TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
WEST HARRISON, Ind. – Every morning when practice ends at about 11:30, University of Cincinnati football coach Luke Fickell gathers his players together at mid-field at the Higher Ground Retreat Center.
Director of Football Sports Performance Brady Collins addresses the players first with detailed instructions about how to take care of themselves physically during the grueling days of training camp. Then Fickell takes over for a two or three-minute address about how the Bearcats practiced that day. Sometimes he's pleased. Sometimes he's not. But he always lets his players know where he stands.
With Fickell's permission, the following is a sampling of what he told his players after practice beginning with Tuesday, Aug. 8 and ending Monday, Aug. 14.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 8
We're not gonna have frontrunners. I hope you guys know what I mean. Those are guys that are all excited and hyped up when things are going really well. That's easy. Anybody can do that. It's when it's tough, it's when things aren't going well when we can't lose our mind and start grabbing guys and throwing them on the ground. We're not gonna be the ones that only have excitement when things are going really well.
We have to be able to handle adversity. We will not accept frontrunners, those guys, who when everything's easy, they're out there leading, but when it really gets tough, where is that guy, that guy who's always got juice, that guy who's always jumping up and down getting people rolling? Now all of a sudden we're in a tough situation and we can't find the guy.
We're looking for real leadership, guys who love the game and can step up. They know what to say and when to say it because it means something to them.
Now, when we're in uptempo on offense, what do you want to do? Get the ball to the official. There's no way we drop the ball on the ground. You've got 'em reelin', you want to be in an uptempo situation, then get the ball to the official so he can get the thing set. The last thing we want to do is flip the ball on the ground.
We've got to know what we want to do with the ball. If you catch the ball and it's inbounds, we've got to make sure we get the ball to the official. They're not gonna work their butts off to get the thing back in there. We've got to be smart about those things.
It's all about working the game and learning the game. That's what we're doing out here. We've got an inordinate amount of time to do that stuff out here. That's why we've got meetings. That's why we've got walk-throughs. This is our best time to learn the game.
Great work, though. I didn't think we had the demeanor we needed when we came out here and I'm not going to allow us to do that. I know you can't play the game without energy. You can't. I see guys limpin' around. Get your butt out early. When we get rollin', we gotta go, man. You can't expect somebody else to pick you up every single day. Self-motivation, that's what we need from our team. Keep grindin' it out.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 9
We still have an issue. We've got to wait for two true freshmen. The offensive line has been out here for 15 minutes workin' on their stuff. When we've got to wait for two true freshmen, it's just keeping everybody on the field longer. So don't be last. If you look around and you're the last guy here, it's not cool, OK? Whoever's last, we're gonna let you know every day.
But it was the best start we've had. I know the offense made an emphasis just about warmup. You may think it's stupid, the little things we're talking about, but I can stand there in warmup and tell how we run 10s and 20s and then we go into openers, how we're gonna be, what's the spirit of the practice. What's the demeanor. What are guys gonna act like when bad things start to go. You get a good indication just by the way you take the field and warm up. We know where you are mentally. If you ain't there, you'd better get yourself there. You've got to rely on your brothers. When the tough times hit, we can't see guys lose their mind. It's one thing to motivate guys, OK? As long as everybody knows that you give a damn and you truly care and you don't take it personally, then it becomes a motivation, all right?
Make sure we have it that way. Make sure those guys that are gonna step up and are gonna get on people, that everybody knows you care. If you do, then we're going in the right direction. Because we do need that. But we've got to make sure we can handle it the right way. For you young guys, you've got to trust. If I'm getting on you, I'm getting on you for a reason. I'm making a point. So you know guys care. So you don't take things personally. A hell of a competitive day, men. Now you need to get off your feet. You need to have rest, all right? We appreciate the way you guys go about it.
THURSDAY, AUG. 10
Good job today. It was competitive, guys staying on their feet, battling with one another. From the get-go, we lost our minds a little bit, but we were able to gather it back and that's what I was really looking for. It's all about recovering. It's all about in-the-game adjustments. It's all about in the game where we can communicate with you where you don't lose your mind. Your emotion can't overtake you. We know it's an emotional game and you can't play without emotion, but we've got to be able to handle it and that's what we're gonna do.
When we get into the second week of camp, all of those things are gonna add up. We're gonna push you to the edge where all of a sudden you're gonna lose yourself. That's where guys have go to pull each other back. You've got to calm each other down.
That's what the game's gonna be like. When it really gets down to it, when we're in a championship battle, which we're gonna be in, when we get into that battle, you're gonna be able to handle yourself when the emotions start to ride high.
We're not gonna put you out here in a situation where we don't think you can make it, whether it's an injury, whatever it is. We're gonna push you. That's why we do some of the things we do, so we know it's only your mind that's gonna hold you back, it's not something inside.
All right, keep it going now. Tomorrow will be different because we've got a big scrimmage on Saturday. So we will prepare you, but you have to prepare yourself as well. I appreciate the effort. I really appreciate the energy. I appreciate the competitive nature of everybody today. Keep getting better men.
