Throwback Thursday: Cincinnati vs South Florida October 15, 2009

With Zach Collaros’ name popping up recently with him winning his first pro start, this edition of Throwback Thursday takes a look at not his first start, but his first major stamp on Cincinnati football, the October 15, 2009 game against the South Florida Bulls. Cincinnati was ranked #8 going into Tampa. USF was also 5-0, sporting a rank of 21. This was the middle of October, before their collapse. The game was a Thursday night ESPN affair.

The Bearcats received the kickoff. Mardy Gilyard returned it to the 35. The Cats hit an 8 yard pass from Tony Pike to Armon Binns on second down, but that was the extent of the opening drive. A punt put USF at the 11. The Bulls picked up 9 on a first down pass from BJ Daniels to Carlton Mitchell, but a penalty knocked them off course, forcing a punt. The punt was a pretty awful 31 yarder. UC took over at the Bulls 46.

UC took the great starting field position back to UC territory with a false start. But after a 4 yard run by Isaiah Pead, Pike connected with Mardy Gilyard for a 22 yard reception to the USF 25. A pass to Pead got the Bearcats to the 17, but a 3rd-2 run lost a yard. Jake Rogers was true on a 37 yard field goal to give us the first points of the game. Cincinnati 3 South Florida 0

Cincinnati was whistled for an offsides on the kickoff, which really hurt because Dontavia Bogan took the next attempt all the way to the Bull 42. South Florida pounded the run game with rushes of 2, 7, 14 and 3 to get to the UC 32. A clipping penalty moved them back to the 47, but that was followed with a 19 yard pass to set up a 3rd-3. Not wanting to have to deal with another set of downs, Daniels connected with Jessie Hester for a 28 yard TD. The point after was good. South Florida 7 Cincinnati 3

The Bearcats next drive went forward 1 yard in 3 plays, so they punted. After a sack by Dominique Battle to start the drive, the Bearcats defense once again saw the Bulls offense march down the field. Daniels hit Patrick Richardson for completions of 11 and 10. The latter completion had a personal foul attached to it, moving the Bulls to the UC 32. A pair of runs netted 7 yards. Daniels gained nothing on 3rd down. On 4th, USF went for it instead of going for a field goal attempt. A third pass to Richardson fell incomplete.

Cincinnati would gain a first down on a 12 yard pass to Binns, but the rest of the drive saw 3 incomplete passes. Rogers punted USF back to the 20. The Bulls once again came out firing. A 15 yard run was followed by Daniels rushing for 26. On the first play of the second quarter, Daniels took to the air. This was a mistake because Aaron Webster picked off the pass at the 14 and ran a very long way to the USF 3. It was one of 4 INTs by Webster, but the 83 yard return made up the vast majority of his INT yards. Pike took 1 play to throw a 3 yard TD to Binns to put UC back on top. Cincinnati 10 South Florida 7

Jake Rogers booted a touchback. Once again the Bulls marched down the field. A 15 yard run led to completions of 18 and 14 to get down to the UC 34. USF stalled from there. They went for a 50 yard field goal, but it was no good. Neither team did anything their next drive. USF punted the Bearcats to the 16, which is where we pick things up.

Tony Pike took this drive into his own hands. After a short pass to Jacob Ramsey, Pike was sacked by George Selvie and nearly lost a fumble. On 3rd-17, Pike connected with DJ Woods for a gain of 25. The next 20 yards would be gained on USF penalties. Pike went back to Ramsey for 4 more yards, then to Gilyard for gains of 7 and 27. With the ball at the USF 8, Pike missed Ben Guidugli on first down, but did not miss Binns on second. It was the second TD for both Pike and Binns. The kick was good. Cincinnati 17 South Florida 7

The Bulls took over with 4:31 to go in the half. It took them 4 plays to get from the 19 to the 46, passes of 8 and 5, runs of 6 and 8. That’s as far as they would get. Ricardo Mathews helped stall the drive with a sack. A punt went to the UC 11. Pead busted out for 10 yards on first down. The following play saw Pike sacked for a 12 yard loss. Pead picked up 8 yards on subsequent runs, but UC had to punt from their 17. Rogers only managed a 34 yarder. A penalty pushed USF back to their 41 though. With just 43 seconds left, Daniels ran for 14, completed a pass for 11 and another pass for 6. A USF penalty pushed them from 3rd-4 to 3rd-9. Eric Schwartz came on for this field goal and drilled it from 50 to end the first half. Cincinnati 17 South Florida 10

The Bulls started the second half at the 20. Their first play lost 2 yards that they couldn’t gain back, so they punted a short punt to the UC 44. Pike completed a pass to Gilyard for 12 yards on first down. He was incomplete on first and second downs before running for 12 on 3rd. A USF personal foul helped UC to the USF 17, but Pike went incomplete, sack, incomplete. Jake missed a 41 yard field goal. Pike would leave the game.

