 Alabama, and No. 1 Florida. If everything broke just right elsewhere, they could land a spot in the national championship game.


"This is What the Top Feels Like" is available at billkochbooks.com, at DuBois Book Store and Joseph-Beth Booksellers and Amazon.com.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/...932917002/
 
10-11-2019 04:49 PM
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doss2 Offline
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RE: Pike to Binns Game on ESPN Classic NOW!
(10-11-2019 04:49 PM)Cat-Man Wrote:  We've all watched the game time and time again with great joy. But this is a really good read about the game and some of the things that took place behind the scenes:


The following is an excerpt from former Cincinnati Enquirer University of Cincinnati sports writer and author Bill Koch's latest book, "This is What the Top Feels Like".

On December 5, 2009, In the game that would determine the Big East champion, the the fifth-ranked University of Cincinnati Bearcats fell behind No. 14 Pittsburgh, 31-10, at Heinz Field before UC’s Mardy Gilyard returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown just before halftime. As the players walked off the field, Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly turned to quarterback Tony Pike and told him he needed to apologize to his teammates for his poor play in the first half.

Pike to Binns

The Bearcats’ locker room at halftime of the Pittsburgh game was filled with conflicting emotions. There’s no doubt that Gilyard’s kickoff return had provided the team with reason to hope for the second half, but their problems weren’t over, not by a long shot. They still trailed Pitt by two touchdowns, their star quarterback was still struggling, and their defense still hadn’t found a way to contain Lewis.

Some players were angry about the way they had played in the first half. Others feared that their perfect season was about to come to an end. They had just 20 minutes to regroup before the start of the second half. The players had to get their heads straight. The coaches had to strategize. And everybody needed to calm down.

“We came into the locker room, all the coaches went into the office, and there was yelling and screaming going on in the players’ locker room,” Kelly said. “I remember Kerry Coombs leaving the coaches’ locker room and coming back and saying, ‘Mardy’s going crazy in here. You need to come in here.’

“So I walked in, and Mardy was up in arms about how nobody was holding up their end of the bargain. I said, ‘You’ve got to settle down. You take care of what you can take care of.’ He was animated to the point where he was sweating.”

Gilyard was upset mainly because the Bearcats weren’t playing the way he was accustomed to seeing them play.

“They don’t have nothin’ over here in Pittsburgh,” Gilyard said. “They shouldn’t even have got to this point. Now we really got to play. I went to Pike and I said, ‘I have faith in you. I don’t know what’s going on, but we can’t do this without you, period.’ He stood up and apologized for the way he played in the first half.”

Zach Collaros was waiting in the wings in case Kelly decided that Pike just didn’t have it that day. Kelly considered making the switch, but decided to stick with Pike.

“Our best chance was Tony,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t the kind of game that Zach excels at, coming from behind. It was a Tony Pike kind of game. We needed him to snap out of it.”

While Pike was gathering himself for the second half, his parents were moving to different seats. They ended up in a private box, where they watched the second half with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Pike’s not sure how they got in there, but he believes an NFL agent with a connection to Roethlisberger arranged for the move.

“Agents try to contact you during the season,” Pike said. “I told my parents, ‘I’m not talking to anyone during the season. You guys meet with them and pick your top three or four and let me know.’ I’m sure the most pleasant things weren’t being said in the UC fan section. And the fact that Zach had come in and done such a good job (when Pike was hurt earlier in the season), there probably were a lot of people wanting me out of the game. I think my parents moved because they just got stressed out. They could never sit still, especially when I wasn’t playing well.”

The Bearcats went back onto the field for the second half, determined to make the most of the final 30 minutes. Gilyard’s return had given them a chance. Now they had to capitalize on it.

That didn’t happen right away. Pittsburgh got the ball to start the second half and the Cincinnati defense did exactly what it needed to do, forcing a three-and-out and keeping the momentum from quickly shifting back to the Panthers. But when Pike and the offense went out for their first possession of the second half, it seemed as if nothing had changed. Pike’s first pass to Gilyard was incomplete. Then he was sacked for a loss of five yards. On third-and-15, he ran for a 15-yard loss and fumbled the ball, which he recovered himself. Jake Rogers entered the game to punt.

At that juncture, there was no sign that the Bearcats had figured out anything on offense. But apparently they did on defense. After Rogers’ punt, Pitt took over on its 25-yard line. The Panthers were called for holding on the first play of the possession. Ray Graham gained 13 yards to the Pitt 45, but the Bearcats held from there and forced a second punt in as many second-half possessions for the Panthers.

