CINCINNATI – There’s a certain prestige that comes with the name of a conference. The Big Ten has that prestige. It has earned it over the years. Long gone are the days of it being the Big Two of Ohio State and Michigan always looking down at everyone else in the league, as now it’s much more balanced and all of the programs have helped build the conference’s reputation.
UC has a chance to go 2-0 in the Big Ten this week.
Ok, so UC isn’t in the Big Ten. It’s in the American Athletic Conference, the re-branded Big East, the league that the other BCS conferences always turned their noses up at when it came to football. As a league, there’s a valid point to the nose turning. UC doesn’t deserve it, though. Not after winning at least a share of four of the last five Big East titles, winning at least 10 games five of the last six seasons and winning nine of its last 10 games against teams from the five power conferences – Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac 12, Big 12 – that will have automatic berths into the new College Football Playoff system that begins in 2014.
After dominating Purdue 42-7 last Saturday in its opener, UC travels to Champaign to play Illinois this Saturday. Purdue and Illinois aren’t at the top of the heap of the Big Ten but their programs have been there before. They are programs under new head coaches who were successful in the Mid-American Conference; former Kent State coach Darrell Hazell at Purdue and former Toledo coach Tim Beckman at Illinois.
The names of their programs and their conference hold weight.
“I think it’s a challenge because a lot of times fans and coaches and players, you look at names and they have good programs,” said UC coach Tommy Tuberville. “They obviously have ups and downs like everybody does, but still it’s not one of those where you go out and you know you’re going to win the game. You have to prepare. They’re as good as we are in a lot of positions. They’ve got depth. It’s not team that you’re going to go out and beat just because you have more players than they have.”
The Big Ten schools went 10-2 in their season openers. Besides UC beating Purdue, Iowa was the only other Big Ten member team to lose when it lost to Northern Illinois, 30-27. Illinois ended last season 2-10, including losing its final nine games of the season and going winless in the Big Ten. The Illini beat FCS Southern Illinois 42-34 last Saturday to end the losing streak.
UC was one of just four teams from the 10-team AAC to win its opener. In the revamped league, UC and Louisville are the standard bearers. Given this will be Louisville’s one and only season in the American, what UC does in and out of the conference play matters to more than just them.
“Around the country we are looked down as the AAC, this conference that people don’t take us real serious but we’re going out there and we’re playing another Big Ten opponent,” said senior quarterback Munchie Legaux. “Our job is to go out there and win. We’re not taking those guys lightly no matter what their record was last year or what they did last week. We’re going to go out there and play our game.”
In its history, UC has just 10 wins against teams that currently make up the Big Ten conference. The Bearcats win against Purdue was the program’s first game against a Big Ten opponent since beating Illinois at Nippert Stadium in 2009. UC does have games lined up against Ohio State (2014), Purdue (2016) and Michigan (2017) in the coming seasons.
Prior to kickoff last Saturday, there were plenty of unknowns for UC. A 35-point win will lessen that number but going on the road against an opponent that is trying to prove it is better than a year ago is never easy. Illinois also has that tag of being from the Big Ten. Losing to out-of-conference opponents is not something the Big Ten likes. That’s not how you grow a reputation.
“I think this is exactly what we need,” said Tuberville. “We need to totally keep our focus on us and knowing that the team over there, they’ve got good players, they’re going to give us all we want, even more maybe if we go out and make mistakes.
“This is a big challenge for whoever we’re playing on the road but for a Big Ten team it’s going to be a big challenge for all of our players, especially the young guys that don’t realize how hard it’s going to be.”
