UCats to be offensive again?…
Posted by UFreak in 
Well, last year they were suppose to struggle!…Instead, they blew away the league competition and earned their beloved (and somewhat Fat-Guy) Coach a FATASS gig with the Gold Domers in South Bend! (Yeah!,..BOOO!) In short, they were fantastic on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively?…well, they were Big(L)East good, but against that often hated and disputed SEC speed?…Not so good!
BUT HEY!…The offense is entertaining, right?….and it should be once again; at least potentially! Led by (you’d think at this point anyway) Zach Collaros who was brilliant in support of Tony Pike at QB, and what could be just a SICK stable of wr’s. This team SHOULD explode for points! Collaros brings the TEBOW-element to the ‘Cats offense, an “option” not found there last year. He will mix that in with a HEAVILY talented “wr” corp led by (you’d hope) Vidal Hazelton(5*) and Kenbrell Thompkins(4*). Two wr’s who flirted with the idea of becoming Gators (among others) during their recruiting process. Hazelton was Scout’s #3 rated (overall) player, and rivals’ #7 back in 2006. Yes, that magical year produced some incredible talent; Tim Tebow (#21/#22) and “Oh Mercy”!…”it’s Percy!” (#13/#1) who went on to become the NFL Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowler!..The 2006 class also included; Andre Smith, Bean’er Wells, Gerald McCoy, Sergio Kindle, Matt Stafford, CJ Spiller, Myron Rolle, Brandon Spikes, Taylor Mays, Micah Johnson (UK), and Knowshon Moreno, among others! What a great freakin’ class! Vidal was right there in the middle of it, in fact he was the center-piece of the USC class that year! HE was THEIR Percy Harvin!….only,..well…you know.
Mr Hazelton was a gifted athlete who did it all. He BLOCKED (so he’s not a Chud DUD), he ran great routes and he had great hands. His only concern was a slight dip in top end speed…..Enter Kenbrell Thompkins! This kid will cover the speed part of the equation pretty well. 4.4 speed, great size (6’3″) and he too was coveted by ALL the big boys a couple years ago. Before UC recently landed him, LoSerU was all over his jock! Grades derailed his initial attempt at DIV I, but he’s done his JUCO time and is IN CLASS now at UC (and participating in Spring Work). Now, toss in the returning WR’s who were running along side Mardy Gilyard last year, (DJ Woods and Armon Binns) and WOW!, you see MANY-MANY TD’s in their future! –RB Isaiah Pead, and TE’s Travis Kelce and Ben-Ben Guidugli will round out the “skill” postion pretty nicely! The O-Line (as it is with most teams) will need to hold up their end, but they were mostly no-names last year too!
Sure, it was a beat down in the Sugar Bowl, but every team has taken at least one of those on the way to the top. Hey, those same Gators got “FRAZIER’ED” in the 1995 Natty Title game before they rebounded and won it all the following year! (Tommie Frazier, Lawrence Phillips AND Ahman Green in the same backfield?…) Maybe that’s a little ambitious considering the ‘Cats blow on defense, but hey,…we’ve seen good things happen here before, right?!!??! -AND!,…AND, UC doesn’t have Mikey Brown in charge!…heh?…heh??….yes, 2010 will be a FINE year (again) for the UCats!
Its the Butch Jones Show now….boooo!
UC lays an egg! They failed to sway Jeff Quinn into staying…meaning, he must either KNOW something, or he REALLY likes Notre Dame green too!
THIS is not the best hire! Jeff Quinn must have said in no un-mixed words, that he was going to So Bend with Kelly. No other reason you take this Butch dude. Nope!..Not one bit happy about this and I cant think recruiting will improve as a result, either. It just looks like some one is trying to make Cent Michy out to be some kind of Modern Day Coaching factory. Brian Kelly had it, but hittin’ up the well again?..Same team, by the same team?
GOOD LUCK BUTCH!…I hold out hope you do good things here, but I cant think this is a better bet than Quinn would have been. Even had Quinn declined, look at some other big name programs a little and get a name recruits can relate to!
Better enjoy this Sugar Bowl, UC’ers, its gonna get a WHOLE lot tUFfer here forward!….dang Notre Dame and their sack of gold coins!
UC will be fine, but ND will still suck
Gilyard handled the news just fine, and why shouldn’t he?…He’s been a great leader for this team, and they will be fine going forward. There are a number of solid coaching prospects, and they’d be lucky to inherit a 12-0 team!
Skip Holtz: The East Carolina coach since 2005, Holtz just won his second-straight Conference USA championship. After being linked last year with the Syracuse head coaching job, Holtz was quoted as saying “it would have to be a really special situation to get me out of here.” East Carolina plays Arkansas in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2.