“We were doing some different things in the second half,” said Cincinnati defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. “They showed themselves and gave us an opportunity to put a hat on spots that we hadn’t done in the first half and we got them slowed.”

Then Cincinnati’s offense came alive. On second-and-14 from the Bearcats’ 32, Gilyard made another big play, a 68-yard touchdown pass from Pike. Rogers’ extra-point kick drew the Bearcats to within seven points at 31-24 with 8:12 remaining in the third quarter. The momentum now had swung completely in Cincinnati’s favor.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt had gambled successfully during the first half by guarding against the long pass in the hope that the Bearcats wouldn’t settle for the underneath passes. But now in the second half, the Bearcats were poised to take advantage of what the defense was giving them.

“We made some adjustments,” Kelly said. “They were playing off coverage and dropping eight into coverage. That’s when we started to pick them apart with a lot of drives and crosses. We just methodically started to go down the field patiently.”

“We went back to what we did,” Pike said, “possession by possession, play by play, knowing that we can score quick, we can move the ball quick, knowing that now we’re not counting possessions.”

After Rogers’ kickoff, Pitt started its next drive at its seven-yard line. Again, the Cincinnati defense held, thanks in large part to a 10-yard sack of quarterback Bill Stull by JK Schaffer at the 17, which forced the Panthers to punt again. But Pike was intercepted for the third time on the Bearcats’ next possession when he tried to hit Gilyard at Pitt’s 17-yard line.

The third quarter ended with the Panthers still holding a 31-24 lead. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Cincinnati’s Dominique Battle intercepted a Stull pass on the Bearcats’ seven. After three incomplete passes by Pike, the Bearcats were forced to punt again. Pitt took over on the Cincinnati 32 and needed only four Dion Lewis carries for gains of four, four, nine, and finally 15 yards for a touchdown. Dan Hutchins’ extra point increased Pitt’s lead back to 14 points at 38-24 with 12:26 remaining.

Time was running out on the Bearcats’ perfect season. But then Gilyard came up with another big return, taking the Panthers’ kickoff and returning it 49 yards to the Pitt 23. On first-and-goal from the eight, Pike hooked up with D.J. Woods for an eight-yard touchdown pass. But Rogers’ extra point kick was no good when holder Collaros had trouble handling Mike Windt’s snap, the ball getting pinned against Collaros’ right leg, which disrupted Rogers’ timing. His kick glanced off the right upright. Still, the Bearcats were within one touchdown of the Panthers, trailing 38-30 with 11:09 to play.

“I can’t point any blame at anybody,” Rogers said of the missed extra point. “It was just an operational issue. We just didn’t click on all cylinders on that. It’s me who missed it, so I’ll take the heat.”

With 5:46 remaining, Cincinnati tied the score at 38-38 on a seven-play, 68-yard touchdown drive that ended with Isaiah Pead’s one-yard run. Pike then passed to Gilyard for the two-point conversion. The Panthers reclaimed the lead on Lewis’ five-yard touchdown run with 1:38 left, but holder Andrew Janocko, a sophomore backup quarterback, bobbled the snap, preventing Hutchins from making the extra-point kick, and providing the Bearcats with the opening they needed. They trailed by only six, 44-38.

“Everything that we did to try to get the momentum back, it didn’t work,” Wannstedt said. “And then, at the end of the game, we fumble a snap. It’s icy and snowy. He mishandles it. So again, that’s another momentum opportunity that we lose.”

The Cincinnati offense was huddled on the sideline, getting ready to go back onto the field when they saw Pitt had botched the extra point. The Panthers still led, 44-38, but the Bearcats knew that a touchdown and an extra point could win the game.

“There was nothing said. There was just a look,” Pike said. “You could just tell that everyone knew what was going to happen. All of sudden, it was now we can go win this game. That changed everything. We’d done this a million times in practice and in games.”

The Bearcats began their final drive at their 39-yard line after Gilyard returned the kickoff 26 yards. Almost as if on automatic pilot, Pike passed to Gilyard for seven yards to the Cincinnati 46. He passed to Woods for 10 yards to the Pitt 44. On first-and-10, he threw again to Gilyard, who was cutting across the middle, to the Pitt 29.

“I was pushed out of the pocket rolling out right,” Pike said. “They tell quarterbacks to never throw back across your body over the middle, but I had seen Mardy break off his route and come back over the middle. I was able to make a throw to him, which got us in position.”

