BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Chad Plummer, left, and Hassan Champion wait to have their photos taken for UC media day.
(Tony Jones photo)
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While coach Rick Minter told boosters Friday not to expect the moon in 1998, University of Cincinnati football players said they can top last year's Humanitarian Bowl season.
"An undefeated season," senior linebacker Hassan Champion said. "That would do it."
UC's last unbeaten season was 1918 (3-0-2 record), but there were no Syracuses or Miami Hurricanes scheduled then. Not to mention UC lost 18 seniors from last year's 8-4 team, five of whom were drafted by the NFL in the Bearcats' largest such class since 1960.
Conference USA coaches pick UC fourth in the eight-team league. Minter privately thinks that the team could finish higher, but publicly, he is saying the right things.
"We're not going to paint a bright picture," he told a Media Day luncheon at Nippert Stadium. "We've got concerns. Today will be the last time you hear us talk about last season, because we've got a lot of work to do."
UC comes off its first bowl game in 47 years, snapping the nation's longest Division I-A bowl drought. But the Bearcats return only 12 starters, fewest in the league.
The players, still riding the 35-19 Humanitarian Bowl rout of Utah State, are flush with the optimism of youth. But while the starting 11s are fairly solid, the backup positions are shaky in many areas. That is an annual UC problem but more acute this year than last. Most of the departed seniors started or played key roles.
"The important thing is last year's seniors taught us how to win," senior defensive tackle Kevin Ward said. "People like Phil Curry, Brad Jackson and Artrell Hawkins are people you can't replace, but that happens in all programs."
Linebackers Curry and Jackson were two of the top three tacklers in UC history. Jackson and cornerback Hawkins were high-round draftees of the Dolphins and Bengals, respectively. And offensive tackle Jason Fabini is slated to start for Bill Parcells' New York Jets.
Those are the kind of players UC lost from 1997, but even they could not prevent a four-loss season. If a team with that much talent lost four games, what will happen to this year's team where the only sure NFL prospects are offensive tackle Brian Uhl and safety Tinker Keck?
"Maybe we don't return the talent of a Fabini and guys like that," senior guard Vince Byrd said. "But as a unit, we could be just as strong. That's what comes from playing in the program together for years."
If nothing else, the perception of UC football is changing in Cincinnati. Byrd, who has spent the past two summers working at a downtown hotel, said people treated him with more respect when he wore a UC shirt to work this year.
"People are asking when our games are and what we're going to do this year," he said. "Last year, all I got was, "Oh, he's big, so he must be a football player.' Nobody really cared."
Said Ward: "Before, people would just ask if we were going to reach .500. Now people ask which bowl we can go to."
First choice is the Liberty Bowl, which holds a bid for the Conference USA champion. There is the Humanitarian Bowl again, which guarantees a spot for a C-USA team after awarding an at-large bid last year. "We've got to get past Tulane first," Minter said, referring to the season opener Sept. 5 at UC.
Tulane has beaten UC two straight years early in the season, essentially killing the Bearcats' league title hopes. UC is not scheduled to play league favorite Southern Mississippi this year, so Minter says a victory over No. 2 choice Tulane would equate to a virtual 2-0 start in the league:
"This is not the Citadel coming in here, this is Tulane."
TV NOTE:
John Arena, a UC offensive lineman in 1988-91, has been named color analyst for WXIX-TV (Channel 19) UC game telecasts this season. Arena will join play-by-play man Dan Hoard of WXIX.
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