Oh Say Did UC?

My nephew had to have pretty serious back surgery yesterday. I say that because not only would I like for you to send good thoughts, but because it's why today there is no Memorable Bearcat Game. That could come tomorrow, but I'm pressed for time today. That means we go for the always entertaining oh say did UC link round up. Did I just google Cincinnati Bearcats and none of these things are in any kind of order? Yes

• The Bearcats baseball club played host to #22 Pittsburgh over the weekend. The Panthers took 2 of 3, with UC winning Sunday. The Bearcats are 26-27, 10-14 in the Big East. They host Georgetown to end the regular season this weekend.
• In a crazy, scary story, former Bearcat and current St Louis Ram Mardy Gilyard was robbed at gunpoint last night. It happened near UC. Gilyard was with his friend, and they had about $1,000 in chains, and $300 taken. Thank god nothing more happened and Mardy and friend left the situation relatively alright. I never trusted that BP on Corry. 
• In better news surrounding UC football, the kick off time for the Indiana State thrashing has been set. The game will be at noon. Better to get the 70-3 thrashings out of the way early so we have a whole day to enjoy ourselves. The game will be on FSN.
• Speaking of September UC football, someone on Bleacher Report ran down the tough start to the season UC faces. Bearcats Blog will break that down closer to the start of the season.
• Brad Jones, who started every game last season, was signed by the Baltimore Ravens. He participated in their rookie mini camp, and earned a contract. Congrats Brad.
• Bill Koch knows how hard it is to write about UC when nothing is happening, so he wrote about Nippert Stadium. Not in a boring way, but in how it's too small and how UC can make it bigger and stuff. Just read it.
• Vidal Hazelton has earned some attention coming into his first season at UC. The USC transfer impressed during the spring game, and has caught the attention of a couple of people. First, someone else on Bleacher Report ran down 10 transfers who will have an impact. I don't think that list is in any order, because Robert Marve is number 1. 
• Hazelton got more ink, or whatever that is for the internet, from the National Football Post. In their list of WRs who would be household names, they listed Vidal. I have to admit, I was pumped for Hazelton coming into the season, and now that we are getting closer, I can't wait. He, Binns, DJ and Thompkins are going to be a nightmare for secondaries. UC will be a ton of fun to throw with 50 times a game in NCAA 2011. 
• DJ Gallo at Page 2 wrote about livable and unlivable sports cities. He put Cincinnati on the list as livable, with the Bearcats being a strong part. 
• Finally, we wrap things up with some recruiting talk. The Bearcats added a new player for this season, DT Ty Phillips. Our pal(s) at Down the Drive wrote about him. They also write about other UC things. It's good. I read it. The Bearcats also locked down LB Robert Martin. 
• UC has 2 recruits locked down for next season. First, is OL Justin Murray. He goes to Sycamore. Second, but actually first to sign, is Patrick Coyne. Patrick is already my favorite UC recruit of all time, sorry Munchie Legaux, because he goes to my high school, Badin. Hail to the colors bright green and white. Badin's uniforms now are much cooler than they were when I went there. It was like Penn State, but green. Now they have all green uniforms with a big ass B on the side of their helmets. Just watching the video on whatever scouting site that is, takes me back to the days where I would trudge out to Hamilton High to watch my beloved Rams play. The time we beat Hamilton was awesome. It happened my sophomore year, and was still talked about at graduation. 

Bearcats Bowl IV and NFL Draft Recap

It was a busy time for the Cincinnati Bearcats football program. Saturday especially. The Bearcats had 3 players drafted, and many more signed free agent contracts, and some others were invited to rookie mini-camps this weekend. Also, Bearcats Bowl IV took place Saturday night. I'm not going to do a full recap of the game, but mainly a recap of what, and who, looked good and what did not fare so well. Let's start with the draft.

If you visited the blog over the weekend, you already know that Mardy Gilyard was drafted in the 4th round by the St Louis Rams, and Tony Pike was drafted in the 6th round by the Carolina Panthers. The third man drafted was DT Ricardo Matthews, who went to Indianapolis in the 7th. Many congratulations Ricardo, sorry there wasn't a post about about you.

After the draft, the rush of free agents signings occurred. Aaron Webster signed with the Houston Texans. Jeff Lickenbach signed with Indianapolis. Long snapper Mike Windt signed with the hometown Bengals. And Alex Daniels signed with the Oakland Raiders. Attending mini-camps this weekend, are Brad Jones, who is going to Cleveland, and Craig Carey, who is going to Chicago.