The Bearcats called timeout with 29 seconds remaining. The Panthers feared Gilyard so much at that point that they altered their defensive structure in an attempt to prevent him from making still another big play. It turned out to be a big mistake. As Pike approached the line of scrimmage, he noticed that Pitt was cheating a safety toward Gilyard, leaving Armon Binns one-on-one with cornerback Jovani Chappel.

“Armon for much of the second half of the year was the go-to guy,” Pike said, “but Mardy in that game had been so electric with the kickoff return and the receiving touchdown and the two-point conversion. So even though a lot of times teams would play base even coverage, toward the end of the game they were rotating a safety to Mardy’s side to kind of double-team Mardy.

“I don’t know exactly what play was called, but as we broke the huddle we lined up so quick that teams couldn’t hide their defense. The safety was already rotating to Mardy’s side, and I knew on the backside they were in man-to-man on Armon. I don’t care who the corner would be, I would take Armon one-on-one against anyone in the country. I signaled to Binns to change his route to a fade. From then, I knew I had it. The first three steps I had to look to the left to hold the safety. There was no turning back to see if Armon’s there. It was just knowing that he was going to beat his guy. From there, it was pitch and catch.”

Binns knew “a go route” was always an option depending on the coverage. Anytime Pike saw that he had one-on-one coverage on Binns, he could check the play at the line of scrimmage. So as soon as Pike gave Binns the signal, he knew the ball was coming to him. Then it was up to him to beat Chappel, who was from Dayton, Ohio, about an hour drive up I-75 from Cincinnati. At 5-foot-9, Chappel was surrendering six inches to the 6-foot-3 Binns.

“He was a pretty physical guy,” Binns said. “He wasn’t real tall, but he was strong. He was a stocky kid. He was pretty good at the point of attack, so they used him on the short side of the field and that’s usually where I was, so we were matched up the majority of the game. Mardy had been doing it to everybody all year long. You kind of had to pick your poison, and Mardy was the more established guy at that time because he had started the whole year before. They felt like they would take the chance and leave everybody else in one-on-one matchups.”

Binns made a quick step inside against Chappel to keep him off his back, then headed toward the right sideline. As Pike prepared to throw the ball in Binns’ direction, he could see that Binns had Chappel beaten by a step or two. He knew all he had to do was get the ball over Chappel’s head. Binns would take care of the rest. He didn’t have to worry about the safety showing up to intercept it, but he had to make sure he didn’t under throw it, which could have given Chappel a chance to swat it away or pick it off.

He took two steps back, then moved up in the pocket and lofted the ball perfectly over Binns’ left shoulder. Chappel fell down as the ball dropped into Binns’ hands, his arms slightly extended. As Binns caught the ball with 33 seconds left, his momentum carried him to the ground in the end zone. He rolled over, then he held the ball up for all to see as the Cincinnati fans erupted in celebration.

Here’s how Dan Hoard, the long-time play-by-play radio broadcaster for Cincinnati, described the catch for his WLW-AM listeners: “Twenty-three-year-old Tony Pike waits for the snap, has the football, short drop, lofts one down the sideline for Binns. He’s got it! Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown! Armon Binns catches a perfect throw. There’s a penalty flag back at the 30-yard line. It’s on Pitt. Touchdown!”

Pike pumped his fist into the air as he danced his way down the field toward Binns with the score tied at 44-44.

“In the moment, I wasn’t thinking about anything but catching that football,” Binns said. “I was always taught to look up in the air for deep balls, but don’t look back toward the quarterback, so I looked up and I tried to find the tip of the football and just focus on it all the way in. It was such a beautiful throw, man. He hit me right in stride. I didn’t have to overextend.

“It was so sloshy, that field. That Pittsburgh stadium field, even on good days, can be a little hectic. I was just trying to keep my balance. I didn’t know how close the cornerback was, but I knew he stumbled a little bit. The whole play he was right there trying to grab on my arm. I was just trying to make sure I held onto it and protected it when I caught it.”

When Pike saw the penalty flag, he initially thought the call was offensive holding, which would have wiped out the touchdown, but it was offside on Pitt defensive end Greg Romeus, the Big East co-defensive player of the year. It wasn’t until Pike watched the film later that he noticed Cincinnati left tackle Jeff Linkenbach had still managed to block Romeus, even though he was offside, giving Pike the time he needed to push into the pocket and make the throw.

“Jeff Linkenbach holding that block long enough is just as big a part of that play as Armon making the catch,” Pike said.

