I'll admit it.  When USF quarterback Matt Grothe suffered a season-ending knee injury a few weeks ago, I figured this Thursday's game in Tampa got a whole lot easier for the Bearcats.

Duh . . . you would think that someone who was behind the mic when UC had four different quarterbacks lead the team to wins last year would know better.

I certainly don't think the game looks easier now.  Grothe's replacement - redshirt freshman B.J. Daniels - has been "Mr. Excitement" in leading the Bulls to road wins over Florida State and Syracuse.

His passing stats in those two games aren't spectacular - Daniels is 20-for-41 (49%) for 423 yards with 4 TD passes and 2 INT - but he's produced several big plays.  In the win over FSU, Daniels had completions of 77 and 73 yards, and in the Syracuse game he threw an 85 yard touchdown pass.  In other words, B.J. is not likely to carve Cincinnati up with a short passing game, but if the Bearcats bring their safeties up to stop the run, he will look to go deep.

Oh yea, Daniels can run too.  He carried 23 times for 126 yards against Florida State and added 32 yards against the 'Cuse.

Daniels actually grew up on the Florida State campus (his dad was the campus housing director) but wasn't recruited by the Seminoles.  Here's a great story on how he wound up at USF.

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I'm sure we're going to hear quite a bit this week about former UC defensive coordinator Joe Tresey who now runs the defense at USF.  He was the subject of this story in the Tampa Tribune on Sunday, and I found the following paragraphs to be extremely interesting:

Last week, Tresey met with USF offensive coaches, including coordinator Mike Canales.  He went through Cincinnati's defense, player by player, offering his impressions on strengths, weaknesses and tendencies.

"It was invaluable," Canales said.

Both teams will probably downplay the significant of Tresey changing sides this year, but that information had to be helpful for the Bulls.

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The much-maligned Big East is starting to get some respect from the pollsters with two teams in the AP Top 25 - Cincinnati at #8 and USF at #21.  Additionally, Pitt is 26^th and West Virginia is 28^th.  Admittedly, not quite the SEC with Florida and Alabama ranked 1-2, but it's an improvement.

I'd love to hear from you.  The address is dhoard@pawsox.com.

Enjoy a recent photo of the handsome lad who appears to be stunned that his father dressed him in Cleveland Browns colors for no logical reason.