Cincinnati Bearcats Football

Notre Dame had their chance to succeed this season, but they failed to once again fulfill expectations. Now, one of their top recruits, cornerback Ronald Darby, has decommited from the program. Darby is still considering the Irish as a possible landing spot, but he will continue exploring other opportunities, including Florida State and Clemson. 

While every prospect has the freedom to choose wherever they'd like to play football, you can blame this on head coach Brian Kelly.

After three sub-par seasons under Charlie Weis and several mediocre seasons with coaches before him, Kelly was hired to bring this program back. He had great success with Cincinnati, so why in the world wouldn't he do well with Notre Dame?

Kelly has been with the program for two seasons, and although they have went 8-5 each year, they're still not fulfilling expectations.

He's 16-10 in two years and 1-1 in two lousy bowl games. That includes a sloppy season with a veteran team this year that had hopes of reaching a BCS bowl. Instead, they turned the ball over 29 times and lost three of five games in which they had the lead.

After an absolutely terrible season, it appears that the Irish are getting worse and not better under Kelly.

All season, the Irish have had to deal with rumors of this being Kelly's last season. Not only because of the poor performances on the field, but also because the head coach hasn't been able to control his anger at times.

After seeing this season, I'm sure Darby doesn't want to be a part of a team with a defense that plays to the best of their ability but an offense that struggles to put up points. Or one that constantly turns the ball over.

There's also the possibility Kelly is fired if the poor play continues, and then Darby would be stuck at Notre Dame with an uncertain future.

Notre Dame is simply not the same program they were several years ago, and the top recruits realize this.

Darby may end up returning to Notre Dame, but if he doesn't, you can blame the head coach.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers college football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or Randy.Chambers7@yahoo.com

The Big East offensive player of the year showed up yesterday in a big way for the Cincinnati Bearcats as they defeated Vanderbilt 31-24 to win the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

Isaiah Pead carried the ball 28 times for 149 yards and his touchdown with just under two minutes to go gave Cincinnati a 10-point lead and put the game out of reach.

The win helped the Bearcats finish 10-3, only the fifth 10-win season in the history of the program and the third for this group of seniors.

Cincinnati knew they would have to rely heavily on Pead coming into the game with their team leader and senior quarterback Zach Collaros coming back from a broken ankle.

It couldn't have worked out more perfectly for Pead and the Bearcats as he came back from an apparent hamstring injury toward the end of the third quarter to put the game away with the cutback touchdown. 

The cutback is something that Pead has mastered over his four years in Cincinnati.

His great vision and ability to make people miss in the open field is something Cincinnati has not seen from a running back in a long time.

Pead finished the season with 1,239 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground. The best single season of his career and a year that will likely help vault him into the NFL. 

With 319 yards receiving on 39 receptions and three touchdowns, Pead totaled 15 touchdowns on the year.

He finishes his career as one of the great running backs the University of Cincinnati has ever seen.

His 3,288 career yards rank him third all-time at Cincinnati and his 33 career touchdowns are something to take note of.

Pead also averaged 6.0 yards per carry for his entire four-year career. No Bearcats running back has ever put up numbers like that.

Succeeding at the next level is now something Pead can concentrate on.

Cincinnati will have to find a way next season to replace Pead.

He will certainly be missed, but he will be known forever as one of the guys who helped put Bearcat football on the map.

After the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Cincinnati coach Butch Jones used the word “elite” when talking about the Bearcats.

Cincinnati did finish the season 10-3 and shared the Big East championship with West Virginia and Louisville. In just his second season with the Bearcats, Jones’ squad had a big turnaround. Last year Cincinnati was 4-8.

So Jones has every right to be excited about what Cincinnati accomplished in 2011.

But let’s not go overboard.

The Bearcats, one of the Big East’s best teams, had to fight until the end to pull out a 31-24 victory over the SEC’s ninth-best team.

If you go back to the second week of the season when Cincinnati traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., the Bearcats were whipped 45-23 by Tennessee—which finished 11 out of 12 teams in the SEC.

And that was with a healthy Zach Collaros. The senior quarterback played the Liberty Bowl at not quite 100 percent. Collaros broke his ankle against West Virginia on Nov. 12, and had surgery. Clearly he rehabbed his tail off to be able to play against Vanderbilt.

On this point, I agree with Jones, who praised Collaros as being the story of the bowl season during his post-game interview on ABC.

If Collaros had not been out for the rest of the regular season, I doubt Cincinnati would have lost to Rutgers a week after the WVU game. You can make a good case that the Bearcats would have defeated the Mountaineers as well, and would be in the Orange Bowl instead of WVU.

Instead, Cincinnati gives the Big East its first 10-win team of the season. West Virginia can join them with a win over Clemson in the Jan. 4 Discover Orange Bowl.

Vanderbilt finishes the season 6-7, but the record doesn’t even come close to showing the improvement made under first-year coach James Franklin.

He has instilled a new swagger in the Commodores, and it was on display as Vanderbilt battled Cincinnati until the very end.

Franklin can’t be pleased with the way quarterback Jordan Rodgers played (4-of-14 passing for 26 yards and an interception). However, the offense came alive when Franklin inserted Larry Smith.

Vandy seemed to take control of the game when Smith hit Chris Boyd for a 68-yard touchdown and a 21-17 lead. But it was short-lived.

Cincinnati’s Ralph Abernathy took the ensuing kickoff and returned it 90 yards for a 24-21 lead and the Bearcats never looked back.

Yes, Cincinnati did win a competitive game. But the Bearcats are far from being an “elite” program.