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Indiana is trash. UC should win huge.
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UC Bearcats
- Thread starter Auggie
- Start date
MyNameIsDoug?
Well-known member
Maybe not a huge deal, but going into half up 38-10 and the final being 45-24 is slightly concerning from an offensive standpoint. They looked disjointed in the 2nd half. Run game sucked all day, which is where I still think Prater can help the offense in certain packages as long as you keep the defense honest and he remains a threat to throw every now and then. Would like to see him get more plays for read-options.
Orin Swift
Well-known member
I’m not too surprised they somewhat stalled out in the second half. For starters, everything went right for UC in the first. Second, they are replacing a lot of leadership on both sides of the ball. Not terribly surprising for an inexperienced team who lost 9 players to the draft to get complacent after jumping up big early. More established, or better, leadership snaps that out quicker. I think both sides of the ball got there eventually, the defense a bit quicker to do so IMO.
14Red
Well-known member
I kind of wish UC hadn't signed up to go into the big 12 next season, and maybe with all this conference realignment, maybe that won't happed. I'd love to see UC join the Big 10 and see how they would stack up. Luke Fickell is one of the best kept secrets in the country and I think other than Ohio State, they'd do just fine in the big 10.
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They’d do fine in the Big Ten West for football, but they’d be playing fourth (or fifth) fiddle every year in the East behind OSU, Michigan, Penn State and sometimes Michigan State.
Realistically, UC is well down the pecking order of who the Big Ten would want to add. That list would probably go something like:
Notre Dame
North Carolina
Oregon
Washington
Kansas
Stanford
Virginia
Duke
Utah
Cal
Etc.
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14Red
Well-known member
No doubt, but they would complete as well as most of the other big ten schools. I just think it would be a nice regional addition for both UC and the city of Cincinnati. Imagine every year having Penn State, IU, Purdue, Iowa fans and others coming to town?
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For UC to join the Big Ten, they’d probably have to build a new football stadium to accommodate larger fanbases. The smallest Big Ten stadium is Northwestern and even they can get 47,000 to 48,000 at Ryan Field. UC’s expansion of Nippert got it to around 40K capacity, but I can’t see the Big Ten being thrilled to bring in a new school with that small of a stadium.
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Orin Swift
Well-known member
UC has zero shot at the Big 10 and it has nothing to do with stadium size. Even in some bizarro world OSU doesn’t move all of its weight and then some to prevent the invite, more importantly UC does nothing to add to the TV market arms race and does pennies to the average Big 10 schools R&D expenditures. Nebraska is the current lowest at $400m, UC is at $200m.
Hammerdrill
Well-known member
I'm pretty sure UC doesn't bring enough academic heft to join.
adselder09
Well-known member
Couldn't agree more with everything you said here. They had over 300 yards of offense in the 1st half and ended with under 400 yards total.
14Red
Well-known member
I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than this, but it's always amazed me that pro football team's stadiums sit empty as much as they do, other than an occasional concert. What a great thought to have UC and the Bengals share Paycor Stadium? UC does not play on Sunday's, Monday's. Now there could be a rare Thursday conflict but how hard would it be to avoid that?
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Frankly, UC shouldn’t want to share Paycor Stadium. Maybe it’s just me, but college teams who have to share a stadium with their NFL big brothers always come off looking bush league to me — probably because the team rarely if ever has the fan support to fill the stadium, thus leading to a poor in-game atmosphere. If the team had huge support, it would have its own stadium built.
Teams I’m thinking of include Pitt playing at Acrisure Stadium; Temple playing at Lincoln Financial Field; USF playing at Raymond James Stadium; and Miami playing at Hard Rock Stadium.
I think it’s not just a coincidence that Miami became mediocre not too long after the Orange Bowl got torn down and they were forced to play at the Dolphins’ stadium. And it’s no surprise that prominent Miami boosters are cooking up plans to build a new stadium for The U so they can get away from the doldrums of playing in half-full Hard Rock Stadium. Even their QB says he enjoys playing on the road more than home because their road opponents generally have a better college atmosphere.
