Kelly's Early Years Reminiscent Of Huggins'

This week, three old buds I wrote sports with at The University of Cincinnati's The News Record many years ago are contributing guest posts to One Great Season. Today's update is from Lee Gerowitz, who now lives in New York and is a senior producer for Howard TV On Demand, which is Howard Stern's totally uncensored on-demand channel.

By LEE GEROWITZ
Special to One Great Season

CINCINNATI -- There were two significant arrivals on the University of Cincinnati campus in 1989.

First and foremost was the arrival of yours truly. I would spend five glorious years at UC before graduating in 1994.

Overshadowing my grand entrance onto the Clifton campus was the arrival of some up-and-coming basketball coach named Bob Huggins. Huggins wouldn't leave UC until August 2005. And as we all know, he didn't exactly graduate from UC -- but let's not beat a dead horse, right? (My apologies to Art Long, whose name you should Google along with "horse" in case you don't know).

Bob Huggins put Cincinnati Bearcats basketball -- heck, even the entire university -- back on the map. Some would argue, based on the program's downfall that followed his departure, that he also wiped them off of it.

Twenty years after his arrival, the Bearcats have re-emerged, but this time via the gridiron, courtesy of football coach Brian Kelly.

It's unlikely, but not entirely impossible, that Kelly will spend 15 years coaching his version of the Bearcats. Yet, when you look at the beginning of both Huggins' and Kelly's tenures at UC, there are clear parallels.

Before UC, both men had great success at smaller schools. Huggins compiled a 71-26 record (including a 30-0 regular-season mark in 1982-83) at Walsh University before heading to Akron, a Mid-American Conference school. Kelly won two national championships at Grand Valley State University in 2002 and 2003 before heading to Central Michigan, also a MAC school.

In five seasons at Akron, Huggins compiled a 97-46 record, reaching the post-season three times, including a 1985-86 trip to the NCAA tournament. His first squad, the 1984-85 team, went 12-14. The following season the team went 22-8.

In 2004, Kelly's first CMU team went 4-7. The next season, the Chippewas went 6-5, the program's first winning season in seven years. In 2006, his final season at CMU, he went 9-4, won the MAC title and played in the Motor City Bowl.

Then came their arrivals in Clifton. Both men were brash and outspoken. Huggins challenged, well, everybody, while Kelly targeted the local media for their lack of coverage of his program.

Huggins took over a once-proud basketball program that hadn't reached the NCAA tournament since 1977. A once-proud program boasting legends such as Oscar Robertson and national championships in 1961 and 1962.  Huggins had inherited a program that had lost its identity, thanks to the pathetic 70-100 record accumulated during the Tony Yates era. To say the Bearcats established a new identity under Huggins is an understatement. Bottom line: during the 1991-92 season, just his third at UC, Huggins would begin a string of 14 consecutive NCAA appearances by storming into the Final Four.

Mark Dantonio, who left to coach Michigan State University in 2006, was Mother Theresa compared to Yates, leaving the UC football program in much better shape for Kelly than Yates did for Huggins. Despite this, Dantonio was a straight-laced, defensive-minded coach who preferred smash-mouth football. In short, some would label his style of play as boring.

Kelly, upon arrival, ripped that scheme to shreds and installed a fast-paced, and more important, fan-friendly spread offense. In his first full season with the Bearcats, Kelly won 10 games, a feat the program hadn't accomplished since 1949. The following season, Kelly won 11 games and his second consecutive Big East Coach of the Year Award by reaching what some believe is college football's equivalent to the Final Four - a BCS bowl berth (in the Orange Bowl).

Which brings us back to Bob Huggins and that magical third season.

This is also Brian Kelly's third season. Entering this weekend's Homecoming game versus rival Louisville, the Bearcats are sitting pretty (despite Tony Pike's injury) with a 6-0 record and No. 5 ranking. Another Big East title and BCS bowl berth appear to be within reach. So does an undefeated season.

And dare we say, a potential slot in a national championship game?

One thing's for sure -- just like Huggins and his 1991-92 Final Four squad -- a campus, as well as a nation, is staying tuned.