Orange Bowl Preview
Miami, FL – When recruits visit Cincinnati’s football complex this weekend, they’ll see items the Bearcats haven’t been able to show before.
Specifically, Orange Bowl souvenirs.
Yes, Ohio, it’s not just the school in Columbus that can play its way into the Bowl Championship Series – and the Bearcats can’t wait to begin using that as a selling point to recruits. So sometime Friday, a box of Orange Bowl knickknacks will arrive in Cincinnati, visual evidence of the Bearcats’ breakout season that landed them in a BCS game for the first time.
Oddsmakers from Online Sportsbook Sportsbook.com have made the Cincinnati –1 point spread favorites for the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech. Current College Fooball Public Betting Information shows that 66% of more than 2,471 bets for this game have been placed on the Virginia Tech +1.
“All due respect to the PapaJohns.com Bowl, I think we’ve got a big upgrade,” Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said Thursday, when he visited Dolphin Stadium to preview the Big East champion Bearcats’ Jan. 1 matchup against Atlantic Coast Conference winner Virginia Tech (9-4).
The Bearcats’ rise was relatively quick and rather unexpected by most outside of the program’s most ardent supporters, especially considering most of their home state’s attention on football Saturdays is almost certainly directed at Ohio State.
But Cincinnati (11-2) has won 28 of its last 35 games dating back to a loss at Virginia Tech 2 1/2 seasons ago, and Hokies coach Frank Beamer has said he could tell even then that the Bearcats were on the rise.
He’s about to get an up-close view of how far Cincinnati – which joined the Big East and began getting BCS exposure three years ago – has really come.
“First and foremost, you’ve got to be in that conference,” Beamer said by phone; he missed Thursday’s event because of weather-related travel problems. “What the Big East did for Virginia Tech, it’s doing the same thing for Cincinnati right now. You’d like to go back and think Virginia Tech was good for the Big East and I know Cincinnati has been good for the Big East. But you’ve got to have that avenue. … You win your conference, and there you are.”
Beamer sees plenty of similarities between the programs.
He knows what the Bearcats are feeling now on the cusp of their first BCS appearance. The memories of the mid-1990s, when the Hokies were newcomers on the big-time national scene, are still fresh in his mind. Virginia Tech has been among the nation’s best since.
“Cincinnati’s got a lot more good years in front of them, too,” Beamer said.
That’s the message Kelly will give recruits this weekend, assuming those prep players can take their attention off the new Orange Bowl doodads for a few moments.
He knows the Big East was much-maligned this season, just as it’s often been in recent years. So Kelly won’t ignore the perception problem – he’ll fight it instead, pointing out that six of the league’s eight members qualified for the postseason, and perhaps most importantly, that the Big East has won each of its last three BCS games.
“It’s so important today, when people look at your conference, to represent your conference nationally in a positive way,” Kelly said.
The ACC, on the other hand, has lost in eight straight BCS appearances – something Beamer is taking very personally.
Kelly doesn’t have that burden to deal with. But he doesn’t want his team to think that just getting to the BCS and already setting a school record with 11 wins makes the job complete, either.
No, the way he sees it, Cincinnati is playing for a bowl of oranges and a heap of national respect. The Bearcats might have cemented themselves as a Big East force, but even despite their current run of wins, they’re not exactly a group that commands the sort of attention given to year-in, year-out BCS contenders.
Not yet, anyway.
“Our kids have heard this from me since Day 1,” Kelly said. “They’ve responded very well to the challenges, and the challenges are, you still don’t have the respect nationally until you come down in the Orange Bowl and show a national audience that you deserve to be here.”
Orange Bowl Trends:
All games in this series since 1992
CINCINNATI is 2-0 against the spread versus VIRGINIA TECH since 1992
CINCINNATI is 1-1 straight up against VIRGINIA TECH since 1992
0 of 0 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL since 1992
Games over the last 3 seasons
CINCINNATI is 1-0 against the spread versus VIRGINIA TECH over the last 3 seasons
VIRGINIA TECH is 1-0 straight up against CINCINNATI over the last 3 seasons
0 of 0 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons
Orange Bowl Key Trends:
VIRGINIA TECH
[RB] Ryan Williams will redshirt. – None – 09/17/08
[WR] Zach Luckett is out indefinitely – Suspension – 09/08/08
[WR] Ike Whitaker is out indefinitely. – Suspension – 10/02/08
[WR] Brandon Dillard expected to miss entire season – ACL – 07/17/08
[SS] Davon Morgan is expected to miss the rest of the season. – Knee – 09/
[FS] Ron Cooper is expected to miss the season. – ACL – 08/11/08
[RB] Kenny Lewis out for the season – Ankle – 10/04/08
[LB] Bruce Taylor likely to miss the rest of the season. – Shoulder – 10/0
[WR] Xavier Boyce is expected to miss the rest of the season. – Knee – 10/
CINCINNATI
No significant injuries.
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Posted: 12/12/08 11:10 AM ET