SATURDAY, AUG. 12
(After the scrimmage at Nippert Stadiuim)
This is a time for you guys now. We've got curfew. We are still in camp. There's only three groups I want you to be with tonight - your family, your teammates or your girlfriend. Nobody else. We're still in the midst of what we're doing. Keep this stuff together.
We'll be on the bus tomorrow to go back to Higher Ground and we've got a steak dinner when we get back there. We've got to get ourselves back in the mode.
You've got a chance to get back and relax with your families tonight. Have a good morning tomorrow, spend some time with your families or your girlfriends, whoever it is, but we cannot lose sight of what we're doing. This is a journey. We battled our butts off. There was some great stuff out here tonight, but there's a lot of things we've got to fix, a lot of things we've got to work on. Next week we've got to grind it out. We've got to be hard on ourselves. We've got to figure out how we're gonna get better.
Next week we're making some decisions. We've got to create some chemistry, whether it's up front on the offensive line, the defensive line, the back end, whatever. We're on a mission. Soon it's gonna be Aug. 31. The days of developing toughness and all those other things, that's out. That's done. If we didn't do those things this summer, if we didn't do that during the first week, we've got issues.
So take care of yourself tonight. Spend time with the people that you need to spend time with and make sure you clear your mind a little bit. We've got about seven more days to grind through this thing. Don't let anybody down now.
MONDAY, AUG. 14
About today, men, I had to come out and be a real jerk. That's not the way we want to do it, but it's very intentional. We had guys lose their minds today. Stuff happens. What happens on the field stays on the field. But we've got to make sure that we understand how we're supposed to handle ourselves. I know that we compete against each other. I know that the emotions fly. But we're not going to let you come out here and not let you go all out.
We're not going to leave anything to chance. If somebody beats us, they're gonna be better than us. They're gonna physically outplay us. They're not gonna do the little things better than us. They're not gonna be together more than us. They're not gonna want it more than us. They're gonna have to take our best shot. But the only way we're gonna do that is if we do all the little things right, that we grind it out and battle our butts off out here.
Just understand when you come out here whether you feel great or not, if we have to do something to get everybody rolling, I promise you I'll do that. Yeah, we had a scrimmage on Saturday, we had a day off yesterday, and it's hard to get back into our routine. But we've got to grow from it. We're not gonna miss a day. I promise you that. We're not gonna miss a day where we don't have great work done out here, whatever it takes. We're gonna get our work because I will not cheat you guys. I will not cheat the seniors.
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.
GoBEARCATS.com
WEST HARRISON, Ind. – Every morning when practice ends at about 11:30, University of Cincinnati football coach Luke Fickell gathers his players together at mid-field at the Higher Ground Retreat Center.
Director of Football Sports Performance Brady Collins addresses the players first with detailed instructions about how to take care of themselves physically during the grueling days of training camp. Then Fickell takes over for a two or three-minute address about how the Bearcats practiced that day. Sometimes he's pleased. Sometimes he's not. But he always lets his players know where he stands.
With Fickell's permission, the following is a sampling of what he told his players after practice beginning with Tuesday, Aug. 8 and ending Monday, Aug. 14.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 8
We're not gonna have frontrunners. I hope you guys know what I mean. Those are guys that are all excited and hyped up when things are going really well. That's easy. Anybody can do that. It's when it's tough, it's when things aren't going well when we can't lose our mind and start grabbing guys and throwing them on the ground. We're not gonna be the ones that only have excitement when things are going really well.
We have to be able to handle adversity. We will not accept frontrunners, those guys, who when everything's easy, they're out there leading, but when it really gets tough, where is that guy, that guy who's always got juice, that guy who's always jumping up and down getting people rolling? Now all of a sudden we're in a tough situation and we can't find the guy.
We're looking for real leadership, guys who love the game and can step up. They know what to say and when to say it because it means something to them.
Now, when we're in uptempo on offense, what do you want to do? Get the ball to the official. There's no way we drop the ball on the ground. You've got 'em reelin', you want to be in an uptempo situation, then get the ball to the official so he can get the thing set. The last thing we want to do is flip the ball on the ground.
We've got to know what we want to do with the ball. If you catch the ball and it's inbounds, we've got to make sure we get the ball to the official. They're not gonna work their butts off to get the thing back in there. We've got to be smart about those things.
It's all about working the game and learning the game. That's what we're doing out here. We've got an inordinate amount of time to do that stuff out here. That's why we've got meetings. That's why we've got walk-throughs. This is our best time to learn the game.
Great work, though. I didn't think we had the demeanor we needed when we came out here and I'm not going to allow us to do that. I know you can't play the game without energy. You can't. I see guys limpin' around. Get your butt out early. When we get rollin', we gotta go, man. You can't expect somebody else to pick you up every single day. Self-motivation, that's what we need from our team. Keep grindin' it out.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 9
We still have an issue. We've got to wait for two true freshmen. The offensive line has been out here for 15 minutes workin' on their stuff. When we've got to wait for two true freshmen, it's just keeping everybody on the field longer. So don't be last. If you look around and you're the last guy here, it's not cool, OK? Whoever's last, we're gonna let you know every day.
