With Tony Pike available, Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly still chose to go with backup quarterback Zach Collaros against West Virginia tonight. And while Collaros did the heavy lifting along with running back Isaiah Pead, Pike completed two passes, both for touchdowns, as Cincinnati slipped past West Virginia 24-21.
Still, a top team can’t seem to win these days without the help of a controversial replay review. This one happened on Pead’s two-yard touchdown run, where Pead tried to leap over the top of the pile and extend the ball across the goal line, but fumbled the ball just as the ball got to the plain. The play was ruled a fumble on the field, but once the officials looked at the play upstairs, the play was reversed and called a touchdown, tying the game at 14.
The replay was close -- really close -- but once again, replay officials fail to understand what the word indisputable means.
While the Bearcats got the win, the jury is still out on Brian Kelly’s primetime audition. Kelly, long rumored the other man in Notre Dame fans’ lustings for a new coach, did enough to win, but certainly didn’t wow anyone with the three-point victory. Still, for some Irish fans, Kelly simply needed to win and do nothing else to prove he was worthy to be Weis’ replacement.
