The day the World Trade Center was attacked, University of Cincinnati football coach Rick Minter gave his players an assignment. It had nothing to do with football.

Rick Minter, talking with Jamar Enzor, has one year left on his contract. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        Minter had them write essays about where they were when the attack occurred, how they found out about it, what they were feeling at the time. He talked to them about what the incident meant to the country and what it might mean to their future.

        It was a side of Minter that most observers of the UC program don't see, a side that insists his players go to class, that they attend mandatory study hall, and that, when they screw up, rather forcefully lets them know about it.

        “He encourages you when you deserve it,” said Bengals cornerback Artrell Hawkins, who played for Minter from 1994-97. “When you're messing up and you need correction, he's going to correct you.

        “That was one of the worst things that I can remember, messing up or doing something I knew I wasn't supposed to do and I had to go see him. He's a tough guy. He expects you to do what's right. He doesn't want you to have the excuse mentality.”

        Minter, 47, is in his eighth year as UC's head football coach. He has one year left on his contract.

        No one else has dared to stay that long. Mike Gottfried lasted two years. Watson Brown fled after one. But Minter, who declined to be interviewed for this story, perseveres year after year, often with a fresh assortment of assistant coaches. He has won 38 games, second only to Sid Gillman in school history. He also has lost 47, the most of any UC coach.

        There's not a head coach of a major sport in Cincinnati with a lower public profile. He lacks the charisma of a Bobby Bowden and doesn't win as much as Bob Huggins.

        But he has taken UC, long considered a minor player in big-time college football, to two bowl games and appears to be closing in on a third. He has had four winning seasons in seven years, recovering last year to go 7-5 after 2-9 and 3-8 records the two previous years, and advancing to the Motor City Bowl, where the Bearcats lost to Marshall.

        And his players graduate. Sixty-seven percent of Minter's players who entered UC in the fall of 1995 left with their degrees, just short of the 70 percent needed to receive the American Football Coaches Association Academic Achievement Award that UC won four years ago.

        The UC players work at food banks during the holidays, visit Children's Hospital, speak to elementary and middle schools. When Cincinnati was hit by a major flood four years ago, Minter and his players were there to help clean up.

        But fans care first and foremost about winning, and there's a sense at the school that if the football program is ever going to ascend to the level the basketball program occupies, this is the time. With freshman quarterback Gino Guidugli poised to develop into one of the school's most prolific passers, the Bearcats, 4-3 this season, believe they have a magnet to help attract other top players. UC, which hosts Connecticut at 1p.m. today at Nippert Stadi um, is averaging 28,731 fans for its three home games, ahead of the school record of 24,256 in 1996.

        “We've become consistently competitive,” said UC athletics director Bob Goin. “We've been in every game. That's a big change from a couple of years ago.

        “The growth is coming, I think. It's like everything else. You should learn in your job, know your job and get better at it through experience. That's exactly what Rick has done. He's a fine head coach right now.”

        Goin and Minter don't have the program where they want it yet. They'd both like to see crowds of 30,000 to 35,000 for every home game. UC still hasn't won a conference championship, and unlike the UC basketball team, which is consistently ranked among the nation's top 25 teams, the football program receives little national attention.

        “This is a consistent program,” Goin said, “a program that people enjoy. I've seen some games played at Nippert Stadium that are fun Saturday afternoons, whether it's Indiana or Louisville or Wisconsin or Purdue. I've seen that environment where people have enjoyed the atmosphere and enjoyed the play. That's not done every Saturday, but it's more frequent now than it has been.”

Murphy knows UC's grown

UC needs strong finish to solidify bowl bid Minter has put UC on solid footing

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