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JUSTGOPLAY
Well-known member
Agree with all your points. NFL Stadiums with their comfortable chair seats, over abundance of restrooms and concessions, wide concourses, and generally more accommodating parking absolutely suck for regular season college football games. College football Saturday has got to be on campus.......PITT has the best financial deal as NFL stadiums go. They even share their practice facility with the Steelers, but the PITT campus is five miles away and the students gotta' ride school buses to home games. Temple's deal with the Eagles is terrible, costs a fortune in rent and every game has to be a noon kickoff. Miami's campus is twenty miles away from Dolphins Stadium, and folks in South Florida don't attend sporting events anyway. The energy level these days on the UC campus on a football Saturday, from Sigma Sigma Commons to inside Nippert is off the hook. No way you can replicate that environment down on the river. Even Minnesota, BIG10 and all, came off as second class when they were sharing the Metrodome with the Vikings.
Termite2
Well-known member
The latest data I could find quickly: from 2011 to 2020, UC is 42nd to 54th, averaging around 50: from a low of 422million to a high of 550 million.
For that period, about the same as Iowa
Nebraska is 77 to 86 in ranking: 235 million to 320 million
And there is zero chance of UC being in the B10, nothing to do with research dollars; all to do with TV $$$$$
Hammerdrill
Well-known member
USC is an AAU member.
Termite2
Well-known member
There are 60 AAU members; UC would be 40th in research $$; the AAU membership is by invitation only
ND is not an AAU member; B10 would jump at the chance to add them, because of $$$$$$$$$$
Ohio St was one of the AAU schools that pushed tighter requirements that forced out Nebraska
Hammerdrill
Well-known member
Right. There isn't a single criteria that will get a university an offer or acceptance. And while UC is a fine school, it isn't on par with the currect schools in the BIG, nor the 2 that they just accepted. If you can't check the AAU box, you had better be able to check a bunch of others.
JUSTGOPLAY
Well-known member
I think it comes down to "We just gotta' trust Luke's decision". Fickell's got a lot of equity in the bank. That being said most Bearcat fans see things the way you do. Bryant is zero threat to keep the ball and run which renders that read option running attack limited. The LB's just key on the RB and disregard the QB. Bryant generally throws for mass yards, but considering they have the fastest most talented receiver group in school history, and two NFL caliber TE's that is not that surprising. Everybody inside Nippert on game day thinks the offense would be scary good with Prater at QB, but the only opinion that matters is Fickell's.
adselder09
Well-known member
The only knock on Prater I've heard is accuracy issues. He's obviously got the mobility and a big arm, and I'd like to see some packages where he comes into the game to run some zone read, but there's gotta be a reason he hasn't been the guy. Like others have said, really difficult to question Fickell with the results he's had.
Orin Swift
Well-known member
I’ll be honest, pretty disappointed Prater hasn’t been able to move past Bryant. I don’t think this is a case of Fickell favoring seniority. He had no problems usurping experienced older Hayden Moore for Ridder as a raw RS freshman in 2018. I hope my disappointment is moot next year. But as it stands, looking like UC’s highest rated recruit is somewhat of a bust.
Ezzard Charles
New member
The exact same critique was widely echoed about Ridder his entire career all the way through his last game in the playoff. Heck for 3 years fans demanded the more accurate passer Bryant replace him lol. I believe expectations on a college QB are always too high.
MyNameIsDoug?
Well-known member
Here's to hoping he can get some serious throwing work in this off-season if he can't become the guy this year at all. There seems to be enough QB coaches out there that he should be doing all he can to work on throwing motion, footwork, etc. The ability to run won't go anywhere so he's gotta put the work in to become the full package.
Ezzard Charles
New member
JUSTGOPLAY
Well-known member
The D Line is young, talented, and deep.....They let Ivan Pace Jr. roam free and he's a monster. The DB's ain't near the ball hawks they've had in the past, but Sauce and Coby spoiled us.
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That might be true, but other than the Hogs, they’re playing extremely inferior competition. So it’s basically a giant waste of time and talent. Much like posting on Yappi.
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Ezzard Charles
New member
CBs are very very good, they just have impossibly big shoes to fill. Safety's are about almost as good as last year. Luckily the front seven are even more dominant this year!
The offense is averaging 40.2 points per game, the highest of the Luke Fickell era!
JUSTGOPLAY
Well-known member
.....it's a good thing we've got a return trip to Jerryworld and the Cotton Bowl vs. USC on January 2 to look forward to.