Pike had come a long way. Two years earlier, Kelly had felt compelled to confront him in the dining room at Camp Higher Ground and issue an ultimatum to get him to reach his potential. During Pike’s first year as a starter, he was frequently reamed out on the sideline by Kelly for not making what Kelly thought was the correct read. Now, with an undefeated season on the line, he had made the adjustment at the line of scrimmage that resulted in the biggest touchdown pass in Cincinnati football history.

“That was Tony Pike,” Kelly said. “He would take what he was given. He was really an extension of what I could see from the sideline. He was the coach on the field. He made the right check. He deserves a lot of credit there, certainly.”

Ten years later, Wannstedt still questions his decision to shift the safety to double Gilyard.

“We knew we were in a mismatch there with Chappel,” Wannstedt said. “We had been playing Aaron Berry, who played in the NFL, locking up on Gilyard. He was doing a heck of a job, so I felt good about that. But at the end of the game, rather than play zone and help out the undersized corner, we played man and we tried rushing four. Our guy was there. He wasn’t fooled. He wasn’t tripped. Pike made a great throw and Binns made a great catch. You always second-guess yourself as a coach. We left the kid alone. It was not his fault. He was physically in a mismatch.”

There was so much joy among Cincinnati’s players and fans after Binns’ catch that it seemed the Bearcats had already won. But there was still the matter of Rogers kicking the extra point, which was anything but automatic in this game, each team having already failed to convert one of its attempts.

“When we went out, I told Mike Windt, ‘Let’s get this snapped,’” Rogers said. “I told Zach, ‘Just get the ball down and I’ll kick it. I promise.’ I think it was probably a pretty slow operation, but I was sure when the ball went down that I was going to put it through.”

This time the snap was true, the hold was perfect, and Rogers’ kick sailed through the uprights.

“I still get goose bumps when I watch that game,” Rogers said. “It’s just an unreal feeling. I didn’t think that I hit the game-winner, I thought, ‘Holy crap, our team just came back from a deficit and came through for the win.’”

Cincinnati led by one point with 33 seconds to play. All that remained was for the Bearcats’ defense to keep the Panthers from making a last-ditch push into field goal territory.

Rogers kicked off to Pitt’s Ray Graham, who managed to get back only to the 18-yard line, where he was run out of bounds by Charley Howard. With time running out, Lewis’ running was largely neutralized at that point. The Panthers had no choice but to pass and hope for a breakdown in the Cincinnati secondary. But Stull’s three passes -- intended for Cedric McGee, Dorin Dickerson, and Baldwin -- all fell incomplete. On fourth-and-10, Stull dropped back for his final pass only to be sacked by Alex Daniels with three seconds remaining.

The Cincinnati offense came back on the field and Pike took a knee to kill the final seconds. The Bearcats were Big East champs for the second straight year. They had overcome the weather, the Heinz Field crowd, Lewis’ running ability, and their own spotty play in the first half. They were headed for their second straight appearance in a BCS bowl game, having completed the first perfect regular season (12-0) in school history.

“In the second half, our defense, we totally turned it around,” Daniels said. “It wasn’t what the coaches did. It was what the players did. We got together and we said we’re not going out like this. All we kept saying is, ‘We’re not going to a (crummy) bowl. We’re going to the BCS.’”

The Bearcats had outscored, Pitt 28-13, in the second half to post a 45-44 victory.

Lewis ran for 194 yards and three touchdowns on 47 carries.

Pike finished 22-for-44 for 302 yards and three touchdowns, with three interceptions. After an abysmal first half, he went 14-for-21 in the second half for 218 yards, and two touchdowns with one interception. Pead gained 76 yards on nine carries with one touchdown. Woods led the Bearcats in catches with seven for 61 yards and one touchdown. Gilyard caught five passes for 118 yards with one touchdown and finished with 381 all-purpose yards. And Binns caught five passes for 104 yards and the game-winning touchdown. The Cincinnati defense held Pitt to 137 yards in the second half.

“That game stands by itself as the most unbelievable football game I’ve ever watched in my life,” said Jim Kelly Jr., Hoard’s partner in the radio booth.

After Binns got up off the Heinz Field turf, the first person he saw was tight end Ben Guidugli.

“I didn’t have time to react to anything because he tackled me,” Binns said. “Eventually Sam Griffin and everybody started piling up. The moment got so emotional to come back like that in a game that meant so much. There’s a picture of me, Mardy and D.J. all huddled up. We were so passionate. We put so much into it. It was so special with the type of year we were having.”

