Editor's Note: Dick Weiss, a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, has covered college sports in Philadelphia and New York for more than 40 years. He will be providing regular commentary for the American Athletic Conference during the 2014-15 season.
Standout performances by a pair of quarterbacks – one a proven veteran, the other with just one game under his belt – have East Carolina and Cincinnati thinking big this season
As all eyes are focused on the traditional powers in college football as they try to earn pole position for the first College Football Playoff, the American Athletic Conference is writing a new storyline of its own, attempting to produce a team that can differentiate itself from teams in its own league and the four other conferences that are trying to establish credentials for a selection to a New Year’s bowl game.
Last year, in its first season of conference play, UCF gave The American a fairy-tale season, finishing 12-1, winning the conference and then defeating Big 12 champion Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. The Knights, who were the second best team in the state of Florida (behind only unbeaten Florida State), finished 10th in the final AP poll, forcing the rest of the country to take notice of their outstanding quarterback Blake Bortles, who was the No. 3 overall selection in the NFL draft.
This year, with commissioner Mike Aresco urging his schools to play more ambitious nonleague schedules, The American looks like it will rely heavily on teams like East Carolina and Cincinnati, which have made the biggest early impressions to date, to write the same magical script.
East Carolina is 2-1 and coming off a 28-21 victory over 17th-ranked Virginia Tech last Saturday in Blacksburg -- a week after the ACC Hokies stunned eighth-ranked Big Ten power Ohio State in Columbus. Quarterback Shane Carden, the most dangerous player in the offensive-minded league, threw three touchdown passes and scored the game winning TD on a one-yard run with 16 seconds left as the Pirates beat a ranked team for the first time since 2009, when they defeated No. 18 Houston, 38-22, in Greenville, North Carolina.
Carden, the fifth-year senior from Houston, completed 23-of-47 passes for 427 yards as East Carolina and led the Pirates on a three-play, 65-yard game-winning drive in the final minute. Carden threw passes of 31 and 28 yards to Cam Worthy sandwiched around an illegal substitution penalty on the Hokies to set up the score that kept the Pirates' hopes of playing in a major bowl alive.
Under the new College Football Playoff structure, one team from The American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt will be picked by a 13-person selection committee to play in one of six major bowls. Coming off a 33-23 road loss to then-21th-ranked South Carolina, a second defeat might have eliminated the Pirates from consideration. But this team is too dangerous to dismiss.
“I’m proud of our team and staff,” East Carolina coach Ruffin McNeill said. “We had a tough loss at South Carolina. Coming back, having to play in another hostile venue was tough, and I’m proud of our kids because we’ve been talking about the commitment since Day 1. To be able to see it grow in front of you is a beautiful thing to watch. That was a great win for our players.”
The victory against Virginia Tech was huge. That, in addition to East Carolina’s playing statistically even with South Carolina, which went on to beat No. 6 Georgia 38-35 Saturday, should give the Pirates added momentum and motivation as they prepare to face 25th-ranked, in-state rival North Carolina (2-0) this weekend in Greenville. A second straight victory against the Tar Heels would give the Pirates a top-25 resume as they enter conference play Oct. 4 against SMU. The Pirates defeated North Carolina, 55-31, last year in Chapel Hill in a game in which they reeled off 603 yards total offense. Carden accounted for six touchdowns in that blowout, throwing for 376.
With Carden, who passed for the third-most yards the Hokies' defense has ever allowed, the Pirates have a chance in any game they play the rest of the year.
"When we went down to South Carolina, we weren't thinking ‘upset,’'' McNeill said. "We were expecting to win, and that's being as humble as I can. That's how much I believe in our team.''
Carden wasn't the only American Athletic Conference quarterback to make a huge splash.
Sophomore Gunner Kiel completed 25-of-37 passes for 418 yards and tied a school record with six touchdown passes as Cincinnati opened its season a 58-34 victory over Toledo – the preseason favorite in the MAC West Divsion – at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Cincinnati stormed to a 34-0 lead in the first half, but looked like it might have to hold on as Toledo trimmed the Bearcats' lead to 41-34 early in the fourth before UC put up 17 more points.
Kiel hit a 52-yard pass completion to wideout Mekale McKay, an Arkansas transfer, on his first career play. His six TD passes tied the UC mark set by Tony Pike against Illinois in 2009.
"For me, I think I silenced the critics," Kiel said. "People were kind of bashing me, a lot of people. I kind of shook that off and came out and played my game, and had fun."
Kiel was rated the nation's no. 1 high school prospect at his position when he played for Columbus (Ind.) High. He originally committed to Indiana, then to LSU, then finally signed with Notre Dame. Critics again surfaced when Kiel, who was beaten out by for the starting spot by redshirt freshman Everett Golson, transferred to Cincinnati in 2013 and sat out that year as a transfer.
Kiel looked like the real deal against Toledo. His six TD passes were the most by any FBS player in his career debut and bailed out a Cincinnati defense that gave up 531 yards of offense including 240 yards rushing.
"Gunner – what can you say?" Bearcat coach Tommy Tuberville said. "He was calm, cool, threw the ball down the field. He's got some guys he can throw it to, to make plays."
Kiel seemed oblivious on his record-setting performance.
"I was just playing,'' he said. "I didn't even know."
Tuberville, who coached at both Auburn and Mississippi in the SEC and at Texas Tech in the wide-open Big 12, has said this is the best group of receivers he has coached. The Bearcats play Miami (Ohio) Saturday, then their nonleague schedule promises to get tougher with non-league road games against Ohio State Sept. 27 and Miami two weeks later.
Kiel has already caught the attention of Ohio State coach Urban Meyer.
“I was probably like most of the country, like, ‘Whoa!’?” Meyer said on this week's Big Ten coaches’ conference call. “I thought it was going to be 60-0 and the kid was going to throw for 500 yards.”
We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but if the Buckeyes can't slow Kiel and the rest of Bearcats' offense down, there is a chance UC could beat Ohio State for the first time since 1921. Tuberville, for the record, is 2-0 against Meyer. His Auburn team defeated Meyer’s Florida squad in both 2006 and 2007.
A win over the Buckeyes would raise eyebrows throughout the state and do wonders for the image of The American, nationally.