Over the weekend, Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly said that he’ll “have to reconsider his position” that Tony Pike wouldn’t lose his job to injury.
Obviously, that left the door open for Zach Collaros to retain the starting job even after Pike fully recovered from his forearm injury.
Now, however, Kelly has backtracked from the backtracking, telling reporters on the Big East coaches call that Pike is his guy under center for the No. 5 Bearcats -- provided he’s “fully healthy”.
“If Tony is fully healthy he’s our starter,” Kelly said. “The issue is if this becomes a day to day. There’s so much out of my hands relative to the risk factor. If that’s not an issue, what Zach Collaros has done over the last three weeks (has been impressive), but if you take his body of work and you take Tony Pike’s body of work, Tony Pike is the starter. There’s no question about that.”
Kelly did admit that he gave serious consideration to Wally Pipping Pike because of how well Collaros has performed in his place. In the end, though, Kelly couldn’t dismiss what Pike has done this year in helping the school to an unbeaten season and an outside shot at a national championship.
“I was dead serious,” Kelly said. “I went back and thought about the plusses and minuses. There’s a lot of plusses with both guys. After careful consideration, Tony is our guy. He’s at the level he needs to be.
“He’s 6-6. He can see the entire field. He’s got a great arm. All the things he’s shown ,I haven’t forgotten about any of that stuff. I had spend the weekend thinking about it. I really had to spend some time thinking about this decision. It’s a difficult one.”
Before suffering the injury against South Florida on Oct. 15, Pike was considered a legitimate Heisman contender. The senior had thrown for 1,633 yards, 15 touchdowns and only three interceptions in 199 attempts.
At least statistically, Collaros has been even better.
In just three-plus games, the sophomore has thrown for 1,100 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception. Additionally, he’s rushed for 284 yards and another four touchdowns in the games since Pike was injured.
While Kelly may indeed have had a little bit of conundrum over the weekend, it’s one that any coach in the nation would love to have.
And likely yet another reason why Notre Dame is keeping a very close eye on the miracles Kelly is performing in Cincinnati.