Featured Stories
Meet Zach Collaros
By Paul Dehner Jr., CNATI.com Posted October 16, 2009 1:54 AM ET
And he missed the signal.
"They were kind of yelling at me," Collaros said, reliving the moment.
Kelly was forced to burn a timeout and relay the signal again.
"Same play, just a little bit clearer," Kelly said with a dry smirk. "He got it the second time."
Did he ever.
The sophomore returned to the field on third-and-11 with Bearcats fans wondering who this Collaros kid was and, more importantly, how this offense could survive in the absence of injured Heisman Trophy candidate Tony Pike.
Seventy-five exhausting yards later, Collaros frantically crossed into the end zone on a design draw play carrying the Bearcats' Big East and BCS championship aspirations safely with him in the signature play of a 34-17 UC victory against No. 21 South Florida.
The UC fan base temporarily exhales.
Hello, Zach Collaros, it's a pleasure to meet you.
"I love his moxie and savviness," Kelly said. "At that position, you want to be able to do what we did tonight - 60,000, on the road, you just lost your star quarterback and the next guy comes in and does what he does. That is because of his makeup."
What he did was rush 10 times for 132 yards and two touchdowns in one half. He was 4 of 7 for 72 yards through the air with one interception. He kept UC (6-0, 2-0) undefeated and vaulted his team into first place in the Big East.
For one night, he played the role of hero.
"You never want to see your starting quarterback go down," the sophomore QB said. "They tell us every day to be ready. Next man in, we preach that."
Pike sprained his left wrist just before halftime and attempted to come back in the second half but couldn't endure the pain.
With Pike and the spread pass attack sidelined, the offense shifted to a zone-read rushing mode mid-game. Collaros spent all week emulating USF's electric QB D.J. Daniels on the scout team. Then on game night, he upstaged him.
"You are reaching back and doing some things," Kelly said "We did what we had to do with Zach in the game. That was obviously, run him, control the clock, play good defense and get out of here with a win."
Even when rocked by adversity after throwing an interception, Collaros bounced back. On the following drive he lofted a perfect pass to Ben Guidugli, but it was reviewed to be inches shy of the goal line.
Since Guidugli committed a personal foul for taking his helmet off on the play, the Bearcats were forced back to the 16-yard line needing another score to make it a two-possession game.
What else would a hero do? Collaros ran it in himself from the 3.
"Thursday night game, national TV," he began, "this is as big as it gets on the college level."
With that, Collaros ended the night of the man who recruited him to UC. Jim Tresey was the coordinator for the Bearcats that brought him to
Even as the storylines piled up, only one group of people were on the mind of the quarterback who went 30-0 and won two state championships at Steubenville High.
"Playing football at
How does his performance on Thursday compare to the two state titles?
His ear-to-ear grin and one sentence answer symbolized the feelings of the entire Bearcats team.
"This is pretty big," Collaros said.
Categories: College, Featured Stories, Football, University of Cincinnati Bearcats
Tags: Brian Kelly, Tony Pike, Zach Collaros
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