TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati football team is preparing for a charged atmosphere Saturday against No. 8 Michigan in the biggest venue in the nation.
The Bearcats will face a partisan crowd in Michigan Stadium, which seats 107,601, the largest capacity of any stadium in the country. And while they're aware of the celebrated history of Michigan football and the recent success the Wolverines have enjoyed the past few years under Jim Harbaugh, they said they are preparing for Saturday afternoon like any other game.
"We can't worry about what they've done in the past," said senior middle linebacker Jaylyin Minor. "We're gonna take them play by play and as we would for anybody else."
That might sound like brave talk from a UC team that was a 34½-point underdog as of Tuesday, but really, what else would they say? As far as they're concerned, this is a golden opportunity to show the country what they're made of. They intend to capitalize on it.
It's not like the Bearcats have never played in such a dynamic road environment. After Saturday's game, UC will have played in the top five venues by capacity in the country. They've played at Penn State's Beaver Stadium (106,572, most recently in 2005); Ohio State's Ohio Stadium (104,944 most recently in 2014); Texas A&M's Kyle Field (102,733 in 1971); and Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (102,455 most recently in 2011). This weekend they'll add Michigan Stadium to that list.
The last time the Bearcats competed in front of a crowd that exceeded 100,000 was on Sept. 27, 2014, when they played at Ohio Stadium before 108,362 fans, which was then a stadium record. UC jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, scoring a touchdown on a 60-yard pass from Gunner Kiel to Chris Moore less than three minutes into the game. But before long, the Buckeyes had their way with the Bearcats, and cruised to a 50-28 victory, rolling up 710 yards, including 380 on the ground. UC gained 422 yards, 352 through the air.
Senior safety Carter Jacobs, who played in that game on special teams as a true freshman, said it's important for the UC players to maintain their focus and composure in such a hostile environment.
"It's hard to talk to the guy next to you," Jacobs said, "so you kind of adapt on the fly and come up with certain ways to communicate with each other besides verbally. A football game is a football game, so we're gonna approach it like we do every other game. I was really young then. Sometimes I got distracted while they were doing the O-H-I-O thing on the kickoffs. It's all about really just keeping your focus and not letting the chaos of the game get in your head."
Senior running back Mike Boone was also a freshman on that team. He remembers the noise level being so high that it seemed as if the field were shaking.
"We will prepare for it," Boone said. "You just try not to let the crowd affect you."
UC coach Luke Fickell knows the feeling as well as anyone. He played in Michigan's Big House when he was an Ohio State nose guard and he coached there as an OSU assistant. Fickell was asked at his Tuesday press conference if players notice the difference between a crowd of 100,000 and a crowd of 35,000 to 40,000, which is what the Bearcats routinely experience at Nippert Stadium.
"You do," he said. "I'm not gonna lie to you. But those are the things you have an opportunity to feed off of. That's what I'm excited about our guys to get a feel for. Going on the road is always something different, whether it's 110,000 or 50,000 that are gonna be against you. Our 70 or 80 guys on that sideline is really all we can rely on. We've got to thrive in those situations. We've got a lot of big games on the road this season.
"It's about us going on the road and learning how we're gonna handle these things, whether it's this week with a hundred and some thousand people or the following week (at Miami) with maybe 30 some thousand people. Either way, we are who we are. We've got to be able to stick together. We've gonna have to rely on one another and we're gonna have to be able to feed off the crowd not being with you."
Fickell said he wasn't aware that the Bearcats had been installed as such heavy underdogs until he was asked about it at his press conference. But he said it shouldn't matter.
"I don't think I've ever gone into a game knowing what the line is anyway so this might be the first time," he said. "I don't want to get into the negatives. This is us, our program, having an opportunity to measure themselves against the best. I think that's the way we've got to look at it whether it's a 2-point dog or a 30-point dog or whether we were. I've never worried about it one way or the other and I really don't want our guys to worry about it either. They've got a lot of things to think about and to focus on."
Maybe so, but for Minor, being such a lopsided underdog only adds to the fun.
"It just gives you that much more fire when it comes down to playing," he said. "You can't look at that. You've just got to go out and do what you know how to do."
