NEW ORLEANS – Three weeks ago, Brian Kelly, who guided the Cincinnati Bearcats to consecutive Big East titles and 18 consecutive regular season victories, bolted for Notre Dame.
Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn was then promoted to interim coach for the Allstate Sugar Bowl, but three days before Christmas he accepted the Buffalo job. Quinn will stick around until Friday’s game against Florida but then he’s off to Buffalo.
Six days after Kelly left, Butch Jones was hired from Central Michigan as Cincinnati’s coach. But Jones’ role is reduced to a spectator when the Bearcats meet the Gators in the Superdome.
In the past few weeks, the Bearcats’ head coaching job has been passed off like a bad Christmas fruitcake. Still, the Bearcats say that won’t affect them against the Gators.
“We don’t care if a dog is coaching us,” Cincinnati senior defensive end Alex Daniels said. “We’d go out there and play hard.”
Maybe so, but how fragile is the Bearcats’ mindset after everything that’s happened in the last month?
“The situations these kids have had to face and overcome has drawn us closer together,” Quinn said. “We will keep our young men focused on the task at hand. The game is going to come and we are going to need to be at our best.
“I never allow the distractions to take away from our focus on this football game. We have tried to scale it back to just that and not allow the outside distractions to disturb their ability for the game that they have to play. I remind them of that every day.”
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Every day the Bearcats also can’t help but remember what Kelly told them four days before playing Pittsburgh for the Big East title. Kelly told the team he wasn’t leaving. He was staying.
However, less than five days after Cincinnati’s …
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