As I write this, we are exactly 50 days away from the Cincinnati Bearcats heading up to Columbus to take on new head coach Ryan Day and The Ohio State Buckeyes football team. I should make it known right now that I am a diehard OSU football fan, that’s not to say I am not also a season ticket holding big time fan of the Bearcats in both basketball and football. With all that said, the OSU side of me is extremely concerned about this game. Ohio State has not lost to an in-state football team since 1921 when they lost to Oberlin 7-6 and truthfully I don’t think I have ever been concerned they would lose an in-state game before now.
Enter Luke Fickell and the 2019 Bearcats. Now most people like to jump back to the 2002 matchup when Cincinnati was a late touchdown drive short of upsetting the Buckeyes. OSU came into that 2002 game favored by 20, it was a game UC was never supposed to be in. I promise you that will not be the case this September. If there was ever a “perfect” time to have a blue blood program like OSU on the schedule, it’s right now, under these conditions. OSU will be two weeks into replacing one of the best coaches in college football history and statistically the best quarterback in Big Ten history. Everyone knows Justin Fields is a 5 star recruit and everyone knows Ryan Day has coached a wildly successful offense at OSU thus far, but now its time for both to prove it on the field.
On the flip side, UC enters the season as a team who returns virtually everyone from last years 11-2 squad (UC was one of the top 5 youngest teams in D1 last year). Quarterback Desmond Ridder will look to build on an excellent freshman campaign and will have one of the more quietly dominating running backs in the country behind him. Fickell will boast one of the best defenses in the country and a great defensive line that’s sure to fluster Justin Fields all throughout the game. Most people assume its always big bad Ohio State who has the matchup advantages every time they step on the field and while OSU might have more recruiting stars by their players names on the depth chart, it isn’t very hard to argue that UC has the advantage in the two biggest areas of a college football game, head coach and quarterback.
Regardless of where your Ohio football allegiances fall, this game certainly looks to be one of the better out of conference games nationally and I expect this game to be closer than most people might think.
I’m not saying UC will win this game, I’m just saying that for the first time in almost 100 years it would not necessarily be the upset of the century if an in-state team took down the Buckeyes and hey if its going to be somebody why not UC?
