NCAA Football- Cincinnati beats South Florida 34-17

Quickly rising the ranks of the Big East Conference, the Cincinnati Bearcats defeated South Florida University Thursday night 34-17. The team, ranked at 8th, continues a long winning streak at the Raymond James Stadium. Despite the absence of its starting quarterback – Tony Pike left the field with an injury to his left wrist in the third – the Cincinnati offense remained solid. The Bearcats took two touchdown passes from Pike before he left the game. Pike was then replaced by backup quarterback Zack Collaros, who played brilliantly to add two more touchdown passes and secure the victory for the Bearcats. Pike, coach Brian Kelly explained, was playing with a plate and six screws in his left forearm, which he broke last season. Kelly said that the plate had shifted and that Pike would be examined by a specialist on Friday, but that the quarterback would not be able to play during the next home game against Louisville on October 24th. Pike threw three touchdown passes 8 yards to Armon Binns in the second quarter, helping the Bearcats to a 17-10 halftime lead over South Florida. He also threw a touchdown pass for the 16th consecutive game; he is 12 of 25 for 140 yards without an interception. The South Florida Bulls responded quickly to Pike’s absence. BJ Daniels threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Jessie Hester, and then closed the Bearcats’ lead to 24-17 late in the third quarter when safety Nate Allen intercepted a bad pass by Collaros to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Daniels. Collaros, a freshman quarterback, then took the lead on a six-play, 70-yard scoring drive that gave Cincinnati a 14-point lead. But another big play – a 43-yard completion pass for Ben Giudugli – ended in confusion. Officials reviewed the play and decided that his elbow was down at the 1. The ball moved back to the 16, and although South Florida made a pass interference penalty on the third down, Collaros scored a 3-yard run. The score moved to 31-17, and Collaros finished with 132 yards rushing on 10 carries. “He’s a gamer. He’s a competitive kid,” Coach Kelly said of Collaros. “He’s athletic, and we did what we had to do with him in the game, and that was obviously run him, control clock, play good defense and get out of here with a win.” Cincinnati has had a more than solid season. The team boasts one of the best offenses in the country and appears unstoppable. And it has been – unbeaten this season, the Bearcats are one of the toughest teams in the Big East Conference. South Florida, on the other hand, has been suffering from on-and-off seasons in the past years. In 2007, the team began with an incredible 6-0 record, a start that pushed them to No. 2 in the conference. But three losses later, the team dropped out of the Top 25. 2008 brought a similar performance: South Florida was 5-0 at the start of the season, but then the team lost four of its next five games, dropping out of the competition. But coach Jim Leavitt has promised that his players are facing a new season; they will regroup from the Cincinnati loss and begin preparing for next week’s game against Pittsburgh. Presume the players will be spending time watching videos to learn from their mistakes against the Bearcats.