TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati football team has played plenty of games against the traditional behemoths in college football over the years. They've played Ohio State, Florida State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Alabama and others, but they've never lined up against Michigan, even though the Wolverines are just three and a half hours away.
That'll change Saturday at noon when the Bearcats (1-0) take on the 11th-ranked Wolverines (1-0) in Ann Arbor. UC will be looking to improve on its performance last week in its 26-14 victory over Austin Peay in new head coach Luke Fickell's debut as UC's head coach.
"Obviously this is gonna be an incredible challenge," Fickell said Monday on the American Athletic Conference's weekly coaches teleconference. "I'm excited for our guys to go up there and get to play in front of 100,000 and some people, but also for the challenge for us to see where we are and to measure yourself against some of the best. If you want to be that and you want to strive to be that, you've got to measure yourself against it. I think our guys got a lot of the jitters out of their system that first week. I know even us as coaches did. We're excited to get rolling here and see where we are."
Fickell has had plenty of experience against the Wolverines, both as a player and as a coach at Ohio State. A reporter from Columbus informed Fickell on the call that this will be his 20th game against Michigan as either a player or coach.
The UC coach complimented the reporter on his thorough research, then proceeded to point out that this week will be more about the Bearcats focusing on themselves than it will be about Michigan and even less about his own personal experience in the storied OSU-Michigan rivalry.
"Right now we've got to focus on what it is that we're doing and how we need to get prepared," Fickell said. "As we get later in the week, we'll talk about the atmosphere. I think our guys will really thrive on it. I think they'll be excited to play in front of a crowd like that and to get challenged like they will. But I don't want them to put the atmosphere and the excitement and the national television ahead of playing the game and preparing for the game and having the ability to not let your emotions overtake you."
On paper, the Wolverines seem to have a huge advantage over a UC program that in many ways is starting over under Fickell. Last week they rushed for 215 yards in their 33-17 season-opening win over Florida, which played without 10 suspended players. Michigan trailed, 17-13, at halftime before cranking things up and pulling away in the second.
"They've got great personnel," Fickell said. "But beyond that it's how they play the game. They play hard and they play fast. They do what they do and they do it well."
The difference in talent level, he said, between a traditional national power like Michigan and a growing program like UC's lies mostly in depth, where the Wolverines are likely to have a substantial edge. Fickell is just setting about the task of building that kind of depth at UC.
But he's confident his players will approach the game as a chance to show that they can compete on an equal footing with the Wolverines.
"For us, being young and new in this program, it gives our guys an opportunity to go out there and measure themselves," Fickell said. "They have the same aspirations of all the guys on their side, to play at the next level and make it in the NFL. It gives you an opportunity to find out what you've got to do if you want to play at that level and compete against it because we can. Now it's being able to handle all those things and put it all together on Saturday afternoon."
In the end, Fickell's experiences against Michigan won't amount to much. But it makes for good fodder as the game approaches.
"There's an array of different experiences," Fickell said. "I don't know if it's the same thing, but I know the environment, I know the atmosphere. I know what they've done more so in the last three years more than anything. So I can lend a bit more insight about the atmosphere and studying these guys and knowing these guys over the last few years under coach (Jim) Harbaugh.
"But still I want it to be about us. This whole process the whole week of preparations, I know we'll get a lot of questions and people will ask me a lot of questions about my history with them. I want to make sure our guys understand that this is about us. It's about our program. This is about us starting something new and this is about us measuring ourselves."
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
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati football team has played plenty of games against the traditional behemoths in college football over the years. They've played Ohio State, Florida State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Alabama and others, but they've never lined up against Michigan, even though the Wolverines are just three and a half hours away.
That'll change Saturday at noon when the Bearcats (1-0) take on the 11th-ranked Wolverines (1-0) in Ann Arbor. UC will be looking to improve on its performance last week in its 26-14 victory over Austin Peay in new head coach Luke Fickell's debut as UC's head coach.
"Obviously this is gonna be an incredible challenge," Fickell said Monday on the American Athletic Conference's weekly coaches teleconference. "I'm excited for our guys to go up there and get to play in front of 100,000 and some people, but also for the challenge for us to see where we are and to measure yourself against some of the best. If you want to be that and you want to strive to be that, you've got to measure yourself against it. I think our guys got a lot of the jitters out of their system that first week. I know even us as coaches did. We're excited to get rolling here and see where we are."
Fickell has had plenty of experience against the Wolverines, both as a player and as a coach at Ohio State. A reporter from Columbus informed Fickell on the call that this will be his 20th game against Michigan as either a player or coach.
The UC coach complimented the reporter on his thorough research, then proceeded to point out that this week will be more about the Bearcats focusing on themselves than it will be about Michigan and even less about his own personal experience in the storied OSU-Michigan rivalry.
"Right now we've got to focus on what it is that we're doing and how we need to get prepared," Fickell said. "As we get later in the week, we'll talk about the atmosphere. I think our guys will really thrive on it. I think they'll be excited to play in front of a crowd like that and to get challenged like they will. But I don't want them to put the atmosphere and the excitement and the national television ahead of playing the game and preparing for the game and having the ability to not let your emotions overtake you."
On paper, the Wolverines seem to have a huge advantage over a UC program that in many ways is starting over under Fickell. Last week they rushed for 215 yards in their 33-17 season-opening win over Florida, which played without 10 suspended players. Michigan trailed, 17-13, at halftime before cranking things up and pulling away in the second.
"They've got great personnel," Fickell said. "But beyond that it's how they play the game. They play hard and they play fast. They do what they do and they do it well."
The difference in talent level, he said, between a traditional national power like Michigan and a growing program like UC's lies mostly in depth, where the Wolverines are likely to have a substantial edge. Fickell is just setting about the task of building that kind of depth at UC.
But he's confident his players will approach the game as a chance to show that they can compete on an equal footing with the Wolverines.
"For us, being young and new in this program, it gives our guys an opportunity to go out there and measure themselves," Fickell said. "They have the same aspirations of all the guys on their side, to play at the next level and make it in the NFL. It gives you an opportunity to find out what you've got to do if you want to play at that level and compete against it because we can. Now it's being able to handle all those things and put it all together on Saturday afternoon."
In the end, Fickell's experiences against Michigan won't amount to much. But it makes for good fodder as the game approaches.
"There's an array of different experiences," Fickell said. "I don't know if it's the same thing, but I know the environment, I know the atmosphere. I know what they've done more so in the last three years more than anything. So I can lend a bit more insight about the atmosphere and studying these guys and knowing these guys over the last few years under coach (Jim) Harbaugh.
"But still I want it to be about us. This whole process the whole week of preparations, I know we'll get a lot of questions and people will ask me a lot of questions about my history with them. I want to make sure our guys understand that this is about us. It's about our program. This is about us starting something new and this is about us measuring ourselves."
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.