Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 09/06/2022

Obviously, we’re excited to be back home this week. More than anything, it’s tough starting on the road, but regardless of that, to be back in Nippert Stadium with the student body, the student section, the city, and the community is something for us. It is really exciting. It’s been a while, and so, first game back at home is something that we’ve been waiting for.

Last week was a tough loss on the road. But as we look at ourselves and we know, we didn’t play well enough to win a football game. We didn’t play sound enough. We didn’t play clean enough. Any of those three things could have been some of the biggest factors in losing and especially on the road against a good football team. You look at yourself first and foremost. And we realized that from that one, but moving forward, the most important thing for us is we walked in on Sunday, and let’s focus on these three things to make sure we learn, and we grow. But first and foremost, humble ourselves.

Regardless of what we thought we were going to do and where we thought we were going to be, you humble yourself to know you got to get better. I know I had too. That was first and foremost. Then we had to challenge ourselves and then challenge ourselves on how to move forward. Try to look back so okay, maybe we didn’t do well in our preparation. To challenge ourselves to make ourselves better, this is as coaches and as players and then ultimately own it.

What we see on film, that’s who we are. We must own the fact that we didn’t get the job done. We must own the fact that this is our team. We had to find ways to move forward.

So, think from those things that you can tell. We want to make sure we focus on us and what was most important, whether it was the things we need to correct, the things we need to do, but most importantly, the things that we’re going to do to move forward to keep developing as a team and a program.

On the positives the team can take knowing that there was enough talent on the field at Arkansas:

You can always find a silver lining in things. First and foremost, the effort level, the physicality, I am proud. I’m excited about the things that jump out that I put upon myself that in the preparation. We weren’t prepared for that moment, at that time, which we weren’t. There’s definitely things to grow on. You have an expectation. I don’t care what any predictions or anything like that, there’s no you don’t win. There’s nothing that you’re going to like say, ‚ÄòOh, we’ve got something’, a silver lining, but there are definitely things that we pride ourselves on that those guys did a really good job of, but we have to find ways. That’s the fortunate thing. We’ve found ways to win those games in tough environments. Even when you don’t play well to start but you get the corrections, and you play best at the end of the game. That’s where we just didn’t get it done.

On how the younger and/or inexperienced guys played Saturday at Arkansas:

There’s both. There’s some that played well, but I think that’s where my mistakes would be. We didn’t play as sound, as clean as we needed to play and that’s in coaching more than anything ‚Äì in the preparation, how you do things. Young guys are going to play hard, but when it comes down to the moment, it’s playing sound. I don’t know that our tackling wasn’t well defensively. I can put that on me and say well, we didn’t tackle much in fall camp. We weren’t as clean offensively, especially in the second half when we had things going and moving. That’s every bit as much on me. We didn’t play at that tempo and those kinds of things in fall camp. So, yes, they played hard. Yes, they’re going to be good football players, but you saw some of the youth come out and, in our team.

On giving up too many big plays against Arkansas:

So, 13 of them defensively. We had eleven on offense, which isn’t bad. We missed a few, but the reality is, we gave up 40 I think last year and 13 in one game is very noticeable. It was leveraged. It’s just the fundamental things and it was tackling, and obviously you’re going to have more of those, the better teams we play on the field, the more we will give up. Some things we did really well. We’ve tackled physically, but the bigger players came with the fundamental things of leveraging the football even when you missed tackles. If you missed tackles with leverage, then your effort overcomes all those things. And I think that’s where we came up a little bit short.

On how the team will monitor correcting mistakes against Kennesaw State:

Well, I mean, you don’t know until Saturday. You got to go back out there, and everything is about preparation. These guys are not 10-year NFL vets. This isn’t the NFL. The whole thing whether we got a young team or an older team. Last year, we had a little older team, and it was still about preparation, with the exception to Ridder and a few guys that started for four years. The preparation is so critical. So, you recognize, you see those things. I think the first is to humble yourself, and then to challenge yourself to find ways as coaches and individuals to realize you got to get better. And that’s what you do when you go out on a Tuesday, on a Wednesday, and even for us, on Sunday. We did a lot more on Sunday, because our kids were willing to, and I’m not saying before they weren’t, but those are things were glaring at them and as you saw them go out there on a Sunday even though they’re beat up, you’re like, okay, they are owning this and they’re challenging themselves, and they want to get better. We did some more things Sunday, and you’ll keep doing them, but you got to prove it.