UC’s Gilyard is first class
Dan Hoard: It might be the most famous embrace since Bill Clinton hugged a black beret-wearing Monica Lewinsky on a “rope line” in 1996.
When Mardy Gilyard crashed into the Nippert Stadium stands against USF on October 30th and barreled into 7-year-old Garrett Monroe, the UC wide receiver became a national hero for caring enough to remove his helmet, give the youngster a huge hug, and make sure that Garrett wasn’t injured before returning to the field.
“I hit that him so hard that you could actually see his face paint on my jersey,” Gilyard said. “I felt extremely bad and I would have felt even worse if he hadn’t given me a high five after I hugged him.”
The video of Gilyard’s kind gesture has been viewed more than 280,000 times on YouTube.
I only wish there was watch footage of something I saw Gilyard do on the Bearcats recent trip to Hawaii.
Two days before the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the entire UC football team went on a tour of the USS Arizona Memorial – ground zero for the start of World War II for the United States and the final resting place for many of the battleship’s 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941.
If you were touched by Gilyard’s goodness when he hugged the kid, you would have been bowled over by the respect he showed an elderly man.
88-year-old Ed Borucki is one of roughly 30 living survivors of the Pearl Harbor attacks and was at the memorial that day to share his story. Gilyard not only listened intently – he told Borucki he was in awe of him, posed for a picture, and even asked for an autograph.
“It meant so much because I have family members that have gone to war,” a beaming Gilyard told me after the encounter. “My father was in the Army, my stepfather was in the service, and for me to meet someone who fought in World War II was really humbling. I’m proud to be an American, so to be in the presence of Mr. Edward B. – I don’t want to say his last name wrong – I was star-struck. His group actually shot down Japanese fighter planes. Knowing that he had first-hand experience with that was amazing. I never thought I’d get to meet someone like that.”
Borucki was on the USS Helena that was docked in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on the morning of the attacks. When a warning sounded Borucki went to his battle station, an act that saved his life when a torpedo hit the ship killing 33 of his shipmates.
Due to the lack of communication at the time, Borucki was assumed dead and his obituary even appeared in the newspaper.
“They thought he was dead, but he swam across the water to safety,” Gilyard said. “I shook his hand and kept telling him ‘thank you’ over and over again. He said, ‘you don’t have to thank me so many times son.’ And I said, ‘you just don’t understand how much this means to me.’ Stuff like that really touches me. I can’t speak for the rest of my teammates, but for me personally, it really touched my heart.”
Gilyard’s remarkable road to stardom at Cincinnati is well-known. Two years ago he had his scholarship revoked after flunking out. In order to return to the team, Mardy worked four jobs to pay off roughly $10,000 in tuition debt, and often slept in his car.
Perhaps that explains why he seems to savor every aspect of being a Bearcat.
“This is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” Gilyard said. “If I could tell other college football players anything I’d tell them ‘don’t leave school early. Enjoy your experiences because you won’t have anything like this after college.’ This is a once-in-lifetime shot and I’m enjoying it. I thank God every day for how he blesses us. For the team to be so successful – number one in school history in wins and headed to a great bowl. I mean, we’ve been blessed.”
One day after meeting NAVY Yeoman 2nd Class Edward Borucki, Gilyard scored the game-winning touchdown in the Bearcats thrilling comeback win over Hawaii, catching a pass from Dustin Grutza near the sideline before breaking a tackle and racing 69 yards to the end zone with 4:42 to go.
It was another highlight that’s sure to get a bunch of views on YouTube.
But it wasn’t the most impressive thing Mardy did in Hawaii.
I’d love to hear from you. You can e-mail your questions and comments to dhoard@pawsox.com.
Enjoy this week’s photo of the handsome lad as he prepares to hit daddy with a snowball.
(This story originally appeared in the December 20th edition of Bearcat Sports Digest)
Source:
http://gobearcats.cstv.com/ot/dan-hoard-column.html
Gates Dunk Sends UC / EKU to OT
For anyone watching the game, Foax apparently had a computer glitch so this footage wasnt shown live on TV. Yancy Gates sends the game to OT with a dunk near the buzzer.
Fox Sports Ohio Statement
“A rare, computer-generated error at Fox Sports Ohio’s transmission center in New York caused the very unfortunate switch from University of Cincinnati men’s basketball to other network programming at end of the UC game on Saturday, December 20th. When Fox Sports Ohio received notification, we immediately went to work to correct the problem. However, because of the amount of time left in the game, we were not able to override this computer-generated error in time.
Fox Sports Ohio is proud to bring UC basketball to the fans in Cincinnati and beyond. We fully understand the strong emotions concerning this error and would like to extend a sincere, heartfelt apology to the outstanding fans that follow Bearcat basketball on Fox Sports Ohio.”
Steve Liverani
Senior Vice President and General Manager
FOX Sports Ohio