Tag: Luke Fickell

The Victory Bell Shall Forever Remain in Clifton

We are the 13 Time(in a row) WOOOOOOOOOO! Victory Bell Champions

The Cincinnati Bearcats dominated from start to finish on Saturday night against their rival the Miami (OH) Redhawks, winning 21-0. For most of the game though the Bearcats held onto a 7-0 lead that felt more like a 30-0 lead over the Redhawks. Here are some random thoughts while watching the game.

  • This rain is miserable I hope it’s not like this in the Nippert opener next week.
  • I love seeing previous Bearcats players cheering on this team on twitter.

  • Des Ridder is fast. Like track star fast
  • Michael Warren II is a man among boys out there again
  • The Defense is so improved it doesn’t seem possible.
  • Remember when we couldn’t tackle anything
  • Not only is the defense really good but they’re out to murder someone tonight too.
  • Can Warren continue to handle 30 carries a game?
  • I know it was monsooning in the tri state today but we need more from the WRs
  • The TE Josiah Deguara was the most productive receiver and caught Ridder’s first touchdown pass.  
  • The Bearcats are half way to last year’s win total and it’s week 2.

The Bearcats look to go 3-0 with Alabama A&T coming to Nippert for the first home game of the season!

GoBeercats will be on location tailgating with The Den and doing a live podcasting with the Gnarley Gnome and CincyBrew Cast, the voice of Cincy craft. 

Nippert at Night is one of the greatest things in all of sports. Come out and stop by to say hello on The Grid.

What to Watch for this Football Season

What to look for this Football Season

The Cincinnati football Bearcats are coming off a complete rebuild year with a new coach, Luke Fickell. The Bearcats went just 4-8 last season, with their four wins coming against Austin Peay, Miami (OH), Tulane, and UConn. Three of those wins came by four 4 points or less. The win against Austin Peay was just 12 points. Needless to say, the Bearcats kept it close and interesting in those wins.

When they lost though, they lost pretty bad. Navy ran for a record number of rushing yards in Annapolis onto an eventual 1o point win over the Cats. The Bearcats kept it close with the Wolverines of Michigan until late into the 3rd quarter. UM would go on to a 22 point win. I won’t rehash the losses to USF, UCF, or East Carolina, they weren’t good.

In less than one week though we start a new. The Bearcats travel to the West Coast to take on UCLA at the Rose Bowl with their new coach Chip Kelley.

Earlier this year when the official schedule came out we broke down the schedule and predicted a 7-5 finish for the Bearcats. You can read that breakdown here. 

7-5 would be a vast improvement that everyone in Bearcats Nation would appreciate. If the Bearcats are going to get back to their winning ways some stars have to align.

What to watch for this season

  1. QB1 – It’s no surprise that senior Hayden Moore will be the starter come Saturday night. What the Bearcats will need though is for Moore to be a little less… pedestrian. Through the first three seasons Moore is averaging 221 passing yards per game with a 40/27 TD to INT ratio. He has been known to be inaccurate at times and has a tenancy to overthrow his receivers, that’ll need to be reigned in to make the Bearcats offense better.  At numerous times last year his receiving corp didn’t help him much by dropping passes at crucial times, which brings us to #2.
  2. The Wide Outs – It looks like WR1 will be senior Kahlil Lewis. The Florida native will be called on to lead this offense. We will have to wait and see who emerges as the second, and third option.
  3. Something missing– If you watch the NFL this season you’ll find a host of Bearcats in the league. Several from last year’s team. Keep an eye on who fills in on the defense. The Bearcats lost leading tackler Jaylyin Minor. He was all over the field last year. The Bearcats D will need help. Not to mention Marquise Copeland is playing on Sundays now. Watch Perry Young and Malik Clements take over, hopefully.
  4. Special Teams – It seems like there has been a lot of turnover on special teams over the past two years and everything needs improvement from last season.
  5. Luke Fickell – Dan Hoard did a segment for Bearcats football earlier this month where he talked about how the team last year didn’t really trust Coach Fickell but over the summer and at Camp Higher Ground he hoped to change that and gain more trust with them. Additionally, he’ll have to better manage some miscues he had in games last season.

