TicketsOnly one way to start an in-depth look at the season opener and that's with another smooth hype video from Shane Harrison and the video crew. Welcome to the new age, indeed.
Now, time to take a closer look at what will be the difference and what you need to be paying attention to as the Bearcats host Purdue in front of 35,000 at Nippert Stadium on Saturday.
1) Center of Attention. Forget quarterback, more telling to the success of this team will be the fan snapping the ball to him. With the loss of starter Dan Sprague for the season suddenly a group with five returning starters at the heart of the offense have a hole in the middle. Taking over will be 6-foot-2, 287-pound redshirt freshman Deyshawn Bond. He came out of Indianapolis Central playing guard and tackle but will now be counted on to man the middle.
And talk about being thrown into the fire. When discussing Purdue, who is the top player most everyone will mention? Defensive tackle Bruce Gaston. The 6-2, 310-pound behemoth who goes by @bnasty90 on Twitter can ruin the Bearcats day. The Boilermakers top NFL prospect will be as big of a challenge as making all the line calls for the Bond.
"I am not going to go out there intimidated by anybody," Bond said. "I am going to go out there as hard as I can. I know he's a good guy, but I'm not too bad myself. I am going to let him know my presence is there, too. So we are going to battle the whole game."
So, join a team of linemen who spent all of last year playing together, make all the protection calls and take on the other team's best player in your first collegiate game. Welcome, Mr. Bond.
"I love it," he said. "I love competition. I will go out there and do what I got to do. I don't know what he's going to do but I know I am going to get the job done when it counts."
2) Where's RDAIV? No secret exists the most electric weapon on the Bearcats will be Ralph David Abernathy IV, but he's not an everydown back. Tommy Tuberville and first-time offensive coordinator Eddie Gran spent their offseason concocting ways to work Abernathy the ball in space. How often will he line up in the backfield? How often in the slot? How often on a reverse? Regardless, a major problem of the 2012 offense was an inability to find enough touches for their top weapon.
How successful the Bearcats are at finding space for Abernathy will go a long way to deciding how successful they are scoring points. And seeing more absurd plays like this one.
3) On the Hunt. The Bearcats believe they have the best collection of linebackers in the country between Greg Blair, Nick Temple and Jeff Luc. They will have to prove it against one of the most explosive running backs in the Big Ten.
RB Akeem Hunt averaged 8.3 yards per carry last season, though in limited action. His role is expected to be expanded this year and expectations are high he will continue to be the big play threat.
Luc may come with his top linebacker recruit tag, but hasn't played in a college game in about 20 months. How will he respond? Where will his game instincts be at? One slip up in covering an edge or pursuing the correct angle and this guy can take it to the house immediately.
New Purdue coach Darrell Hazell arrives with a dedication to running the football. Consider last year at Kent State he ran it 584 times and threw it only 358. Expect Hunt to challenge the backers ability to track him to the edges. It will be the most important aspect of slowing down the Boilers.
Don't believe Hunt can hurt you in a hurry? Ask Ohio State.
4) As the QBs turn. The quarterback question followed this team every day during fall practice. Who would it be? Munchie Legaux or Brendon Kay? Injuries have hampered both and they should each play. Likely whoever has the hot hand will take the majority of the snaps in the second half. The question will be how the rhythm of the two play with the rest of the team. Tommy Tuberville doesn't believe that will be a problem, but anytime two different signal-callers enter there will be some change.
"What I am concern about is the timing difference of what we do and how we do it, the center exchange, snap count and all those things," Tuberville said. "But we really haven't had a problem, if that would have been a problem I would have made a decision earlier and said we have to go with one guy, because we're making too many false starts, fumbled snaps and those kind of things. But we really haven't had a problem and these two kids are experienced, they both will have first game jitters but it's not like your putting redshirt freshman or sophomore knowing they haven't played a lot."
5) The Tub. The excitement over Tuberville spilled over into the ticket sales as a white out record crowd is expected for the opener Saturday. How will the crowd hamper Purdue's ability to deal with adjustments under their own first-year head coach in Hazell?
Most importantly, not only will Tuberville be leading this team on the field for the first time but Gran will be calling his first game as a coordinator. Not knowing how certain players will react to the big stage and taking on calling games for the first time will be an intriguing adjustment. Going against a team dealing with similar issues turned out to be a major advantage for Saturday. Although, it leaves both sides as in the dark about what to expect as you can imagine. Few games will be more decided by in-game adjustments as this one.
UC sure would like its opener to look a lot like last year's against Pittsburgh.
Welcome back, college football. Welcome back, Nippert Stadium.