Sunday, October 31, 1999

Cooper's huge day gets Miami's attention

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BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

UC's Robert Cooper looks for a hole past Miami's Bob Petrovic. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        OXFORD — He will leave college football in a matter of weeks with no NCAA records, no All-America mention, no Heisman Trophy votes. Who even knows Robert Cooper's name?

        Miami does, now. Miami and Wisconsin and Ohio State and UAB. These are the teams Cooper has stung for 100-yard games, the most recent coming Saturday in the Cincinnati Bearcats' 52-42 win over the Red- Hawks.

        Cooper outrushed Heisman candidate Travis Prentice, 209 yards to 54. In two games against Heisman-hyped running backs (the other being Wisconsin's Ron Dayne), Cooper is now plus-67 yards.

        “I tried to show I'm pretty good myself,” Cooper said.

        He is in excellent position now to finish with UC's 11th 1,000-yard rushing season, with three games remaining and his total standing at 858 yards. At his present average of 107 yards, he'll end with 1,179 yards, fifth-best in Bearcats history.

        With 2,399 career yards, he's now fifth in school history.

        “We couldn't stop him,” Miami coach Terry Hoeppner said. “I've been telling everybody all week he's a good back, but we just couldn't tackle him today.”

        RECORD WATCH: Prentice scored one touchdown against the Bearcats, giving him 73 for his career, which is two short of Ricky Williams' NCAA record set last season for Texas. Prentice needs 14 more points to tie Williams' career record of 452.

        The 352 passing yards by Miami quarterback Mike Bath were a school single-game record, beating the 341 by Mike Bates against Toledo in 1987. Bath had career highs in completions (21) and attempts (44) and tied his career best with four touchdown passes.

        RedHawks wideout Trevor Gaylor caught eight passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns. He became the school's career leader in receiving yardage, with 1,792 on 111 catches. He is 10 yards short of Jay Hall's school mark for receptions.

        GIVE IT AWAY NOW: The Bearcats entered the game with only two final claims to football excellence: They ranked fifth in the nation in punting and 12th in turn over margin.

        But their five turnovers Saturday were a season high and left UC plus-3 on the season.

        The punting numbers went up, though, with Adam Wulfeck averaging 54 yards on two kicks.

        ETC. With Saturday's game, Minter tied former Bearcats coach Sid Gillman for the most games coached at UC (64). Minter's career record is 27-36-1.

UC 52, MIAMI 42
Kenner UC's bellwether into future
RedHawks left searching for answers

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