Congratulations to all of those men. They busted their asses to make their dreams reality, and now they have a foot in the door. I have no doubt they will bust it down and earn a spot in the NFL. Bearcats Blog is proud of you guys.

The other big event of the weekend was the Bearcats Bowl. It is a little pointless of doing a full recap of every drive. Especially in the second half, when the rain started, the clock rolled continuously, and Coach Butch Jones looked ready to go. We'll roll out positives, and negatives. Ready for bullet points? I know you are.

Positives

• DJ Woods was making things happen against the second team D after every catch. He took short passes, and wrecked havoc in the open field. He busted one for 26 yards on the first drive. He and Zach Collaros worked very well together. DJ had 6 catches for 88 yards and a TD. 
• DJ also showed off the cannon on his right arm. On a fan called reverse pass, DJ threw a bomb to Vidal Hazelton, who was wide open, for 60 yards. Battle made a nice tackle saving the TD. The fan made the right call on the fan picked play, and DJ made a hell of a pass. 
• Zach Collaros was great. He was nearly perfect passing. He possibly could have had some runs, but the QB being tagged kept him in the pocket. He did scramble on one play and hit Darrin Williams for a 20 yard gain deep in UC territory. He got all 3 starting receivers, Woods, Hazelton, and Kenbrell Thompkins, involved to varying degrees of success. He also looked for the tight end well. He threw a couple of TDs to Woods, and Thompkins. He mainly threw short, but aired one out to OJ Woodard. 
• Payne played very well. He caught a long touchdown, and almost caught another on that drive that was ruled incomplete. 
• Darrin Williams ran effectively. He didn't break any huge runs, despite an 11 yard TD, but he was very solid. I don't know if he has what it takes to be the lead back just yet, but for a game or two, I think he can handle it. He had a couple of receptions, including the aforementioned 20 yarder, and could be a weapon in that aspect. Plus, he dyed the tips of his hair red and it looked awesome. 
• Hines ran pretty decent. He had a 26 yarder as his long, but he ran tough. He got thrown into action, and he got better as the game went on. 
• The defense played very well against the second team offense. They were able to get pressure against Chazz, limit the running game, and snuff them out. They forced a couple 3 and outs. Giordano had a sack. I kept bad records of the sacks, mainly because I don't remember if they said who got them. It's the spring game, I'll get better. 
• The defense had a big stop in the red zone. With the ball at the 4, they drew a holding penalty, got a sack, forced an incompletion, and got another sack. A 41 yard FG was missed. 
• The defensive highlight would have to be the one handed interception of a screen pass by McClellan. It was a very athletic grab, and he managed to take it inside the 10. 
• Bruce Horner blocked an extra point
• Artrell Hawkins was the sideline reporter. He did a pretty good job. Who knew?

Negatives

• UC had 10 men on the field for the blocked extra point. I'm sure in a real game there would have been a timeout, but that kind of stuff can't fly.
• Chazz Anderson looked pretty bad. He was very inaccurate. He made a couple nice plays, one a scramble to set up a FG, and a long pass to Payne for a TD. He was high with the ball. He held the ball too long. He seemed rushed all night. It was surprising to see that from him. He looked nervous or something. He played better in the second half. 
• The second team offensive line was unimpressive. They had Chazz under fire, and didn't really run block well. They sprung the 26 yard run by Hines, but overall, not great.
• The secondary, at least against Collaros, brought back visions of Florida. Receivers were running wide open, there were a couple of big long passes, and they got scored on nearly every time when Collaros was at QB. Granted, they were playing vanilla, but still. It brought back memories of that disaster, and that's a negative. 
• Milligan's attempt from 41 yards was so bad that it looked like they had a fan try and kick. Milligan could have used a Mulligan. Am I right?!?!?
• The fan who called the screen pass. You have 8 plays to call, including the reverse pass, and you choose a screen? Really? You call reverse pass every time. You suck guy who picked this play. 
• Rain. I didn't go to the game because the person I was going to go with didn't want to sit in the rain. Watching on tv was probably better, but I didn't have my chance to meet the Bearcat. Or call the reverse pass. Or ask to run the fumble rooski. It also forced the game to end early. 

