TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI – University of Cincinnati football coach Luke Fickell has been adamant that the Bearcats' game this week at Michigan is not about him.
That didn't stop reporters from trying to get him to talk about his experiences playing and coaching against Michigan during his 19 years at Ohio State. But Fickell never took the bait.
"I don't know that there's any great schematics that I have because I played there," Fickell said. "I know the lay of the land a little bit better. I understand what the atmosphere is gonna be like, how loud it's gonna be, all those things. But the reality is that I'm probably not going to make a whole lot of plays on Saturday afternoon. It's what we can get converted to our young guys, what our young guys can understand, and our old guys, so that they can play their best ball."
UC (1-0) will face the eighth-ranked Wolverines (1-0) at noon Saturday at Michigan Stadium in the first meeting between the two schools. The Bearcats haven't beaten a team ranked in the Top-10 since they knocked off No. 7 Rutgers at Nippert Stadium on Nov. 18, 2006. Their last win over a Top-25 team was on Sept. 29, 2012 when they beat No. 25 Virginia Tech.
What this game is really about is UC's quest to climb back up the ladder that saw the Bearcats playing in the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl after the 2008 and 2009 seasons under Brian Kelly. They failed to come close to reaching those heights under first Butch Jones and then Tommy Tuberville.
The timing for a game of this magnitude isn't the best for Fickell and his players. They have only one game together under their belts – a 26-14 win over Austin Peay from the Football Championship Subdivision. The UC program is still very much a renovation project that's in its early stages, much like the Fifth Third Arena renovation next door to Nippert Stadium.
But that hasn't stopped the UC players from being outspoken in their conviction that they can compete on an even footing with mighty Michigan.
"Michigan's a good football team and we're a good football team," said senior safety Carter Jacobs. We're gonna give them every shot we've got."
On the plus side for the Bearcats, they're facing a team that lost 18 starters from last year, so the Wolverines are going through their own growing pains. Michigan's advantage is that its players are in their third year under coach Jim Harbaugh and it shows. They also landed a top-five recruiting class winter.
"They play fast and they're very aggressive in what they do," Fickell said. "Those are the things that we're still making sure that we understand. They didn't get away from what it is that they do. You see that it's a program that's gonna last over time."
The Wolverines got off to a slow start last week in their 33-17 win over Florida when quarterback Wilton Speight threw two first-half interceptions. Speight passed for 2,538 yards last year, completing 62 percent of his passes. He was 11 for 25 last week for 181 yards and one touchdown with the two picks.
Michigan trailed 17-13 at halftime, then outscored the Gators 20-0 in the second half. Ty Isaac gained 114 yards on 11 carries and Chris Evans gained 78 yards on 22 carries. The defense, which had eight players drafted by NFL teams a year ago, limited Florida to 192 yards and scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery in the end zone after a sack. It produced 11 tackles for loss, forced three turnovers and did not allow the Florida offense to score a touchdown.
Junior Hayden Moore will make his second straight start at quarterback for UC after passing for 151 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions last week. There was nothing flashy about Moore's performance and that's fine with Fickell.
"He did what we asked him to do," Fickell said. "He threw three touchdown passes. He controlled the game. He didn't put us in tough situations. He didn't throw the ball where we didn't want him to throw the ball. We asked him to not be focused on throwing for 400 yards and heaving the thing down the field. That's not what we expect, but managing the game, figuring out how we can do what we need to do best and put us in situations where we can win."
Senior running back Mike Boone got off to a nice start last week when he rushed for 100 yards on 19 carries, but the offensive line didn't provide him with a lot gaping holes. The Bearcats will probably try to get the ball to Boone as much as they can again this week and hope he can break a few long gains.
Failing that, look for Moore to work the short passing game to move the chains and keep the Michigan offense off the field. Realistically, the Bearcats will probably have to force three or four turnovers and take care of the ball themselves to have a chance to pull the upset.
But Fickell disputed the contention that his team will have trouble dealing with Michigan's overall team speed.
"I don't think that we have a lack of team speed," Fickell said. "If you take their 40-yard dash time vs. our 40-yard dash time, I don't know that there's a huge difference. Maybe depth-wise there's some issues."
Regardless of what happens Saturday, in a few years this could be the game that Fickell and UC fans look back on as the start of a journey that returned them to the national spotlight. That journey will look a lot less imposing if the Bearcats are able to pull an upset or at least make the game competitive.
Maybe that's too much to expect at this early stage of Fickell's tenure. Or maybe the Bearcats will surprise everyone Saturday.
"As a kid I've always dreamed of wanting to feel that experience of knocking off a team of that caliber and being able to celebrate doing something that others thought you couldn't do," Boone said.
