NCAA Football Cincinnati Football

Was it really only four years ago that the Big East was in danger of losing it's BCS status? Miami and Virginia Tech left in 2003 and Boston College in 2004. The conference sent Pitt, one of several 8-4 teams in the Big East to lose to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. And there wasn't much reason to think the conference was going to get better any time soon. The conference was written off by the media and the blogospher didn't even bother to poke fun.

But something happened last week that most of us didn't even notice. The Big East was granted a spot in the BCS through 2013.

The reason is simple: no one noticed the news. No one questioned the Big East's place at the adult table. The reaffirmation wasn't even a note in BCS meeting coverage. "It was quiet,'' Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday. "The way I like it."

You'd never make it as a blogger Mr. Tranghese. You need to rub it in someones face every once in a while. The least you could do is hold up one of those foam we're #1 hands. Or one of six, I guess. How bout a little woot-woot? Oh fine!

Despite the picture on the right, you can't just point to West Virginia and say their two BCS bowl victories and three straight top ten finishes are the reason. But I won't argue with you if you do. It really has been the improvement of several teams in the Big East that has brought the conference back to respectability. Louisville was expected to be one of the better teams in the conference. And mostly, they've come through. But the real surprise has been the improvement of South Florida, Rutgers, and Cincinnati. And more recently, Connecticut.

While the conference still isn't flooding the first round of the NFL draft with players, it is putting a lot more teams in the top 25. Sure, some coaches have left for "greener" pastures. Others like Greg Schiano and Jim Leavitt have made commitments to their schools that don't involve contracts. There's a balance, and certainly enough rising programs and programs that are there to keep the Big East respectable. At least until the Big 11 10 decides to add another team. Wankers.

Cinci QB Ben Mauk's quest for a 6th year of eligibility will be heading for the final appeal in the NCAA process. Mauk has twice been turned down by the NCAA for a medical hardship waiver. This final appeal has him making a direct presentation to a 6-person appeals panel.

"I'm excited," Mauk said, "because now we start a new process and I actually get to talk to the NCAA instead of writing letters. I get to actually let them hear my voice and let them know who I am and why I deserve a sixth year. I think that will be a big help. Now I get to let them know every little detail. I think that will be a big help when you hear someone's voice and actually hear the story come from them."

Mauk will have ten minutes to speak and convince 4 of the 6 panelists to grant him an additional year of eligibility.

Mauk originally attended Wake Forest and as a freshman in 2003 he took a non-playing redshirt. Mauk contends that the reason stems from a medical injury.

I did this last year, so it seems only fitting that I would do it again.

And it wasn't even close. Louisville had five players drafted, while Pitt and West Virginia had three apiece. Rutgers, South Florida, Cincinnati, and Connecticut had two each. And for the first time since 1975, Syracuse did not have anyone selected.

That's 19 players drafted. And any way I slice it, that's just not all that good for a BCS conference. Looking at the distribution of what rounds the players were taken, it was pretty well spread out over the entire draft for the Big East. But that doesn't make it feel any better. It's especially bad if you look at a team like West Virginia that has had three 11 win seasons in a row along with three straight top ten finishes. They've had exactly four players drafted in the last three years. And Chris Henry and Pac Man Jones the year before that. So we won't even go there.

The ACC? Yeah, that conference we've been quietly laughing at after Miami, Va. Tech, and Boston College left. Yeah, they had 33 players drafted this past weekend. The coaching must really suck over there or something.

Pac 10? Oh, they had 37 players drafted. SEC? 35. Big 10? 28. Big 12? 27. Hell, C-USA had 11 players drafted! Patriot League? Never mind.

Even more upsetting for West Virginia fans, two players left early for the NFL and weren't drafted. Those two being Darius Reynaud and Johnny Dingle. Yeah, sorry folks. Those Dingle-Berry photo's won't be happening anymore. Those are definitely two players the Mountaineers could have used this year, though. I'm not saying that their stock would go up any with one more year of college. But it sure wouldn't go down.

