Moore now UC's chief threat

[Brad]

Moore now UC's chief threat

Vaults past Benton, Glatthaar

BY BILL KOCH | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The official line from University of Cincinnati football coach Mark Dantonio is that the Bearcats still consider all three of their junior running backs - Greg Moore, Butler Benton and Bradley Glatthaar - to be equal.

But the statistics show otherwise.

In the past four games, Moore has emerged as UC's primary ball-carrying threat.

He has carried an average of 17.4 times during those games - each of which he has started - compared to 9.2 for Benton and 6.7 for Glatthaar.

Moore has averaged 78.7 yards during those games, 25 yards more than the Bearcats averaged as a team through their first three games.

"Greg is our horse right now," Dantonio said.

Moore has been the beneficiary of Dantonio's decision to abandon the Bearcats' previous approach of trying to share carries equally among the three. Instead, he decided to go with the hot hand.

And there has been no question that the hot hand has belonged to Moore.

"If you try to rotate them every series, I just don't think that's going to work," Dantonio said. "You have to let a guy get in the rhythm of things."

None of the three backs has complained openly about having to share the carries.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Moore has said repeatedly that he played under similar circumstances at Trotwood-Madison High School, so it was no big deal to him.

But now that he's getting the bulk of the carries, he can see a difference.

"It gets you into the flow of the game," he said. "You start to see more stuff and the game slows down. You can see the openings that the line creates."

And when Moore sees those openings, he gets through them in a hurry.

"To me, when there's a run play, I don't even know who's running the ball until I go to the pile and see who it is," said right tackle Digger Bujnoch. "But Greg's been hitting the holes real well."

With Moore leading the way, the Bearcats have averaged 195 yards rushing in their past four games.

But he's not the only reason for the improved production. That average has been boosted by the emergence of quarterback Dustin Grutza as a running threat.

Grutza rushed for a career-high 72 yards in UC's win over Akron two weeks ago, then topped that with 74 yards against Louisville last Saturday. Nearly all of his yards are the result of scrambles when his pass protection collapses.

That's one of his qualities Dantonio liked when he recruited Grutza out of Mason County (Ky.) High School.

"He threw for 8,000 yards in high school, but he was also a guy who could make you miss and run the ball," Dantonio. "We felt like he was a guy who could be a little bit two-dimensional.

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[Matt]

we shut down Uconn's back and we shut down UNCs back.  we can shut this guy down.

ray rice is a future NFLer that will gain yards on anyone in the country.

[E.T.]

Moore means LESS when playing the BULLS !!!

[Bull Martin]

After we shut Moore down, Mike Jenkins I goingt to rattle Grutza's cage and make him not want to run when pass protection breaks down.

[Brad]

Cincy's stable of backs will certainly be a key part of their game.  

I saw something the other day looking at the media guide.  Cincy had 20 starters return for 2006 - 7 offense - 10 defense (apparent) - 3 special teams.  A veteran team.

Also, to throw a reverse jinx on things - the home team has won each time in the series.