BCS bound?: In the midst of their best season since 1954, the Bearcats are looking to run the table
Three years ago Cincinnati didn’t know what to expect from new head coach Brian Kelly as it headed into the inaugural International Bowl little more than a month after he was hired.
Former Cincinnati head coach Mark Dantonio had left the then- No. 5 Bearcats at the end of the 2006 regular season for a head-coaching job at Michigan State. And Kelly, former head coach at Central Michigan, was hired just eight days later as Dantonio’s replacement.
With barely a month to prepare, Kelly took the helm on Dec. 3, compiled a coaching staff during that time and led the Bearcats to a 27-24 victory over his former rival Western Michigan Jan. 6.
Three seasons and 29 victories later, Kelly’s Bearcats are still winning, and are currently in the midst of an undefeated season and the team’s highest ranking. It’s the programs first 7-0 start since 1954.
‘We have so much football ahead of us I wasn’t looking at it that carefully, nor do our players,’ Kelly said in a press conference Monday. ‘They look at things they can control and that’s a Big East Championship. None of that surprises me this early in the season, we’re still not into November. My experience with the polls is it starts to thin itself out in November. I’ve always said Novembers for contenders.’
Kelly looks to continue his team’s winning streak at Syracuse Saturday at noon (ESPNU).
Kelly is confident the Bearcats will be contenders next month even as the schedule toughens. Cincinnati will face two ranked opponents, No. 21 West Virginia and No. 15 Pittsburgh, in its final five games.
Yet Cincinnati is averaging over 40.7 points, 151.9 rushing yards and 306.7 passing yards per game, which is good for seventh in the nation in total offense. Credit goes in part to the work done by fifth-year senior quarterback Tony Pike prior to his injury, and more recently sophomore quarterback Zach Collaros, who has filled in for Pike.
‘We’re in a good position,’ Kelly said. ‘We’re right at the top of the pack and the race is early. Who knows on Dec. 5? You get that far and you have done your work, who knows what that could be for.’
Dec. 5, the day prior to Selection Sunday for the Bowl Championship Series, could be the day Cincinnati proves its doubters wrong. Kelly has created this confidence in Cincinnati over the past three seasons by compiling a 29-6 record, helping the team to its first 11-win season in 2008 and first-ever BCS game against Virginia Tech in the FedEx Orange Bowl.
Kelly brought the team out of mediocrity giving the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference a bit of competition in the BCS run.
In a way, Cincinnati is no different from the teams Kelly has coached during his 19-year coaching career.
First, it was Grand Valley State where he compiled a 118-35-2 mark over 13 years, winning consecutive NCAA Division II national titles in 2002 and 2003. Then, Central Michigan – a team that had fewer than three wins in each of its four seasons before Kelly’s arrival in 2004. The Chippewas recorded a 6-5 record in 2005, its first winning season in seven years before taking the Mid-American Conference Championship in 2006 shortly before Kelly left for Cincinnati.
Even with Kelly’s past performances and his Big East title last season with Cincinnati, the Bearcats are regarded as the underdogs.
‘It’s engrained in us that the new person on the block has to prove itself over a period of time,’ Kelly said. ‘Virginia Tech had to prove themselves and how did they do that? They kept winning. Cincinnati will do the same thing. We’ll keep winning; we’ll change the perception of what those traditional powers are. You can’t be a one shot deal. We’re in the process of putting together another great season and you start doing that year in and year out and I think it changes everything.’
Cincinnati has even emerged victorious through an injury to Pike in Cincinnati’s game against South Florida. The potential Heisman Trophy candidate had thrown for a total of 1,633 yards and 15 touchdowns before a plate in his left arm was bent by a blow from an opponent’s helmet in the second quarter. Collaros finished the game adding a touchdown and 72 yards in the 34-17 win. In his first complete game filling in against Louisville last weekend, Collaros completed 15 of 17 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns.
Yet Kelly insisted Pike is his quarterback.
‘Tony Pike would be our starter if he’s healthy,’ Kelly said. ‘I don’t like the quarterback rotating in and out. I think there’s a comfort level with the receivers. We’re throwing the ball first based on the weapons we have so I’d rather have those guys, the receivers, at a comfort level that they know who their guy is instead of going back and forth.’
While Cincinnati will be a tough opponent for Syracuse with either Pike or Collaros behind center, Kelly praised the progress of Orange head coach Doug Marrone and especially quarterback Greg Paulus.
‘He makes players around him better,’ Kelly said. ‘Maybe there are better players around him on the offensive side of the ball now with the Mike Williams and [Delone] Carter but clearly he was that driving force and you can see how it was a smart move to get their program moving.’