Louisville will have the most holes to fill as well. You don't replace Brian Brohm, Harry Douglas, and Art Carmody. I know there are others, but those three were special at their positions. West Virginia won't be far behind with the loss of Slaton and most of the secondary and defensive line. Rutgers, well we don't know how bad it is because we haven't seen anyone but Ray Rice run the ball. The rest of the conference should be fine. And that's not a good thing if you think about it.

OMG! Football news! February is like the worst sports month in the world! Unless you like meaningless mid-season NBA and NHL games. Sure I love NCAA basketball. But that love has been tainted by my coaches fashion sense and my teams ability to rip defeat from the jaws of victory. So I'm kind of not liking February at all.

Anyhow, some good news today football fans. The Big East released the 2008 football schedule. And while that's nothing compared to being in the stands after hours of tailgating and screaming obscenities at opposing fans and players, it is a reason for hope. The hope that another football season will soon be upon us.

And lookie, there are actually some good out of conference games this year. In September:

Cincinnati @ Oklahoma-Will the Sooners crumble again in the face of Big East might?

Penn St. @ Syracuse- When this game was scheduled Jo Pa was heard saying, "That Paul Pasqualoni is a tricky devil. We're going to have to find a way to shut down McNabb!"

Kansas @ South Florida- The Bulls can't be looking at this game the way they were a year ago.

West Virginia @ Colorado- This game fills the void left by Maryland opting out of the series. And given the size of Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, that's quite a void to fill.

Iowa @ Pitt- Again, Iowa might not like this game as much as they did when they scheduled it.

Rutgers vs. TBA-Ah, the unknown enigma that is TBA. You just never know what team you're going to play.

Cincinnati senior starting quarterback Ben Mauk is looking to gain an additional year of eligibility from the NCAA. You may remember that before transferring to Cincinnati, Mauk suffered one of the most gruesome injuries when he was still at Wake Forest in the opening game of the 2006 season against Syracuse.

Mauk attempted to recover a fumble in the third quarter when two Orange players fell on the arm. He suffered a fractured humerus, a dislocated shoulder, and a torn labrum. Shortly after the injury, he underwent reconstructive surgery in which surgeons put a titanium plate with eight screws in his upper arm and installed three anchors in the shoulder

Yeah, you'd think after something like that you might want to sit down and look at other career options. But Mauk found a home at Cincinnati and ended up being one of the leading passers in the Big East in 2007. And with that success, Mauk is petitioning the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility.

He has already had off season surgery to clean up the scar tissue in his shoulder and doctors said the shoulder and arm is strong enough to remove the screws and plates. But Mauk likes the Spinal Tap moments in airports and has decided to leave them in because of the rehab time it would cost him.

There's still no guarantee that Mauk will be granted a sixth year, but for the sake of everyone that ever toughed out an injury well beyond the point of reason I hope he gets it. A sentiment I'm sure none of the defensive coordinators in the Big East share with me. (close up of the arm after the break jump)

It's not entirely shocking that Brian Kelly would be receiving attention from so many big name schools for their head coaching vacancies. After all, he has taken a Cincinnati team that was thought by most going into the season to be average at best and turned in a 9-3 mark and an invite to the PapaJohns.com bowl.

More importantly, he put University of Cincinnati football on the map in Cincinnati. No small task to be sure. With two pro sports teams and the ever present Ohio State University, Bearcat football has been something of a red headed stepchild in Cincinnati for as long as I can remember. But from day one he has done every interview, shook every hand, kissed every baby, etc. to get people interested in Cincinnati football. Then, of course, he followed that up with one of the best seasons in the schools history.

And now the race is on to see which school he will coach next. And that school could very well be Nebraska.

