TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI – In the immediate aftermath of the University of Cincinnati's 33-3 loss to No. 18 South Florida last Saturday in Tampa, UC coach Luke Fickell stood outside the UC locker room in Raymond James Stadium and said that the Bearcats are closer to being competitive than most people think.
At the time, it seemed as if Fickell were grasping at straws after UC lost its fourth straight game by a combined score of 41-20. But as he addressed the media Tuesday at his weekly press conference, he was even more convinced that what he said Saturday was true.
"I couldn't say that two weeks ago (after a 51-23 loss to Central Florida), but after this past week I could tell," Fickell said. "To a lot of the people out there, they see 33-3 and it's hard to see that it's any closer than even maybe a week before or two weeks before. It's harder for our kids to see because they see the big picture. They see 33-3 and they don't like it. We had to come in on Monday and take a step back and do a really good job of making sure they could see some of the things that we're talking about that are out there."
The Bearcats (2-5 overall, 0-3 in the American Athletic Conference) will try to end their losing streak Saturday against SMU (4-2, 1-1) in a 4 p.m. homecoming game at Nippert Stadium.
Fickell said he understands that fans might be skeptical when they hear the coach of a 2-5 team say that his players aren't that far from victory.
"Nobody has to sit there and believe me," Fickell said, "but our guys are the most important ones to be able to see those kinds of things because they've got a pit in their stomachs. They feel awful. Nobody wants to lose. They work their butts off. They've committed, they've sacrificed, they believe in the things that we've done and that we've said and yet they haven't seen the results. So we've got to have those things to show them."
According to Fickell, there were four or five plays where the Bearcats were just a few inches away from making a big play on defense. Or an unfortunate bounce of the football that kept them from coming up with a potential game-changing turnover. Or a snap decision on offense that could have resulted in a touchdown if a different choice had been made.
While that may ring hollow to some fans, some of the players said it was just what they needed to hear – and see – as they head into the final five games of 2017 still hopeful that they can salvage something from this season.
"Everyone just starts to realize that we're not far away from where we need to be," said senior safety Carter Jacobs. "We have a long ways to go, though, in terms of getting better and we're still working every week. But when you see things like that you start to realize that you're so close you just need to work on the little things to get there. It did definitely help. A lot of people will open their eyes and say, all right, maybe we aren't that far. We're right there."
Here are three examples of what Fickell was talking about:
"They try to throw the ball to the field side flat and our SAM side backer is there. It's probably three inches over his head. You would tell your quarterback, 'Don't throw that ball. That's a pick six if you under throw it by just six inches.' That's one where there's nobody else out there and the guy can walk into the end zone.
"There's a third and 13, the same exact thing happens. We re-route, the guy's right there on the edge and the ball goes over his hands. It's 6-3. The ball goes over his hands by three inches, a ball that if you're a quarterback coach or an offensive coach, you say, 'Do not throw that ball because if that ball isn't a perfect throw it's a chance to go six the other direction.' But he catches it, breaks the tackle and goes for 35 yards and they score a touchdown on the next play."
Of course, another way to look at those plays is to credit USF quarterback Quinton Flowers for his pinpoint execution.
But how about this one?
"The ball's on their own 28-yard line and our defensive end, Mark Wilson, rips the ball out of the guy's hands," Fickell said. "He's tackling the guy. There's nobody around. The ball bounces twice, and bounces right back into the hands of a guy who's sitting on the ground.
"The ball bounced back to them. Who's to say it didn't take a left bounce where we have two guys sitting right there? If we recover the football, the ball's at the 28-yard line and our offense has got the ball and it's 3-3. Momentum is huge in games. Those are the kinds of things I'm talking about."
You can form your own opinion about the validity of Fickell's claims, but it's his players – not necessarily fans - who Fickell is trying to reach with those examples. And he seems to have succeeded.
"Seeing all the missed opportunities that we had just shows us how much we could have been in the game," said defensive end Kimoni Fitz. "We're just trying to reinforce the effort and attitude, our core values that we go by every day so we can keep going forward and keep getting better every day and take that on to next week. I think it helped a lot to show that we played a Top 25 team and had those missed opportunities here and there. It gave us a lot more confidence because it showed how much we were in the game at times."
