Part of playing with the big boys is acting like you belong, which is why Rick Minter stood in the UC locker room after the game and screamed out blame.

        “Fifty-six! Roughing the passer!” the coach yelled. He read the incriminating evidence off a rolled up piece of paper: What the penalty was for and the number of the player who committed it. UC had 12 penalties. The recap took Minter awhile.

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LaDaris Vann runs to the end zone. (Ernest Coleman photo) 600 | 800 | 1024

        There is a narrow ledge between playing hard and playing dumb. In Minter's mind, his team didn't walk it. “We looked like one the most undisciplined teams in America,” he concluded.

        UC could have beaten Purdue. But the magnitude of the game got to the Bearcats. All of them, coaches in
cluded.

        Nobody roughed the passer on UC's last penalty, an illegal shift. That one cost the Bearcats a first down at the Purdue 6, with about 40 seconds to play. Minter blamed it on the coaches.

        “It was a blunder, it really was,” Minter said. “It was just too late to call timeout. You're missing a guy, everybody panics.”

Close, yes; cigar, no

        One of these years, maybe, the Bearcats will play a nationally televised game against a well-known opponent, before a full house, and they will not react as if the fate of man hinges on the outcome.

Lewis Carter sacks Purdue QB Brandon Hance. (Tony Tribble photo) | ZOOM |

        When UC considers Purdue a big game -- not the big game -- the Bearcats will have won, win or lose.

        Because they are close. Not win-every-year, hanging-with-the-best-of-the-Big 10 close. But close enough to merit routine mention on ESPN. Close enough to catch the eyes of the best high school kids in Ohio and, occasionally, beyond. Close enough to hang with Purdue.

        When games like the one Sunday stop being such a big deal, UC will be big time. Until then, Minter will shake the penalty sheet in his players' faces and scream.

        “It wasn't the scheme or the skill that outclassed us today,” Minter decided. “It was ourselves.”

        “He has a point,” said Antwan Peek, aka No.56, UC's hyper and special defensive end. “I wanted to make too many plays. When I didn't, I got frustrated.”

        Peek said this game “was the Rose Bowl for us.” Quarterback Adam Hoover surveyed the Nippert Stadium scene and decided, “Man, it really felt like you were at a college football game today.”

Stats favor UC

        Probably, the Purdue players weren't quite so impressed.

Hance dives for Purdue TD (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Were the Bearcats as good as Purdue? How could you say they weren't?

        The Boilermakers started a rookie quarterback. Their linemen and backs barely handled UC's blitzes. Until leg cramps cramped his style, no one could handle Peek, who played like an avalanche. The numbers make a case:

        Total yards: UC 307, Purdue 270. Number of plays: UC 71, Purdue 63. Yards per play: Dead even.

        Composure when it counted: Purdue 1, UC 0.

        It was “a lack of poise and discipline and all the things good teams are made out of,” Minter said.

        Any idea why, Rick?

        “I don't have a clue,” he said. “It's not something you practice.”

        The good teams do practice poise, though. Every week. Until it comes naturally.

        E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.

Purdue 19, UC 14 DAUGHERTY: UC won battle, lost composure Bearcats hope fans return UC-Purdue statistics

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