Sunday, November 05, 2000
UC passer finding the touch
Deontey Kenner throws passes that could bruise bricks. What he's working on is a pass that wouldn't dent a pillow.
The University of Cincinnati's senior quarterback has an arm like an artillery piece, but he's trying to develop a more tender touch. The shortest distance between any two points may be a straight line, but football geometry sometimes demands a little loft.
“I've always been a guy who could throw the ball 30 or 40 yards on a rope,” Kenner said Saturday afternoon. “I've never been coached to put air under the ball. It's new to me, but it's a good thing to happen at a good time.”
Kenner has long been one of UC's most prolific passers. He threw for
351 yards Saturday in the Bearcats' 33-21 victory over Alabama-
Birmingham, setting the school's career total offense record in the process. Yet the polish he demonstrated against the Blazers is a fairly recent phenomenon.
Nice touch
“We were at practice one day — maybe after the Syracuse game — and Coach (Tyrone) Dixon called me over,” Kenner recalled. “He said, "D, when you're throwing the ball to your receivers, you've got to put touch on the ball and give them a chance.' ”
Touch is what separates the quarterback athlete from the quarterback artist. It is why Joe Montana excelled and David Klingler exasperated. Some guys have enough arm and enough accuracy to throw a ball through the window of a moving car, but far fewer can drop it in the driver's seat without scuffing the upholstery.
Deontey Kenner is not there yet. His first touchdown pass Saturday — a seven-yard fade route to Tye Keith — was admittedly “underthrown.” Yet in his experimental efforts to put air under the football, Kenner has found receivers respond. It is easier to catch a ball descending gradually than it is to snag a speeding bullet.
“I think the receivers run better routes when they can adjust to the ball and they can see they have a chance to catch it,” Kenner said. “They don't feel too good when I throw a ball on a rope and it skips by them.”
Spread it around
Kenner completed 20 out of 32 pass attempts Saturday at Nippert Stadium, and found eight different receivers. Except for an interception (for which UC coach Rick Minter accepted blame), it was Kenner's best statistical day of the season.
With two weeks left in his last regular season, and the prospect of a bowl game beyond that, Kenner is lately performing at a level that might rate a look from some professional league. Kenner's 351 passing yards Saturday represented a season high, and the most UAB had allowed during the 2000 campaign.
The Blazers started Saturday's game as the nation's sixth-stingiest defense, and dared UC to throw by deploying eight or nine players “in the box” between the tackles. In an effort to reduce the congestion in the interior line to enhance his running game, Minter sought to spread the field. Borrowing an idea from an Alabama film, Minter used one formation in which three receivers lined up in single file, like passengers boarding a plane (only with less luggage). He abandoned his core conservatism in order to exploit what the defense conceded, He is confident in Kenner, “who's got a real field presence about him.”
“If there are nine guys in the box, there are not many guys covering the pass,” Minter said. “We have to be able to throw against a stacked deck.”
The difference in Deontey Kenner is he can throw the ball as conditions require: short, long, fastball, changeup. He is armed and dangerous.
E-mail: tsullivan@enquirer.
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SULLIVAN: UC passer finding the touch
