No. 7 Football Heads South For Matchup With UCF Saturday

CINCINNATI – The No. 7 University of Cincinnati football team starts a three-game road swing to close the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 21, looking for its first victory in the Bounce House vs. UCF. 
 
It's strength against strength as the Bearcats (7-0, 5-0 AAC) lead the conference in total defense while the Knights (5-2, 4-2 AAC) lead the league in total offense. UC has scored 38 or more points in the last four games for the first time in school history and has never played three-straight conference road games. 
 
The game will kickoff in Orlando at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and 700 WLW AM.

How to watch, listen and more.

View the game trailer.
 
7 CINCINNATI BEARCATS
Head Coach Luke Fickell
Record at Cincinnati 33-13 (Fourth Year)
Overall Record 39-20 (Fifth Year)
 
UCF KNIGHTS
Head Coach Josh Heupel
Record at School 27-6 (Third Year)
Overall Record Same
 
GAME INFORMATION
Facility Bounce House
Capacity 44,206
TV ESPN
Radio 700 WLW AM  / Sirius 108 / XM 201 / Internet 964
Online TuneIn.com 
Series Record UCF leads 3-2
At Orlando UCF leads 2-0
Last Meeting Oct. 5, 2019 - UC won 27-24
 
ON THE AIR
TV: ESPN
• Play-by-Play: Mark Jones
• Analyst: Dusty Dvoracek
• Reporter: Quint Kessenich
• Online: WatchESPN.com
• Mobile App: ESPN
 
RADIO: BEARCATS SPORTS NETWORK
• Play-by-Play: Dan Hoard
• Analyst: Jim Kelly Jr.
• Host/Engineer: Mo Egger
• Local: 700 WLW AM
• Satellite: Sirius 108 / XM 201 / Internet 964
• Online: Tunein.com / iHeartMedia App
• Mobile App: TuneIn (search Cincinnati Bearcats)
 
THE SERIES
Saturday marks the sixth meeting between the Bearcats and Knights with UCF holding a 3-2 edge and a 2-0 advantage in the Bounce House. UC snapped UCF's 19-game AAC winning streak with a 27-24 win inside Nippert Stadium a year ago.
 
THE COACHES
LUKE FICKELL, the 2018 American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, is in his fourth season at UC. He has led UC to back-to-back 11-win seasons, the 2019 AAC East Division Championship along with consecutive bowl-game wins in the 2018 Military Bowl and 2019 TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl. A veteran of 20 years in the FBS ranks, Fickell has been a part of two national championship squads, nine conference title-winning teams (seven as a coach, two as a player at Ohio State) with 16 postseason games and 13 NFL Draft selections under his belt.
 
Josh Heupel is 26-6 in his third year at the helm of the UCF program. Heupel led UCF to the American Athletic Conference Championship in 2018 in his first season in Orlando. He was a national-championship winning QB at Oklahoma and most recently served as the OC at Missouri, following coaching stops at Utah State, Oklahoma and Arizona.
 
STREAKS, STORYLINES, SIDEBARS ... 

• UC plays its 133rd football season in 2020. The Bearcats program dates to 1885 and is one of the 10 oldest in the NCAA FBS. UC has won a league title five times in the last 13 years and has played 11 bowl games in the past 14 years.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UC lost games at Nebraska and vs. Miami (OH) and Western Michigan. The APSU game was moved from Sept. 3 to Sept. 19, UC added Army on Sept. 26 and the Tulsa game was moved Friday, Dec. 4.
• UC has won five-straight American Athletic Conference FB Team Academic Excellence Awards from 2015-20.
• During the 2019-20 calendar year, UC was the only school in the NCAA FBS to play for a conference title in MBB (winter 2019), lacrosse (spring 2019), baseball (spring 2019), volleyball (fall 2019), football (fall 2019) and WBB (winter 2020). 
• Fifteen states and four countries are represented on UC's 2020 roster, which features nearly 62 percent (77/125) Ohio natives, including 31 from Cincinnati. Eighty-three of UC's 125 players (66.4 percent) are sophomores or below.
• UC is 29-5 since 2018, ranking among the top six teams in CFB in winning percentage during that span (.848).
• Cincinnati set a school record with its 19th straight win at home, the fourth-longest active streak among NCAA FBS schools. The Bearcats won 15 straight home games from Nov. 8, 1952 to Nov. 13, 1954.
• UC has gone undefeated at Nippert Stadium in three-consecutive seasons for the first time in school history.
• UC ranks in the Top-10 of both national polls for the first time since the end of the 2009 regular season.
• UC scored 55 vs. ECU, 38 vs. Houston, 49 against Memphis and 42 at SMU, the first time in UC history scoring 38 or more points in four-straight games. UC is outscoring its opponents 291-87 this season.
• Cincinnati ranks third nationally in scoring defense, allowing 12.4 ppg, holding its FBS opponents to 17 points or fewer. 
• The Bearcats are fourth nationally in pass efficiency defense (91.41) and 10th in total defense (300.9 ypg).
• QB Desmond Ridder & LB Jarell White were named AAC Player of the Week on offense and defense, respectively.
• White leads the AAC at 9.3 tackles per game and was also named the Walter Camp National Defensive POTW.
• Over the past four games, QB Desmond Ridder has accounted for 17 TDs, passing for 886 yards and 8 TDs while running for 398 yards (10.5 YPR) and nine TDs. The last FBS player to reach all of those numbers over a 4-game span was Lamar Jackson during his 2016 Heisman season according to StatsPerform.

FOLLOW THE BEARCATS
For all the latest information on Cincinnati football, please visit GoBEARCATS.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow Cincinnati football (@GoBearcatsFB) and Coach Fickell (@CoachFick) on Twitter. You can also find the Bearcats on Instagram and Facebook.