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By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
TAMPA - The University of Cincinnati Bearcats have suffered through more than their share of breakdowns this season, but still managed to stay in contention, even in the games they lost.
So as they lined up to face South Florida on Friday night at Raymond James Stadium, still clinging to a slim chance of winning the American Athletic Conference East Division, there was no inkling that they were about to suffer a meltdown of epic proportions.
UC let its last division title lifeline slip away in resounding fashion, falling to USF, 65-27, before 26,522 fans in a rout reminiscent of the Bearcats' infamous 81-0 loss to Penn State back in 1991 when Tim Murphy was the UC head coach.
"We had escaped a lot of bad things this year by either the offense playing well or the defense playing well," said UC coach Tommy Tuberville. "We didn't play well tonight on either side and it caught up with us."
The Bearcats, who were the overwhelming favorites to win the league championship, fell to 6-5 overall, 3-4 in the conference, and are now 1-4 on the road this season. USF, winner of six of its last seven games after a 1-3 start, is 7-4, 5-2.
UC committed five turnovers in the first half, two on fumbles by quarterback Hayden Moore, who also threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown. Gunner Kiel was intercepted twice before he was pulled in favor of Moore. The Bearcats trailed 27-0 at the end of the first quarter and 51-3 at halftime.
The Bulls gained 561 yards to 430 for UC, which committed six turnovers overall. Bulls running back Marlon Mack, the league's leading rusher, ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns in the first half and finished with 106 yards on 11 carries.
The loss was UC's most lopsided since a 45-17 defeat at Illinois on Sept. 7, 2013 in Tuberville's second game at UC. The 51 first-half points were the most allowed by a UC team in the first half since Nov. 10, 1990, when the Bearcats trailed, 49-7, at No. 12 Florida State on the way to a 70-21 loss. UC had not allowed 60 or more points since a 70-7 loss at Louisville on Nov. 27, 2004.
One of the few bright spots for the Bearcats was a 54-yard touchdown catch by senior wide receiver Chris Moore with 5:05 left in the third quarter. It was the 26th touchdown catch of Moore's career, breaking the record previously held by Mardy Gilyard.
The game took an unseemly turn for UC from the outset when USF quarterback Quinton Flowers threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to Rodney Adams on the first play from scrimmage after the UC defense bit on a play-action fake.
"It was a simple play that they've run all year long," Tuberville said. "We had a guy that got his eyes on the wrong person and just flat turned him loose."
The extra-point attempt was blocked by UC's Cortez Broughton, but the tone had been set for the onslaught that was about to unfold.
"We panicked and didn't do anything on either side of the ball," Tuberville said. "We've fell behind this year before and we've clawed back, but tonight there wasn't much clawing, coaches or players. They had the best team by far tonight. They got after it. We couldn't stop the run, couldn't stop the pass. We couldn't throw it and we turned the ball over."
It didn't take long for bad to turn to worse and then to ridiculous.
On UC's first possession following USF's quick-strike touchdown, Moore - who came in for one play because Kiel's helmet had come off on the previous play - fumbled as he was being sacked. USF recovered on the UC 10. Three plays later, Flowers passed to tight end Sean Price for a 6-yard touchdown, giving the Bulls a 13-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.
The Bearcats turned the ball over again on their next possession when Kiel was picked off by USF's Jamie Byrd, who returned it to the the Bulls' 34-yard line with 9:46 left in the first quarter. Mack then ran 48 yards to the UC 5-yard line and Flowers threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Reed to give USF a 20-0 lead with 7:52 left in the first quarter.
The Bulls scored their fourth touchdown after a UC punt, driving 66 yards in seven plays, with Mack scoring from 28 yards out to make it 27-0.
Another interception of a Kiel pass set up USF on its own 45-yard line. Moore then replaced Kiel but the results were no better. Moore was promptly picked off by Deatrick Nichols, who returned the ball 29 yards for another touchdown to increase the USF lead to 34-0.
Moore played the rest of the game, even though he accounted for three of the Bearcats' six turnovers. He completed 20 of 36 passes for 249 yards with one touchdown pass and two interceptions. Tuberville said he never considered putting Kiel back in the game after Moore faltered just as badly as the UC starter.
"After Gunner threw that second interception, we said, let's go with Hayden and see what he can do and obviously he made mistakes," Tuberville said. "He overthrew the ball. It was just his time. I didn't want to put Gunner back in there after he sat over there and got cold. There wasn't no reason to do that."
UC finally got on the board with 9:17 left in the first half when Andrew Gantz kicked a 44-yard field goal at the end of a 12-play, 51-yard drive.
The Bulls needed just 19 seconds and one play following UC's field goal to answer when Flowers connected on a 46-yard touchdown pass to Price to make it 41-3. Macks's 10-yard run gave the Bulls a 48-3 lead and a 49-yard field goal by Emilio Nadelman made it 51-3 at halftime. UC outscored USF, 24-14, in the second half, for what that's worth.
During his weekly press conference last Tuesday, Tuberville claimed that this UC team was better than the 9-4 team of last year. But the UC coach said that wasn't the team he saw on the field Friday night.
"This is a different team than we've been playing with," Tuberville said. "In terms of attitude, last week both of these teams got bowl eligible. We knew there would be a little bit of a letdown, but there wasn't any letdown on their side."
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 in January, 2015 as featured columnist. Follow him on Twitter @bkoch.