Overall, it was a nice game. The white team beat the black team 57-55. The black team was the defense, they didn't go segregation. The offense looked Patriot like. If DJ Woods is going to play a Wes Welker type role, then I'm all for it. He was doing damage. The guys played hard, and were mostly successful. Thus wraps up the big weekend for UC football. Check back tomorrow, when we look back at another football game from the past.

Questions and Answers

UC doesn't tip off until Saturday, and in the meantime, I'll answer all the burning questions about UC and other things. Mainly UC things since this is a Cincinnati Bearcats blog. Maybe THE Cincinnati blog. After all, former Cincinnati great DeJuan Gossett follows us on twitter. DeJuan is 9th in tackles in UC history, and 2nd in solo tackles. He has incredible taste in who to follow on twitter. What does this have to do with questions? Shut up jerk, we're getting to that right now.

What are the odds that Cincinnati goes to the NCAA tournament?

Look, it's only February. We have many more games left in the regular season, and the Big East tournament. Anything can happen in New York City. I'm at the point where I'm getting a little tired of the negativity. Instead of looking at the schedule and counting the losses, we are going to look one game at a time. We need to chill.

You have said that Mick Cronin has had the pressure start to build under him. Does he make it through the off season if UC doesn't play in the Big Dance?

I'm going to say yes. UC would have to finish .500 or worse for there to be any justifiable reason for Mick to go. He came to UC with nothing. He has built UC to a contender for the tournament. Some of the fan expectations are a little too high, because there was nothing here 4 years ago. That said, Mick hasn't won a single game in March, including a disgusting loss against DePaul in the Big East tournament. The offense is absolutely awful. It needs to be changed next season. Hell, it needs to be changed tomorrow. Some people are questioning UC's conditioning. But, I think if UC is close to the tournament and end up in the NIT, he deserves to come back.

Speaking of leaving, what are the chances Lance Stephenson hangs around next year?

I think Born Ready is 70-30 to coming back. His jump shot has been horrible, especially from 3. That type of thing is going to keep him a little low on draft boards. Lance passes really well, and has started vacuuming up rebounds. The big problem lately has been Lance not getting himself involved in the offense all 40 minutes. He disappeared against Louisville, and he disappeared yesterday. We need 33 to be the player we know he is the whole game.

What's up with Deonta Vaughn? 

Nothing, he's chillin. But really. It's interesting that you asked that, because coming tomorrow, we are going to break down what's up with Deonta Vaughn. It's your lucky day.

Are any Bearcats going to the NFL combine?

Yes. Tony Pike and Mardy Gilyard were invited, and you can watch them run, and catch and throw on the NFL Network in a couple weeks. I know I won't.

Are the Bearcats going to be on ESPN next football season?

At least once. The Bearcats are traveling to North Carolina State on Thursday, September 13 for a nationally televised showdown. In the last 4 seasons, UC hasn't lost on ESPN Thursday night. UC beat USF twice, and Oregon State once. Hopefully they are on more national games this season. They do play Oklahoma, so that will be on ABC or something.

It's Rivalry Week on the 4 letter, what do you think the best Big East rivalry is?

You have your Syracuse-Georgetown, Syracuse-UConn, your West Virginia-Pittsburgh, Seton Hall-Rutgers, Marquette-DePaul I guess, Louisville-Cincinnati, but I'm going to say South Florida-St John's. When I think of great Big East basketball, I think of those 2.

Be honest.

Syracuse v. Connecticut is my choice.

Back to football. How awesome is Zach Collaros going to be? 

Very awesome. Butch Jones has tons of weapons coming back on offense, with Vidal Hazelton, Collaros, Isaiah Pead, DJ Woods, Armon Binns, and what have you. The Brian Kelly Machine should roll on, but as the Butch Jones Awesome Squad. Yeah, I had nothing there, but from now on, the offense is going to be called the BJAS.

What do you think about Brian Kelly being named the Ohio football coach of the year?

Yawn, that's what I care. Why are these awards still going on? It's February. Even baseball doesn't stretch his award season as much as some of these football awards. Let's wrap this award stuff up in December, or after the national title game guys. Come on.

Was this very successful?

Hell yes it was.

Tomorrow we break down Deonta Vaughn and his up and down senior season. Thanks for reading.

Oh Say Did UC?

