ESPN College Football

A few leftover Cincinnati tidbits from Thursday night's win over South Florida ...

Dustin Grutza, who started the season under center before breaking his leg at Oklahoma, was in uniform Thursday night. He could come back to practice as soon as next week when Cincinnati gets ready for West Virginia. Head coach Brian Kelly said Grutza more realistically could be ready to play in the Nov. 14 game at Louisville.

"We don't have to make that decision right now," he said.

When they do, Tony Pike might deserve to remain the starter anyway. Pike has the ability to stretch the field with his arm and can see over defenses with his 6-foot-6 frame. He's also surprisingly mobile and has earned the respect from his team by playing through a broken left forearm and wrist problem. Pike still forces some balls into heavy coverage, but he might be Cincinnati's best option. With alarming rate that quarterbacks have gone down for the Bearcats this season, though, it's nice for them to have Grutza available.

"I was hooting and hollering on the sidelines, just so I'd have a little bit better evening," he said "I couldn't stomach 0-for-25."

• Connor Barwin's transition to defensive end has been a smashing success. He's tied for the Big East lead in sacks and was all over the field against South Florida, at one point reaching out with his left hand to deflect a Matt Grothe pass, which led to an interception. But Barwin got back to his roots with a touchdown catch in the fourth quarter on first and goal from the 1-yard line.

"I was pumped," he said. "I was so excited when I saw (Dominick Goodman) got tackled at the 1-yard line because there were only two plays we could run down there. "

It was Barwin's first catch of the season. Kelly said it wasn't just a reward for his good work on defense.

"He's still got some tight end in his blood, and that does keep him happy," Kelly said.

• Cincinnati's players and coaches credited their hard practice on Sunday for helping them forget the 40-16 loss at Connecticut the day before and refocus on South Florida. Kelly let his 19 seniors pick team captains for the week and had them "take ownership of what happened."

"When we had to practice on Sunday, I didn't like it," receiver Mardy Gilyard said. "I was like, 'We just played a hard game on Saturday.' But I understood. We needed to go to work put that game behind us. If we would have had a bad practice on Sunday, I don't want to say there would have been a different outcome (versus South Florida), but we wouldn't have played the same."

• The Bearcats still face an uphill battle in drawing fan support that rivals their big-time status. Thursday's announced crowd of 31,175 was the 10th-largest in Nippert Stadium history, but there were hundreds if not thousands of empty seats despite the fact that the team was playing a ranked opponent. At least a third of the crowd and maybe more had already exited with six minutes left. Cincinnati was holding onto a two-touchdown lead at the time, and South Florida was driving. Nippert can be a great atmosphere with its cozy environment, and the fans who were there did a nice job with making noise and the "black-out." But how can the city expect to keep Kelly long term if it can't even sell out its stadium for a big conference game?