Sept. 24, 2009

(11:45 a.m.): I understand why UC fans want to compare themselves to the school up north, I can understand why they want to be the ones to proclaim that the Bearcats are the best college football program in the state and I can understand why they get excited when sophomore running back Isaiah Pead says something like this about Ohio State:

“If we ever have to strap it on with them, we’re going to win it.”

To me, the question of “who’s the best team in the state?” is kind of inconsequential. Unless the two meet in a bowl game, the question won’t be answered, and until then, it doesn’t really matter anyway. Speculation is fun, though. I get it.

So, I thought it’d be cool to find out the answer to this e-mail query I got from Jim in Cleveland this week (who appropriately referred to me as “Dude!”).

I'm a UC grad, circa 1973. Never in my life did I dream the Bearcats would be so good! Woody Hayes would not have stood for it in those days. Still a big Buckeyes fan but I have to ask this question. When was the last time any Ohio team was ranked higher than OSU? As is common knowledge, no other Ohio team has beaten the Scarlet and Gray since mighty Oberlin laid them low in the first year of the Harding administration. And given that schedules are pretty well set, that's not likely either.

I didn’t know Ohio State hadn’t been beaten by another Ohio team in that long, but with UC ranked No. 14 this week and the Buckeyes No. 13, I went to my sources for the answer. Thanks to UC SID Ryan Koslen, we now know the answer is Nov. 12, 1951 (a few months before my father was born and 13 months before my mom) when the Bearcats were No. 20 and Ohio State was unranked.

But what about now? Would UC beat up on the Buckeyes today? I think the Bearcats certainly could, and I think it says something that Ohio State would rather pay the Bearcats $1 million to move the 2012 game to Columbus rather than face UC at Paul Brown Stadium. But, for the most part, BK is trying to stay above the fray. He doesn’t, however, mind that his players feel that way.

“As long as you’re in the state of Ohio and you’re not looked at as an equal or partner, you’re going to be playing with a chip on your shoulder,” BK said. “I’m not saying we should be looked at it like that. But our players feel that every day. They’re going to carry that. I’m certainly not going to change the way they think. As a coach, I kind of like that role that we have.”

Former UC assistant coach Mike Tomlin (1999-2000), now, of course, the head coach of the defending Super Bowl champs Pittsburgh Steelers, said he’s not surprised by UC’s emergence.

“Not really. I thought that program had the potential to be a dominant program even when we were there. We had signs of it. We went to a bowl game my last year there. We had wins over Syracuse and Wisconsin. Top quality players I worked with, guys like Andre Frazier, a lot of the guys I coached had stints in the league. I think that when you look at it, there were signs pointed to what’s going on with that program now. There’s a lot of sacrifice and work by a lot of people. Had a great time there and happy and supportive of what they’re doing now.”

“My time at UC was very good. Of course it was challenging, I grew professionally and schematically, being in a position to communicate with people. All of those things were part of the environment that coach (Rick) Minter provided for us and a lot of his guys are doing well right now.”

 

In case you forgot, I’ve got another book signing this Saturday, and we’re going to make it real convenient for you. I’ll be at the UC book store on campus before the game Saturday. I’ll be there at 10 a.m., so if you’re on campus and you’re tailgating and you get a hankering to pick up the book then, I’m going to make it as easy for you as I can. Also, Artrell Hawkins is supposed to stop by at some point, so at least you won’t have to make small-talk with just me.