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By Bill Koch
Go.BEARCATS.com
OXFORD, Ohio -- Things weren't going well for Hayden Moore in his first game against FBS competition. In fact, they couldn't have gone much worse.
Moore ran onto the field in relief of starting quarterback Gunner Kiel with 12:52 left in the third quarter when Kiel had to leave after hitting his head on the turf thanks to a roughing-the-passer call against Miami defensive end Bryson Albright.
A redshirt freshman from Clay, Alabama, Moore's only college experience was against Alabama A&M in UC's season opener. Now here he was with 4:14 left and UC trailing, 33-30, against rival Miami, having already turned the ball over four times - twice on fumbles and twice on interceptions - standing on the UC 34-yard line with the game on the line and 10 teammates looking for him to show them the way.
Moore never flinched, guiding the Bearcats on an 8-play, 66-yard touchdown drive and scoring the game-winning touchdown on a 1-yard run with 1:13 left to give UC a come-from-behind 37-33 victory over the RedHawks - their 10th straight in the annual Battle for the Victory Bell - before a homecoming crowd of 18,484 fans at Yager Stadium.
"He didn't get rattled at all and he kept his composure," said UC running back Tion Green. "We kept cheering him on and he kept cheering us on as if nothing ever happened. He just kept throwing the ball. He wasn't shy."
Moore completed three passes in three attempts for 50 yards on the final drive as the Bearcats handed UC coach Tommy Tuberville his 150th career coaching victory.
"It's taken me almost 20 years," Tuberville said. "That's a lot of fun, but again it's all about the players and coaches. It's a tribute to all the guys I coached with over the years and the players that played. That's hard to get to, to be honest with you. I'm not going to take that light. It's good to do that against a rival team and knowing that we had to make a drive on the last drive to win the game. It'll be something that I'll be thinking about for a long time."
Miami coach Chuck Martin will be thinking about this game for a long time, too, but he'll mostly be thinking about chances the RedHawks had to put the game away to end UC's winning streak, the longest for either team in a series that began in 1888.
UC, which has committed nine turnovers in its last two games, gave the ball to Miami on a Moore interception with 5:39 left. But the RedHawks were unable to take advantage and were forced to punt, which set up UC's winning drive.
Miami also had the ball at the UC 7-yard line after recovering a Moore fumble, but again was unable to cross the goal line, settling instead for Kaleb Patterson's 21-yard field goal with 7:12 to play, giving Miami a 33-30 lead.
"When we look at the tape, we're probably going to vomit when we see all the plays that we left on the field," Martin said. "I'd say we had some missed opportunities."
Kiel was one of two key injuries the Bearcats suffered. The other was a left leg injury to senior cornerback Adrian Witty with 8:59 left in the game. Witty, who missed most of last year with an injury, was granted a sixth year to complete his eligibility by the NCAA. He was driven off the field after his foot apparently had been awkwardly bent when a Miami player landed on his leg after Witty broke up a pass it appeared he was going to intercept.
"It's pretty bad," Tuberville said. "I don't know what happened because it happened on the other side of the field. He got his foot stuck. We'll pray for him. They put a cast on it. That doesn't mean real good things."
The immediate prognosis on Kiel wasn't encouraging either, especially with American Athletic Conference rival Memphis up next on Thursday night in Memphis.
"He got hit in the back and then his head hit the ground," Tuberville said. "He was just fuzzy the whole time. We couldn't put him back in. We'll evaluate him. I'm not going to count him out, but with a five-day turnaround it's going to be awfully hard. We know that. It'll all be up to the doctors. I get involved in that."
Miami, which managed only 157 yards last week in a 58-0 loss at Wisconsin, had its way with the UC defense, especially in the first half when the RedHawks gained 333 of their total of 448 yards. But the Bearcats tightened it up in the second half and made big plays when they needed them.
"When it comes down to the fourth quarter, the defense had to lock down and do our job," said linebacker Eric Wilson, who led UC with 18 tackles. "The game was on us."
The biggest stop was the three-and-out after Moore was intercepted with 5:39 left. After UC scored to take the lead, the UC defense held again when Wilson knocked down a Drew Kummer pass on fourth down with 48 seconds left to seal the win.
"The turning point in the game was when we turned it over and our defense held," Tuberville said. "If they score a touchdown there, I just don't know what's going to happen.
It was a great character builder. Take your hat off to them. They're tired of getting beat 10 years in a row. That's unheard of in college football, a 10-year winning streak for the Victory Bell."
UC gained 545 yards, 282 on the ground. Mike Boone led UC with 118 yards on four carries, including a 74-yard run. Moore ran for 29 yards on 11 carries. He completed seven of 14 passes for 118 yards with the two interceptions.
Barring a rapid recovery by Kiel, it appears as if Moore will get his first start against Memphis on Thursday.
"We can't dwell on an injury," said UC tackle Parker Ehinger. "We need to move on and prepare ourselves for the next quarterback to come in and Hayden stepped up and won us the game. He was pretty cool, calm and collected."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com as featured columnist in January, 2015.