The School

Delaware State is a public co-educational University located in Dover, Delaware. It has a student population of around 4,200 students all told. Delaware State is also one of the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the USA. Delaware State is also, almost certainly, the only Histroically Black University to be located across the street from a NASCAR track which is, interesting.

The Program

The Hornets have been playing Football since 1924 and have an all time record of 341-382-11. The Hornets haven't exactly been a bastion of consistency over the years. The last decade in particular has been pretty brutal. 49 wins and 63 losses. That stretch did see the Hornets first ever 10 win season in 2007. That was also the first time in 18 years that the Hornets claimed the MEAC crown and it was their first, and only, playoff birth. That was the last time that the Hornets were ranked, at the FCS level. However, since 2007 it has been a bad couple of seasons. Since 2008 the Hornets have gone just 16-30, and they have been outscored by 9 points per game on average. That brings us to this season.

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Release. Apparently this is the reward you get for destroying Tino Sunseri. Walt Stewart had a career game against Pitt on Thursday. Walt ripped off a very easy 9 tackle, 3.5 TFL and 2 sack game. Stewart has had better games in individual areas, 13 tackles against Syracuse in 2010, 2.5 sacks against both Oregon State and West Virginia last year.

But prior to last night he had never really put it together for a complete game. He did Thursday and it really was spectacular to watch. The best part. I don't see many offensive tackles on the up coming schedules who will be able to give him a run for his money. Justin Pugh from Syracuse, maybe R.J. Dill. It's a short list.

In other news Munchie Legaux was named to the weekly honor roll after his 200-100 day against the Panthers. Not bad at all for Munchie, not bad at all.

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The debut of Munchie Legaux as the quarterback for the 2012 Cincinnati Bearcats went well. That is, of course, an understatement. He threw up a very casual 200-100 Thursday night. Granted, it was against Pitt a team who is just tipping into a death spiral of a season. Still, the ease with which he ripped off a game like that a positive.

That being said, there is still work to be done in the passing game. Munchie finished the game completing 50 percent of his passes, but with the aforementioned 200 yards passing. The completion percentage, and his mechanics, could be better, but what I find to be more relevant going forward is his decision making, which was generally flawless. That is a big change from Zach Collaros, who was mechanically sound but made interesting/bad decisions, far more often.

Zach made a lot of plays, but in doing so he took a ton of risks that sometimes worked, and sometimes backfired. The sample size is small, still just five games, but Munchie does not seem as inclined to take the same risks that Collaros did. Watching the game yesterday afternoon it was clear that while Munchie made quite a few mistakes throwing the football, but he did not make bad decisions as to where he should throw the Football. To my eye the only mistakes he made came when he took the only sack of the game. Pitt manned up and blitzed 6 against UC's five wides. Munchie tried to side step the rush to buy time but got buried by Shane Gordon instead. The other was a decision to give the ball on a zone read to George Winn that resulted in a five yard loss.

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Boxscore here.

It started with the defense last night, how can it not here as well. I assumed that the defense would be improved once again this year, and it is, even though the numbers don't exactly show it. In terms of total yardage UC allowed 415 yards of total offense which sounds bad. That ties UC for 78th in total defense nationally. Not great, but it misses the point. The only stat that really matters is scoring defense. Its the whole point of defense, and UC excelled on that front last night, only three points allowed against the starting defense.

Last year the Bearcats went to an attacking defensive style after the debacle that was the Tennessee game. The bet was simple, we can get to your quarterback before your quarterback can get to us. It worked against anyone not named Geno Smith. With Tim Banks off to Illinois there were some questions about how the defense would change with someone else calling the plays. It didn't. If anything John Jancek walked the Bearcats even further down the scale of attacking basically all the time. UC was on it from the start racking up 10 TFL and 6 sacks. And watching the game you couldn't even tell that UC had just had two multi year starters at DT get drafted in the first 100 picks of the NFL draft.

Tino Sunseri did play well when he could stand up. He completed 24 of 37 passes for 278 yards, that's an average of 7.5 yards per attempt which is a little high for my tastes. Ideally that number would be under 7 or right around 7 at the worst. But that is how it will be with this defense all year. High risk high reward, and I am fine with that because this could wind up being a very good redzone team with Walter Stewart's ability to get presure off the edge.