Hi there and welcome to the feature sweeping the nation, Oh Say Did UC? If you missed the electric first version, it's pretty much a gathering of Cincinnati Bearcats news put in one place. It's probably the greatest thing since chocolate milk. We've had a busy couple weeks with Bearcats playing in the Sugar Bowl last Friday, and the basketball team playing 5 games in 11 days. There will probably only be a Seton Hall result post Sunday, with a write up coming on Monday. Let's do the football news first, and the basketball news second. Alright? Alright.

• The final polls of the season came out last night after Alabama beat Texas to win the BCS National Championship. There should be a playoff or a plus 1, because after watching last night, teams like Boise State could absolutely hang. But if there were a plus 1, they probably would have been left out because they were #5. Anyway, the Broncos somehow finished 4th which is bullshit by the coaches and AP. Get your heads out of your asses. They went undefeated and you have them behind Florida? Behind Texas? McCoy didn't play, but Texas still lost and Boise didn't. End rant.
• The Bearcats finished 8th in the AP Top 25 and 9th in the Coaches' Poll behind Penn State. Florida was 3rd.
• Former Bearcats defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, and passing game coordinator and receiver coach Charley Molnar are leaving the school to go to Notre Dame. This isn't surprising in the least. The Bearcats already announced new coordinators. Also going to Notre Dame are defensive line/assistant head coach Mike Elston and running backs coach and recruting coordinator Tim Hinton. Everyone else but Kerry Coombs is going to Buffalo. Most of the UC coaching staff next year will be from Central Michigan. Typical coaching change stuff. 
• Butch Jones was interviewed at halftime of the Cal State Bakersfield game. He didn't say anything really important. He said Zach Collaros will be the point guard of the offense, and the team will still attack. He said the defense at Central Michigan was good this year, and it will be at UC next year. I think he was freaked out by Michael Reghi's hair. Just go gray dude.
• Brian Bennett had these 2 nuggets of information about next year. First, he says don't be that worried about next season. He is critical of the team in the Sugar Bowl, so you can skim past the first couple of questions.
• BB also has a list of who's returning next season for the Big East so far. The Cats have 12 starters coming back, 7 offense, 5 defense. The offense also has USC transfer Vidal Hazelton to look forward to next year. 
• Someone not returning is South Florida coach Jim Leavitt. South Florida corroborated reports that he grabbed by the throat, and smacked player Joel Miller at halftime during a game with Louisville. On top of that, Leavitt lied during the investigation numerous times. Leavitt was the only coach in USF history and raised the program from the ground. He also was a gaping asshole apparently. 
• 3 Bearcats were invited to the Senior Bowl. Quarterback Tony Pike, Wide Receiver Mardy Gilyard and Long Snapper Mike Windt. The first 2 were locks, but what about Mike? Congrats big man. Don't throw one over the punter or holders head with the pro coaches watching. 
• Here is a great piece by Andy Staples that you should read about last nights game. 
• Despite the football teams success and 18,000 fans buying tickets for the Sugar Bowl, Cincinnati is facing a big deficit. The Enquirer reports the school will need $11 million a year to support being in the Big East. There is some doubt that the practice fields and bubble and basically everything Brian Kelly wanted, will be financially do-able. 

Now let's hit the basketball side of things.

• The game tomorrow will be on Fox Sports Ohio and ESPN 360.com at 6. If you are watching the Bengals game and don't have a dvr, I hope you can see it on 360. It will probably not work in Cincinnati or whatever city is unfortunate to have Seton Hall. 
• The great, great, great Basketball Prospectus ranked the Top 25 Freshmen of the year. Cincinnati's own Lance Stephenson finished 8th. It's a great list, check it out. 
• Here are where some great sites have the Bearcats ranked. Basketball State: 49. Team Rankings: 43. Real Time RPI: 52. Cal State Bakersfield killed our RPI there. Sagarin: 50 
• Basketball Prospectus has former Cat Tony Bobbitt as one of the top players in the NBDL who could get called up by the NBA soon. 
• CollegeHoops.net has a list of the top 100 players of January. The list has 2 Cats, 47 Lance Stephenson and 91 Yancy Gates. 
• Finally, let's cap the day off with some way too early bracket predictions that someone guessed. CollegeHoops.net has UC as a 11, SI a 12, playing Washington. I wish that was real. And finally ESPN's Bracketology has UC an 8 playing Texas Tech with Kentucky in the second round. 

Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting the blog. If you have any links that you want to send, shoot an email or leave a comment. If you want me to link your blog in the blogroll, simply shoot me a link and I'll add you. The Seton Hall preview will be up either tonight, or tomorrow morning.