On the level of competition for the first game of the year:

‚ÄúYou’re going to find the positive, and there’s no doubt that the challenge you knew was in your face. I don’t feel like we didn’t step up to the challenge. I just don’t feel like we executed the challenge at the level that we needed to so there’s a lot of good things in that but it’s only good, if you humble yourself. You recognize you need to challenge it and ultimately you own it so that you see what we put out there is us, whether it’s a great quarterback, that you missed a tackle on a great run. It’s still us. I don’t care who that is against you. Kennesaw State’s going to have guys that are good too and athletic. It doesn’t matter. The reality is you got to own it. You can’t just say wow, yeah, because you know, he’s a great quarterback, so what. So, that’s where I think most importantly, you can’t use any of those things as excuses or crutches. I’d say that’s what our guys believe that.

On how the offensive line performed:

I thought they did a good job. I thought that’s why we didn’t have that solidarity, not just because Jake [Renfro] wasn’t in there. But that’s such a unique group as you go through camp. I think most every year, I’ve said hey, in the first week of camp, we have to figure out who are starting five or so we can get them into position. So, they can work together. Some things change, but if you don’t get them into the position where they can work together, I think it’s really difficult. Not that Jake getting hurt on a Monday changed things up, but I think even through camp we had a lot of guys rolling in and out. Moving positions was Gavin and Metz and so for the first game of them guys actually playing together, I thought they played really well together. Obviously, there’s things we got to get a lot better at physically and some stuff there, but communication-wise I was happy with where they are.

On the helmet situation in Fayetteville:

We’re going to put double-sided tape inside there, and we’re going to stick them on their heads, and we’re going to have to tighten our chin straps a little bit. That was something that was kind of out of the blue for us. I don’t know if it’s, you just don’t tackle as much in fall camp, you don’t recognize those things, but it’s probably a lot simpler than that. I think they just can’t get comfortable with the playing a little bit looser with your helmet and you got to strap them up a little bit tighter and if that’s not the case, they keep coming off and then we’ve probably got a bigger issue. We got to dive in a little bit deeper, but I think just tighten them down. I would hope that’s going to get the job done for us.

On Ryan Montgomery’s injury:

No, not just yet. I mean, he’s got some rib issues. But, it’s still early in the week. He did not make it back into the game. It was significant enough that they couldn’t get him back and he didn’t feel comfortable enough to do that. But we’ll get him back whether he’s able to go for this week or not. We won’t know yet.

On more adjustments that Ben Bryant and the team can make:

It’s a process and I think those all those things that when you talk about playing, I don’t just mean clean. Clean isn’t just the penalties, clean isn’t just the false starts. Clean is getting into that rhythm with some tempo. That’s where even in the second half, I know when you’re moving the ball, it’s a lot easier to have rhythm and tempo. But maybe we didn’t do a good enough job of giving the offense an opportunity to play with a little bit more rhythm and tempo in the first half as we did in the second. But I thought he did a really good job. I think the thing that we got out of it as much as anything is I believe we’re a much more mature team than what I would have given us credit for. It was a tough first half. You go in down 14 to nothing at halftime and had that been last year’s team, not saying we wouldn’t, but I would have been curious as to how they would react and respond. They were very mature about what it was. Minds were open to making the adjustments and things, and I think that’s what showed when we came out the second half. Not just offensively but defensively as well.

Fickle on Cory Kiner’s performance in Arkansas:

He did a good job. That was one of those question marks. I had no real idea exactly how it was going to go. That position, in particular, is the most difficult one when you don’t know because you don’t tackle nearly as much and so I thought he did a really good job. I thought he was physical. I thought he obviously took care of the football. He made a couple of big plays. There’s going to be a lot more coming down the chute for him. But I think that process of growing and understanding everything because it’s a little more complex than it was maybe four years ago as far as what the tailback needs to do. That’s a process that I think he’ll do but it’s just going to take some more time.

