Wiedmer: Apyan, Bearcats aim for BCS stars

Alex Apyan hadn't had a chance to check the latest Bowl Championship Series rankings early Sunday evening. Having just completed football practice with the rest of his University of Cincinnati teammates, Apyan was scurrying about to put the final touches on a school project in his aerospace engineering major.

"I was up until 3 a.m. on Friday," said the 2007 Hixson High School grad. "Then the professor gave us until Monday. So I'm just making sure everything's perfect right now."

The Bearcats are a perfect 9-0 for the first time in 58 years. Until the latest BCS rankings hit Sunday night, they had reached No. 4 in both that poll and The Associated Press rankings.

But Cincy's narrow 47-45 home victory over Connecticut, coupled with Texas Christian's 55-12 win at San Diego State -- which is also the Horned Frogs' fourth straight triumph by 31 or more points -- dropped the Bearcats to fifth and moved TCU to fourth.

So Cincinnati's long-shot dream to play for the national championship inside the Rose Bowl in early January just got a wee bit longer.

"The BCS is what it is," Apyan said over the phone. "Besides, Coach (Brian) Kelly is always telling us to never get ahead of ourselves. We've got West Virginia on Friday night, so we're concentrating on that right now."

The 20-year-old Apyan, a third-year sophomore is mostly concentrating on getting healthy right now.

A member of Kelly's first recruiting class, the reserve long snapper has battled knee problems since his first autumn playing tight end on the scout team.

"I'd like to eventually qualify for a sixth year on a medical hardship," said Apyan, who would love to work at NASA when his playing days end. "But I really just want to play."

He hasn't played much at all, but he's hopeful of changing that over the winter and spring when he should be able to add 15 pounds of muscle to his current 200-pound frame.

Then again, he originally decided to join the Bearcats as a long snapper because their blocking schemes on punts and field goals were less dependent on size than quickness.

"I looked at Auburn, Cincinnati, Southern Miss and Virginia Tech," he said, noting that older brother Paul plays on the Southern Miss golf team.

"It pretty quickly seemed like I was going to be too small for Auburn or Virginia Tech. Cincinnati runs a 'spread punt' formation, which is better for my size, plus they had the aerospace major I wanted."

Even with the injuries, Apyan's efforts have been enough to have Kelly dress him for last year's Orange Bowl. If the Bearcats reach another BCS bowl this season, Apyan expects to dress for that one, as well.

But just how is this happening? How are the Bearcats in the top 5 nationally and threatening to play for a national championship if only Alabama, Florida or Texas will suffer an unexpected upset?

"Just the way he runs this team," Apyan said. "He pushes us to do well on and off the field. They really pay attention to our grades. Coach has this slogan, 'Next Man In.' He really believes in that. And look at our quarterback situation. Tony Pike goes down and Zach Collaros has now accounted for 12 touchdowns in three games."

Given his engineering major, Apyan also plays close attention to the BCS formula, whose computer poll actually ranks the Bearcats third.

"I keep track of it a lot," he said. "Everybody I live with, we're all fairly smart. We're all trying to find a way that we can play for the national championship."

Here's one way. Let Florida State stun No. 1 Florida, then have the Gators knock off Alabama in the SEC title game. On the night of the title game, Cincinnati travels to No. 8 Pittsburgh. If the Bearcats win there to finish 12-0, they just might have enough BCS points to play Texas in the national championship game.

But if not, Apyan believes it could still be a great year.

"We know if we win out, we'll win the Big East and go to a great bowl," he said. "BCS or not, it wouldn't be bad to go to the Sugar Bowl."

Especially not if it buys him a little time away from those all-night aerospace engineering projects.