Cincinnati delivered a signature win against UCF that has propelled the Bearcats into the top 25; it also may have signaled a shift in the race for the American Championship
by Dick Weiss for TheAmerican.org
Cincinnati’s 27-24 victory over 18th-ranked, two-time defending American Athletic Conference champion UCF last Friday night is another sign that the earth is shifting in this fluid conference.
There are more competitive teams than at any time in the league’s short history. And upgraded recruiting across the board is producing more and more young impact stars.
The Bearcats (4-1, 1-0) jumped into the Associated Press poll at No. 25 and suddenly look like a team to beat in the American’s East Division after a signature win before a wild eyed crowd of more than 40,000 at Nippert Stadium that included the most student tickets ever distributed for a Bearcats’ home game.
Cincinnati ended the Knights’ 19-game winning streak against American Athletic Conference opponents as the Bearcats defense shut down UCF’s high-powered offense, which entered the game averaging 49 points and 568.6 yards per game, holding the Knights to just eight points in the second half and forcing four turnovers.
Delirious Cincinnati fans stormed the field after Cincinnati’s first win over a ranked opponent since 2012.
“What a great night, not just for us as a football program,” Bearcats coach Luke Fickell said. “It means the world.”
Fickell arrived at Cincinnati 2016 with an Ohio State pedigree. He grew up in Columbus and lived in the honors dorm at Ohio Stadium for five years as an undergraduate when he was a star wrestler and standout defensive nose guard who started 50 games for the Buckeyes. He wound up spending 16 years on the Big Ten staff, including one as an interim head coach in 2011, and the next four seasons as a co-defensive coordinator under Urban Meyer before accepting a new challenge in this talent-rich state.
The 46-year old Fickell emerged as one of the one of the promising young coaches in the country after leading the Bearcats to an 11-2 record last year, and his team has become a fixture on national TV this year, playing high-profile games against UCLA, Ohio State and now UCF.
This was Fickell’s first victory over a ranked team after four straight losses, including a 42-0 setback by his alma mater, a potential national championship contender, earlier this season.
And it reconfirmed Fickell’s commitment to defense, which came up huge in the red zone when UCF could have pulled away in the first half. The Knights dominated time of possession and advanced inside UC’s 20-yard line five times, but came away with just one touchdown and three field goals to take a 16-10 lead that evaporated in the second half after Ahmad Gardner stepped in front of a sideline pass and returned it 16-yards for a touchdown to give the Bearcats a 20-16 lead in the third quarter. Then, quarterback Desmond Ridder hit Alec Pierce with an 11-yard fade to send the Bearcats ahead by two scores. Michael Warren II came up big with 133 yards rushing, setting up Ridder’s TD pass with an explosive 60-yard run that left UCF defenders chasing a ghost.
The Bearcats, who lost to UCF, 38-11, in an ABC prime time game last season, put together a defensive game plan for this game last summer when Fickell, defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman and staff brainstormed ideas to change the dynamics with a pressing defense. They began preparing for the tempo of UCF’s offense in the summer because it’s too much to simulate in one week.
Cincinnati started the game without defensive linemen Ethan Tucky and Michael Pitts, the two winners of the team’s individual defensive MVPs for performances against Marshall and Miami (Ohio). Instead, they went with three interior linemen, three linebackers and five athletic defensive backs, rotating cornerbacks and safeties to keep them fresh against UCF’s quick-snap offense and dared Gabriel to throw deep. At least 23 defensive players got one snap.
“We told our guys before the game started and all week, you can’t worry about yards, you can’t worry about even time of possession,” Fickell said. “You can’t worry about anything other than points, and you’ve got to find ways to get stops.”
Junior safety Darrick Forest finished with 15 total tackles while cornerback Cam Jeffries and linebacker Jarell White each had touchdown-saving interceptions at the 6- and 2-yard lines.
Gabriel, who entered the game as the AAC’s leader in pass efficiency with 14 touchdowns and just two interceptions finished 25 for 46 for 297 yards and a touchdown and averaged 12 yards a completion as the Knights’ offense failed to score 30 points for the first time in 31 games.
“He’s a freshman,” Gardner said. “We were going to try to get into his head. That’s what the adjustment was. It worked.”
Gardner, who was nicknamed “Sauce” by his youth football coach, finished with four tackles and a key pass breakup to go with his pick-six in his first extensive playing time.
UC’s performance gave Freeman — a former Ohio State linebacker -- a spotlight for one of the better young coordinators nationally. And it gave the Bearcats the inside track for a spot in the American Athletic Conference Championship race for the first time since the league split into divisions in 2015.