On the missed field goals in the Arkansas game:

They were kicked well. The first one, it’s obvious, it’s a short one, but even the second one, 48 yards, he hits it off of the upper right. I really look at it and say is the ball kicked well. It’s kicked really well. And, little things here and there that will do a lot better job. I feel better than I did last year. I know I’d come up here last year and say I’m confident in him and I was, but we weren’t going to kick that often. I don’t think that we’re anywhere in the same boat. I think we got a lot of confidence. Obviously, you’ve seen the range and, in the leg, but I do believe that there was a lot more consistency. The first one is bad, but the one that bounced off the upright, it’s a really well kicked ball. A lot of those rhythm and tempo things are going to be better. And then the kick obviously kicked off really well. We have over 45-yard net average as well as two balls inside the 10-yard line. So, the kicking game was going to be a strong suit for us. But like I said, we’re going to be just fine. We’re going to be better than fine. We’re going to have a lot of opportunities. We don’t want to kick field goals and I think that’s the ultimate for us. We’re going to be in that dilemma where you got a kicker that can hit the 48-yard field will pretty consistently, and on fourth and two, what are you going to do? We want to score a touchdown, so we know we’ve got to continue to be aggressive.

On Mason Fletchers seeing his mom for the first time in two years before the game:

I don’t know that I got to enjoy the moment quite maybe like they and their family. I’m happy, really happy for him. To have a guy that hadn’t seen his mother in two years, that’s pretty special with his brother as well. A great family reunion for them but that’s about all I would get out of it, unfortunately. His parents will be in town again for this week to be here. It’s always good when those guys get that opportunity, especially guys that are as far away as he is.

On comparing Kennesaw States triple option to Navy or Army:

All of them are similar in ways and they all are different in some ways. Statistically you would look at them and they throw the ball more than what a Navy has done, or an Army has done when we’ve played them. They’ve only got one game under their belt from this year. Last year, they played a lot of games. 11-2 and made a heck of a run in the playoffs. All triple option poses a lot of problems. We’ve got to be a little bit different than we ever have been. Just to make sure we’re sound in their ability to throw the football a little bit more. But nonetheless, it’s always going to be a unique challenge and it’s not just a challenge for the defense. It’s a challenge to the offense. You have to play so complimentarily because they do limit the possessions that you get. You have to make sure you’re taking advantage of every one of those opportunities, whether it’s offensively or even special teams.

On the second-string defensive line performance at Arkansas:

It’s a great test. Dante did a really, really good job in there. We were kind of thrust into it. I was hoping maybe he would only be a guy that have to play 15 plays in the first few weeks because Dom Perry would be the other guy that could play 20-25 plays while Briggs plays maybe 50% of the snaps. Obviously, not having Dom threw a lot more on to Dante’s plate. I thought he did a good job. I thought Eric Phillips, Justin Wodtly, Noah Potter did a good job. We played seven guys, all with I would say at least 15 reps. It’s going to continue to pay off for us in the long run.

On what the defensive line will be facing next week:

Same thing, and now you’re playing with a little bit few more of them on the field at times too. By nature, sometimes we play with three. It’s always a unique challenge for those guys, but I think it’s great. It’s great for us. We’re going to pride ourselves on being a physically tough football team. There’s no greater challenge than playing the triple option, especially those guys up front.

On Ivan Pace Jr. performance against Arkansas:

Ivan is very disruptive. He’s a very instinctual football player. He was very productive. He made a lot of plays. There are obviously things we got to get better at. There’s some soundness of things that for how we play on, what it is we do, that puts a little bit more pressure on those guys because, little mistakes become catastrophic when you play as tight of coverage as we do. But he is very comfortable in what he’s doing. Which is I’m not saying a surprise but as a new guy in a system, in a game like that, that is not normal, meaning there’s so many motions and so many shifts and so many flies, and the tempo and pace of it, that it didn’t slow him down one bit. That’s a good thing.