The 2000s
Revival, Renovation, and Resilience
2000 - 2009
Following a rocky decade that saw Cincinnati save Nippert Stadium from near extinction, the Bearcats hit the 2000s with a 5-17 record in the previous two seasons but with plenty of momentum in the program, thanks to a renewed commitment to Nippert and solid footing from the move to Conference USA.
2000: A Facelift and a Rematch
On their new field, the Bearcats returned to their winning ways. After opening the 2000 season with a win over Army, the Bearcats welcomed 24th-ranked Syracuse to Nippert Stadium. Fewer than 18,000 fans saw a defensive masterclass. A David Tyree touchdown catch was the only damage in the first half for the Orange. All-American Jonathan Ruffin drove home a trio of field goals in the fourth quarter before Syracuse regained the lead with a field goal of their own in the final minute. But Deontey Kenner and the Bearcats responded, getting the offense into field goal range where long-distance kicker Jason Mammarelli hit a 47-yard walkoff. It was Cincinnati’s second top-25 upset in as many years, with a Wisconsin rematch on the horizon.
Impossibly, it was Mammarelli for a second week in a row––this time from 46 yards––who hit the field goal as time expired to send the game into overtime. UC settled for a 20-yarder from Ruffin but it couldn’t hold up. The Badgers found the end zone on the second play of their overtime period to escape another upset at the hands of the Bearcats.
In a hotly anticipated meeting a year after 1999’s stunning upset, the 4th-ranked Badgers welcomed the Bearcats to Camp Randall Stadium on September 16. It took Wisconsin fewer than three minutes to take the lead with a touchdown run, but the Bearcats quickly answered and took the lead into halftime following a Kenner pass to LaDaris Vann. A 51-yard Ray Jackson touchdown catch put the Bearcats ahead 19-13 with less than 10 minutes remaining, but the Badgers clawed back with a safety and a touchdown to take a three-point lead.
The road swing to Madison was the first of three straight for Cincinnati, who dropped each game to return home to Nippert Stadium 2-3. Despite middling crowds, the friendly confines of Nippert were a difference-maker and Rick Minter’s Bearcats finished the season 5-1, boasting an undefeated home slate, to return to postseason play for the first time since 1997. They lost 24-19 to Marshall in the Motor City Bowl.
2001: The Gino Guidugli Era
After the dual-threat era of the 1990s, the Bearcats were due for the next big-armed signal caller. They set their sights on Gino Guidugli, a standout at Highlands High School. Cincinnati had plenty of competition––Guidugli was being courted by nearly 25 schools from every major conference thanks to a senior season that saw him pass for 4,367 yards and 53 touchdowns.
On February 5, 2001, he decided to stay south of the river, committing to Kentucky. “It was definitely a tough decision,” he told reporters. “At one point, I could really actually flip a coin between UK and UC.” It seemed like the Bearcats had narrowly missed out on their next face of the program.
Everything changed a day later when UK head coach Hal Mumme resigned amid allegations of NCAA rules violations. Guidugli was “back at square one” and the Bearcats were back in the hunt.
Guidugli quickly set up another round of recruiting visits, reportedly embarking for Notre Dame, Mississippi State, and Illinois while continuing to weigh aggressive pursuits from Kentucky, Ole Miss, Purdue, and North Carolina.
On March 2nd, the Guidugli family announced the finalists: Kentucky, Notre Dame, Illinois, and Cincinnati.
The speculation ended on March 31st. Guidugli was staying home and playing for the Bearcats. “It was a pretty easy choice,” he said. “It’ll give me a chance to play right away.”
The summer of 2001 brought more facelifts to Clifton. The scoreboard installed in 1992 got an upgrade, adding video capability to Nippert for the first time.
The season’s first game––a home tilt against Purdue––delivered a huge crowd. The sellout of 35,097 was the largest attendance in stadium history and the first capacity crowd since the stadium expanded in 1992. The Bearcats fell, 19-14.