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Can Munchie play well enough for this team to win the Big East? Who will replaces Isaiah Pead as head play maker? Can this team reload up front? How will this exceptionally young team react in their first game?* These are all questions that were bandied about as legitimate points of discussion for the Bearcats this season. None of them are emphatically answered by any means, but tonight went along way to answer some of them, and the answers are for the most part positive.

* The answers so far are yes, RDA4, yes on both sides of the ball, so far so good.

Make no mistake about it, Pitt is a bad Football team that is in for a long, brutal season. But the Bearcats handled their business exactly the way I wanted them too. The Bearcats attacked from the onset on defense and really controlled the point of attack. The Bearcats weren't perfect, there were consistency issues with the receivers, Munchie still has a ton of work to do on his footwork and perhaps most glaringly of all the defense really struggled to maintain gap control against the run. In short this is the perfect way to open a season. This game, this performance in front of that crowd will give the players a ton of confidence moving forward. But there were plenty of mistakes made that the coaches can hammer home on, and they will knowing this staff. Everyone wins. Except Pitt, Pitt really lost.

Plenty of ink already spilled. Here are your probable starters for both teams.

CINCINNATI Offense vs Pitt Defense

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By the time you read this it will be a little less than four hours away from gametime and the official point where we leave the doldrums behind for the windy sky's of the season. I am excited but I am apprehensive as well. I always am before the first game of the season. There are a ton of unknowns on this team. Not just at the quarterback position but across the board. UC had two phenomenal heart and soul leaders last year in Zach Collaros and J.K. Schaffer, this year they are being replaced and I have no idea how those voids get filled. I think Munchie Legaux has the talent to thrive if an offense is built to accentuate his strengths, his height in the pocket, big arm and general athletic ability. But I have no clue what that offense will look like. I could go on listing question marks for the next three hours, more than likely so could you, but that serves little purpose. Instead I have three areas of the game that will wind up determining the outcome of the game.

Control The Pace

Butch Jones said this the day he was hired.

Wide open spread offense, fast paced, great ball security. Our goal will be to lead the country in ball security and scoring points and doing whatever necessary to secure a win. We have been fortunate to be able to do that in the last three years in our offense.

Through two years he has gone two for three on his big ideas. The one miss has been pace, and its something that has really bothered me for the last couple of years. For one quickening the pace makes everything easier for the offense. If a defense barely has time to line up they can't disguise coverages at all. At this level having your coverage laid bare is bad bad news.

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Lets not stand on ceremony here.

Pitt will get a boost from the reinstatement of six players suspended
in the season opening loss to Youngstown State

Redshirt junior DL Tyrone Ezell, redshirt senior DL Shayne Hale, sophomore WR Ronald Jones and freshman RB Rushel Shell are in Cincinnati with the team and will be eligible to play against the Bearcats tomorrow. Redshirt sophomore DB Anthony Gonzalez and freshman WR Chris Davis have had their suspensions lifted, but were not on the travel roster for this week.

Bearcats Nation runs down
five keys to tonight's game, all of which will be important. Yet the most important factor of the game to me is omitted. Tonight is the third season in Clifton for Butch Jones and Mike Bajakian but we have yet to see them run the offense the way they want to. UC simply hasn't had the depth up front or at receiver to really put the hammer down and push the pace of the game. That is not the case this year. UC legitimately goes two deep at all three receiver spots, and that hasn't been the case before. If I am Bajakian or Jones I make it a stated goal to run more than 80 plays tonight. Pitts defense is neither good nor loaded with depth. The Bearcats have to capitalize on that.

Bill Koch with the Paddle Wheel Trophy origin story in short, thanks Bob Goin...the bare facts for tonights game...three keys for the Panthers, all of them defensive hmmm....get ready for roughly 25 mentions tonight that Greg Blair is DeJuan Blair's brother and Cam Saddler is his uncle...Speaking of DeJuan he will be wearing proper colors for the first time in his life tonight...Tino Sunseri played well against Youngstown State but the Bearcats are a big step up from the Penguins...Pitt Blather has a run down of relevant topics for Pitt fans...as does Cardiac Hill ....Its gameday people get live.

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