What a game. The good guys didn’t bring home a win on Thursday night, but it sure was fun. Quite the thrill ride. Enjoy your college football Saturday, Bearcats Nation. Here are a few thoughts about Thursday night’s game.
1. It’s a relief to hear that Gunner Kiel is doing well after seeing him take such a brutal hit (which, by the way, was illegal and with the helmet, regardless of what the replay official ruled). He was initially motionless and taken out of the Liberty Bowl on a backboard, but news is now that he was released from the hospital, and actually made it back to the stadium in time to fly back to Cincinnati with the team last night. At this point, Kiel’s status in unclear, but I’m guessing that he will miss some time – as he should. A concussion is not something to play around with, especially after taking a shot last week as well. After taking cheap shots in back to back weeks, I’m just very happy to hear that Gunner is free from serious injury. Seeing him wheeled off on a stretcher put football and a lot of other things into perspective.
2. Hayden Moore is a future star for the Bearcats. I was blown away with his arm strength and his accuracy throwing the ball down the field. If and when Gunner can safely return to the field, he will (and rightfully should) be the starting quarterback of this team. But it’s great to have a proven backup, and Hayden Moore has now proven himself. He has shown us all that not only is he capable of adequately relieving Gunner Kiel for the next two seasons, but he also has the talent to be a starting quarterback in major college football. With many recruits, you just never know until they get on the field and get tested. We’ve seen several of Butch Jones’s prized recruits that never could quite prove themselves when the lights were on and the seats were full (Bennie Coney, Patrick Coyne, and Trenton Norvell come to mind). This game was a coming out party for Moore. He broke Greg Cook’s 47-year old single-game passing record, torching Memphis for 557 yards in just about 3 quarters of action. It reminds me a lot of the 2009 game at South Florida when a young and vastly unproven Zach Collaros came off the bench, promptly ran for a 75 yard touchdown, and led the ‘Cats to several victories while Tony Pike recovered from a broken left arm. Collaros, of course, went on to a very successful career as a 2-year starter when his time came. I now believe we can expect the same from Hayden Moore in 2017 and 2018.
3. With UC’s conference title hopes officially 100% dead, the future is now (see #2). The defense is young all around, and Hayden Moore and Mike Boone are both sophomores. It’s a shame to say after just 4 games, but it’s time to start dreaming of next year’s run to a New Years’ Six Bowl. Or maybe 2017’s. The silver lining of this year is that these young guys (especially on defense) are going to get big game experience against Miami (FL), BYU, and Houston with no New Years Six Bowl talk or conference title pressure looming over their heads. It’s all about learning and developing these young guys now. The depth of this program is only going to improve as these guys gain experience. It’s still going to be exciting to watch this team the rest of the year (UC now has the #1 offense in college football). I just hope we can take one or two of these big games. It looks like 2015 could be a 7-5 or 8-4 year, which may be a little disappointing, but is still perfectly respectable and obviously good enough for a bowl game.
4. The NCAA desperately needs to change their sliding QB rule to mirror the NFL. Any contact with a sliding quarterback should be an automatic 15-yard personal foul – whether or not replays rule the hit to be Targeting (by the way – I disagree with the no-call, as does our Chris Bains). An automatic 15 yards is the only way to stop hits like that from happening and to protect the players. In the NFL, as soon as a quarterback begins his slide, he has given himself up, is down, and cannot be contacted. Apparently by college rules, a QB who slides isn’t down until he hits the ground, so Gunner was fair game. If this is the case, WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF SLIDING? By NCAA rule, because the Targeting call was overturned by replay, there is no penalty whatsoever. That just doesn’t make sense. As long as I can remember watching NFL football on Sundays, defensive players will do anything and everything to avoid making any contact with a sliding quarterback (for fear of the 15-yard personal foul for unnecessary roughness). It’s an everyday sight in the NFL to see a defender line up a quarterback, only to leap over top of him when the slide starts. It’s plain to see that the NFL’s rule works – it protects quarterbacks. I was physically ill for about 30 minutes after Gunner Kiel was knocked out of this game. It’s about as cheap a shot as their is. #12 Chauncey Lanier can expect a warm welcome when he plays at Nippert next year. I’m sure he’d never intentionally take a cheap shot at anyone, having learned his lesson after being suspended for his role in the Miami Beach Bowl brawl.
5. The replay official for Thursday night’s game needs to be fired by the conference. He should be ashamed that he overturned that Memphis fumble with ~2:00 remaining in a tie game. It was one of the only plays that the much-maligned UC defense made all night, and it was incorrectly taken away. Look, no one wants to have the back of the officials more than I do (I too am a sports official), but that play was ruled a fumble on the field, and there is a ZERO percent chance there was clear and conclusive, indisputable evidence to overturn that play. In fact, I believe the call should have been confirmed (or at very least stood as called). My initial reaction was, “That might not have been a fumble.” After seeing replays, my reaction was, “It’s really close, but it sure looks like a fumble, and there’s no way they can overturn the call on the field.” So of course, they overturned the call – but what do I know? I’m just a humble blogger with a professionally qualified opinion.
Here’s my speculation on what happened on the fumble. The conversation on the headset went something like this:
Referee: “We really don’t know what the hell just happened, can you look at it for us?”
Replay official: “Looks like it’s super close, and since no one on the field is actually sure what happened, I’m going to just take the easy way out and make the safe and non-controversial call of runner down/no fumble.”
I base this hypothesis on the fact that none of the officials made an initial signal for several moments after the play. Nobody actually knew what happened. So they called for help, and they decided to take the proverbial clean end of the stick, rather than do the right thing and follow the rule of indisputable evidence. I am going to try to tread lightly here, but if you don’t have the guts to do the right thing – if you seek out the safe, non-controversial call – you have no business being involved in sports officiating. You should find a new hobby (I would say find a new profession, but we are talking about college officials, not pros). Thursday night’s replay official would be better suited selling insurance or being an accountant or a plumber or something. The shame is that the officials on the field were actually correct on both rulings – they ejected Lanier for targeting, and ruled the play on Memphis’s game-winning drive a fumble. But the replay official didn’t have the guts to do the right thing and apply the rules as written, and that makes me very, very upset.