http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/extra/a...ncin467235

Clawing to credibility

By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
9/2/2008

Cincinnati is no longer considered just a basketball school.

NORMAN — Cincinnati, cradle to Oscar Robertson and Bob Huggins, seems a basketball school. Perhaps that's why coach Brian Kelly says his football team's trip to Oklahoma Saturday is like a hoops journey to Duke.

It does beg a question: Why are the Bearcats stepping up into that type of gridiron class in the first place?

"It's critical for our program in terms of where we want to go," Kelly said. "This is a huge measuring stick for our football team, relative to where we stand in progression toward a Big East championship."

So Bob Stoops isn't the only coach in Saturday's game who loves the word "championship." Maybe this isn't such a giant step up for Cincinnati, coming off its first 10-win season since 1951, after all.

"They're going to be fine," said Jim Leavitt, whose South Florida Bulls fell to the Bearcats 38-33 last year. "You've got two awfully good football teams playing, both of them well-coached. It's going to be a heck of a ballgame."

The oddsmakers may not be sure — they've made Cincinnati a 3-touchdown underdog — but Sooner coaches have bought in.

"I'd be willing to get you half to 70 percent of their team visited Big Ten schools and decided to go to Cincinnati because of the opportunity (to play), style of offense or defense, or proximity to their family," said OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, familiar with the Bearcats' program from his nine years as an assistant at Miami (Ohio). "The majority of that team could have played in the Big Ten and chose not to They have players."

Defensive backs DeAngelo Smith and Mike Mickens, for instance, combined to make 14 interceptions last year, the top pass-pilfering duo in the nation. Defensive tackle Terrill Byrd was a second-team All-American.

On offense, third-year starting quarterback Dustin Grutza makes the Bearcats' no-huddle hum with the help of wide receivers Dominick Goodman and Marcus Barnett.

"They're terrific," OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. "We feel like their skill will rival anybody we see this year."

That's despite losing Ben Mauk, the transfer quarterback who threw for 3,121 yards and 31 touchdowns last season. Mauk was officially denied a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA last week. Grutza, the Bearcats' starter in 2005-06, has worked since last spring under the assumption Mauk would not return. It showed last Thursday when he went 21-of-28 for 296 yards and three scores in a 40-7 season-opening victory over Eastern Kentucky.

So much for the idea that Mauk's case, which dragged all the way into Cincinnati's game day last week, would be a distraction.

Now the Bearcats must digest playing on Owen Field, and the perception that theirs is a basketball school playing a football power.

"We are really excited about going and playing in that environment," Kelly said. "It's what college football is all about. We want to be in these kinds of games and that's why we decided we wanted to play Oklahoma...

"Certainly we can't go to Norman, Oklahoma, and lay an egg, and not play to the level we're capable of. I don't think we will."

The Oklahoma coaches are talking it up. But are the Sooner players taking this game as seriously as their coaches are? That's the big question. They could be looking at this as just another tuneup for confernce play. If so, their season could get derailed early...

I bet the Oklahoma coaches are hoping that UC slips into the Top 25 this week so they can try to convince the players that this is more then a "tune-up". The fact that we're a Big East team should tell them something.

Not a chance. UC is still ranked around 35th. It should change radically after next week...

Good luck Cats. I got faith in you guys taking out the Sooners. It will be a tough game and it will be very difficult to get a victory. However, I think you guys can certainly do it. I just hope your new QB is up to the task. I think your old QB Mauck was excellent, but he is not playing.

Come on Cats, spank NOklahoma.....

bitcruncher Wrote:Not a chance. UC is still ranked around 35th. It should change radically after next week...

UC is ranked 29th AP poll. I didn't expect UC to move up in the coaches poll, they were around 35 going into last week.

Are you guys smoking crack?

OU: 34
UC: 17

Sorry, hope I'm wrong but UC offensive line is going to get used and abused vs OU defensive line which will keep offense out of sync, take UC receivers out of the game and keep UC defense on the field too long.

Close first half, OU pulls away and wins going away in the second half.

Hope I'm wrong....go Cats!

With a 21 point spread, a bet on UC wins...

UC beats the spread, but I'm with B#1, I don't feel real good about the overall game. The OL is not very good and the QB makes a lot of bad decisions. If the defense gets some turnovers and Grutza holds on to the ball then UC will have a shot, but if Grutza starts trying to do too much with the ball then it is over.

Oklahoma - 31 (14 points off turnovers)
Cincinnati - 21

You never know. Grutza may come up with a career game. But I'm not real comfortable about that game. I hope UC plays well, and doesn't get embarrassed on national TV.

The WVU game is a different story...