Last Saturday the Cincinnati Bearcats were a part of their first College GameDay when they traveled to Orlando, Florida to take on the current American Athletic Conference powerhouse UCF Knights. Not only did Cincinnati’s matchup garner GameDay, but it also came with an 8 p.m. primetime matchup on ABC. Being on primetime is major and for the game to be on ABC is double major any household with an antenna could’ve watched the Bearcats on Saturday just think how far they’ve come in such a short time. While not all games will be on primetime, but for them to be a part of that is huge for the programs profile it is bigger than wins or losses. Because of the current status of the program and its new winning ways they were ranked as high as No. 19 in the AP, No. 20 in the Coaches and No. 24 in the College Football Playoff Polls. It was the first time they have been ranked in the College Football Playoff Poll which is an accomplishment in itself playing in a G5 conference even though like the slogan the American Athletic Conference has been making their case to be a power conference calling themselves P6 saying they deserve the same playing field as SEC, ACC, B1G, Big 12 and Pac 12.
After all the hype of the game the Bearcats lost 38-13 to the Knights. While the referees missed some calls at the end of the day UCF overall dominated the game, but even in defeat you could be proud of the Bearcats. Just a year before they played this same team, but at Nippert Stadium a game that was cut short by serious weather so they only played roughly three quarters, the Knights had huge 51 points on this defense and over 500 yards total offense in that time period. I know there are no moral victories but this game is a great measuring stick for where this team is. The defense got manhandled last year, but this year they did a great job keeping the Bearcats in the game even scored the first points of the game with a strip sack fumble recovery for a touchdown by the combination of Malik Clements and Kimoni Fitz. The running game did a great job, but the offensive line couldn’t protect Desmond Ridder long enough to make plays on a consistent basis. While UCF were able to make splash plays Cincinnati couldn’t do the same and it shows where they need to get better on the offensive line and at wide receiver. This team is young so they have some players that may be able to step up in the near future and the way Fickell is recruiting I’m pretty sure they will have a player or two that will step up. The better the receiver and offensive line play gets the closer the gap between UCF and Cincinnati will become.
