TicketsWEST HARRISON, Ind. – For many of the University of Cincinnati football players, Saturday will be the most important day since Luke Fickell arrived from Ohio State last December to become the Bearcats' head coach.
UC will conduct a game-condition intrasquad scrimmage, providing Fickell with his best opportunity yet to get an actual feel for who can play and who can't.
"We're gonna compete tomorrow," Fickell said Friday after practice at the Higher Ground Conference & Retreat Center. "I want it to be about who can play the game of football, not about who understands a lot of our systems. We want to see the guys who can go out and respond and play football."
The scrimmage will also go a long way toward determining if the starting quarterback will be junior Hayden Moore or sophomore Ross Trail when the Bearcats line up to face Austin Peay in their Aug. 31 season opener.
Moore has looked more impressive at Higher Ground and seems to have the inside track for the starting job. But that means nothing until Fickell says it. And he hasn't said it. In fact, he pointedly disagreed with that assessment when he was presented with it Friday.
"They've switched back and forth with the ones and the twos each day," the UC coach said. "Sometimes that makes it a little harder on them and you can see when they're with different guys it makes it a little bit different for them. But I wouldn't say that there's anybody who's for sure right now. We don't really know. We've got some good feelings on both of them from the things that they've done, but we want to see them play on Saturday."
Fickell will also take a long look at the offensive line.
"Right now we're bouncing five, six, seven guys around in there," Fickell said, "so we're gonna be able to mix those guys up and by next week be able to lock in to say who are the guys that you're gonna basically roll with because they've got to really learn to work together. So we've got to find that out.
"That's true with the defensive front as well. We keep saying we're gonna play eight guys, but we need to know who the guys are that are gonna be held a little bit higher, that they're gonna be held accountable, not just who's hot. We want to see those guys play and find out who can do things the way we want to see them done."
Saturdays' scrimmage will be the second major scrimmage for the Bearcats under Fickell. The other was the spring game back in April. But this one will be a lot more telling. The players have had three months during the off-season to improve. And now they've also had two weeks of fall camp to learn the nuances of what they'll be asked to do by their new head coach.
More importantly, they're getting much closer to playing a game that counts, so the expectations for this scrimmage will be much higher than they were for the spring game.
"Spring is really different because there's not really any pressure on you," Fickell said. "We'll talk about that tonight as a team. Tomorrow is game day. It'll be our greatest challenge to see who really can go out there and compete. A lot of guys can do it out here when it's scripted.
"And it's gonna be a challenge to our coaches too. They've got to find a way to work together as well. For myself, too. I've got to listen and see where I can poke my head in and where I can stay out. It's something for all of us. We're really legitimately honing in on going to win a football game and you've got to go compete to win a starting job or secure a starting job. And us as coaches, we've got to work really, really hard on how we're gonna handle our game day situation."
Based on what he's seen so far, Fickell said the Bearcats can be a physical team with good speed and overall athletic ability.
"I think we can run," he said. "But we've go to put it together and play the game of football. The game of football is not track. I know we can run and that can be a strength of ours, but you can only run really fast when you know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. Ability-wise I don't worry. It's more so, do we understand the game of football and can we handle adversity when things don't go our way right away? That's the maturity that we need to be able to see."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.
UC will conduct a game-condition intrasquad scrimmage, providing Fickell with his best opportunity yet to get an actual feel for who can play and who can't.
"We're gonna compete tomorrow," Fickell said Friday after practice at the Higher Ground Conference & Retreat Center. "I want it to be about who can play the game of football, not about who understands a lot of our systems. We want to see the guys who can go out and respond and play football."
The scrimmage will also go a long way toward determining if the starting quarterback will be junior Hayden Moore or sophomore Ross Trail when the Bearcats line up to face Austin Peay in their Aug. 31 season opener.
Moore has looked more impressive at Higher Ground and seems to have the inside track for the starting job. But that means nothing until Fickell says it. And he hasn't said it. In fact, he pointedly disagreed with that assessment when he was presented with it Friday.
"They've switched back and forth with the ones and the twos each day," the UC coach said. "Sometimes that makes it a little harder on them and you can see when they're with different guys it makes it a little bit different for them. But I wouldn't say that there's anybody who's for sure right now. We don't really know. We've got some good feelings on both of them from the things that they've done, but we want to see them play on Saturday."
Fickell will also take a long look at the offensive line.
"Right now we're bouncing five, six, seven guys around in there," Fickell said, "so we're gonna be able to mix those guys up and by next week be able to lock in to say who are the guys that you're gonna basically roll with because they've got to really learn to work together. So we've got to find that out.
"That's true with the defensive front as well. We keep saying we're gonna play eight guys, but we need to know who the guys are that are gonna be held a little bit higher, that they're gonna be held accountable, not just who's hot. We want to see those guys play and find out who can do things the way we want to see them done."
Saturdays' scrimmage will be the second major scrimmage for the Bearcats under Fickell. The other was the spring game back in April. But this one will be a lot more telling. The players have had three months during the off-season to improve. And now they've also had two weeks of fall camp to learn the nuances of what they'll be asked to do by their new head coach.
More importantly, they're getting much closer to playing a game that counts, so the expectations for this scrimmage will be much higher than they were for the spring game.
"Spring is really different because there's not really any pressure on you," Fickell said. "We'll talk about that tonight as a team. Tomorrow is game day. It'll be our greatest challenge to see who really can go out there and compete. A lot of guys can do it out here when it's scripted.
"And it's gonna be a challenge to our coaches too. They've got to find a way to work together as well. For myself, too. I've got to listen and see where I can poke my head in and where I can stay out. It's something for all of us. We're really legitimately honing in on going to win a football game and you've got to go compete to win a starting job or secure a starting job. And us as coaches, we've got to work really, really hard on how we're gonna handle our game day situation."
Based on what he's seen so far, Fickell said the Bearcats can be a physical team with good speed and overall athletic ability.
"I think we can run," he said. "But we've go to put it together and play the game of football. The game of football is not track. I know we can run and that can be a strength of ours, but you can only run really fast when you know exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. Ability-wise I don't worry. It's more so, do we understand the game of football and can we handle adversity when things don't go our way right away? That's the maturity that we need to be able to see."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.