By Bill Koch
Enquirer contributor

Rick Minter is a big believer in focusing on the present. Experience has taught the University of Cincinnati football coach that it does no good to agonize over missed opportunities during the course of a long season.

Besides, if he spent a lot of time looking back, especially this year, it might be too much for even a hard-bitten football coach like Minter to bear.

After a week off, UC resumes play Thursday night at long-time rival Louisville (5-3 overall, 3-1 in Conference USA) in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPN. The Bearcats (3-5, 2-2) have had two weeks to savor their 48-10 thrashing of Memphis and to wonder where they would be today if they hadn't repeatedly hurt their own cause with silly, often unforced, errors.

"We try to stay in the present,'' Minter said, "because when I look at the Top 25 and I see that Ohio State is sitting there bargaining to be in the national title game and TCU is probably going to win our league and get in the Liberty Bowl, that makes you sick looking back.''

UC beat TCU in its season opener, the only loss of the season for the Horned Frogs, and barely missed upsetting the Buckeyes at Paul Brown Stadium.

The Bearcats also came within a missed field goal of sending the West Virginia game into overtime.

Minter has good reason to be frustrated. This is a Bearcat team that has outscored its opponents, 227-208, and outgained them an average of 419 yards per game to 323.

"It's a team that features the school's career sacks leader, career receiving leader, career scoring leader, a running back on pace to finish second on the career rushing list and a quarterback who already ranks fifth on the passing yardage list, even though he's only a sophomore.

And yet, with all that talent, the Bearcats enter the Louisville game with a losing record largely because they have committed 23 turnovers to their opponents' 18. Thanks to turnovers, Tulane and Southern Miss, which saddled UC with its two conference losses, were required to drive a total of only 18 yards to produce 30 points.

"When you make mistakes you've got be good enough to overcome them,'' Minter said. "We're not good enough to overcome our mistakes.''

But they still believe they're good enough to make a third consecutive trip to a bowl game, providing they can tighten the screws and stop making errors. "I don't think we've played a team this year that's better than us,'' said senior placekicker Jonathan Ruffin, UC's career scoring leader.