Saturday, November 18, 2006

But the real football story is... Cincinnati!

The University of Cincinnati (commonly referred to as UC out here - not to be confused with University of California schools) is eating undefeated Rutgers' lunch and dinner!

We are so stoked! Noah is a student, Jon teaches there and well, hey. We don't have any football teams in Cinci apart from UC. So this is a big deal. UC has had the toughest schedule in the NCAA (according to all the pundits). They're 5 and 1 at home. But what's most interesting is that they've played well against teams like OSU and Louisville, even though in the end they lose.

To beat Rutgers would be such a feather in their cap. Score right now: 27-3.

Update: Did I really write "feather in their cap"? Blech. Rinse, spit.

Update #2: UC rolled over Rutger's: 30-11. They stole the show, the dance, the night. Nick Davila, UC's QB, has not started a game... ever. Grutza (starter) was injured and Davila showed up unannounced and made it happen. Talk about storybook fairytales. He's a senior, from California, transferred from a junior college, has never started a game and it was senior night. What a night for him and the whole program!

And Cincinnati... Trivia question: why do sports casters always take a trip to Skyline chili when they do Cincinnati sporting events?

5 comments:

Bilbo said...

Hi Julie,
I am happy for you but sad for Rutgers which was the cinderella story of the year in college sports. I don't mean to take anything away from how well Cinciannati msut of playes but I can't help wondering if Rutgers was flat after the most emotional win in history over Louisville last week.

Unknown said...

I agree with you actually and expected them to roll over Cinci. We weren't even going to watch. I had rooted for Rutger's the previous week. But as we flipped away from USC's flat opening against Cal, we were stunned to see UC up! By a lot!

So we stayed. After seeing UC come close to being a spoiler so many times this fall, it was shocking to see it happen with the number one team in their division and I can't help it... we were thrilled!

UC is not a Rutger's in any sense of the word. It's an urban university that is still mostly populated by Cincinnati itself. 20 of the team members are local.

There's a real push at that university to make it a much more diverse, compelling school to attend. Most kids never go to football games. (They do, however, show up for basketball! UC is great in b-ball.)

So this is a school on the rise and it was exciting to see Cincinnati breakthrough.

But yes. I'm usually all about the Cinderella stories. :)

Dcn Scott Dodge said...

The BCS just got a whole lot less complicated. Now if someone could just knock-off those pesky Boise State Broncos! My Utes had their cahnce, but got whacked! Anyway, the big Utah/BYU game this next Saturday on our home turf. I have my tickets!!

Unknown said...

Good for you! I wish now that I had been at the UC game. There were plenty of tix left. We'll have to make the effort next year. They're an up and coming team.

Scott have a great time.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I'm pretty sure the Chili profiled in the ESPN coverage was Camp Washington Chili. I was shocked that it wasn't Skyline.

Solid observation, though.