For University of Cincinnati fans, the good guys will be wearing white in the Motor City Bowl. The bad guys — the Marshall football players and 15,000 of their fans — will be wearing green.

        “That's a real challenge for us,” said UC coach Rick Minter. “There'll be a ton of Thundering Herd fans there.”

        Marshall (7-5) earned the bowl trip by beating Western Michigan last Saturday. The Motor City Bowl will be played at the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit at 4 p.m. Dec. 27.

        Nobody's ever accused Marshall of not doing their homework.

        UC (7-4) had anticipated it would be wearing its road-white uniforms to the Motor City Bowl, because the Bearcats are the visitors.

        But George Perles, chief executive officer of the Motor City Bowl, told Minter to hold off on that, because the bowl officials loved the Bearcats'home-black uniforms, and that there was sufficient contrast with Marshall's green uniforms to allow both to wear their home colors.

        The final decision had to be left up to the home team, however, and Marshall nixed it. No doubt, the fact that UC was 6-0 in those home-blacks had something to do with Marshall's decision.

        Minter is impressed with the Thundering Herd faithful.

        “They bring 10,000 fans to Oxford every time they play Miami,” Minter said. “And that's a regular-season game. They believe in their football.”

        For the first time this season, the Bearcats' jerseys will bear the player's name on the back.

        “The kids have earned that,” Minter said.

        Marshall and UC play similar offensive and defensive styles.

        “They use a 4-3 structure on defense; lotta zone, lotta fire-zone, get after you a little bit, much like Rick Smith does with our defense,” Minter said. “On offense, we're almost clones of each other: one-back formations, quarterback in the shotgun a lot, similar approaches to the passing game.”

        Minter saw some of Marshall's bowl-clinching victory over Western Michigan last weekend, and also has all 12 of Marshall's games on videotape. He is impressed by many of Marshall's players, including quarterback Byron Leftwich. He praised his poise, confidence and strong arm, and noted his stature (6-foot-5).

        “MAC (Mid-American Conference) coaches like this guy,” Minter said. “He might (turn out to be) the best that ever played there, and that's saying something, given that they had Chad Pennington.”

        Minter said he was thrilled to be playing Marshall.

        “They have a national reputa tion,” he said. “A few years back, they won the I-AA national title, and look at some of the notable players who've come out of there in recent years, guys like Randy Moss and Pennington.”

        It said it was a tribute to Marshall's coaching that they've now won the MAC four years in a row, especially this season when they weren't supposed to win the league.

        RUFFIN IT: Bearcat sophomore Jonathan Ruffin finds out today at a banquet in Florida whether he has won the Lou Groza Award as the nation's top collegiate place-kicker.

        “You're talking about a guy going from the outhouse (as a freshman, making only one of his final seven field-goal attempts) all the way to the top of the penthouse (as sophomore, making 26-of-29 field goals),” Minter said.

Marshall nixes UC's black uniforms Ticket info, travel packages for UC fans

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