Cincinnati didn’t just randomly choose Pitt as its opponent to honor the 2008 Big East championship team.
Cincinnati will honor its 11-3 team that won the Big East in 2008 during the Bearcats’ game against Pitt on Sept. 7, Cincy announced Monday. It’s a subtle reminder that a late November meeting decided the conference seedings.
Pitt and Cincinnati entered the Nov. 22 matchup with a 4-0 record in the Big East. A win for either side would give the winner the lead in the conference and give them control of their own destiny in the final month of the season.
Cincinnati had never beaten Pitt before this matchup, a streak that resumed in 2005 after a long hiatus. But the Bearcats turned a 7-0 Pitt lead, scored by a LeSean McCoy touchdown, into a 28-7 lead of their own early in the fourth quarter.
McCoy scored another touchdown on the ground, part of a 127-yard, 2-touchdown performance, and Bill Stull scored a 41-yard touchdown to Dorin Dickerson with less than two minutes of play, but it was too little, too late. The Bearcats left Heinz Field with a 28-21 victory and cruised easily to the Big East title and eventual victory in the Orange Bowl.
Pitt finished the 2008 regular season 9-3, earning a chance to play Oregon State in the Sun Bowl (which no one likes to remember), but the Bearcats clinched the title and a spot in the BCS with a head-to-head win, finishing with a 6-1 conference record.
Pitt and Cincinnati played each other four more times between 2009 and 2012, with the Bearcats winning three of four meetings, before the series went on hiatus for a decade. The River City rivalry resumed last season, with the Bearcats winning the first game in 11 years, 27-21.
Pitt and Cincinnati have played each other 13 times in the last 102 years, and the Bearcats have a chance to extend their three-game winning streak to four – but another meeting is not currently planned.
From 1921 to 2007, Pitt won the first seven meetings, including a 21-14 victory in Pittsburgh’s debut in 1921. But from 2008 to 2012, Cincinnati won four of the next five.
Pitt will look to get the best out of Cincinnati this season, traveling to Cincinnati for the first time since 2012. Both the Panthers and Bearcats are coming off disappointing 3-9 seasons. The Bearcats are replacing last season’s starting quarterback Emory Jones, but it will likely be another season where the Cats rely on the running game. The permanent loss of star nose guard Dontay Corleone will certainly hurt the heart of the Cincy defense. Cincinnati Returns 63% of last season’s production.