USF tried another drive with a run. Like the first series, it lost yards. USF managed to gain some back this drive, but it was a 3 and out. the punt was a good one, 47 yards, and downed at the UC 26.

Zach Collaros entered the game. He had not played very much in his young career. In fact, this was just the 6th game he saw action. He had 7 rush attempts for 36 yards previously. Isaiah Pead got the first carry of this drive. He lost a yard. Collaros got nothing on second down. Brian Kelly took a timeout. In the timeout, he must have told Collaros to run into Cincinnati history because on the next play, he did.

Zach Collaros ran for 16 TDs his UC career, 4 of them were at USF. This 75 yarder was followed by a Rogers kick. Cincinnati 24 South Florida 10

Starting at the 26, USF picked up 32 yards on a Daniels pass to Bogan. A 3 yard loss was followed by a 5 yard loss on a sack. Daniels completed a pass for 10 yards but it was punt time. Gilyard made a fair catch at the 12. Collaros’ second drive didn’t go as well as the first. Pead ran for 4, a hold pushed UC back to the 8, but Collaros connected with Pead for 22. Runs of 2 and 1 were followed by an incompletion. Rogers hit a 40 yard punt that was fumbled, but ultimately recovered by USF.

The Bulls gained 4 yards on first down, their first positive rushing attempt on the first rush of a drive in the second half. They would stall out however. UC took over at the 34. Gilyard ran for 5, Ramsey for 6. Collaros took to the air on first down, throwing a pass to Nate Allen. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, it’s because Nate Allen played for South Florida. He picked off the errant pass, dashing to the 24. BJ Daniels wasted no time capitalizing. He went 23 yards on a first down run. He punched it on the next play. Cincinnati 24 South Florida 17

Gilyard returned the kick to the UC 30. Collaros ran for 11 and Pead ran for 15 to get the ball into USF territory. Collaros connected with Ben Guidugli, who broke a long gain for what he thought was a touchdown. Guidugli took off his helmet. That was a 15 yard penalty. He was wrong with that. He was also wrong in thinking he scored because he was down at the 1. That moved UC back to the 16. A completed pass went for 0 yards, an incompletion was followed by a UC timeout. The Bulls committed a huge pass interference to keep the drive alive for the Cats. Collaros made them pay, rushing for a 3 yard score. It would be the dagger. Cincinnati 31 South Florida 17

The Bulls went 3 and out, punting to the UC 32. Ramsey ran for 8, Collaros 6, a facemask gained 15. Collaros ran for 8, lost 3, but gained 17 on 3rd-5. At the USF 17, Pead lost 5, Collaros gained 4 and he hit Gilyard for 11. That set up a chip shot for Jake Rogers. He was true from 29. Cincinnati 34 South Florida 17

The only things of note that happened in the last 6:29 were a sack by John Hughes and an INT by Drew Frey. They helped seal the deal on 6-0.

Collaros was truly fantastic. He went 4-7, 72 yards, 1 INT in the air and 10-132-2 TDs on the ground. He gave stability to the offense when they were having trouble moving. Tony Pike was 12-25, 140 yards, in one of his worst games. Plus he was injured, which also made it pretty bad. Mardy Gilyard was UC’s leading receiver with 5-75. Binns had 4-31-2 TDs. The Bearcats held the ball for 31 minutes. They held it 35 minutes total against Fresno St and Miami.

As you might know, Cincinnati would finish the season undefeated, going on to the Sugar Bowl. USF went 2-4 to close the regular season before winning the International Bowl against Northern Illinois.

This is not the most memorable of games, but it is certainly the first one that pops in your head when telling the story of Zach Collaros.

Photo via. Thanks to ESPN for having the game log. Previous editions of Throwback Thursday can be found by clicking the link at the bottom of the article. Or here, here and here.