My favorite moment of the 2009 UC Bearcats football season didn’t occur at Heinz Field. It wasn’t when Tony Pike connected with Armon Binns for the most iconic moment in the school’s gridiron history, nor was it when Mardy Gilyard started a comeback against Pitt that echoes a decade later with a kickoff return for a touchdown.



My most cherished memory of that season isn’t of something that went down on any field or in any stadium. In fact, it only tangentially involves the 2009 Big East champs.



It instead took place in my living room, where after a warp-speed drive home from western Pennsylvania, I scrambled to find my remote and paced the floor during the closing minutes of the Big 12 Championship game wondering if the most implausible scenario of all the implausible scenarios was about to unfold.



The single best moment of the 2009 UC football season occurred when I, even if just for a few fleeting minutes, allowed myself to imagine...