Cincinnati buried Purdue in the second half of their season opening victory, shutting out the Boilermakers 28-0 en route to a decisive 42-7 victory. It was new head coach Tommy Tuberville‘s first win with his new school and the first loss for new Purdue head coach Darrell Hazell.
Munchie Legaux did not have a great day under center for Cincinnati, throwing one touchdown and two interceptions, but he also added 55 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground to help his cause.
The win was quite impressive for the BearCats, who could end up being the biggest threat to Louisville in The American. Of course, the two rivals do not face until the end of the regular season, but after UConn and Rutgers went down on Thursday night and SMU came up flat on Friday night, The American is already in a position to need to pick up some key wins. Central Florida and Houston held up their end of the bargain in their openers, but Cincinnati now picked up the biggest win of the year so far on opening weekend, by defeating a Big Ten that could eventually be decent.
Purdue going down may not be a shock, and it probably doesn’t really deflate the image of the Big Ten brand but the Boilermakers ended last season with a dud in a bowl loss and opened the year with another.