Tonight the Bearcats welcomed the Temple Owls to Nippert Stadium for the historical tradition known as “Nipp At Night”. The last time the Bearcats had a full crowd at Nipp at Night, was when the Bearcats welcomed in No. 18 UCF back in 2019. That is when the world was introduced to one of the top cornerbacks in all of college football, Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. Gardner, intercepted UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel late in the 3rd quarter and took it back for a Bearcats touchdown to help them pull off the upset.
The Bearcats got off to a big start here tonight, coming in ranked No. 5 in the latest AP Top 25, the Bearcats came out with all kind of energy. The defense came out with a bunch of fire early as safety Bryan Cook came off the edge to get a big tackle for loss as he laid a big hit on Temple’s quarterback D’Wan Mathis. The Bearcats defense came out firing as Myjai Sanders had a big tackle for loss on a big 3rd and 2 to force the Owls to punt on their opening drive, Sanders was continuing to get to the quarterback early.
The Bearcats found momentum early as Desmond Ridder connected with his guy Alec Pierce for a big 26 yard gain on the first drive, followed by a quick pass to Tre Tucker for 21 yards. Temple’s defense stood tall though in the redzone as they held the Bearcats to a field goal on the opening drive, where Cole Smith connected on a 30 yard field goal to give the Bearcats a quick 3-0 lead. The Bearcats got a big opportunity after a 3 and out the following drive, as Temple muffed the punt and the Bearcats saftey Ja’von Hicks recovered the punt at the Owls 17. Two plays later, Ridder connected with Alec Pierce for a 12 yard touchdown catch and the Bearcats found themselves up 10-0 early. Ridder eclipsed the 8,000 career passing yards with that touchdown pass to Pierce, he remains second in UC history behind, his quarterback coach, Gino Guidugli.
The Bearcats came out firing as they really started to get the run game going in the second quarter that led to a big 8 yard touchdown run by Jerome Ford to give the Bearcats, a big 17-0 lead early in the second quarter. The Bearcats had all the momentum, as their first drive in the 2nd quarter ate up almost 9 minutes of the clock before the 8 yard touchdown run by Ford.
The key takeaway from the first half was missed opportunities, the Bearcats had the chance to be up big going into the half, but just couldn’t connect on the opportunities early. Cole Smith missed a 44 yard field goal late in the half, after a underthrown ball to a wide open Michael Young, Jr. on a great route across the middle. The defense held tough and caused a lot of problems for the Owls in the first half as Malik Vann and Myjai Sanders were in the backfield for what it felt like every play in the first half.
The Bearcats came out quick in the 2nd half, as junior running back Jerome Ford took the first play 75 yards and gave the Bearcats a big 24-3 lead to start the second half. The Bearcats got a big break as the Owls muffed their second punt of the game and the Bearcats flipped their position, after a 3 and out deep in their own territory. The Bearcats will look to capitalize off the second turnover on special teams by the Owls, and just like the first turnover the Bearcats find the end zone two plays later. starting with a 16 yard catch by Tre Tucker, sets up a big 38 yard touchdown catch by Tyler Scott, breaking a few tackles on the way to give the Bearcats a big 31-3 lead just 4 minutes into the the second half. The Bearcats just opened the flood gates after that Tyler Scott touchdown, the very next drive Ridder found Pierce for a huge 33 yard gain down the sideline to set up a big 28 yard touchdown run by Charles McClelland and the Bearcats jumped to a quick 38-3 lead, a 21 point swing in the first 7 minutes of the 3rd quarter. The Temple Owls had no idea how to stop the Bearcats as the Bearcat offense was just too good. The Owls couldn’t get anything going offensively as the Bearcats defense was just giving Mathis and the Temple offense so much trouble, the black cat defense was just dominating Temple here tonight.
