After
the 47-45 UC win against UConn on Saturday night, Brian Kelly - who originally
said Tony Pike would return to the starting quarterback position when he was
healthy - said he would reconsider his stance.
Especially
after backup Zach Collaros set a school record (and a Big East conference mark)
with 555 yards of total offense while leading the Bearcats to a school-best 711
yards of offense.
On
Monday, Kelly said he's changed his mind once again.
"If
Tony is fully healthy, he's our starter," Kelly said on the weekly Big East
coaches conference call. "The issue is, this becomes day to day. There are
X-rays and so much that's out of my hands medically, and the risk factor.
What's the risk factor in putting him out there? If that's not an issue ...
what Zach Collaros did over the last 3 weeks and his body of work is
outstanding, and you take Tony Pike's body of work, he's the starter. There's
no question about that. That's an ever-changing proposition for us. I know
that's why it sounds like we're stonewalling, but we're going day to day with
Tony Pike until we feel he's 100 percent.
"I
re-examined (the issue). I was dead serious. I went back and thought about
clearly the plusses and the minuses, lots of plusses with both guys. After
careful consideration, Tony's our guy. We've got to make sure he's at the level
he needs to be. Now that we've got another guy who can win games and a
championship for us, we've got to make sure (Pike) is at the level."

