PONTIAC, Mich. — Rick Minter figures Gino Guidugli can pass this test. After all, he has passed all the others.

        “He's been doing it all year,” Minter said. “Whether it be in the two-minute drill or a must-win situation, he's rescued us time after time.”

        Guidugli may have to come to the rescue again today at 12:06p.m. when the University of Cincinnati takes on Toledo in the Motor City Bowl at the Silverdome. ESPN will televise it.

        For Guidugli, a true freshman from Highlands, the Motor City Bowl will be his 12th college game. In those 12 games, he has thrown for more than 300 yards four times. He has taken the Bearcats from the brink of defeat to victory five times.

        But Minter thinks Toledo will force the Bearcats to beat the Rockets with the pass — in other words, force Guidugli to beat them.

        “We'll have to go wide and open it up,” Minter said, “because they play an aggressive, eight-man front. They take you out of some things by mere fact of the scheme they play.”

        That's all right with Guidugli. “I'm pretty confident,” he said.

        He should be. He has completed 185 of 317 (58.4 percent) passes for 2,573 and 16 touchdowns. He has been intercepted only nine times. He would love a shootout.

        “Those are quarterbacks' games,” he said. “I'd love to go up and down the field.”

        It looks like that could happen. Toledo, 9-2 and ranked 25th, comes in 16th in the nation in scoring at 34.9 points a game. UC (7-4) is tied for 36th at 29.1. As for the scoring defense, UC is 50th in the nation, Toledo 55th. The Rockets gave up 56 and 36 points their last two times out.

        Both teams score a lot, but Toledo is much more balanced between the run and the pass than UC.

        The reason is the Rockets offense revolves around Chester Taylor, Toledo's All-American running back.

        Taylor, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound senior, has run 268 times for 1,430 yards and 20 touchdowns this year. He also has caught 26 balls for 242 more yards and three more TDs. Taylor is Toledo's all-time leading rusher and is second in Mid-American Conference history with 4,659 yards. He's from River Rouge, Mich., which isn't far from Pontiac, so he has gotten a lot of pregame press.

        Taylor's running mate, Antwon McCray, rushed 101 times for 521 yards and six TDs. UC's rush defense, meanwhile, finished 75th in the nation. If Taylor and McCray run wild, Guidugli might be pushed beyond his rescue capabilities.

        UC is aware of that. “We've been talking all week about shutting down the run,” UC defensive end Antwan Peek said. “That's something we've struggled with all year.”

        But if UC stacks the line of scrimmage and dares the Rockets to throw, they have a capable quarterback as well.

        Tavares Bolden, a senior, has numbers that compare favorably with Guidugli's. Bolden has hit 200 of 291 attempts (68.7 percent) for 2,331 yards and 13 TDs this year. He has been intercepted only five times.

        Despite having two good passers in the game, Minter, an old-school defensive coach, thinks the team that runs the ball better probably will prevail.

        “I've challenged our defense to prove who has the better running backs,” Minter said. “I did that for two reasons: 1) I want us to stop Chester Taylor. We have to do that to have a logical chance to win the game. 2) I want our running game to shine.”

        DeMarco McCleskey and Ray Jackson split time as UC's featured back. The Bearcats struggled to run the ball early. But McCleskey has run for more than 100 yards in four of the last eight games, and he and Jackson each topped 100 yards in the key win at Memphis.

        Both teams have good receivers. LaDaris Vann (73 catches, 902 yards, three TDs) and Tye Keith (42 catches, 578 yards, four TDs) lead UC.

        Toledo counters with Donta Greene (62 catches, 603 yards) and Carl Ford (46 catches, 646 yards, seven TDs).

        But Minter isn't convinced the Motor City will be a 44-41 game.

        “When it's billed as a shootout, it never turns out that way,” he said. “The defenses get so infuriated about the hype that they play well.”

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