BearcatReport.com - Tuesdays with Kelly: Daniels has been impressive

October 13, 2009

Scott Springer
BearcatReport.com Staff Writer

When the season started, none of the Big East teams were ranked. Now, the ESPN feature game on Thursday pits #8 UC against #21 South Florida, as both teams have proven the pundits wrong and will play for prime time respect. Both teams bring in undefeated records, so the proverbial "driver's seat" of the league is up for grabs.

Long-time USF starting quarterback Matt Grothe is out for the year (Big East total offense record holder) but the Bulls haven't missed a beat with redshirt freshman B.J. Daniels who's 2-0 as a starter and already has a pair of 100-yard-plus rushing games.

"B.J. Daniels has done an extraordinary job in a very short period of time," said Brian Kelly. "I think their coaches on the offensive side have done a very, very good job of adapting his skills to the offense instead of just saying, 'Hey, you've got to go run what we've run with Matt,'.

While Grothe started against Wofford, Western Kentucky and Charleston Southern, Daniels led USF to victories at Florida State and Syracuse. He's run for big yards and thrown for long gainers downfield to receivers Sterling Griffin, Theo Wilson and Carlton Mitchell.

"They've done a very good job of getting the ball out on the perimeter, making big chunk plays," said Coach Kelly. (Daniels has TD throws of 50, 73 and 85 yards).

By comparison, Kelly likens Daniels to Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor (although he told a Columbus Dispatch reporter he was similar to Terrelle Pryor... "I was talking to somebody from Columbus and I know they don't live outside of Columbus, so they wouldn't know who Tyrod Taylor was.").

Kelly continued, "He (Daniels) can hurt you throwing the ball if you fall asleep on him. If you fall asleep on Daniels and think he's just zone read and run the ball, you're in trouble because he's going to throw the ball down the field on you."

The defensive plans? (Well, naturally he's not going to give away the game plan, but someone always asks.)

"Here's the question," said Kelly. "When you have an athletic, running quarterback, do you stop the run? Well, if you stop the run, then you're one-on-one on the outside. If you play just pass, then you give him the opportunity to run the football. We've got to pick our spots, we've got to be able to stop the run and sometimes maybe we have to double up on some of their receivers."

On the other side of the ball, the Bulls have been "Bears" the last three games in terms of stopping the run. Charleston Southern was held to 53 rushing yards, Florida State 19 and Syracuse 75. Leading that charge were two quick and talented defensive ends in George Selvie and Jason Pierre-Paul.

"Pretty much what you thought of South Florida-athletic, outstanding pass rushers, but they're very solid inside," said Kelly of the USF defense. "Their front four is as good as you're going to see in a Top 25 opponent. They can match up with SEC teams or Big 10 teams. Pierre-Paul and Selvie now give you a tandem on the edge that makes it more difficult."

That gives you headaches running the ball if you're a running team (which UC is not). And, despite the Bearcats' throwing proficiency, Kelly's leery of the Bulls' secondary too.

"The strength of their defense (is) the back end has played very, very well," said Kelly. "Taking the ball away, extremely opportunistic-again, a very good football team. Top 25 team, playing at home-we'll have to play very, very well against South Florida to win."

BRIAN KELLY ON COACHING AGAINST JOE TRESEY

Of course, the sidebar drama of all of this is that USF's defensive coordinator Joe Tresey was here last year and was let go about a month after the Orange Bowl. He knows UC's personnel and it's been documented that he's briefed the entire USF coaching staff on Bearcat tendencies on each side of the ball.

While both parties have tried to keep the "controversy/rivalry" low-key. You can bet ESPN will come out firing with this story fully loaded.

"Let me tell you, I know Joe and Joe's a great guy," said Tresey's former boss. "Joe's going to do his job. Joe is probably the most organized and detailed coach relative to planning everything out. He will have a plan for everything. If we come out with three backs in the backfield, he'll have a check for it. Joe will be prepared for everything, but he won't do anything that he's not comfortable doing and that's why he's been a good defensive coordinator for as long as he's been in the business".

YOUNG RETURNS, GILYARD NEEDS MORE TOUCHES

The good news for UC is some of their defenders that have been out, should be back. In particular, Curtis Young has been cleared to play on the defensive line again.

"I don't expect him to play every snap," said Kelly. "He will start at the 'Cat' position for us and I think he gives us the best chance to win when he's in the line-up."

Offensively, Coach Kelly's emphasis would seem odd to most. After practice Monday, he claimed he wanted to get Mardy Gilyard more "touches". Gilyard would seem to be an obvious point of emphasis for USF, yet Kelly is determined to keep relying on his senior receiver.

"He still leads our team in receptions, he still gets the most touches," said Kelly. "Further clarifying what I said-we have to find different ways to get him the football. If you line him up as the outside receiver to the field, you can roll coverage and double him. But, if you put him in some different positions-maybe you can put him in the backfield a little bit-that's really what we looked at. Obviously, there will be times where we want you to double him. We want to put him in a position where if you do double him, then things will open up for us. Then isn't about, the offense has to run through Mardy, it does require us to be creative in making sure he gets the touches."

OFFENSIVE LINE HAS BEEN KEY TO SUCCESS

A lot of UC's offensive success is attributed to Tony Pike and Mardy Gilyard, but the bottom line is the offensive line has done their job. O-line coach Jeff Quinn's gotten the most of his returning starters and strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo 's molded some behemoths into lateral moving blockers.

