Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 09/27/2022

It was a big win last week. It was obviously great, everybody always kind of says it is a big win when you beat a team from the Big Ten and other conferences. I don’t think that our program and our team looks at it like that. It was obviously a 3-0 opponent that came in here, that had been playing well, and regardless of what conference they are from and I thought that our guys looked at it as a challenge. Any win is a big win, but I think when you when you are playing a 3-0 team, I think it’s great win. I also love the fact that when you are playing teams within your region it even means a little bit more because 81% of our guys are from a 300-mile radius so they know a lot about you know those teams within that that region. We have a lot of guys from Indiana that know a lot about those kinds of teams, so I think it even means a little bit more regardless of what conference they are from. For us it is about the big picture of things, so that’s first and foremost. I thought it was an awesome atmosphere, not that the week before wasn’t down at Bengals stadium, but I know our players thrive upon having the ability to play in Nippert Stadium and coming out there for warmups when you got the entire student section already filled, I think it’s pretty special. We might need to talk to them about finishing out the game, 38-10 is not the end of the game so I think we need to educate them a lot more, but I thought the fans, students, and atmosphere were phenomenal. It really showed in the first half and I thought that our guys fed off of it and really played well. I think we had some guys that had standout games, and I know I will get those questions on some who have got some recognition, but I don’t think any of those were above what we did as a team. There are things we can nitpick at and focus on the second half and some things we got to do better. I thought offense, defense, and special teams there were a lot of really good things that were going to take from the game as we continue to push and start this league play, but obviously Tyler Scott had a phenomenal game. I thought Ivan Pace Jr had a phenomenal game and I thought Mason Fletcher had a phenomenal game, so in all three phases of the game there was somebody that provided a spark, but the people around them obviously gave them an opportunity to do so. Now it’s about moving on to league play and we got to go on the road. We really haven’t been on the road since Arkansas and I don’t remember how that happened or what happened there, but what we do know is that in this league if you want to play for a championship, you got to not only win your league, but you have to win on the road and be really good on the road. We have a great challenge in front of us with Tulsa and they have given us the some of the best games over the last three or four years as anybody and so we know it’s going be a really hard fought night game on the road.

On if his feelings changed at all after rewatching the game:

No, I unfortunately, you live in this realm that there’s always things you are trying to find that are better. There were a lot more things I didn’t recognize that were as good as they were. The way the defense played and responded, 109 snaps is way too many, but sometimes it is the nature of the beast in what it is that we are doing. Forcing turnovers were good. I thought we did a good job defensively there. Some of the things that stick out in my head were some of the bonehead ones between me and some others, the fourth-down play where you are not going to win championships making mistakes like that, coming up a little bit short on a first down and not being good enough in the sudden chain situations and given up leverage with a big play defensively. So those are the things that unfortunately stuck in my mind. Obviously, there’s a lot of plays and a lot of really good and I think those are things that are easily fixed and adjusted so that bodes well for us.

On feeling positive with being disappointed in a 21-point victory:

There was a time when maybe it wasn’t quite like that. I think our guys feel the same way. I don’t want to take away from winning when I said that to you in the press conference. I promise you when I walked in that locker room the way we talked the game was that we are going to enjoy the win and celebrate it because it’s not easy to win in college football today you just got to look around every single week. When we come in on Sunday, that’s when we kind of hammer back down on now let’s find ways to get better. Normally we learn lessons from other games, we take games in college football and pull them for the for the team meeting and we pull clips from our own game about lessons to learn in football so that what we aren’t going to repeat them hopefully, we can learn them from others, but we got to learn some lessons from ourselves for sure.

On redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Dominique Perry’s season debut against Indiana:

He did a great job. I am so happy for him. He’s had a tougher situation, just being out since camp and he came back on a Tuesday practice. I don’t know if he played 30 snaps or 25 snaps. We were a little bit concerned with how many snaps they would allow him to play, but he went in there and played well after practicing well all week and he is a guy we need. I think him being out is where Dontay Corleone got more opportunities and with [Dominique] Perry coming back we will be able to spread the wealth a little bit more, play those guys maybe even some less, and be able to move [Dominique] Perry around because he is a guy that could fill in and play as a nose guard‚Äù

On lessons learned from the win over Indiana:

Well, as a coaching staff, you sit there and evaluate the two minute situation before the end of half. That’s not what I showed the kids, but if we are in that situation, there’s a balance between how much you want to be aggressive, and how much do you want to say, okay, don’t tank it in and then go to the second half. So as a coach, you are always trying to evaluate those situations, that was one for me. Then the fourth down play, we felt that we had something so we snap the ball because we feel like a guy moves. We feel like we have an opportunity to take the shot because it’s an offsides, but in those situations, if in doubt, you can’t. It has to be egregious, but that’s also a situation for a coach when you ‚ÄòSay maybe this isn’t the right time to do this’, based on where the game is, the score, and things like that. So, when I showed the clips, we are not only showing him for the kids, but we’re also showing him for the coaches in the back of the room and front of the room. Then the slide, I think that there’s a life of great learning lesson there for all because I’m not sure we all understand that when the clock is not under two minutes in college football it really doesn’t stop. So, for Ben Bryant to be able to run himself out of bounds and get the first down. It’s not like we are saving time, this isnt the NFL where you got to stay in bounds slide and do those things. You could run yourself out of bounds unless the clocks under two minutes is the only time that’s going to stop on the out of bounds play. So that was a situation that I don’t know if we have ever talked about. I know Ben [Bryant] didn’t know at the time, like in the split second, but those are very critical. We have to learn from them with positives behind it.

