Canada, here come Bearcats
UC to play Western Michigan of the MAC in International Bowl in Toronto Jan. 6
BY BILL KOCH / ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The University of Cincinnati Bearcats received the bowl bid they had worked for all season on Sunday when the school accepted an invitation to play in the first International Bowl on Jan. 6. at the Rogers Centre (SkyDome) in Toronto.
The Bearcats, who finished the regular season with a 7-5 record, will face Western Michigan of the Mid-American Conference.
The game will be played at noon and will be telecast on ESPN2. The payout is $750,000.
"It's great to go to any bowl," said Pat Narduzzi, UC's interim head coach, who was expected to coach the Bearcats against Western Michigan, but the hiring of new coach Brian Kelly on Sunday makes it unclear who will coach the team. "The players deserve it. They really do."
The UC players said they were excited to be going to Toronto, but there was also a sense of disappointment because the International Bowl wasn't their first choice.
"We were hoping to go to the Texas Bowl in Houston," said senior tight end and co-captain Brent Celek. "But it didn't happen so we've got to make the most of this one.
"(The Texas Bowl) is a bigger bowl. It goes to the third-place team in the conference. But we're still going to the International Bowl, so that's big, too."
The Bearcats, who finished fourth in the Big East with a 4-3 record, would have played a Big 12 team had they gone to the Texas Bowl.
"That would have been real exciting for us," said junior free safety Haruki Nakamura, "to showcase our skills against a team from one of the tougher conferences."
UC will be making its first bowl appearance as a member of the Big East Conference.
"We're looking forward to the matchup," said Don Loding, of the International Bowl. "We've got two terrific teams. Cincinnati had a strong finish. They had a big upset over Rutgers and Western is an up-and-coming program."
The International Bowl will be the first bowl game ever played in Canada and the first bowl game played outside of the United States since 1937 when Auburn tied Villanova 7-7 in the Bacardi Bowl in Havana, Cuba.
This will be the second time UC has played in an inaugural bowl game. The Bearcats also played in the first Humanitarian Bowl in 1997 in Boise, Idaho, defeating Utah State 35-19.
The bowl invitation is UC's sixth since 1997.
The Bearcats have played an opponent from the MAC in all but two of those bowl games, their most recent outing in the 2004 PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl, where they beat Marshall 32-14.
Western Michigan finished 8-4 during the regular season, 6-2 in the MAC, placing second in the West Division.
The Broncos led their conference in total defense and were ranked sixth nationally in rushing defense, allowing 71.92 yards per game. They lead the nation in interceptions with 22.
UC leads the series against Western Michigan 2-0 but the two schools have not met in football since 1980.
"We thought we deserved to play against a Big 12 team or against somebody in a bigger bowl," said senior linebacker Kevin McCullough. "Things didn't fall that way, but we're going to a bowl game and we're going to play a tough Western Michigan team, so it will be fun."
Tickets are $40 and $30 and can be purchased on line at GoBearcats.com, at the UC ticket office in the Richard E. Lindner Center on campus or by calling 877-CATS-TIX.
This article appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Monday, December 4, 2006.
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