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 – University of Cincinnati football coach Luke Fickell has been adamant that the Bearcats' game this week at Michigan is not about him.
That didn't stop reporters from trying to get him to talk about his experiences playing and coaching against Michigan during his 19 years at Ohio State. But Fickell never took the bait.
"I don't know that there's any great schematics that I have because I played there," Fickell said. "I know the lay of the land a little bit better. I understand what the atmosphere is gonna be like, how loud it's gonna be, all those things. But the reality is that I'm probably not going to make a whole lot of plays on Saturday afternoon. It's what we can get converted to our young guys, what our young guys can understand, and our old guys, so that they can play their best ball."
UC (1-0) will face the eighth-ranked Wolverines (1-0) at noon Saturday at Michigan Stadium in the first meeting between the two schools. The Bearcats haven't beaten a team ranked in the Top-10 since they knocked off No. 7 Rutgers at Nippert Stadium on Nov. 18, 2006. Their last win over a Top-25 team was on Sept. 29, 2012 when they beat No. 25 Virginia Tech.
What this game is really about is UC's quest to climb back up the ladder that saw the Bearcats playing in the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl after the 2008 and 2009 seasons under Brian Kelly. They failed to come close to reaching those heights under first Butch Jones and then Tommy Tuberville.
The timing for a game of this magnitude isn't the best for Fickell and his players. They have only one game together under their belts – a 26-14 win over Austin Peay from the Football Championship Subdivision. The UC program is still very much a renovation project that's in its early stages, much like the Fifth Third Arena renovation next door to Nippert Stadium.
But that hasn't stopped the UC players from being outspoken in their conviction that they can compete on an even footing with mighty Michigan.
"Michigan's a good football team and we're a good football team," said senior safety Carter Jacobs. We're gonna give them every shot we've got."
On the plus side for the Bearcats, they're facing a team that lost 18 starters from last year, so the Wolverines are going through their own growing pains. Michigan's advantage is that its players are in their third year under coach Jim Harbaugh and it shows. They also landed a top-five recruiting class winter.
"They play fast and they're very aggressive in what they do," Fickell said. "Those are the things that we're still making sure that we understand. They didn't get away from what it is that they do. You see that it's a program that's gonna last over time."
The Wolverines got off to a slow start last week in their 33-17 win over Florida when quarterback Wilton Speight threw two first-half interceptions. Speight passed for 2,538 yards last year, completing 62 percent of his passes. He was 11 for 25 last week for 181 yards and one touchdown with the two picks.
Michigan trailed 17-13 at halftime, then outscored the Gators 20-0 in the second half. Ty Isaac gained 114 yards on 11 carries and Chris Evans gained 78 yards on 22 carries. The defense, which had eight players drafted by NFL teams a year ago, limited Florida to 192 yards and scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery in the end zone after a sack. It produced 11 tackles for loss, forced three turnovers and did not allow the Florida offense to score a touchdown.
Junior Hayden Moore will make his second straight start at quarterback for UC after passing for 151 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions last week. There was nothing flashy about Moore's performance and that's fine with Fickell.
"He did what we asked him to do," Fickell said. "He threw three touchdown passes. He controlled the game. He didn't put us in tough situations. He didn't throw the ball where we didn't want him to throw the ball. We asked him to not be focused on throwing for 400 yards and heaving the thing down the field. That's not what we expect, but managing the game, figuring out how we can do what we need to do best and put us in situations where we can win."
Senior running back Mike Boone got off to a nice start last week when he rushed for 100 yards on 19 carries, but the offensive line didn't provide him with a lot gaping holes. The Bearcats will probably try to get the ball to Boone as much as they can again this week and hope he can break a few long gains.
Failing that, look for Moore to work the short passing game to move the chains and keep the Michigan offense off the field. Realistically, the Bearcats will probably have to force three or four turnovers and take care of the ball themselves to have a chance to pull the upset.
But Fickell disputed the contention that his team will have trouble dealing with Michigan's overall team speed.
"I don't think that we have a lack of team speed," Fickell said. "If you take their 40-yard dash time vs. our 40-yard dash time, I don't know that there's a huge difference. Maybe depth-wise there's some issues."
Regardless of what happens Saturday, in a few years this could be the game that Fickell and UC fans look back on as the start of a journey that returned them to the national spotlight. That journey will look a lot less imposing if the Bearcats are able to pull an upset or at least make the game competitive.
Maybe that's too much to expect at this early stage of Fickell's tenure. Or maybe the Bearcats will surprise everyone Saturday.
"As a kid I've always dreamed of wanting to feel that experience of knocking off a team of that caliber and being able to celebrate doing something that others thought you couldn't do," Boone said.
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.