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Big catch gets Miami wide receiver noticed

File photo Miami University wide receiver Andy Cruse

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 8:01 AM Wednesday, November 4, 2009

OXFORD — Andy Cruse sounds like he still isn’t exactly sure how he made that diving, one-handed catch last week against Toledo.

“I dove, stuck my hand out and I guess the ball just sort of stuck to my hand,” he said about the play which isn’t likely to be forgotten once the 2009 football season is over.

There is a certain irony to that, because when the season started Cruse seemed to be Miami University’s forgotten man.

He wasn’t really forgotten. Not by the coaches. It’s just that for a period of time MU’s wide receiver corps became so crowded with veterans that Cruse was pushed to the side.

Now, as the RedHawks seek their second straight victory when they play at Temple on Thursday, Nov. 5, he is back where he started.

During spring and summer practice Cruse, a redshirt freshman from Cincinnati who set just about every receiving record at Turpin High School, had worked his way onto the first string. He was ahead of three teammates — Dustin Woods, Eugene Harris and Armand Robinson — who had a total of 228 career catches.

“It was kind of weird,” Cruse said.

The situation became even more weird as the season started. Cruse suddenly dropped out of sight.

In the opener against Kentucky, Miami started the game with five wideouts. Cruse wasn’t one of them. He played only on the punt-return team that day. The explanation was simple.

“A couple guys had been hurt and they came back,” Cruse said, referring to Woods and Harris.

Cruse didn’t play at all in the second game at Boise State. He didn’t catch a pass against Western Michigan. Or Kent State. Or Cincinnati.

By that time, however, the injury tide was turning back against Miami’s receiving corps. Swamping it, in fact.

Chris Givens, who led the RedHawks in receiving yards and touchdowns last year, was lost for the season after two weeks. Jamal Rogers, Woods and Harris have been in and out of the lineup.

Cruse, meanwhile, has been busy with his roommate, Zac Dysert, who has passed for more than 330 yards in three of his first six starts.

During Miami’s 31-24 victory over Toledo last weekend Cruse made four catches for 61 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown early in the second quarter and a 29-yard catch in the third quarter that’s still hard to believe.

“The play wasn’t even supposed to go to me,” he said. “I was supposed to clear out the field for Jamal, who was running the post.

When Rogers could not get open, Dysert looked to Cruse.

“I was just trying to run it down and get a hand on it,” Cruse said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.

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