The Bearcats' blowout in the Sugar Bowl just proves how much they missed Brian Kelly.

There is no way on earth that Kelly on the sidelines loses this game 51-24. His team had faced incredible adversity all season and were one Texas second away from playing for the BCS title. This was not the same team.

Without Kelly however, you could see the Bearcats lacked direction confidence and, most of all, any defensive plan.

Tim Tebow killed them all night but I don't believe that would have happened if Kelly was in charge. He would surely have found a way to stop the Tebow Tsunami while it was happening.

Would Cincinnati have won the game? Probably not, but no way would it have been that kind of blowout.

Florida were clearly up for this to show just how much they respected Urban Meyer. Cincinnati, on the other hand, had been through a dizzying round of coaching changes that had clearly left the team demoralized. Not having Kelly was an incredible setback, it turned out.

Blame the college game which forces coaches to pick new jobs while the season is ongoing because of recruiting needs. Don't blame Brian Kelly.