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 is preparing for a charged atmosphere Saturday against No. 8 Michigan in the biggest venue in the nation.
The Bearcats will face a partisan crowd in Michigan Stadium, which seats 107,601, the largest capacity of any stadium in the country. And while they're aware of the celebrated history of Michigan football and the recent success the Wolverines have enjoyed the past few years under Jim Harbaugh, they said they are preparing for Saturday afternoon like any other game.
"We can't worry about what they've done in the past," said senior middle linebacker Jaylyin Minor. "We're gonna take them play by play and as we would for anybody else."
That might sound like brave talk from a UC team that was a 34½-point underdog as of Tuesday, but really, what else would they say? As far as they're concerned, this is a golden opportunity to show the country what they're made of. They intend to capitalize on it.
It's not like the Bearcats have never played in such a dynamic road environment. After Saturday's game, UC will have played in the top five venues by capacity in the country. They've played at Penn State's Beaver Stadium (106,572, most recently in 2005); Ohio State's Ohio Stadium (104,944 most recently in 2014); Texas A&M's Kyle Field (102,733 in 1971); and Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (102,455 most recently in 2011). This weekend they'll add Michigan Stadium to that list.
The last time the Bearcats competed in front of a crowd that exceeded 100,000 was on Sept. 27, 2014, when they played at Ohio Stadium before 108,362 fans, which was then a stadium record. UC jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, scoring a touchdown on a 60-yard pass from Gunner Kiel to Chris Moore less than three minutes into the game. But before long, the Buckeyes had their way with the Bearcats, and cruised to a 50-28 victory, rolling up 710 yards, including 380 on the ground. UC gained 422 yards, 352 through the air.
Senior safety Carter Jacobs, who played in that game on special teams as a true freshman, said it's important for the UC players to maintain their focus and composure in such a hostile environment.
"It's hard to talk to the guy next to you," Jacobs said, "so you kind of adapt on the fly and come up with certain ways to communicate with each other besides verbally. A football game is a football game, so we're gonna approach it like we do every other game. I was really young then. Sometimes I got distracted while they were doing the O-H-I-O thing on the kickoffs. It's all about really just keeping your focus and not letting the chaos of the game get in your head."
Senior running back Mike Boone was also a freshman on that team. He remembers the noise level being so high that it seemed as if the field were shaking.
"We will prepare for it," Boone said. "You just try not to let the crowd affect you."
UC coach Luke Fickell knows the feeling as well as anyone. He played in Michigan's Big House when he was an Ohio State nose guard and he coached there as an OSU assistant. Fickell was asked at his Tuesday press conference if players notice the difference between a crowd of 100,000 and a crowd of 35,000 to 40,000, which is what the Bearcats routinely experience at Nippert Stadium.
"You do," he said. "I'm not gonna lie to you. But those are the things you have an opportunity to feed off of. That's what I'm excited about our guys to get a feel for. Going on the road is always something different, whether it's 110,000 or 50,000 that are gonna be against you. Our 70 or 80 guys on that sideline is really all we can rely on. We've got to thrive in those situations. We've got a lot of big games on the road this season.
"It's about us going on the road and learning how we're gonna handle these things, whether it's this week with a hundred and some thousand people or the following week (at Miami) with maybe 30 some thousand people. Either way, we are who we are. We've got to be able to stick together. We've gonna have to rely on one another and we're gonna have to be able to feed off the crowd not being with you."
Fickell said he wasn't aware that the Bearcats had been installed as such heavy underdogs until he was asked about it at his press conference. But he said it shouldn't matter.
"I don't think I've ever gone into a game knowing what the line is anyway so this might be the first time," he said. "I don't want to get into the negatives. This is us, our program, having an opportunity to measure themselves against the best. I think that's the way we've got to look at it whether it's a 2-point dog or a 30-point dog or whether we were. I've never worried about it one way or the other and I really don't want our guys to worry about it either. They've got a lot of things to think about and to focus on."
Maybe so, but for Minor, being such a lopsided underdog only adds to the fun.
"It just gives you that much more fire when it comes down to playing," he said. "You can't look at that. You've just got to go out and do what you know how to do."
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.