Guidugli dazzled a week later in his collegiate debut, completing 31 of 41 pass attempts for 311 yards and three touchdowns. After the following week’s game was pushed back a week in the wake of the September 11th attacks, the Bearcats finally got off to a good start in conference play, beating Tulane, UAB, and Houston.
Yet UC still couldn’t get over the hump, losing to eventual-champion Louisville on the road in October before dropping a home game to ECU. Despite the promise of a new QB, the 2001 season felt much like 2000. The Bearcats posted a matching 7-5 record, again finishing 5-2 in C-USA play. They made another trip to the Motor City Bowl and lost again, this time to 25th-ranked Toledo.
2002-03: Missed Opportunities
Things finally clicked in conference play in 2002. Cincinnati’s 6-2 record earned a share of the conference title––UC’s first since Brig Owens helped the Bearcats earn back-to-back Missouri Valley trophies in 1963 and 1964. Yet 2002 was bittersweet for all it could’ve been. The Bearcats suffered a three-point loss to West Virginia at Nippert before an excruciating defeat at the hands of 6th-ranked Ohio State at Paul Brown Stadium a week later. They lost by five points to rival Miami in October, by one point at Hawaii in December, and by five points to North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl. UC finished 7-7 with five losses by one score.
It may have been Minter’s best shot at fielding a team to remember, and the missed opportunities may have been too much to recover from. His 2003 team started 3-0––a blowout against ECU, a narrow victory at West Virginia, and a triple-overtime thriller over Temple––before the wheels blew off. The Bearcats finished 1-7 in their final eight games against I-A opponents.
Minter’s 10-year run as Cincinnati’s head coach—four seasons longer than any in program history—came to an end that December when he was fired by Director of Athletics Bob Goin. His 53 wins were the most in program history.
Flatlining wins weren’t the only reason for Cincinnati’s quick trigger on a coaching change. Less than a month earlier UC had announced a move to the Big East––a monumental moment in the history of the university. The basketball program would join arguably the best league in the country and football would compete in a conference with BCS access. A conference championship that once meant a trip to the New Orleans Bowl now meant national broadcasts, New Year’s Day games, and a crack at national titles.
And so, while Rick Minter’s four bowl trips in six seasons served as the high water mark for the previous fifty years of Cincinnati football, the pressure to win was suddenly much higher. With big-time football coming in 2005, Goin got to work.
Urban Meyer was seen as an obvious choice, but the Bearcats were probably a year late. He’d taken the Utah job before the 2003 season and a 10-2 debut had him rocketing up the coaching ranks and out of UC’s grasp. Recently fired Nebraska coach Frank Solich was also seen as a candidate, though his candidacy was reportedly short-lived.
The search proved to be deliberate, though things began to come into focus a couple of weeks later as a final pair of candidates emerged. Goin flew to Baton Rouge to meet with LSU offensive coordinator and former UC assistant Jimbo Fisher, though Fisher took his name out of the running shortly after. That left one option, and Goin closed the deal.
2004-05: Mark Dantonio Rebuilds
On December 23, 2003, Cincinnati introduced Ohio State defensive coordinator Mark Dantonio as its next head coach. UC was looking for a leader with BCS experience and Ohio ties and Dantonio was looking for an opening close to home with a high ceiling. It was an obvious pairing.
It didn’t take Dantonio long to make headway. In Cincinnati’s final C-USA season before departing for the Big East, the Bearcats relied on veteran weapons. Guidugli threw for a career-best 26 touchdowns against just eight interceptions. Senior running back Richard Hall turned in a 1,000-yard rushing season. Wide receiver Hannibal Thomas caught nine touchdown passes for 1,028 yards. The Bearcats lost a pair of road games to top-10 teams but finished 7-3 otherwise, making a trip to the Fort Worth Bowl and bringing home a win for the first time since 1997.
