Post by cviller on Oct 9, 2007 9:36:57 GMT -5
By Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sportswriter
MORGANTOWN -- Almost out of nowhere, a new contender has emerged from the Big East. Standing alongside West Virginia in legitimacy, joining South Florida in unexpectedness and meeting Rutgers and Louisville on the national scene is Cincinnati.
Make that 6-0 Cincinnati that jumped to No. 17 in the Associated Press poll with Saturday's 28-23 victory at Rutgers.
To say the rise of the Bearcats has been a surprise would be inaccurate, even in Coach Brian Kelly's first season.
If not for top-ranked LSU coming from behind to beat Florida Saturday, Cincinnati would have the nation's longest winning streak. With a win against Rutgers last year, the Bearcats -- then led by current Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio -- began what is now a nine-game winning streak.
"Brian's resume speaks for itself with what he's done in the past and the great success he's had wherever he's been," WVU Coach Rich Rodriguez said of Kelly, who won two national titles at Division II Grand Valley State and then engineered a turnaround at Central Michigan the past three seasons, going 19-16 after the program won three games the prior four seasons combined.
"I haven't paid close attention to them because we haven't played them yet, but at the same time, seeing what they were doing watching the game against Rutgers, they've got a lot of players," Rodriguez said. "Mark left him a lot of talent and he took over a solid program. He's added his touches to it, but we were impressed with them the last few times we played them."
What can be said about the Bearcats' ascent is that it has been, well, fast. They've thrived in Kelly's frantic spread offense that attacks the defense and minimizes opportunities for substitutions or adjustments, as Rutgers learned again and again in defeat.
"There were 10 or 12 times in that football game where Rutgers wasn't even lined up or hadn't broken their defensive huddle or set their defensive front," said Louisville Coach Steve Kragthorpe, whose team plays at Cincinnati Saturday. "That's a challenge in terms of tempo of the game, but also being ready to go. Right after the play, you better be ready to play the next play."
The Scarlet Knights weren't the only ones caught off guard. There were many plays that began as the officials had their backs to the play.
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RODRIGUEZ UPDATED the condition of his quarterback, Patrick White, who left Saturday's 55-14 victory at Syracuse with what was defined Sunday as a strained chest muscle on his left side.
On Monday's Big East coaches' teleconference, Rodriguez said White had a left shoulder sprain. Thought White is left-handed, Rodriguez wasn't concerned. His team is off this week before hosting the Southeastern Conference's Mississippi State (4-2) Oct. 20,
"With the open week, he's got a couple days to work on it," Rodriguez said. "Hopefully next week he'll be ready to go."
The game against the Bulldogs will begin at 3:30 p.m. and be televised by the ESPN Regional network. Local carriers are WCHS (Charleston), WVFX (Clarksburg), WOAY (Beckley), WTOV (Wheeling), WPCW (Pittsburgh) and WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.). Additionally, Mississippi State returned a limited number of its allotted tickets, which were available to the public Monday.
Despite leaving the game in the middle of the third quarter, White was the conference's offensive player of the week. He completed 12-of-15 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown and ran 14 times for 89 yards and a touchdown.
Fittingly, Cincinnati had the defensive and special teams players of the week.
Linebacker Ryan Manalac had a game-high 11 tackles and the game's decisive play when he intercepted Rutgers' Mike Teel at the UC 13-yard line with 1:19 remaining in the game.
The Bearcats, by the way, have forced 25 turnovers this season, most in the nation.
Punter Kevin Huber averaged 51.5 yards on four punts and had one downed at the Rutgers 1. He's averaging a Big East-best 50.1 yards this season and has had three punts downed on the 1 and 10 inside the 20. If he had one more punt, he'd qualify in the national punting average category and lead the nation by almost 4 yards per punt.
"If you were to ask me right now who the MVP of our football team is -- and I know this is going to sound crazy with us being 6-0 and ranked -- it's Kevin Humber," Kelly said. "He sets up long fields for teams to operate on. ... We have NFL guys come to look at different players and all they want to talk about when they leave is the punter. He's very talented."
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AFTER ALLOWING the most points at home in the program's 118-year history, Syracuse Coach Greg Robinson fielded several questions about his tumultuous tenure as a first-time head coach.
A respected and accomplished defensive coach and coordinator at both the college and professional level, Robinson is 6-23 with the Orange and 2-15 in the Big East. This season, Syracuse is 1-5 and has been outscored 225-98.
Most frustrating to everyone involved is the team won at Louisville two weeks ago and Robinson spoke excitedly about taking the first of many steps in his process. The Orange followed with a regrettable 17-14 loss at Miami, Ohio, which had lost seven straight at home, and the embarrassing performance against WVU.
Robinson refused to relent, even after one of the worst games in school history.
"I don't know," he said, "if that score is totally indicative."
