Sunday, October 31, 1999
Kenner UC's bellwether into future
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
OXFORD — After UC beat Miami Saturday, Bearcats center Doug Rosfeld sat in the center of the locker room and rang the Victory Bell until his teammates threatened to kill him.
They were kidding. Maybe.
The best way to keep Rosfeld alive was to invite him to the interview room, so that's what the UC people did.
“Can I bring my bell?” Rosfeld asked.
Winning the bell does that to players at Cincinnati and Miami. Especially if they played high school ball in the Tristate. Think of UC-Miami as Elder-Moeller, all grown up.
Rosfeld went to Moeller. He could appreciate that image.
How big is this win, Doug?
“Huge. Mammoth. Massive,” he said.
Also: Strange. Bizarre. Different.
Picture the Miami campus full of undergrads not wearing clothes from Abercrombie. Imagine Corryville without, um, drinking establishments. That's how this game went for awhile.
The Kenner and Cooper Show
Deontey Kenner lived an entire career in one afternoon. In one nine-minute stretch in the first quarter, the UC quarterback threw two interceptions and fumbled a snap. In another stretch, also nine minutes, Kenner threw three touchdowns and ran for another.
Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Kenner.
“I was in a relaxed state,” Kenner explained.
Well, eventually.
By the time Kenner and running back Robert Cooper were done, UC was scoring like Warren Beatty. The Bearcats had 49 points with four minutes left in the third quarter. You wondered if Miami should go to a 2-3 zone, or maybe locate Wally Szczerbiak to get the RedHawks back into the game with a few long threes.
“I'm really shocked. I never expected them to move it on us like that,” Miami coach Terry Hoeppner said.
UC turned over the ball four times in the first quarter — “fiddlin' around, droppin' it, puttin' it on the ground,” as UC coach Rick Minter explained it — but all Miami got out of that was three field goals. Then, Kenner and Cooper went to work.
Cooper is the heart of this offense. He found the middle of Miami's defense available all day, scoring on 12- and 29-yard runs in the first half, then ripping off a clock-eating 20-yarder on 3rd-and-10 in the fourth quarter.
Cooper put up 209 yards of in-your-face to all those who have publicized Miami's Travis Prentice while ignoring Cooper.
Changes for the better
But it is Kenner who makes things interesting. It's Kenner who has made Minter change his ancient notions about offense.
Before Kenner, Minter was 3 yards and a turfburn. What UC's offense lacked in imagination, it made up for in dullness. But Minter did not sign Kenner to play Woody-ball. The kid was too good for that.
“When we made (staff) changes, they were made with Deontey in mind,” Minter said. Part of it was the Bearcats' youth on the offensive line. Another part was a need to join the '90s before the century ended.
“We couldn't line up and pound people. I'm smart enough to change,” Minter said.
Kenner drove UC 61 yards in 1:05, for the half-ending TD that put the Bearcats up 28-23. Kenner completed five passes on that march, to four different receivers.
He opened the second half with a 32-yard TD pass to Cooper so soft, it must have felt like a marshmallow in Cooper's hands. Kenner followed that three minutes later with a 2-yard TD toss to Tony Smikle. Kenner then scored from the 4, on what looked more like an off-tackle than a quarterback sneak.
That would be four TDs in nine minutes. Turfburn-ball never did that.
“It'll go down as a year that could have been,” conceded Minter, whose team has made a habit of almosts this fall. Not Saturday, though. Saturday, UC rang a bell.
Rosfeld returned to the UC locker room under armed guard. Just kidding. Maybe.
“If you hear the bell ringing,” he said, “that's probably me.”
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454. Fair Game, a collection of his columns, is available at local bookstores.
UC 52, MIAMI 42
Cooper's huge day gets Miami's attention
RedHawks left searching for answers