The 2005 season didn’t just bring a change in conference affiliation. The Campus Recreation Center, a massive construction project taking place just north of Nippert, had begun in earnest and, though it wouldn’t officially open until 2006, the changes impacting the stadium hit a year earlier. UC installed new locker rooms at field level, topped with permanent bleachers. The first video board––installed in 2000––was swapped out for a much larger one that hung over a new pedestrian bridge connecting the bleachers to the east concourse.
Success on the field was predictably slow-going following the step up in competition. Cincinnati scored non-conference wins over Eastern Michigan and Western Carolina before earning the program’s first-ever Big East wins over UConn and Syracuse in October. The 4-7 record was easy to overlook, but it laid the foundation for a watershed season in 2006.
2006: A Breakthrough
UC suffered early setbacks, dropping the conference opener to Pittsburgh before falling to top-ranked Ohio State in Columbus and #11 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Things started rolling with a Victory Bell win that sparked a 4-2 stretch, with both losses coming on the road to top-10 teams. UC sat at 5-5 and a Senior Night visit from 7th-ranked Rutgers offered a chance not only for bowl eligibility but a program-shifting win.
Replacing an injured Dustin Grutza, Nick Davila stepped in for his first career start at quarterback. He fumbled the snap on his first play from scrimmage but quickly settled down to lead a field goal drive on UC’s next possession. Cincinnati never looked back, jumping out to a 17-0 first-half lead before landing a third-quarter haymaker: An 83-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Brent Celek.
The Bearcats intercepted Mike Teel four times and held Rutgers’ star running back Ray Rice to a season-low 54 yards on 18 carries. Fans flooded Carson Field following the 30-11 win––the biggest in program history.
“If the University of Cincinnati football program ever achieves the national prominence that head coach March Dantonio has promised,” wrote Bill Koch in the Enquirer after the game, “Saturday will be the day the Bearcats look back on as the turning point.”
The observation would prove to be prophetic, but it wouldn’t be Dantonio carrying the flag. The Bearcats beat UConn on November 25 to cap a 7-5 regular season and Dantonio was introduced as the head coach at Michigan State just two days later. “I hope the people understand that I love UC and I love my players,” Dantonio said. “But the people of Cincinnati need to take ownership of their football team. There were very sparse crowds there at times. That equates to capital gains for the athletic department. That equates to excitement.”
UC Director of Athletics Mike Thomas gave himself a deadline: A new head coach in Cincinnati by Christmas.
By early December, Thomas had narrowed his list to “10 to 12” candidates. Several were seen as being at or near the top, according to Enquirer reporting: Interim head coach Pat Narduzzi, ECU head coach Skip Holtz, 49ers defensive coordinator and former UC receiver Billy Davis, and Georgia Tech associate head coach Jon Tenuta. It was also reported that Thomas had flown to Baton Rouge to speak with one or both of LSU’s coordinators, Bo Pelini and Jimbo Fisher.
On the evening of December 3rd, less than a week after Dantonio’s departure, Thomas made his move and crushed his self-imposed Christmas deadline.
2007: The Brian Kelly Era
Central Michigan head coach Brian Kelly was introduced at Cincinnati on the afternoon of December 3rd, closing a deal with Thomas and the Bearcats after a victory in the MAC Championship game, following a week of speculation that saw him tied to Michigan State and Iowa State.
The quick hiring, and the Bearcats’ selection to the International Bowl on January 6th, meant Kelly could hit the ground running and coach the Bearcats right away. UC flew to Toronto and defeated Western Michigan 27-24 and the Kelly era was underway in a hurry.
Kelly picked up where Dantonio left off, inking transfer QB Ben Mauk and putting Cincinnati’s war chest of offensive talent to immediate use. UC won its first five games by an average of 31 points before giving fans a more exciting game in a 28-23 win on the road over top-25 Rutgers.
