Posts from the Cincinnati Category at FanHouse

Another Rutgers loss, this time to Cinci in a 13-10 whimper. A game where Cinci had more penalty yards than Rutgers had rushing (115-62).

Rutgers still remains winless on the season versus 1-A teams. In their past 3 losses it has been by a combined 12 points. Close each time, but just not making the plays late. Whether on offense or defense, the Scarlet Knights could not handle the pressure.

Rutgers has major problems on offense. They lack leadership on the team and confidence. Without running back Ray Rice, the running game has not been a threat. Quarterback Mike Teel, continues to show that he cannot handle the pressure of being the focus of the offense. Whether it is poor throws, a lack of touch or accuracy, or holding onto the ball too long to take sacks. The receivers have hardly helped with numerous drops and just not wanting to get the ball.

Credit, though, should be given to a quietly impressive Cinci squad. Despite now being on their third quarterback in six games due to injuries, the Bearcats are 5-1 going into a bye week. They have continued to have a balanced offense and the defense has been a strength. How Coach Brian Kelly isn't mentioned more often on the coaching carousel for jobs sure to come open is a surprise.

The long arduous and everlasting quest of Ben Mauk to get one more year of eligibility at Cinci appears to be at an end (maybe). Having been given another round of hearings and then denied twice more by the NCAA, there was the court hearing on his motion for an injunction. That too was denied.

The judge ruled that attorneys produced "information concerning (Mauk's) injury and reasons why (the NCAA) did not follow their own rules, but nowhere does that evidence speak to what harm (Mauk) might suffer."

According to the judge's ruling, "there must be a reasonable possibility of such harm before a party is entitled to injunctive relief."

Mauk based his claim for irreparable harm on the contention that by denying him a chance to play this year, the NCAA was jeopardizing his opportunity to play professional football.

But Judge Hart disagreed, saying there was no evidence that Mauk "has more than a speculative future in professional football."

The judge's ruling is interesting, insofar as it seems the judge agrees that it appears that the NCAA screwed up and therefore screwed Mauk. The problem for Mauk is the hearing was for an injunction. Not a trial. What Mauk couldn't show was how not getting one more year of eligibility would really make a difference in a potential career in professional football.

Mauk's attorney hasn't decided if there will be an appeal of the denied injunction. Please, please, please, no more.

It was missed among the numerous inconsequential 1-A-1-AA FBS-FCS match-ups over the weekend. Cinci had its season opener on Thursday versus Eastern Kentucky. Amidst the pregame festivities, having the Bearcat mascot parachute into the stadium.

Watch out for those low hanging wires.



Yes, you can laugh. He was unhurt.

It seemed like it was close to being done. The NCAA had -- again -- rejected Cincinnati QB Ben Mauk's appeal for a sixth year. All that was left was a direct telephone appeal to Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee. The same committee that had rejected his appeal before, but without letting him address them. But wait, it turns out there was a mistake.

In the latest twist in the Mauk saga, Kevin Murphy, the attorney for Mauk who confirmed Monday night that the NCAA ruled against Mauk said this morning that no decision has been reached.

"The call that was made to me last night was a mistake," Murphy said today.

UC compliance director Maggie McKinley confirmed this morning that the NCAA has yet to reach a decision.

Your kidding, right? The NCAA couldn't even communicate with its own people about what it is doing?

"That person called me back and apologized profusely," Murphy said. "They said the call last night was a mistake, that they had not ruled. The staff had decided to sleep on it. The apology was sincere."

NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Murphy's account of the phone calls was accurate, and that the staff was still considering the matter.

Who the devil is on this group that makes this decision? Should they really be entrusted to deciding much more than what to order for lunch? It's no wonder Mauk had to file suit. They do nothing to suggest they have any clue what they are doing. Just give him the extra year and cut the losses at this point.

Obviously, some recent lawsuits have not gone the way the NCAA would have liked. Faced with the prospect of having to explain its decision making regarding the denial of Cincinnati QB Ben Mauk's application and appeals for a 6th year of eligibility, in an open court the NCAA has rethought its approach. How about a clean slate and a fresh set of NCAA eligibility hearings?

The NCAA agreed on Wednesday to re-hear Mauk's appeal for a sixth year to complete his four years of eligibility.

If the appeal reaches the Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, which ruled against Mauk on Aug. 8, Mauk has been assured that he will be given a chance to speak, something that he was not allowed to do the last time.

Mauk's attorney says there is new evidence to present to the NCAA. Presumably it is testimony and further information regarding the injury he suffered as a senior in high school that lingered into his freshman year at Wake Forest. Mauk was redshirted as a freshman, but it was not specified as a medical redshirt. While Wake Forest has backed Mauk's claims that his redshirt was primarily because he was still recovering from a setback from the injury and surgery, they lacked the requisite paperwork demanded by the NCAA.

If this somehow gets Mauk another year of eligibility, it isn't clear what will happen with the starting QB job at Cinci. Mauk has missed all of training camp while awaiting word. Senior Dustin Grutza has been named the starter. Mauk, though, took the job last year and really made the Bearcat offense hum with better mobility than Grutza.

Ahhh, the messy middle. The place where overachievers and underachievers meet the distinctly average.