...following UC's victory over Syracuse, the Department of Athletics sent out a release on Monday, Nov. 26, stating, "Director of Athletics Mike Thomas and head football coach Brian Kelly will not be commenting on any active football coaching searches or the status of Kelly's contract at the University of Cincinnati."

Do I blame him for exploring a shot at coaching a school such as Nebraska? Of course not. It's probably one of the top ten coaching jobs in America if you look at tradition and winning and all those warm fuzzy things. And if it doesn't happen there, there's always the Michigan job. Not to mention all the other jobs that are out there.

For the second week in a row, West Virginia moved out to a commanding lead only to have to pull out the victory at the end of the game. If you want to get head coach Rich Rodriguez a Christmas present I'd suggest a healthy supply of Just for Men hair color. He watched a 17 point lead evaporate last week against Louisville due to untimely fumbles.

And again this week, with West Virginia up 28-17 in the 4th quarter the fumble bug struck Pat White. First on a bad exchange with the center that didn't lead to any Cincinnati points. But on the next possession White was stripped of the ball and the Bearcats marched down for a touchdown to draw within five points. The ensuing onside kick was recovered by West Virginia and they were able to run the clock out. But the game never should have been this close.

During Cinci's 2-game losing streak, the Bearcats defense could not get stops. They would give up key conversions or just find ways to hurt themselves. The numerous turnovers a gambling defense had generated in the first six games suddenly weren't happening. Last week Cinci seemed to return to form against USF, but who knew if it was a fluke.

UConn by contrast had run its record to 8-1 on the strength of its defense that would get big stops and put the offense in a short field. The offense was not needed to generate long drives, just take advantage of opportunities. The strength of the Huskies was with a strong running game that could grind and wear down opponents.

Cinci came out and showed that they were playing the way they had in the early part of the season as they took down UConn 27-3. The offense was open and scored on their first possession. The Bearcats got the only turnover in the game and converted that into its second TD. On defense, Cinci stacked the line to stop the run and UConn could not get any offense generated.

UConn is still in contention for the Big East Championship. Stunningly, the three top teams in the Big East -- UConn, Cinci and WVU will play each other in the final weeks. WVU comes to Cincinnati next week and UConn goes to Morgantown the following week.

With five turnovers in the first half, it seems that South Florida is not really interested in winning this game. The Bulls haven't been able to do much of anything on offense inside the red zone. Two fumbles and three interceptions have ruined almost every drive by the Bulls. If not for an interception and a kickoff both returned for touchdowns by the Bulls, this game would be way out of hand by now.

On the flip side, Cincinnati is looking more like the team that started out the season 6-0 and was leading the nation in turnover margin. Not the team that has lost it's last two games and was only able to generate one turnover. They've been balanced on offense, and as you can tell very opportunistic on defense.

The Bulls get the ball to start the second half and had better start doing something positive with it. Raymond James stadium already looks about half empty and the crowd shots are getting tighter and tighter. Wasn't it just a little over a month ago that this place was sold out?

The River City Rivalry Trophy -- a legitimate contender for the ugliest trophy in college football -- remains with Pitt. The Cincinnati Bearcats completely fell apart as they lost to Pitt 24-17. Pitt was a 9.5 home underdog and was on a 4 game losing streak. Cinci had come off a tough loss to Louisville the previous week, and looking to show that they still deserved to be a ranked team.

They didn't. Not even close. Cinci's offense got away from spread formations, option plays and no-huddle attacks. Instead they behaved like a pro style, traditional offense. It showed. They had numerous 3-and-outs. What made that so absurd was that Pitt has been at its worst on defense against the spread and the option. It's like Cinci Coach Brian Kelly wanted to prove something. What I don't know, but something was very wrong with the Cinci offense.

Cinci turned the ball over 3 times and committed a whopping 12 penalties -- a majority being false starts. The team just didn't look like it had prepared for this game. It's not like the crowd noise from the Pitt crowd was an issue with a half-filled and -- prior to the game -- despondent fan-base ready to boo.