TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI – Wary of having to try to pull out a close game for the fourth straight year, University of Cincinnati offensive tackle Korey Cunningham said early last week that the Bearcats were focused on jumping out to an early lead against Miami.
That didn't happen. The Bearcats trailed 14-3 heading into the fourth quarter and 17-6 with 4:45 to play, but rallied to pull out a 21-17 win over the RedHawks at Miami's Yager Stadium for their 12th straight win in the Battle for the Victory Bell.
That wasn't how Cunningham and his teammates wanted it to unfold, but it was OK with UC coach Luke Fickell. He called the victory "a program win" while talking to reporters after the game.
Being forced to win in such dramatic fashion, when it appeared the RedHawks had victory well in hand, Fickell said, was just what he needed to gain credibility for what he and his coaching staff have been preaching to his players ever since he was hired last December to replace Tommy Tuberville, whose team last year often wilted in the second half.
"It was a situation where people would say you don't have an opportunity (to win) but you just keep fighting and plugging," Fickell said Monday. "Especially early on in a program (it's important) because these guys are getting to know us as coaches. (It enhances) our ability to get them to believe in the things we want them to believe in. That's why I say it's a program win.
"All those hard winter conditioning things pay off because they see it. They can see better than they hear. We tell them that these things are really going to benefit them in the long run and then all of a sudden they get in a situation where we believed we were equipped for that. We were driving more late in the game because of our training. It can go such a long way for those guys to see some proof of the belief in the things that we've been preaching to them."
Fickell said the way the Bearcats won was a microcosm for how he sees their prospects for the season.
"We told them, right now this is who we are," Fickell said. "We're fighters. We're blue collar. We're gonna work our butts off. We're gonna get ourselves in situations and put a lot of these games into the fourth quarter and we're gonna have an opportunity to win them because of our training. We've said that from January on. We're not sitting here claiming we're gonna go out and score 55 points and outscore people or shut people out. No, we're gonna find a way to be successful. We're gonna get games to the fourth quarter where we think that our training is going to give us the benefit to win those games. We kind of say the same thing about the season. We want to play our best ball at the end of the year."
If that happens, it will be the direct opposite of what happened last year when the Bearcats finished the season with five straight losses on the way to a 4-8 record.
The win over Miami enables UC to head into this Saturday's game at Navy with some momentum. They know they were able to hang with then-No. 8 Michigan for nearly three quarters on the road, as they did two weeks ago, and now they know they have the ability to come back and win late in a game.
The situation for UC this week will be much different from what the Bearcats faced last week. Instead of playing a team they've played every year since 1945, they'll take on a Navy team that they've played only twice in the history of the UC program and not at all since 1956. The Midshipmen have won both of the other two matchups. This will be the first American Athletic Conference game of the season for UC and the first time the Bearcats have ever faced Navy in AAC play.
Navy (2-0) mostly keeps the ball on the ground using an option offense. The Midshipmen have averaged 305 rushing yards per game, which ranks 10th nationally. They're led by Zach Abey, who has averaged 171.5 rushing yards per game, which leads the AAC. The Bearcats have allowed 168.3 rushing yards per game, which ranks 10th in the American.
Preparing to play an option team can be a difficult challenge for teams like UC that don't see it very often.
"It gives us a lot more things to work on," Fickell said. "Playing an option team is always going to be about discipline. It's going to be about fundamentals."
The Bearcats' last game against a team from a military academy was on Oct. 9, 2004 when they lost, 48-29, at Army, ending the Black Knights' 19-game losing streak, the nation's longest at the time. Current UC running back coach Gino Guidugli, the Bearcats' quarterback at the time, passed for 350 yards and four touchdowns in the loss.
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 – Wary of having to try to pull out a close game for the fourth straight year, University of Cincinnati offensive tackle Korey Cunningham said early last week that the Bearcats were focused on jumping out to an early lead against Miami.
That didn't happen. The Bearcats trailed 14-3 heading into the fourth quarter and 17-6 with 4:45 to play, but rallied to pull out a 21-17 win over the RedHawks at Miami's Yager Stadium for their 12th straight win in the Battle for the Victory Bell.
That wasn't how Cunningham and his teammates wanted it to unfold, but it was OK with UC coach Luke Fickell. He called the victory "a program win" while talking to reporters after the game.
Being forced to win in such dramatic fashion, when it appeared the RedHawks had victory well in hand, Fickell said, was just what he needed to gain credibility for what he and his coaching staff have been preaching to his players ever since he was hired last December to replace Tommy Tuberville, whose team last year often wilted in the second half.
"It was a situation where people would say you don't have an opportunity (to win) but you just keep fighting and plugging," Fickell said Monday. "Especially early on in a program (it's important) because these guys are getting to know us as coaches. (It enhances) our ability to get them to believe in the things we want them to believe in. That's why I say it's a program win.
"All those hard winter conditioning things pay off because they see it. They can see better than they hear. We tell them that these things are really going to benefit them in the long run and then all of a sudden they get in a situation where we believed we were equipped for that. We were driving more late in the game because of our training. It can go such a long way for those guys to see some proof of the belief in the things that we've been preaching to them."
Fickell said the way the Bearcats won was a microcosm for how he sees their prospects for the season.
"We told them, right now this is who we are," Fickell said. "We're fighters. We're blue collar. We're gonna work our butts off. We're gonna get ourselves in situations and put a lot of these games into the fourth quarter and we're gonna have an opportunity to win them because of our training. We've said that from January on. We're not sitting here claiming we're gonna go out and score 55 points and outscore people or shut people out. No, we're gonna find a way to be successful. We're gonna get games to the fourth quarter where we think that our training is going to give us the benefit to win those games. We kind of say the same thing about the season. We want to play our best ball at the end of the year."
If that happens, it will be the direct opposite of what happened last year when the Bearcats finished the season with five straight losses on the way to a 4-8 record.
The win over Miami enables UC to head into this Saturday's game at Navy with some momentum. They know they were able to hang with then-No. 8 Michigan for nearly three quarters on the road, as they did two weeks ago, and now they know they have the ability to come back and win late in a game.
The situation for UC this week will be much different from what the Bearcats faced last week. Instead of playing a team they've played every year since 1945, they'll take on a Navy team that they've played only twice in the history of the UC program and not at all since 1956. The Midshipmen have won both of the other two matchups. This will be the first American Athletic Conference game of the season for UC and the first time the Bearcats have ever faced Navy in AAC play.
Navy (2-0) mostly keeps the ball on the ground using an option offense. The Midshipmen have averaged 305 rushing yards per game, which ranks 10th nationally. They're led by Zach Abey, who has averaged 171.5 rushing yards per game, which leads the AAC. The Bearcats have allowed 168.3 rushing yards per game, which ranks 10th in the American.
Preparing to play an option team can be a difficult challenge for teams like UC that don't see it very often.
"It gives us a lot more things to work on," Fickell said. "Playing an option team is always going to be about discipline. It's going to be about fundamentals."
The Bearcats' last game against a team from a military academy was on Oct. 9, 2004 when they lost, 48-29, at Army, ending the Black Knights' 19-game losing streak, the nation's longest at the time. Current UC running back coach Gino Guidugli, the Bearcats' quarterback at the time, passed for 350 yards and four touchdowns in the loss.
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.