TicketsBearcats Begin Mark Dantonio Era
UC kicks off 2004 football season at Ohio State.
Contact: Tom Hathaway
8/30/2004
UC President Dr. Nancy L. Zimpher addresses the Bearcats as Head Coach Mark Dantonio looks on. |
Cincinnati at No. 9 Ohio State
Date: Saturday, Sept. 4, 2004
Time: 12:00 noon EST
Site: Ohio Stadium (101,568, grass) Columbus, Ohio
TV: ESPN Plus (Mike Gleason, John Cooper); WKRC-TV 12 in Cincinnati.
Radio: WLW-AM 700 (Dan Hoard, Jim Kelly and Scott Springer). Also available on-line via UCBearcats.com
Records: Cincinnati 0-0; Ohio State 0-0
Series: Ohio State leads, 11-2-0.
Last Meeting: Sept. 21, 2002 in Cincinnati; Ohio State 23, Cincinnati 19
Tickets: UC?s allotment of tickets for the Ohio State game is sold out. Tickets for all UC home games are on sale at the Athletic Ticket Office (9 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily) and may be purchased on-line via www.UCBearcats.com, or by phone: 513-556-CATS.
The University of Cincinnati opens the 2004 football season on Saturday, Sept. 4, visiting No. 9 Ohio State for the season-launching contest for both teams. Kickoff is 12 noon EDT.
Saturday's season opener will mark the head coaching debut of Mark Dantonio, who had served as defensive coordinator at Ohio State the past three seasons. Dantonio is the 36th head coach in University of Cincinnati history.
Bearcat head coach Mark Dantonio and Ohio State mentor Jim Tressel have coached together for eight seasons, five when Tressel was head coach at Youngstown State and the last three years at OSU. In six of those campaigns, the teams which they coached advanced to postseason play. Youngstown State made three appearances in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs during Dantonio's time there while Ohio State has been to the Outback (2001) and Fiesta Bowls (2002, 2003 seasons), winning the national championship in 2002.
Mark Dantonio will try to become only the second Cincinnati head coach to defeat a ranked opponent in his first game on the job at UC. In 1983, Watson Brown opened his only season at Cincinnati with a 14-3 upset of No. 20 Penn State, the defending national champions. Cincinnati past mentors have a 17-14-4 record in their initial games as head coaches at UC.
The Cincinnati-Ohio State game could create, literally, a clash of two brothers. Junior Bobby Carpenter is the Buckeyes' starting outside linebacker while younger brother Jon is a freshman reserve running back at Cincinnati. Their father, Rob, played in the NFL for the New York Giants. On the coaching side, OSU running backs coach Dick Tressel and son Mike, UC?s linebackers coach, will be on opposite sidelines.
Saturday's game will launch Cincinnati's 117th football season. The Bearcats, who began play in 1885, boast the nation's fifth-oldest Division I-A grid program, with only Rutgers (1869), Michigan (1879), Navy (1880) and Minnesota (1883) having longer histories.
The Bearcats have a record of 69-37-10 in season openers. UC has won four of its last five season lid-lifters.
The game will be televised regionally by ESPN Plus and carried in Cincinnati by WKRC-TV 12.
UC vs. OSU
Saturday?s game will be the third meeting of Cincinnati and Ohio State since 1999. The teams, who played 11 times between 1893 and 1931, are slated to play in Columbus in 2006 and in Cincinnati in 2012, and return to Columbus in 2014. Ohio State owns an 11-2 advantage in the series.
About the Buckeyes
? Ohio State has 42 returning lettermen and 10 starters back. Only four starters return on defense.
? OSU was second in the nation in rushing defense and 10th in total defense in 2003.
? The Buckeyes bring a streak of 42 consecutive victories in season openers into Saturday?s game. Ohio State has never lost a season opener in its 113 seasons, a streak which has been interrupted by four ties, the last in 1961.
? Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel is half of the only father-son combination to ever win national championships in college football. His late father, Lee, directed Baldwin-Wallace to an NCAA Division III title while Jim garnered four Division I-AA championships while at Youngstown State in addition to his 2002 crown earned at OSU.
Last Meeting
The Bearcats nearly upset the Buckeyes? national championship campaign when the two teams tangled at sold out Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati on Sept. 21, 2002. Ohio State came from behind by scoring nine points in the fourth quarter, then stifled Cincinnati?s game-winning drive which featured four passes into the endzone, for a 23-19 win.
Last Time in Columbus
In the first meeting of the two teams since 1931, Cincinnati jumped out to a 17-3 lead, but Ohio State rallied to tie the game by halftime and win by a 34-20 margin on Sept. 25, 1999.
Family Affair
There is quite a bit of familiarity between the Cincinnati and Ohio State coaching staffs, beyond the Mark Dantonio-Jim Tressel tie. OSU quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels was an aide at Cincinnati from 1997 to 2000, serving as receivers coach, offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Bearcat linebackers coach Mike Tressel is the nephew of the Buckeyes' head coach and the son of running backs coach Dick Tressel.
An Excellent Beginning
When Mark Dantonio makes his University of Cincinnati head coaching debut on Saturday against No. 9 Ohio State, he will attempt to duplicate the feat accomplished by Watson Brown in his first game at UC. Brown, now head coach at Conference USA foe UAB, was the last UC head coach to begin his tenure playing a ranked opponent. He directed the Bearcats to an upset of No. 20 Penn State on Sept. 10, 1983. The Nittany Lions were the defending national champions.
Veteran Bearcats
The University of Cincinnati heads into the 2004 season boasting 27 seniors. On the Bearcats' depth chart for Saturday's season opener vs. Ohio State, UC has 10 seniors on the offensive two-deep and 13 on defense. By comparison, in 2003 Cincinnati entered the season with 18 seniors, with six on the offensive depth chart and seven on the defensive list for the season opener.
On This Date
Cincinnati has a 3-1 record in games played on Sept. 4. The Bearcats have victories over Army (23-17) in 2000, Kent State (41-3) in 1999 and Austin Peay (42-10) in 1993 and lost to Florida State (38-31) in 1982.
Captains
Following the conclusion of preseason practice last week, the Bearcats elected four captains for the 2004 season. They are Andre Frazier, a senior defensive end from Cincinnati, Daven Holly, a senior defensive back from Clariton, Pa., Kyle Takavitz, a senior offensive guard from Powell, Ohio, and senior quarterback Gino Guidugli, from Ft. Thomas, Ky. Frazier and Takavitz served as team captains in 2003.
Tough Schedule
The University of Cincinnati has the third-toughest non-conference schedule of all NCAA Division I-A teams, in terms of the 2003 won-loss percentage of its non-league foes. The Bearcats three non-conference opponents, Ohio State (11-2 in 2003), Miami Ohio (13-1) and Syracuse (6-6) combined for a 30-9 ledger and a .760 winning percentage last season. Oregon State's non-league slate is the winningest at .829 (34-7) with Iowa State second at .789 (30-8).
The Graduates
Eight members of the 2004 University of Cincinnati football team have already completed their undergraduate degrees. The eight grads are linebackers Jamar Enzor (bachelor's in criminal justice), Tyjuan Hagler (criminal justice) and Jason Russell (criminal justice), defensive end Andre Frazier (finance), offensive linemen Jeremy Schlicher (architecture), Adam Shorter (history) and Kyle Takavitz (operations management) and cornerback Tedric Harwell (criminal justice). All are working on second degrees this fall. In addition, offensive lineman Clint Stickdorn has just one class to complete this fall for his degree in marketing.
Frazier in the Record Book
Andre Frazier is beginning a march through the Cincinnati record book. The senior defensive end enters his final season No. 4 in career sacks with 17.5, and is No. 7 in tackles for loss with 33.5. The UC career records are 27.0 for sacks and 56.0 for tackles for loss, both set by Antwan Peek, currently a member of the Houston Texans, to whom Frazier served as an understudy his first two years as a Bearcat.
