VIA: John Kekis, AP Sports
Zach Collaros makes a practice of practicing his quarterback scrambles in practice. You know what they say about practice.
Collaros threw four touchdown passes, three off broken plays, the Cincinnati defense forced two critical turnovers and the No. 5 Bearcats remained perfect with a 28-7 victory over Syracuse on Saturday.
“We do a scrambling drill every day,” Collaros said after just his second start in place of injured quarterback Tony Pike. “We have good chemistry with the receivers.
“All I know is I like to improvise a little bit.”
To the dismay of the Orange (3-5, 0-3 Big East), who registered eight tackles for loss but only one sack.
“It’s hard to run around and get someone open to make a big play,” first-year Syracuse coach Doug Marrone said. “You have to have great vision. You have to keep the play going. We didn’t finish.”
Collaros was 22 of 28 for 295 yards and no turnovers. Always a threat to run, he managed just 22 yards on nine carries, preferring to use his strong right arm to inflict the damage.
Collaros is a remarkable 47 of 63 (75 percent) for 749 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception this season and has rushed for 213 yards and two more scores.
“He’s definitely a kid that understands what’s going on out there,” Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said.
Collaros hit Armon Binns on scoring passes of 81 and 13 yards off scrambles, Kazeem Alli for 16 yards off a botched field goal, and Adrien Robinson for 4 yards as Cincinnati (8-0, 4-0 Big East) won its 14th straight regular-season game to remain in contention for the BCS national championship.
