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Oregon State (1-0, 0-0 PAC 10) at Cincinnati (1-0, 0-0 Big East)
Thursday, September 6
7:30 PM ET on ESPN
Nippert Stadium (FieldTurf)
I’m still drying my tears after a 0-2 Thursday night clunker to start the season. LSU’s defense simply suffocated Mississippi State and when Utah lost their starting running back (Matt Asiata, broken leg) and then the heart and soul of their offense (QB Brian Johnson, separated shoulder) in the second quarter against Oregon State…well, let's just say I knew the gambling gods weren’t with me.
Speaking of the Beavers, I suggest we turn the page on last Thursday and take a look at what we have in store for this week.
You don’t find Oregon State making many trips east for football games, but that’s exactly what coach Mike Riley and crew will be doing this Thursday when they visit Cincinnati. Given the outcome of their last trip east, you would have thought Riley would have given up on anything outside the Pacific Time zone.
In 2005, the Beavers traveled east to face another Big East team on a Thursday night. Louisville drilled Oregon State 63-27 and the Beavers (+13.5) didn’t come close to hanging with the potent Cardinals offense.
Of course, there are a couple of noticeable differences in terms of this trip east for Riley. For starters, the Beavers won’t be facing an offense like Louisville’s and secondly, behind RB Yvenson Bernard, they now have one of the best rushing attacks in the nation to spearhead their offense. Those two facts alone go a long way in explaining how Oregon State is favored (-3.5 at Sports.com) in this contest.
However, it would be foolish to dismiss Cincinnati just because it doesn’t have a Bobby Petrino offense and a QB like Brian Brohm.
Let’s start with the long strange trip that has brought QB Ben Mauk under center for the Bearcats.
Right about now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Ben Mauk…I recognize that name from somewhere.”
Most college football fans have heard at least part of the story of Ben Mauk. He was the starting QB for Wake Forest at the start of the Demon Deacons magical 2006 season. Mauk’s season however was cut very short as he suffered a broken right arm and dislocated shoulder during Wake's 20-10 opening win against Syracuse.
Freshman Riley Skinner took over for Mauk and ultimately led the Deacons to the ACC title and the Orange Bowl. The handwriting was obviously on the wall for Mauk in regards to ever winning back his starting job and so he went looking for a new school and a shot at winning a starting job. Enter Cincinnati.
Cincinnati was a good fit for a number of reasons – not the least of which was location. Mauk grew up northwest Ohio – Kenton to be exact – where he set national career passing records in high school while leading Kenton to back-to-back state championships.
So now the former “Mr. Football” in the state of Ohio has a chance to come back home and revive a collegiate career that never really got out of first gear at Wake Forest.
Under new Cincy coach Brian Kelly, Mauk might just go from first to fifth gear. That’s because Kelly, who left Central Michigan when Mark Dantonio left for Michigan State, brought his highly effective no-huddle offense with him and now Mauk is running the show.
If Week 1 was any indication, it could be quite a show. Granted, it was just against Southeast Missouri State, but Mauk and the Bearcats piled up 615 yards, third-most in school history en route to a 59-3 drubbing of the Redhawks.
If Mauk and the Cincy offense can continue to click, the Bearcats could be dangerous. Behind QB Dustin Grutza – the starter the past two years – the Bearcats had trouble putting points on the board as evidenced by the fact that they ended 2006 ranked 82nd in the nation in scoring.
There is no doubt that Mauk and company will find the sledding considerably more difficult against an Oregon State defense that absolutely punished Utah last weekend. The Utes only managed 18 yards rushing and 196 total yards against the Beavers and after one week, OSU's defense ranks 11th nationally against the run and 17th in total yards allowed.
Mauk will have to do better than that if he wants to keep up with Bernard and a Beavers offense that could be welcoming back All-America receiver/punt returner Sammie Stroughter to the fold.
Up until just a week ago Stroughter was believed to be lost for the season as he planned on taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team to deal with grief-related issues following the death of two family members and the OSU coach who recruited him, Jim Gilstrap.
But over the past week Stroughter has returned to practice and now has been upgraded to probable for Thursday night’s game. His presence will surely stretch the field for the dangerous Bernard and you can be sure he will want to flash his talents for Cincinnati Bengals receivers Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, both who played at Oregon State.
