BearcatReport.com - Cincinnati Has Work to Do to Prove Doubters Wrong

July 29, 2008

ADAM ZAGORIA
Special to BearcatReport.com

NEWPORT, R.I. ? Cincinnati football coach Brian Kelly understands the doubters.

A year after finishing 10-3, 4-3 in the Big East, many observers don't expect the Bearcats to do that well again in 2008. Hence the No. 5 pick by the coaches in the Big East Football Preseason Media Poll announced Tuesday. Defending league co-champ West Virginia was chosen No. 1, followed by South Florida and Pittsburgh.

"Is (Cincinnati) a football team that's going to be around for one year and then gone for three or four? Or does this team have some staying power? And I think everybody's questions are about, 'Does Cincinnati have staying power?'" Kelly said during Big East Media Day.

The major question mark hanging over Kelly's program is whether the NCAA will grant quarterback Ben Mauk a waiver to play another year of college football, or whether senior Dustin Grutza will run the show all year.

"We're on hold relative to any decision regarding Ben Mauk, but our program has moved forward since spring ball," Kelly said. "I did not want to be here at Media Day and having to worry about our football team. I'm worrying about Ben Mauk. It's an individual decision now; it's not about our football team. Our football team moved past it."

The very fact that the 6-2, 215-pound Grutza sat beside Kelly at Media Day shows the coach's belief in who will start at quarterback.

"I feel good," said Grutza, the backup to Mauk last year. "I feel like (Kelly) has confidence in me to take this team to a Big East championship."

He added: "I prepared every day and every game just like I was going to be a starter. I'm ready. I feel like the offense fits my strengths, throw the ball and spread it out."

Backup QB Demetrius Jones, the Opening Day starter at Notre Dame last season, is coming back from a labrum tear in his shoulder that required reconstructive surgery. Kelly said he can make about 50-60 percent of the required throws.

"Demetrius physically is a very talented football player," Kelly said. "There are some things we can do with him not being 100 percent with his shoulder that can still help our offense because of his physical ability."

Despite all the quarterback questions, Kelly said the running back situation was actually the biggest issue facing the Bearcats.

"We did not run the ball well enough last year to be a championship football team," Kelly said. "Going into this season for me, the running game is more of a concern than the quarterback."

Kelly listed junior Jacob Ramsey and redshirt sophomore John Goebel as his top two options at running back, but added that true freshmen Isaiah Pead and Darrin Williams could make an impact.

"They both have explosive ability and in the spread offense, I think we saw how important those guys are," he said. "Those two will get a good look."

OKLAHOMA SHOWDOWN

Cincinnati plays at perennial power Oklahoma in a nationally televised game Sept. 6 and Kelly knows that will be a tough test in Week 2. The Bearcats open against Eastern Kentucky Aug. 28.

"Any time you go on the road against a championship football team, which I think Oklahoma is, you present a great challenge to your program, but you're also in a BCS conference where your conference champ (West Virginia) beat them (48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl)," Kelly said. "And so you have to go there with the expectations that if you play well, you have a chance to win the football game.

"We can't go there and say we just have to play well and look good. We have to go to Oklahoma with the expectation to play well and win the football game."

The contract with Oklahoma calls for the Sooners to return to Cincinnati in 2010 and play in Paul Brown Stadium.

"This was a one-shot deal for us," he said. "(But) on the other end of these contracts, there has to be another BCS team that's going to play at Nippert Stadium or Paul Brown Stadium."

PICKING THE PRESIDENT

A former advance person for Democratic Presidential candidate Gary Hart in the 1984 election, Kelly is no stranger to politics.

So what's his view on OBama vs. McCain in '08?

"Being in politics is one thing, but obviously our country is in a situation where I think this one really counts," he said of the November election. "Everybody's giving it lip service, but there are no party lines on this one because I think our country's at a point where we've got to make a good decision. One thing I know is, people are going to make the right decision on this one."

MOVING PAST RICH-ROD

First-year West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said despite his state's collective animosity toward former coach Rich Rodriguez, he has no ill feelings.

"He was very good to me," said Stewart, who guided the Mountaineers to the Fiesta Bowl win in January after Rodriguez departed for Michigan. "I'll always be friends with those guys.

"The state has to let that go. It wasn't a loss of life. It was just a passing of the guard.

"I'm proud of what we did, but we have to go on with our own life, just like they had to go on with their life."

UNDEFEATEDS UNLIKELY

Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese says it will be tough for any team to go undefeated in the Big East.

"It's going to take a very special football team to get through our league undefeated and it's going to take a little bit of luck," Tranghese said.

Adam Zagoria covers college and prep football and basketball for SportsNet New York (SNY) and Rivals.com, and his work has also appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sports Illustrated and Basketball Times. To read more of Adam's work, please visit www.zagsblog.net.

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