From the Stands: Temple at UC

As many of my Twitter friends know, I made the trek from St. Louis to Cincinnati this past weekend in order to attend the Bearcats game.  My excitement was piqued.  I frequently reference my longstanding history with Bearcat football and Nippert stadium, this time it was even better because I was taking my wife to her first ever college football game.  If you told me on Friday afternoon that the Bearcats would give up 9 fewer sacks than the Penn State offensive line and that Gunner would throw for over 400 yards while managing to lose in embarrassing fashion I would have been vexed to say the least.  However, that is precisely what happened.

The stadium looked as beautiful as you might imagine.  Everything is top notch and fully functional.  The walkways are bigger, concessions are nicer, bathrooms are more abundant than ever.  Tailgating was spectacular.  The student turnout was the best I’ve ever seen.  As for the rest of the stadium, it seemed to be about 70% full as the east side never completely filled in.  Our fans were loud and constantly cheering in support for the team, however, the ebb and flow of the game made it extremely hard to not become crestfallen.  Each time the team seemed to have something good going they would shoot themselves in the foot.  In the premature spirit of Festivus, I would like to share the airing of grievances from someone who drove nearly 800 miles this weekend to see one of the worst home games in modern Bearcat history.

Ty Linder (Special Teams Coordinator)

The special teams in the Tuberville era have been sub-par, this weekend was a new low.  It is a thankless job in special teams because a good unit goes largely unnoticed.  Our special teams performance on Saturday threw away the team’s momentum repeatedly.  They did not have any positive plays except for a couple chip shot field goals.  This group needs to get its act together quickly.  Giving up an onside kick and a kick return touchdown in the same game is unacceptable.  This is especially true we turn to our unit late in the game for an onside kick of their own and get the most pitiful attempt I’ve ever seen.   I think if we had even an average level performance on special teams the game would have been salvageable.

Eddie Gran (Offensive Coordinator)

Gran did have a good gameplan for keeping Gunner off the turf.  It seemed like our strategy was to run quick slants, hooks, and screens so that Kiel could get rid of the ball quickly.  Penn State gave up 10 sacks to the Temple defense, Cincinnati gave up one.  That being said, the running back committee was not given their chance to control the game.  The running was inconsistent and it was hard to tell who had the hot hand.  The stat book shows only one lost fumble, but there were so many close calls that the team and fans were demoralized as if we’d lost several.  Focus on ball control this week.

The running backs had a flawless performance compared to our wide receivers.  I bought into the hype and still do that surrounds this WR unit although you have to be mentally ready for each game.  Our receivers got open a fair amount and it may have only been 5 or 6 times when they dropped a pass that hit them in the hands, but it sure felt like a dozen.  Johnny Holton Jr. dropped a wide open sideline pass that would have been a touchdown, a few other drops came from dink and dunk passes (which ought to be automatic), a couple of tipped passes ended up as interceptions, and the most devastating one came from the offense’s final play which resulted in an endzone pick (and the second red zone pick of the day).

There was a lot of negative chatter about Gunner Kiel in the stands and admittedly he did not have his best game.  That being said, if the receivers caught the ball when it hit them in the hands then he may not have started acting so desperately.  Bad passes are bad passes and there is ultimately no excuse, but you can’t accuse Gunner of rolling over or giving up and that is more than we can say for some of our team, coaches, and fans.

One final note, no one wants to watch Gunner Kiel keep the ball on a read option.  Please make it stop.

Tommy Tuberville

I am by no means calling for his head like some fans are, but this is the third straight year where we’ve had an early brain cramp against American conference opponents.  Despite our mess of a performance, this game was repeatedly given to us on a silver platter and we couldn’t capitalize once.  Most of the mistakes in the game were mental and after an appalling fumble, dropped pass, poor kick coverage, stupid interception, or one of the other blunders in the game it would be nice to see Tubby bite somebody’s head off.  How about calling a timeout to let the team know how unacceptable the play is?  Temple was extremely liberal with their timeouts and Cincinnati didn’t spend one in the entire first half.

People always complain about Tuberville’s lack of fire and passion.  I don’t mind his smug lo9oks and smirks on the sideline, I think it’s his poker face.  I think he doesn’t like to let the other team see you bleed.  I wouldn’t question his methods at all if he had the ability to make in-game adjustments to the team, but so far (for 3 years) he seems incapable of changing the trajectory of a game once its started.

Also, don’t go for two so early in the game.  Had we taken our extra point with the first touchdown then we would have only needed 7 at the end of the game instead of 8.

Silver Lining

• Our defense didn’t have any horrible plays (aside from one long run).  They actually looked pretty good and would have been credited with a great performance if the other units would have minimized damage.
• Our offensive line really did their job nicely.  I was very worried about how they would handle such a powerful and aggressive defense, but they did more than I could have asked for.
• Gunner ain’t going pro this year.  There has been much chatter, but I don’t think any NFL team would watch this week’s footage and be convinced that he needs to make the jump early.  I think he’ll have another year to work out some of these issues and he should return to us for a very special senior year.
• We can still have a strong season.  Getting to the conference championship will require two conference losses from Temple.  I think Temple is capable of a meltdown, although I’m not sure there are two AAC East teams good enough to beat them.  We still have an opportunity to make some national statements against BYU and Miami Florida, if you win out then you could end with a respectable 11-1 or 10-2 record.  You’re likely to get a decent bowl bid with that kind of record even if you don’t make it to the AAC championship game.  Let’s use this game as motivation to play to our potential for every game.