Fans are rarely happy when they see their team ranked somewhere in the middle. It actually creates more angst. Is the team in decline? Is this just rebuilding? Why do "they" think some other team is better?

Eyeballing the schedule sheds little light, as an average team will have a larger number of games that could go either way. Not many sure wins and few sure losses. The more optimistic or pessimistic will see more of one or the other.

In a small conference like the Big East, the middle is a small place. With only seven conference games it is a small difference between an acceptable 4-3 record and a disappointing 3-4 year. These two teams seem most likely to be tenants in the mediocrity.

When Ben Mauk was denied an additional year of eligibility at Cincinnati, it was assumed that ended his quest for a 6th year. Mauk spent all of last weekend away from the Bearcats' training camp, and just out of sight. It was assumed that he was making calls to some NFL teams about a possible tryout or simply mulling his future.

Well, sort of. He was in consultation with lawyers and decided that if the NCAA was going to deny his final appeal without directly speaking to him, he would change the venue. He filed for and received a temporary restraining order in Ohio Common Pleas Court against the NCAA against prohibiting him from playing and practicing with Cincinnati. While that puts the NCAA in the position to respond at an August 22 hearing, Mauk won't be practicing at Cinci training camp at the moment.

[Cincinnati head coach Brian] Kelly said Thursday that if UC allows Mauk to practice and the NCAA eventually prevails in court, UC could be forced to forfeit games and return bowl money.

"Ben Mauk, myself and everybody else here will not go down that road," Kelly said. "That's ludicrous to even think that we would put him on the field and put our football team in harm's way."

As strange as this is, it isn't unprecedented.

Yummy! The sweet dairy goodness of tasty cupcakes. To an extent everyone schedules at least one gimme on their schedule. So we'll overlook that 1-AA warm up game at the beginning of the season and move on to more important things. Seeing as how this is the Big East we'll just say that everyone will play two quality opponents in West Virginia and South Florida, three potentially good teams in Pitt, Cincinnati, and Rutgers, and three teams that shouldn't make anyone's top 25.

1. Connecticut- Starting off with the fat dough boys that got way too much credit for their record last year and look to do the same this year. Did I say that I wasn't going to mention the 1-AA teams? I'm sorry, because the Flying Dutchmen of Hofstra has to be one of the best names in all of college football. Unfortunately, they're not one of the best teams in college football. And that's who UConn starts their season off with. Oh, but it doesn't get much harder from there. The next three weeks they play @ Temple, and then get Virginia and Baylor at home. Any team worth their salt should easily be 4-0 at this point. Aside from having an easy schedule last year, UConn also got every break including a rather nice no call on a fake fair catch that helped them beat their fifth opponent in 2008, Louisville. Circle that game if you want to savor the sweet smell of revenge. UConn closes out their non-conference schedule with what should be a much improved North Carolina team. I don't know that they will crack the top 25, but for the sake of argument we'll count this one as a quality opponent. So that's one up and four down for UConn. Remember this at the end of the year when you look at their record. It will be deceiving.

2. Cincinnati- But they play @ Oklahoma! Yeah, well that's about it. Let's not forget that Oklahoma has proven themselves susceptible to Big East speed. All kidding aside, Cincinnati starts out the season hosting Eastern Kentucky, then travels to Oklahoma. In their next three games they host Miami (OH) and play @ Akron and @ Marshall. Ha! Marshall? They shouldn't be scheduling two 1-AA teams in one year. Cincinnati then plays their conference schedule and ends the year @ Hawaii. That might have been a tough game last year, but this year it shouldn't take a lot of effort. To be honest, I had to think long and hard about Cincinnati being number one on this list, but the Oklahoma game saved them in the end.

Unless you are talking pay scale, it's generally better to be underrated rather than overrated. The expectations are more manageable. There's a lot more anger at teams and players considered overrated. The overrated are blamed for the expectations they are not meeting. The overrated teams and players bare the blame for the hype given to them.

The underrated have no problems. The expectations are actually below what they can do and so they constantly seem to be exceeding them. At least until everyone notices and then swings the whole thing the other way.

The Big East has plenty of players that are underrated. In no small part because the Big East has several teams to whom few people pay much attention -- quick, name the best player for UConn, Cinci and Syracuse.

Here are some of the players that you should know in the Big East.

As usual, a new season means new players and coaches.that you'll want to keep an eye on. For most of the Big East, the impact of these new faces could be the difference in going to a BCS bowl or playing in Birmingham, Alabama in the PapaJohns.com Bowl. Well, except for Syracuse which is looking at trying to win more than one game.

1.) Bill Stewart, Head Coach -- West Virginia Mountaineers: Everyone will be watching 'Coach Stew' this season. He brought the Mountaineers together following the extremely insane departure of Rich Rodriguez last December and got them ready to play and dominate the Fiesta Bowl over Oklahoma. The next day, Stewart had the interim tag removed. Most viewed it as an emotional and questionable move by the West Virginia powers. That puts him under a surprising national microscope in a less than scrutinized locale.

His every decision will be watched to see if he can maintain what has been built in Morgantown, and every mistake will be second-guessed and at least debated as evidence that he was the wrong man for the job.