Milestone March
Several other Bearcats have a chance to leave their marks on the defensive records lists:
? Daven Holly, with seven career interceptions, needs one more pick to move into a tie for ninth place. Last season, Holly tied the UC single season record for interceptions with six.
? Doug Monaghan is 13 solo tackles away from reaching the top 10 and needs 46 total tackles to make that career list.
? Trent Cole (10 sacks, 26 tackles for loss) needs two sacks to reach 11th place and six tackles for loss to reach eighth place.
? Tyjuan Hagler, with 26.5 tackles for loss, can reach eighth place with 5.5 TFLs.
Dantonio Defensive Gems
Cincinnati was ranked among the nation?s stingiest defenses in 2003 and there is ample reason to believe that success will carry over in 2004. The Bearcats return a veteran unit which includes seven returning starters. Also, new head coach Mark Dantonio has built a reputation for his accomplishments as an assistant on the defensive side of the ball.
? Ohio State had the nation?s second-ranked rushing defense in 2003, under Dantonio?s tutelage as defensive coordinator. OSU was also ranked 10th in total defense and 16th in scoring defense.
? In 2002, Ohio State was No. 2 in scoring defense and No. 3 in rushing defense en route to the national championship.
? In 2001, Ohio State led the Big Ten in passing defense and was No. 2 in scoring defense.
? While Dantonio served as secondary coach at Michigan State, the Spartans were No. 10 in passing efficiency defense in 1998 and No. 7 in 2000. In 1999, MSU was No. 12 nationally in total defense.
Awards Lists
The University of Cincinnati is well-represented on the watch lists for several of the national player of the year awards. Offensive guard Kyle Takavitz and defensive end Trent Cole are both on the list of preseason candidates for the Lombardi Award. Jamar Enzor is under consideration for the Butkus Award, which honors college football's top linebacker. Gino Guidugli is on the watch lists for the Davey O'Brien and Johnny Unitas awards.
All-Conference USA Bearcats
University of Cincinnati seniors Andre Frazier, Trent Cole, Daven Holly and Kyle Takavitz were named to the All-Conference USA preseason football team, selected by the league's coaches. All were first team selections. Cole and Takavitz were first team All-C-USA in 2003 with Frazier and Holly earning second team plaudits. The Bearcats were picked by the coaches to finish eighth in the C-USA race. Louisville was the coaches' pick to win the title ahead of Memphis, Southern Miss and TCU.
Block That Kick
One area of special teams play which the Bearcats excelled during 2003 was blocking kicks. Cincinnati blocked five opponent field goals and had returned two of those blocks for touchdowns. Andre Frazier rejected two field goals. Other kicks were recorded by Doug Monaghan, Daven Holly and Zach Norton, the latter a departed senior.
Bearcat Defense Ranked
The University of Cincinnati?s defense was ranked among the national leaders in 2003.
? UC was No. 27 in total defense, surrendering an average of 330.0 yards per game.
? The Bearcats were No. 22 in passing defense, allowing 188.6 yards per game, and 22nd in passing efficiency defense.
? Cincinnati held six opponents to fewer than 300 yards in total offense in 2003: Army (138), Southern Miss (200), East Carolina (205), West Virginia (243), USF (268) and TCU (298). UC went 3-3 in those contests.
500 Mark
The University of Cincinnati is approaching the 500th victory mark in its football history. The Bearcats enter the 2004 season with 495 wins. UC's all-time record is 495-518-51 (.489).
Up Next
UC opens the home portion of its schedule next Saturday, Sept. 11, hosting the Miami RedHawks in the annual Battle for the Victory Bell. The UC-Miami rivalry is the fifth-oldest, in terms of games played, in Division I-A. Kickoff is 7 p.m. EDT at Nippert Stadium. The game will be Band Day.