On heading into AAC play with a series tie against Tulsa:

I know nothing about the series, to be honest with you, and it’s no disrespect. I know what we have played the last three times we played them. Whatever it’s been before that it doesn’t matter. I know the last three games have been as tough of football games as we have had in the last three years. Every game is it itself, rivalry games are different because you keep track of the history of things. I think these games were ones where you at look how they played three years ago, look how they played two years ago, look how they played last year, they are obviously a very good football team, but they’re obviously even different when they’ve played us. Regardless of what the history is, we haven’t played them on the road [since 2016], and that is a big deal as well.‚Äù

On how if he still values conference championships:

That’s the only goal we have. We don’t talk a lot about goals. We talk about objectives within our program, but we have one goal. Every year the goal is to play for a championship and the only way you do that is by winning whatever conference you’re in. It won’t change next year when we’re in a different conference. The number one objective will be to play for a championship, and you’ve got to win in your conference to do that. We walk into camp; we talk about goals on the very first day and that’s it. Our guys understand that. The first four games are not preseason like they are in the NFL. In some ways, for who we are and what we want, they are a little bit more of a preseason situation. Obviously, we’ve changed because we’ve been fortunate enough to be in the mix because of the way our guys have played in the last three years. Those games before the league start mean a little bit more. It hasn’t changed the way we’ve attacked this thing. The conference is the most important thing that we do.‚Äù

On running out of things to say about senior linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.:

At some point we’ll let him talk for himself like he did after the game. I think the crazy thing is that there’s still a lot more for him to grow to do. That’s what’s still exciting about what is it that’s going on. He understands what it is that we’re doing. I think each and every week, he’s grasping a little bit more of what it is that’s around him. He’s a great player, he’s very instinctual. He’s going to make a lot of plays for us. Our job is to continue to do what we’ve done and find a way to get better but also have him grow in what he does. Understanding the bigger picture of things is still what we still got to do to challenge him and where he’s going to grow because he’s got a bright future in football. The unique thing is no matter what system you’re in now, in some point of time, you’re going to be in a different system. What we’ve got to do is continue to challenge him in different ways to grow and not just rely upon your instincts and sometimes that’s even harder on a guy that’s very instinctual, that’s playing really well. They can get into that comfort level of saying, ‚Äòwell, I’m going to instinctually play.’ We have to have a balance to continue to push him to challenge him, to grow him, and to make him do some other things.‚Äù

On last week’s running game performance:

I give (Indiana) credit. They did a really good job. They were able to hone in on some specific things when they knew we were running the football that were a little bit more challenging. Not something that we weren’t prepared for, but in the way in which they played. I think they did a good job. They are pretty big and physical up front and forced us to probably run into a space where they wanted us to. There are some things we definitely have to do better. That starts with moving people but also starts with getting fundamentally sound and doing enough that they can’t gang up on by knowing where it is you’re going to be. That’s twofold. That’s from us as a coaching staff to be able to give our guys different chances and be able to not do the same things we always do. It’s also on us to be able to move some people.

On Ben Bryant’s start to the season:

Ben [Bryant] has done everything we have asked him to do. He has highlighted the strengths of our offense, and that was one of the things in camp as we were trying to evaluate our offense, you’re looking at the strengths you have. We looked at Tyler Scott and Tre Tucker as part of that. Josh Whyle and Lenny Taylor are as well and really good in the pass game. In some ways, it was playing towards Ben’s strengths. All in all, Ben has done a great job, and not just at commanding the offense. He had respect when he walked out the door [to Eastern Michigan], so it wasn’t hard when he walked back in. He does a real good job at moving the ball around. He keeps everyone involved in the game, and that’s a big deal, because defense can’t hone in on one guy. As we continue to move down the road, people will have a better idea of what we are doing. I like where he’s at because of how he moves the ball and that he takes what the defense gives him, instead of forcing things.

On Arquon Bush’s status:

We will find out today. He’ll give us a little something today, and we’ll see how he progresses throughout the week. I thought at one time he might come bac kin last week, and maybe he could have, but we weren’t going to.

On Indiana’s style and the flow of the game with how it will prepare UC for Tulsa:

I think it helps us in all that we do. When you play 109 snaps, you get a lot of work at a lot of different things. They threw it 66 times. I think the best things about Tulsa is their balance. They’re fourth nationally in passing and up there in total offense and things like that. What’s made them so good, and especially against us, is that they’re balanced. They can and do throw the ball really well, but they rushed for 265 yards last week and last year against us it was over 200 and the year before that close as well. What they do, they do well, and it comes down to balance.

On Eric Phillips’ impactful start to the season on defensive line:

Going into the season, he was the fourth guy we saw as a starter. He earned that play-hard reputation where even though we played with three defensive linemen, we had four starters. We got to look at the other guys and see them as starters so we can play 6 or 7 guys, and obviously what happened with Malik Vann, he was forced into what we thought was a 50 percent role into a 60 or 75 percent. He will continue to get better and stronger and learn what we are doing. For he and Jabari Taylor and those guys play well, but we have to make sure they are rested. Nobody on the line can play 109 snaps, and we don’t expect them to. But to play 65 or 70, in our vision, is probably too much too. When those guys start to play better, and we did this with Cortez (Broughton in 2018) for 45-50 plays a game, you get later in the year and start riding that horse and saw how his production went down the last five games. We have to do a good job at making sure we aren’t relying on those guys too much so that they can keep playing well.

On Eric Phillips’ emergence after sticking it out as a veteran:

There are so many examples of those things. That’s the beauty of having a program you’ve had for six years, but it’s about those guys who have stuck it out. Nowadays, there are a lot more opportunities for guys to see where the grass may be greener. I think it’s a great example too of our program that a guy has fought and fought, and now it’s earned, and those who do that will have good things happen.