By the end of the Bearcats’ torrential 6-0 start, they were back in the AP Poll for the first time since 1976, and the fan support was catching up. Nippert sold out three times in the span of less than two months.
A bowl victory pushed UC’s win total to 10, the most since 1951. Mauk fired a program-record 31 touchdown passes while wideout Marcus Barnett reeled in 13 touchdown catches, also a UC record. Cincinnati was rolling.
2008: BCS Breakthrough
After Mauk tried and failed to earn an additional year of eligibility in 2008, unheralded junior Tony Pike emerged out of nowhere to take the mantle. Cincinnati started 1-1 with a loss at Oklahoma behind Grutza, but an injury thrust Pike, a Reading High School product, into the starting role against Miami. He never looked back.
The Bearcats dropped a 40-16 game at UConn in October but otherwise rebounded from the loss to the Sooners with a 10-1 tear through the schedule, including top-25 wins over South Florida, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh. By the time Cincinnati had beaten Hawaii in December, they were ranked 12th in the AP Poll, tied for the best ranking in school history, and had won the Big East, an unfathomable achievement for a team competing in its fourth year in the league.
Less than a decade removed from a last-place finish in Conference USA, the Bearcats had rocketed to the top of the college football world, earning a trip to the Orange Bowl, the program’s first-ever BCS bowl appearance.
Perhaps more important than any of the victories, Nippert had reached a tipping point. Cincinnati sold out just one time in 2008, but the stadium was consistently crowded for the first time in decades. A season average of 31,964 set a stadium record, but UC had more room to grow.
2009: The Mountaintop
After 21 wins in two seasons under Brian Kelly, expectations for 2009 were through the roof in Cincinnati, though the outside world was slow to buy the Bearcats as a repeat threat. UC was picked third––behind Pittsburgh and West Virginia––in the preseason media poll, and opened the year unranked by AP voters. The Bearcats would have to prove the skeptics wrong.
Pike and the Bearcats opened with a resounding 47-15 win at Rutgers before returning home to make quick work of Southeast Missouri in the home opener. The first real test came in a Week 3 trip to Corvallis to face Oregon State, who entered the game on the fringes of the AP Poll and riding a 26-home win streak against non-conference opponents. But after falling behind early, UC was unfazed by the Beavers, responding to take a 21-8 lead and holding on for the win. The ‘Cats returned home to knock off Fresno State by a 28-20 final score, entering the AP top-10 for the first time in program history in time to dispatch Miami 34-17 in Oxford.
The 2009 Bearcats were 5-0, winners of 11 straight regular season games, entering a Thursday night showdown with 21st-ranked South Florida in Tampa. UC claimed the previous three meetings against USF but the Bulls were on a five-game win streak against ranked opponents and were allowing just 9.4 points per game, fifth in the country.
In front of 63,976 at Raymond James Stadium, the Bearcats fought to a 17-10 lead entering halftime, but disaster struck on the final drive of the half as Pike injured his left arm. He returned to the field to start the second half but lasted just one drive before being knocked from the game for good. The ensuing field goal sailed wide right and Cincinnati found itself clinging to a one-score lead in a hostile road environment, turning to a backup quarterback with an undefeated season on the line.
Zach Collaros––a sophomore who had seen plenty of action but never under any pressure––entered for Cincinnati and was tasked with protecting the lead for the 8th-ranked Bearcats. On UC’s next possession, facing a third-and-11 from their own 25, Collaros exploded up the middle for a 75-yard touchdown run to stretch the lead to 24-10. The Bulls answered with a touchdown at the end of the quarter but UC responded quickly to put USF away, averting disaster and improving their record to 6-0.
Collaros started his first game the following week against a hapless Louisville team, shooting out to a 21-0 start in a meeting that never felt in danger. The Bearcats cruised to a 41-10 Keg of Nails victory in front of a sellout crowd while Mardy Gilyard snared his 22nd career touchdown catch, tying a program record. Cincy traveled to Syracuse the following week, battling through a slow start to put away the Orange in a 28-7 final.