"The offensive line has given up just three sacks all year," commented Kelly. "That's good for a spread offense that throws it as much as we do. We don't go into a game saying, 'Hey, we're going to shut'em out again,' we have to have answers if we're getting pressure from our ends. We move the pocket, we screen, we do so many things that we hope that slows down the pass rush. These two guys (Selvie and Pierre-Paul) you've got to have answers for and we do if we need it."

ARE THE BEARCATS SCORING TOO QUICKLY?

Naturally, if you score quickly, you don't have to worry about the likes of Selvie and Pierre-Paul. Then again, scoring quickly has been a double-edged sword in a way as UC's handily lost the time of possession battle the last two games.

"We've been talking about this," said Kelly. "How do you get more snaps for the offense? Maybe the accountability needs to be on the offense. Maybe the offense needs to keep the defense off the field. We want to score quickly. If every scoring drive was two minutes or less, that'd be fine with me. But, we also have to be cognizant of the fact that playing 86-87 plays on defense is probably not the best thing. It happens on both ends...let's be a little bit more efficient on third downs on defense, and let's do a better job of possessing the football on the offensive side of the ball."

"Three yards and a cloud of dust" fans, don't hold your breath here. The next question was, "Do you run the football more?"

"Heck no!" Kelly quickly retorted. "It means possess the football. If it does mean run the ball, I'm all for it. We can't have any three and outs, we have to sustain drives. If we're not getting off the field on third down-right now we're at 49% opponent third down conversions-that's too high. It's a convergence of both (offense/defense) control the ball a little bit more-whatever that form ends up being-throwing it, running it that's what we have to do."

IT'S ALL ABOUT EARNING RESPECT

After a weekend off, both the players and coaches are anxious to get back on the field. Having such a marquee game to come back on, "amps" everyone up that much more and you can see the excitement in Brian Kelly's face.

"It's not about what is at stake, it's being back in the Big East conference," he said. "We've been non-league since Rutgers. When it's a conference game, it takes on a different approach. What's got our guys charged up is, we're back in the Big East and our goal at the start of the season was to win a Big East championship and this is an important game for us."

It's also important in terms of respect around the nation and for recruiting. Come Thursday, umpteen top-notch recruits will have been called, texted or tweeted the same message, "Hey, we're playing on ESPN tonight!" by both UC and USF coaches. Both schools are clamoring for the recognition they feel slighted of and both are looking to add to their arsenal for future years.

While Florida is a traditional "hotbed" of talent for a lot of schools, Coach Kelly thinks the Sunshine State "sell" might not be as easy as his situation here in Ohio.

"I think it's more difficult for them," he said. "They've got to go through Florida, Florida State and Miami (FL). That's a difficult proposition for a program that's only been at it for a short period of time. (However) what they've shown is that they HAVE done it. They've put players on the field, they've beaten Florida State already. I think he's done a better job than people have given Jim Leavitt credit for."

Kelly added, "I think here in Ohio we have a similar business plan, that we want to recruit locally. But, we don't have three major BCS schools in the state. We just have one other one...Ohio State."

KELLY NOT FAN OF RUNNING GASSERS

Again, similar schools, different approaches, different coaches. Especially, when it comes to pre-game rituals. Brian Kelly usually wants to meet the opposing coach at midfield before a game to "shoot the breeze" (or in Greg Schiano's case, to "milk" him for information on his quarterback plans).

Jim Leavitt, on the other hand, likes to run "gassers" (even though the agreed upon rules prevent the head coach from participating between the lines).

Brian Kelly isn't a fan of "gassers". At least, when they involve HIM running.

"Look...here's how this goes," Kelly explained. "I look the way I do because gassers are not something I'm very fond of. Jim Leavitt seems to think that's a good way for him to stay fit and maintain that young man physique that he has. I'm not interested in that stuff. I'm always looking at what kind of sandwiches we have in the locker room prior to the game."

IMPACT OF MAKING THE ROUNDS ON ESPN

Regardless of how he looks, a lot of people will get to look more at Brian Kelly Thursday night, just as they did in the "off week". Last Friday, Kelly flew to Bristol, Connecticut with one of his sons and some staffers and was given the red carpet treatment at the "World Wide Leader". (One of the perks of being a Top 10 team.)

"It was obviously a great day for us to promote our football program," said Kelly of the one-day "meet and greet". "That's what it was about, the opportunity to get there and really put our brand out there. What I was most impressed with was that our brand and what we've been doing has reached that national level. Most of the people I was in contact with in Bristol really knew what's going on here at the University of Cincinnati."

Big East titles, Orange Bowl appearances and sell-outs will get you the "Golden Ticket" to Bristol. Also-rans, apathy and mediocrity leave you sitting at your coach's show on Thursday nights wishing you were that guy you keep seeing on the tube.

"Another public relations opportunity that we're able to take advantage of because we're winning," said Kelly of the "Bristol Blitz". "You only get that opportunity when you're winning. It becomes a good story and a cute story, but you've got to keep winning."

The quest for more gratuitous "pub" continues Thursday night around 7:45 when either USF's Eric Schwartz or UC's Jake Rogers clubs the pigskin skyward to begin the battle of Big East unbeatens.

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