Losing to UConn Would Be Epitome of ‘Tuberville’d’ Moment for Cincinnati

Following last week’s dramatic win over East Carolina, Tommy Tuberville and the Cincinnati Bearcats are now riding a four-game winning streak and their shaky 2-3 start has been left in their rearview mirror.

The win came despite a failed gamble by Tuberville late in the fourth quarter with his team winning 45-40. Tuberville decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 and the ball on the Cincinnati 33-yard line, but a failed pitch by Gunner Kiel resulted in a turnover and allowed the Pirates to score a touchdown and take a lead. Tuberville later admitted that it was a “stupid call,” but the Bearcats were able to retake the lead for good on a 47-yard field goal by Andrew Gantz with 15 seconds remaining.

http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=324&externalId=espn%3A11872699&video_pcode=1kNG061cgaoolOncv54OAO1ceO-I&pcode=1kNG061cgaoolOncv54OAO1ceO-I&embedCode=BvZjlwcToJPXziXa699-L3OViEhQZzza&deepLinkEmbedCode=BvZjlwcToJPXziXa699-L3OViEhQZzza&width=576The decision to go for it certainly fell in line with Tuberville’s “riverboat gambler” reputation, and the victory seems to further confirm to notion that his teams have a penchant for performing well in big games. However, Tuberville-coached teams also have a reputation for losing games against seemingly inferior opponents, which is why some Cincinnati fans might be a little uneasy heading into this Saturday’s game against UConn.

@TTuberville that was the worst coaching decision I’ve ever seen in my life. — Levi Vennard (@LeviV) November 14, 2014

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Perhaps a perfect encapsulation of how Tuberville and his teams are perceived came in 2006, when he was still coaching the Auburn Tigers. Entering the season as a potential national championship candidate, the Tigers picked up a pair of significant wins against both No. 6-ranked LSU and No. 2-ranked Florida. However, both of Auburn’s losses came at home to Arkansas and Georgia, neither of which were ranked at the time. In addition, Tuberville’s Tigers were ranked in the top 5 on both occasions.

Between 2004 and 2007, Auburn posted a 12-4 record against ranked opponents. However, between 2001 and 2009, the nine of the Tigers’ 19 losses as a ranked team game against opponents that weren’t ranked.

Now, Tuberville will be leading his Cincinnati team into East Hartford to take on a 2-7 UConn team. The Bearcats enter the game as 9.5-point favorites, but the Huskies showed that you can’t sleep on them when they upset UCF earlier in the month.

With the Bearcats coming off a dramatic victory over a tough opponent and with UConn having a bye week to prepare for them, this seems like it might have trap game written all over it.

The Huskies, as indicated by their record, aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination, though their pass defense is somewhat respectable, ranking 59th in the country. However, it should be noted that ECU’s Shane Carden threw for a season-high 445 yards against UConn, so a potent aerial attack can definitely have success against them.

The Connecticut offense has been a root of much of the team’s problem, ranking 124th out of 128 teams when it comes to total offense (289 yards per game). Cincinnati’s defense is unquestionably its Achilles’ heel, but the Huskies have only scored more than 21 points once this year and will need to put up more than that if they are going to upset the Bearcats.

In all likelihood, Cincinnati will defeat UConn and push its winning streak to five games. However, if the Bearcats do go down at Rentschler Field on Saturday night, it would only further solidify the reputation that Tuberville has attained throughout the course of his career.