But it was the best start we've had. I know the offense made an emphasis just about warmup. You may think it's stupid, the little things we're talking about, but I can stand there in warmup and tell how we run 10s and 20s and then we go into openers, how we're gonna be, what's the spirit of the practice. What's the demeanor. What are guys gonna act like when bad things start to go. You get a good indication just by the way you take the field and warm up. We know where you are mentally. If you ain't there, you'd better get yourself there. You've got to rely on your brothers. When the tough times hit, we can't see guys lose their mind. It's one thing to motivate guys, OK? As long as everybody knows that you give a damn and you truly care and you don't take it personally, then it becomes a motivation, all right?
Make sure we have it that way. Make sure those guys that are gonna step up and are gonna get on people, that everybody knows you care. If you do, then we're going in the right direction. Because we do need that. But we've got to make sure we can handle it the right way. For you young guys, you've got to trust. If I'm getting on you, I'm getting on you for a reason. I'm making a point. So you know guys care. So you don't take things personally. A hell of a competitive day, men. Now you need to get off your feet. You need to have rest, all right? We appreciate the way you guys go about it.
THURSDAY, AUG. 10
Good job today. It was competitive, guys staying on their feet, battling with one another. From the get-go, we lost our minds a little bit, but we were able to gather it back and that's what I was really looking for. It's all about recovering. It's all about in-the-game adjustments. It's all about in the game where we can communicate with you where you don't lose your mind. Your emotion can't overtake you. We know it's an emotional game and you can't play without emotion, but we've got to be able to handle it and that's what we're gonna do.
When we get into the second week of camp, all of those things are gonna add up. We're gonna push you to the edge where all of a sudden you're gonna lose yourself. That's where guys have go to pull each other back. You've got to calm each other down.
That's what the game's gonna be like. When it really gets down to it, when we're in a championship battle, which we're gonna be in, when we get into that battle, you're gonna be able to handle yourself when the emotions start to ride high.
We're not gonna put you out here in a situation where we don't think you can make it, whether it's an injury, whatever it is. We're gonna push you. That's why we do some of the things we do, so we know it's only your mind that's gonna hold you back, it's not something inside.
All right, keep it going now. Tomorrow will be different because we've got a big scrimmage on Saturday. So we will prepare you, but you have to prepare yourself as well. I appreciate the effort. I really appreciate the energy. I appreciate the competitive nature of everybody today. Keep getting better men.
SATURDAY, AUG. 12
(After the scrimmage at Nippert Stadiuim)
This is a time for you guys now. We've got curfew. We are still in camp. There's only three groups I want you to be with tonight - your family, your teammates or your girlfriend. Nobody else. We're still in the midst of what we're doing. Keep this stuff together.
We'll be on the bus tomorrow to go back to Higher Ground and we've got a steak dinner when we get back there. We've got to get ourselves back in the mode.
You've got a chance to get back and relax with your families tonight. Have a good morning tomorrow, spend some time with your families or your girlfriends, whoever it is, but we cannot lose sight of what we're doing. This is a journey. We battled our butts off. There was some great stuff out here tonight, but there's a lot of things we've got to fix, a lot of things we've got to work on. Next week we've got to grind it out. We've got to be hard on ourselves. We've got to figure out how we're gonna get better.
Next week we're making some decisions. We've got to create some chemistry, whether it's up front on the offensive line, the defensive line, the back end, whatever. We're on a mission. Soon it's gonna be Aug. 31. The days of developing toughness and all those other things, that's out. That's done. If we didn't do those things this summer, if we didn't do that during the first week, we've got issues.
So take care of yourself tonight. Spend time with the people that you need to spend time with and make sure you clear your mind a little bit. We've got about seven more days to grind through this thing. Don't let anybody down now.
MONDAY, AUG. 14
About today, men, I had to come out and be a real jerk. That's not the way we want to do it, but it's very intentional. We had guys lose their minds today. Stuff happens. What happens on the field stays on the field. But we've got to make sure that we understand how we're supposed to handle ourselves. I know that we compete against each other. I know that the emotions fly. But we're not going to let you come out here and not let you go all out.
We're not going to leave anything to chance. If somebody beats us, they're gonna be better than us. They're gonna physically outplay us. They're not gonna do the little things better than us. They're not gonna be together more than us. They're not gonna want it more than us. They're gonna have to take our best shot. But the only way we're gonna do that is if we do all the little things right, that we grind it out and battle our butts off out here.
Just understand when you come out here whether you feel great or not, if we have to do something to get everybody rolling, I promise you I'll do that. Yeah, we had a scrimmage on Saturday, we had a day off yesterday, and it's hard to get back into our routine. But we've got to grow from it. We're not gonna miss a day. I promise you that. We're not gonna miss a day where we don't have great work done out here, whatever it takes. We're gonna get our work because I will not cheat you guys. I will not cheat the seniors.
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.