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 – In the immediate aftermath of the University of Cincinnati's 33-3 loss to No. 18 South Florida last Saturday in Tampa, UC coach Luke Fickell stood outside the UC locker room in Raymond James Stadium and said that the Bearcats are closer to being competitive than most people think.
At the time, it seemed as if Fickell were grasping at straws after UC lost its fourth straight game by a combined score of 41-20. But as he addressed the media Tuesday at his weekly press conference, he was even more convinced that what he said Saturday was true.
"I couldn't say that two weeks ago (after a 51-23 loss to Central Florida), but after this past week I could tell," Fickell said. "To a lot of the people out there, they see 33-3 and it's hard to see that it's any closer than even maybe a week before or two weeks before. It's harder for our kids to see because they see the big picture. They see 33-3 and they don't like it. We had to come in on Monday and take a step back and do a really good job of making sure they could see some of the things that we're talking about that are out there."
The Bearcats (2-5 overall, 0-3 in the American Athletic Conference) will try to end their losing streak Saturday against SMU (4-2, 1-1) in a 4 p.m. homecoming game at Nippert Stadium.
Fickell said he understands that fans might be skeptical when they hear the coach of a 2-5 team say that his players aren't that far from victory.
"Nobody has to sit there and believe me," Fickell said, "but our guys are the most important ones to be able to see those kinds of things because they've got a pit in their stomachs. They feel awful. Nobody wants to lose. They work their butts off. They've committed, they've sacrificed, they believe in the things that we've done and that we've said and yet they haven't seen the results. So we've got to have those things to show them."
According to Fickell, there were four or five plays where the Bearcats were just a few inches away from making a big play on defense. Or an unfortunate bounce of the football that kept them from coming up with a potential game-changing turnover. Or a snap decision on offense that could have resulted in a touchdown if a different choice had been made.
While that may ring hollow to some fans, some of the players said it was just what they needed to hear – and see – as they head into the final five games of 2017 still hopeful that they can salvage something from this season.
"Everyone just starts to realize that we're not far away from where we need to be," said senior safety Carter Jacobs. "We have a long ways to go, though, in terms of getting better and we're still working every week. But when you see things like that you start to realize that you're so close you just need to work on the little things to get there. It did definitely help. A lot of people will open their eyes and say, all right, maybe we aren't that far. We're right there."
Here are three examples of what Fickell was talking about:
"They try to throw the ball to the field side flat and our SAM side backer is there. It's probably three inches over his head. You would tell your quarterback, 'Don't throw that ball. That's a pick six if you under throw it by just six inches.' That's one where there's nobody else out there and the guy can walk into the end zone.
"There's a third and 13, the same exact thing happens. We re-route, the guy's right there on the edge and the ball goes over his hands. It's 6-3. The ball goes over his hands by three inches, a ball that if you're a quarterback coach or an offensive coach, you say, 'Do not throw that ball because if that ball isn't a perfect throw it's a chance to go six the other direction.' But he catches it, breaks the tackle and goes for 35 yards and they score a touchdown on the next play."
Of course, another way to look at those plays is to credit USF quarterback Quinton Flowers for his pinpoint execution.
But how about this one?
"The ball's on their own 28-yard line and our defensive end, Mark Wilson, rips the ball out of the guy's hands," Fickell said. "He's tackling the guy. There's nobody around. The ball bounces twice, and bounces right back into the hands of a guy who's sitting on the ground.
"The ball bounced back to them. Who's to say it didn't take a left bounce where we have two guys sitting right there? If we recover the football, the ball's at the 28-yard line and our offense has got the ball and it's 3-3. Momentum is huge in games. Those are the kinds of things I'm talking about."
You can form your own opinion about the validity of Fickell's claims, but it's his players – not necessarily fans - who Fickell is trying to reach with those examples. And he seems to have succeeded.
"Seeing all the missed opportunities that we had just shows us how much we could have been in the game," said defensive end Kimoni Fitz. "We're just trying to reinforce the effort and attitude, our core values that we go by every day so we can keep going forward and keep getting better every day and take that on to next week. I think it helped a lot to show that we played a Top 25 team and had those missed opportunities here and there. It gave us a lot more confidence because it showed how much we were in the game at times."
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.