Royalty Tours USA

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Big East Championship Game at Pitt!

On December 5, 2009 I saw the Cincinnati Bearcats punch their ticket to the Orange Bowl, which is part of the BCS with their amazing come from behind victory.

It was an entertaining game to say the least.

With the Big East Championship on the line, the Bearcats stormed back to defeat the Pitt Panthers, 45-44!

The Panthers retook the lead late with a touchdown but they missed a critical PAT (point after touchdown) which proved to be costly as they wound up losing the game in the last minute.

Needless to say, some future NFL potential was seen at Heinz Field that day.

The players who were drafted were as follows:

For the Bearcats, they had 3 players.

Mardy Gilyard, wide receiver and kick returner was nabbed by the St. Louis Rams with the 1st pick in the 4th round, 99th overall.

I was impressed with him that day myself. He looked like a rising star.
He wound up with 5 receptions for 118 yards receiving which included a 68 YD TD pass.
In addition, he showed his multi dimensional ability when he returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown.

Tony Pike, quarterback went to the Carolina Panthers on the 6th round with the 204th pick.
He finished that day throwing for 302 yards. He completed 22 out of the 44 passes he threw.

Ricardo Mathews, defensive tackle was taken by the Indianapolis Colts in the 7th round with the 238th pick.

As for the Panthers, they had a few players chosen as well.

Nate Byham, tight end, was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the 6th round with the 182nd pick.
He caught one pass that day for 6 yards.

Dorin Dickerson, also a tight end, was taken by the Houston Texans in the 7th round, 227th overall.

It should be noted that Pitt has a reputation of producing great NFL players such as Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino, Curtis Martin and most recently Darrelle Revis to name a handful.