University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Host Bearcats In C-USA Test
10/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 15, 2001
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Houston Cougars vs. Cincinnati Bearcats
Game 6 - October 20, 2001 - 7 p.m. (CDT)
Houston, Texas - John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium (32,000)
The Coaches - Dana Dimel heads into his second season as the head coach of the University of Houston program. In a year of adjustment in 2000, Dimel posted a 3-8 record with his young Cougars. Dimel arrived in Houston after three years as the head football coach at Wyoming, where he posted a 23-12 mark and was one of only 10 current Division I-A head coaches to have won at least seven games in those three years. Dimel spent almost 10 seasons at his alma mater, Kansas State, as he had a hand in developing the Wildcat program into one of the more dominant teams of the past de-cade. Cincinnati head coach Rick Minter has his Bearcats at 3-0 in Conference USA and alone atop the league standings. Minter is in his eighth season leading the UC football program and has taken the Bearcats to two bowl games in that span. Minter spent two seasons at Notre Dame as the Irish defensive coordinator, and he has also spent some time at Ball State, New Mexico State, N.C. State, Louisiana Tech and Arkansas.
Series Notes - The Cougars and Bearcats have staged some epic battles in the 45-year history of the series dating back to the first encounter in 1957. The first three games of the series (1957-59), UH and UC were conference mates of the Missouri Valley Confer-ence. The Cougars won the first six games in the head-to-head series before losing in 1964. The schools also met 11 times while independents before facing one another in 1996 as foes of the new Conference USA. In C-USA action the Bearcats own a 3-2 advantage with each team winning on its home field in all five contests.
More On The Game
Cincinnati, currently Conference USA's top-ranked team with a perfect 3-0 mark, heads into this Saturday's game with the Cougars fresh off a 31-17 win over UAB in Birmingham. The Bearcats have also posted league wins over Army and Tulane, while falling to both Purdue and Miami (Ohio).
Against UAB the Cincinnati defense and special teams stepped up and took control of the game in the second half by returning an interception for a touchdown early in the third quarter and then capping the quarter with a blocked punt for a score. Despite an off night for the offense-which generated only 220 total yards against the Blazers defense-the Bearcats held down the number-one spot in the C-USA standings.
True freshman Gino Guidugli leads the UC offensive attack and has led the Bearcats to a 3-1 mark since taking over as the staring quarterback. After a stellar prep career, one that saw him throw for 7,397 yards and 90 touchdowns, Guidugli has posted an impressive passing efficiency rating of 148.82 in his rookie year. He has thrown for almost 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns since assuming the starting nod.
Guidugli's favorite target is junior LaDaris Vann, who has hauled in 38 receptions for 410 yards and two scores. Vann posted a career-best 12 catches for 134 yards in the key conference road win over Army.
When the Bearcats decide to run the ball, there is no other team in the league that can boast the one-two punch of Demarco McClesky and Ray Jackson. McCleskey leads all Bearcat rushers with 314 yards-an average of 62.8 yards per game-while Jackson is second with 244 yards and a team-leading three rushing scores.
The Bearcat defense is surrendering 22.2 points and 392.8 total yards per game. Against the Blazers UC held UAB to just 333 yards of total offense, including just 133 through the air. Free safety Ivan Fields leads UC in tackles with 41, 36 of which are unassisted. As a unit the Bearcats have racked up 42 tackles for losses, 16 sacks and five interceptions.
The last time the Cougars and Bearcats faced Houston found itself down 17-0 seven minutes into the game. The Cougars finally put points on the board with a 27-yard field goal by Mike Clark, but the Bearcats stormed right back to take a 24-3 lead. From that point on the Cougars outscored the Bearcats 28-24, but the big UC leads was too much for UH to overcome.
In the last meeting in Houston in 1999, the Cougars escaped with a 23-20 Homecoming win over Cincinnati, when Clark connected on a late field goal after a Bearcat turnover.