I said the Bearcats would finish 7-5. I’m sticking with it.

Here’s a little something to get you hyped for Saturday.

Go Bearcats!

Breaking Down the 2018 Football Schedule

Fickell Year 2

Earlier this week the complete 2018 football scheduled was released by the American. In a turbulent week in basketball it was looked at and tabled for later discussion because the basketball bearcats were on a tear. After Sunday though I need to take my mind elsewhere. I’m not discarding the Basketball Bearcats yet I just need a timeout and recoup before we thrash UConn on Thursday. I thought it a fitting time to look ahead to football season in a very early schedule breakdown and prediction for the season.

Luke Fickell and company are in year 2 in Clifton and are out to prove they can run a successful program. Last year we saw the Bearcats finish 4-8 and miss bowl season for the second year in a row. The coaching staff has a couple new faces, some that may be familiar like former player Mike Mickens.

The highlight of last year was easily beating Miami (OH) for the 12 straight year in one of the more dramatic finishes in college football last year. Unfortunately, beating Oxford is a highlight now.

I traveled to Ann Arbor last season to watch the Bearcats take on Michigan, I figured we’d finish at least bowl eligible after watching that game. (Shows what I know)

The schedule this year features all but one Saturday game which is awesome and the traditional post Thanksgiving home game that always promises to never be that exciting, unless we’re playing for bowl eligibility.

At UCLA 9/1 – UCLA is under newly signed head coach Chip Kelly. They finished last year at 6-7, This will be his first game as a Bruin and first coached game in a couple of seasons since being booted out of the NFL. Still UC will have to play up in this game, much like the Michigan game last year. The Cats will keep it close but I can’t call it a W. They’ll drop this one in Sunny Loss Angeles. (See what I did there). 0-1

At PBS v Miami (OH) 9/8 – The Redhawks finished 5-7 last year and I’d bet the farm the Bearcats beat the Redhawks for the Victory Bell again. They had their chance to win it last year and blew it. The bell will ring out in Red and Black again. Win. 1-1

Alabama A&M 9/15 – 4-7 last year. Usually the warm up game for the season. Win. 2-1

Ohio U 9/22 – I don’t know much about the Bobcats except they finished last year at 9-4 and lost one to Kansas. That hurts. Win 3-1

At UConn 9/29 – 3-9 last season. We squeaked one out last year winning 22-21. Bearcats win again. 4-1

Tulane 10/6 – 5-7 last season and another team we beat in a thriller. This one ended with Tulane missing a chip shot field goal as time expired. Win 5-1

At Temple 10/20 – They finished last season at 7-6. This one will be a close one in my opinion. I don’t think we upset Temple in Philly this year. Loss. 5-2

At SMU 10/27 – Finished 7-6 in 2017. If we don’t beat Temple we have to win in Dallas. Another toss up like the Temple game. Win. 6-2

Navy 11/3 Finished 7-6 last year too. The triple option destroyed us last year, like Navy put up all time rushing yards against us. Even if we’re 50% better against them I think they still win. Loss. 6-3

USF 11/10 – Finished 10-2. I don’t think we’re there yet. Loss. 6-4

At UCF 11/17 Finished 13-0, beat Auburn and are the self declared National Champions. They did lose their head coach to Nebraska, a move I don’t understand. The money is more important than climate I guess. Who wants to spend their awesome years in college in Nebraska? Any way I look for UCF to fall off somewhat this year but not that much. Loss. 6-5

ECU 11/23 by this time the sky will be falling in Cincinnati because the Bearcats could be on 4 game losing streak. The Pirates finished 3-9 but dominated us last year in a 48-20 stomping. Bearcats bounce back this year though. Win. 7-5.

So that total puts us at 7-5 which would be a vast improvement for Coach Fickell and his football Bearcats and put us back in the bowl season in what seems like forever.