The Bearcats––now 8-0 and ranked fifth in the country––returned home for a second-straight sellout in a game against UConn, the only Big East team to beat the Bearcats in nearly two calendar years. A Jacob Rogers field goal on the final play of the first half made it a 30-10 UC lead, but UConn remained persistent, using a punt return touchdown and three Jordan Todman rushing scores to make it a two-point game with five minutes remaining. Isaiah Pead’s second rushing score of the night came with 1:52 remaining to put the game out of reach for the Huskies.
In the three weeks Collaros played without the safety net of Pike, he was effectively perfect. The Steubenville product completed 81 percent of his passes for 1,028 yards, throwing eight touchdowns without an interception, and rushing for 149 yards and two scores on the ground. What could’ve sent the best season in program history up in smoke instead upped the ante as the Bearcats remained unbeaten in mid-November, with a pair of Big East games looming against preseason favorites West Virginia and Pittsburgh.
Collaros remained the starter against the 23rd-ranked Mountaineers, a third-consecutive sellout at Nippert, but now Pike was available off the bench. He filled in to throw just four passes, but two went for touchdowns and a Rogers field goal with two minutes remaining made it a two-score game and sealed up a victory.
Pike’s triumphant return to the starting lineup came on Senior Day against Illinois, yet another sellout. The Illini struck first but Gilyard punched back with a 90-yard touchdown return on the ensuing kickoff and Pike took over from there, torching his Big Ten opponent for nearly 400 yards and a school-record six touchdown passes.
In the season’s final game, the Bearcats stared down 15th-ranked Pittsburgh––a de facto Big East championship game against the league’s preseason favorite.
In front of more than 63,000 fans at Heinz Field, everything went wrong for Cincinnati in the first half. A three-yard touchdown run by the Panthers with 1:26 remaining in the second quarter put UC in a 31-10 hole. The miracle season was on life support.
Enter Mardy Gilyard.
Cincinnati’s Heisman candidate fielded the ensuing kickoff at the one-yard line and took off through the falling snow, torching Pittsburgh for a 99-yard kick return for six. UC entered the half down 14 points, but they had a pulse.
Mid-way through the third quarter it was Gilyard again, this time on a 68-yard toss from Pike. The Bearcats and Panthers traded touchdowns early in the fourth quarter, but Rogers’ extra point sailed wide. Pittsburgh led 38-30.
With less than six minutes remaining, Pead got in on the action, scoring at the goal line. Pike found Gilyard on the two-point try to knot the game at 38.
With 1:36 left, Pittsburgh answered back with the go-ahead touchdown, but now it was the Panthers’ turn for a special teams miscue, as they mishandled the hold on the extra point try, leaving the margin at just six points.
The Bearcats had 90 seconds to save the season. They needed less than 60.
On first-and-10 from the Pittsburgh 29, Tony Pike dropped back before confidently lofting one down the right sideline and into the outstretched arms of Armon Binns in the end zone. Rogers cleared the uprights to make it 45-44 and it was over. Cincinnati was Big East champions, 12-0, and unbeaten for the first time in modern history.
It was unimaginable. Less than 30 years after being relegated to the dustbin of college football, less than 20 years after losing a head coach to Harvard and nearly losing their stadium, a decade after finishing in last place in C-USA, and just five years after joining the Big East, Cincinnati had summited the peak.
But, much like 55 years earlier, shifting tides remained the status quo at Cincinnati. As Sid Gillman leveraged an impossible run into a bigger job, so did Kelly.
Less than a week after upending Pittsburgh, Kelly was announced as the next head coach at Notre Dame while his Bearcats awaited a New Year’s Day Sugar Bowl matchup with Florida.
As quickly as Cincinnati had reached football nirvana, they served another inflection point.