The handshake line was quiet after the game. The Panthers had to be in shock over what had just happened, and the Bearcats did their best to keep from gloating. There had been little taunting during the game.

Moments later, the same Cincinnati locker room that had been the scene of so much passionate angst a few hours earlier was awash in emotion of a different kind.

“It was all celebration,” Pike said. “Brian Kelly was in there celebrating with us. We sang the fight song like we did after every game. The talk in the locker room was that we had done something that no one could ever take from us. Brian Kelly came up and gave me a hug and told me how proud he was of me. These were emotional times, because there’s so much on the field and you’re sharing that moment with teammates and friends and family. You’re doing it on someone else’s field, which makes it even more special. You erased a 21-point deficit. There was just that relief that we did something that had never happened at UC before.”

Kelly told the players in the locker room that he was honored to be their coach. Notre Dame had fired Charlie Weis five days earlier, and speculation about his replacement had continued to focus on Kelly. When he arrived at his post-game press conference, he was immediately asked about a report on ABC-TV during the game that said he had agreed to talk to Notre Dame officials about their coaching vacancy.

Reporters were simply doing their job, which Kelly should have understood. But the Cincinnati coach didn’t like the question and lashed out at reporters for overlooking what he and his team had just accomplished.

“I’m not going to talk about my job situation,” he said. “If anybody else wants to ask a question, here’s the response you’ll get. Let’s talk about back-to-back championship teams and these kids. That’s the focus. It’s going to be on these kids. There is more misinformation out there and you folks need to get a handle on it because it’s ridiculous.”

Kelly remembered his outburst.

“I was angry,” he said, “because I wanted to enjoy the moment with our players. That was more important to me than anything else. We had come so far. We had experienced a lot during the season and overcame some adversity. That’s what you work for and you want to share it with your players because it goes so fast. It was what you want when you spend 80 hours a week with your team. That’s the way you want to finish it.”

Coombs and Brad Jones hugged each other when Coombs toted the Big East championship trophy into the locker room.

“My journey of competing and trying to be a starter and be productive, it all ended in winning the Big East championship,” Jones said. “I was able to fight with those guys and win. Just getting embraced by Kerry and hugging each other and saying, we did it. It was awesome.”

When Pike saw Binns in the locker room, he noticed that his left shoulder was in a sling. He assumed that Binns had injured the shoulder as he fell to the ground after making the game-tying catch. In fact, Binns had hurt his shoulder earlier in the game when Pike threw a pass to him off a fade route in the corner. After making the catch he fell on his shoulder, then the defender fell on top of the shoulder and separated it.

“I tried to block on the next play,” Binns said. “I had the most agonizing pain I had ever felt to that point. A little bit before halftime, they took me in and worked on it and got me back on the field. I was able to grind it out. The momentum and everything that goes into that type of game, you’re not thinking about injuries at that point. You’re just trying to do whatever you can to get back out there. Thankfully, I was able to. I played the whole game. I didn’t have a lot of range of motion. I could barely lift my hand over my head. The next morning when I woke up I couldn’t even lift my arm to scratch my face.”

Over in the Pitt locker room, Wannstedt was trying to find the right words for his players after the crushing loss.

“I spun it as fast as I could,” he said.

He told the Panthers they still had a chance to post a 10-win season for the first time since 1981 if they could win their upcoming bowl game, which they did, defeating North Carolina, 19-17, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

“I just told them, ‘You know what? We had a chance to make plays, guys,’” Wannstedt said. “It wasn’t any one thing that really let us down. We gave up a play on defense. We gave up a play on special teams. We mishandled a snap. Our players looked in the mirror. The team lost. It wasn’t one guy or one play.”

There would be more drama before the day was finished. The Bearcats had begun the day ranked No. 4 in the BCS standings, behind No. 3 Texas, No. 2 Alabama, and No. 1 Florida. If everything broke just right elsewhere, they could land a spot in the national championship game.


"This is What the Top Feels Like" is available at billkochbooks.com, at DuBois Book Store and Joseph-Beth Booksellers and Amazon.com.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/...932917002/

Man was the exit from the stadium fun and the drive back. I remember telling my wife "If we can just get to14 down, it is game on". Then Gilyard went 99 yards, When Binns caught the winning TD I looked for the Pitt fans that had been ragging on me all game but the weasels were gone. Getting in the car our feet were cold but who cared. I called Pitrelli's in Mason saying I will be celebrating in 5 hour and need a table and Vino!

I have watched the Cats since the late 50's and this is the greatest Bearcat game of all time!
 
10-11-2019 05:29 PM
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