The UC Bearcats couldn't have done any more to please you Saturday. They had a hundred-yard runner and a hundred-yard receiver. They forced six turnovers and returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown. The Bearcats led Memphis 28-3 at halftime. It was the best they've played all year. A few people saw it.

"Are ... you ... READY!" bellowed Joe Zerhusen, the public-address guy, to a smattering response as the Bearcats gathered on the field before the kickoff.

Well, yeah, UC fans responded. We're ready. Kind of. In a sedate sort of way. If we have to be. I mean, somebody's gotta be ready. Right?

"Here come the 'Ca-a-a-ts!" Zerhusen yelled.

Great, the crowd responded. OK, very good. Here they come. It is good. We think.

UC announced a crowd of 20,747, which would have been accurate if they'd bused in the entire population of Indian Hill and mixed them with the folks actually there. Regardless, when you have 34,000 students and 120,000 alumni in your area, you shouldn't have just 20,000 souls at your Homecoming football game.

"Frustrating and discouraging," UC coach Rick Minter called it.

There is a belief, shared by some in the athletic department, that Bearcat football is on the six-win hamster wheel. In nine years, Minter put UC football on track and in the black. It's time for a new coach to extend the scoring drive. UC football needs a new wheel, or a new hamster. So goes popular opinion.

After their 48-10 smacking of Memphis, the Bearcats are 3-5. That's an understandable record for a second- or third-year coach in reloading mode. Maybe not for a guy in Year No. 9. That guy shouldn't be 3-5 or lose by 18 at Tulane. Or so the sentiment goes.

Really?

UC's Blue Adams (24) gets a key block on Mephis' Joe Gerda, clearing his way for an 80 yard interception return for a touchdown. (Thomas E. Witte photo) | ZOOM |

Should UC be better? Or is this as good as it gets?

Minter is an earnest, hardworking guy who was watching tape on Charisma Day. Seventy percent of his players have graduated. He runs a disciplined show, where the talent doesn't compromise the university.

He has produced three bowl teams in the last five years, even if the bowls were anonymous and the schedules that led to them were made by the Sta-Puft marshmallow man. If UC can win four of its last five, Minter will have coached six winning teams in the last eight years. And, as athletic director Bob Goin said, correctly, "It's a team that's kinda fun to watch.'' What more do you want?

UC doesn't have the money to pay a big-time coach $1 million a year or his assistants another million, or put another $3 million into the facilities. It doesn't play a league schedule that will thrill anyone. It never has.

UC football has always been Plan B around here. At least with Minter, it has been a sometimes-successful Plan B. Three-and-eight doesn't have to be a way of life. Minter has three years left on his contract. He could be bought out, but then what?

Goin's goal is a fan base of 20,000 to 25,000. It's a nice dream.

"We're looking forward to seeing you at UC's next home game, November 16th," Joe Zerhusen said when the game ended. There were some people in the stands at the end of the Bearcats' best game of the year. A few hundred, not including pigeons.

The next home game is against, um, Houston. Twenty-five thousand? Possibly not.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com