The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(12-17-2022 07:19 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 07:14 PM)UCBearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 06:46 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 06:35 PM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 04:56 PM)Cal1362 Wrote:  Generally agree with your take but IMO the biggest needs highlighted were an O-Line and an offensive philosophy that does not rely primarily on running up the middle. Need something remotely imaginative but again that will point back to needing at least a middling O line.

UC was great at beating up on AAC level competition but we won't have that good fortune from here forward. All of the folks glad to be done with the supposedly sucky AAC level teams may wish we could play them some more. It's one thing to say we are a P5 level team and quite another to actually be one. I look forward to next fall and hoping this team surprises me.

UC fans are going to have to come to terms with the idea that anything .500 or over in-conference is a pretty good season. Much different from the AAC years.

I'd agree with this as a possibility the next couple of years, but the big east was a damn good league and this program rose its game to meet it. I have faith in this football program. Yea the big 12 is a step up but we will also be viewed as a bigger program .

Wining 7 or 8 games a season in the Big XII is the equivalent of 10 win Big East seasons.

The big east was the second rated conference by sagarin in 2009. Fans undervalued how good it was because it didn't have a traditional power. The big 12 is very similar. It is going to be deep with good teams but no traditional power. The big difference is 9 conference games instead of 7. I'd 8-9 winsin the big 12 is similar to 10 in the big east.

Yes, it was good but they only had 7 conference games which made it easier to navigate. Going forward UC is going to be playing 10 power conference games every year. That is going to be huge step up in competition. 7-2, 9-3 is going to be great year.

(12-17-2022 07:05 PM)Cat-Man Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 06:35 PM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 04:56 PM)Cal1362 Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 03:20 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  It's an exhibition game with a skeleton staff. Very little to take from it. Really the need for a qb is the only thing this game highlighted for me.

Generally agree with your take but IMO the biggest needs highlighted were an O-Line and an offensive philosophy that does not rely primarily on running up the middle. Need something remotely imaginative but again that will point back to needing at least a middling O line.

UC was great at beating up on AAC level competition but we won't have that good fortune from here forward. All of the folks glad to be done with the supposedly sucky AAC level teams may wish we could play them some more. It's one thing to say we are a P5 level team and quite another to actually be one. I look forward to next fall and hoping this team surprises me.

UC fans are going to have to come to terms with the idea that anything .500 or over in-conference is a pretty good season. Much different from the AAC years.

Regardless of who the coach was going to be.

That is a bit of a depressing ceiling.

We'll cash the checks I guess.

(12-17-2022 07:54 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 07:05 PM)Cat-Man Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 06:35 PM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 04:56 PM)Cal1362 Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 03:20 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  It's an exhibition game with a skeleton staff. Very little to take from it. Really the need for a qb is the only thing this game highlighted for me.

Generally agree with your take but IMO the biggest needs highlighted were an O-Line and an offensive philosophy that does not rely primarily on running up the middle. Need something remotely imaginative but again that will point back to needing at least a middling O line.

UC was great at beating up on AAC level competition but we won't have that good fortune from here forward. All of the folks glad to be done with the supposedly sucky AAC level teams may wish we could play them some more. It's one thing to say we are a P5 level team and quite another to actually be one. I look forward to next fall and hoping this team surprises me.

UC fans are going to have to come to terms with the idea that anything .500 or over in-conference is a pretty good season. Much different from the AAC years.

Regardless of who the coach was going to be.

That is a bit of a depressing ceiling.

We'll cash the checks I guess.

Same as every other program outside of the top 10-12.

Reality check here:

Would you rather:
Finish .500 playing Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, WVU, TCU, Iowa State, and BYU...and receive $40 Million a year to do it...

OR

Win 9-11 games every year playing Tulane, Temple, Tulsa, ECU, FAU, USF, UNT, and UTSA...and receive $6-8 Million in return.

Frankly, it's not much of a decision in my book.

I'll take meh in the B12 with better stadiums, better TV slots, better bowls, better recruiting and better financials vs trying to be Kings of the Dwarf Kingdom. The Baylor's, TCU's and Kansas State's are good examples of programs that don't consistently dominate the conference but find success at a clip that makes it fun and interesting year-to-year for their fanbases.

(12-17-2022 08:38 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Reality check here:

Would you rather:
Finish .500 playing Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, WVU, TCU, Iowa State, and BYU...and receive $40 Million a year to do it...

OR

Win 9-11 games every year playing Tulane, Temple, Tulsa, ECU, FAU, USF, UNT, and UTSA...and receive $6-8 Million in return.

Frankly, it's not much of a decision in my book.

Oh, I completely agree. If you ask fans of say, Illinois, if they’d consider leaving the B10 to be the dominant program in the AAC, they’d laugh at the prospect. Yet they know that it’s exceeding unlikely that they will play in the CFP in the next decade.

(12-17-2022 08:50 PM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 08:38 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  Reality check here:

Would you rather:
Finish .500 playing Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, WVU, TCU, Iowa State, and BYU...and receive $40 Million a year to do it...

OR

Win 9-11 games every year playing Tulane, Temple, Tulsa, ECU, FAU, USF, UNT, and UTSA...and receive $6-8 Million in return.

Frankly, it's not much of a decision in my book.

Oh, I completely agree. If you ask fans of say, Illinois, if they’d consider leaving the B10 to be the dominant program in the AAC, they’d laugh at the prospect. Yet they know that it’s exceeding unlikely that they will play in the CFP in the next decade.

I see it differently. The $30+M difference doesn't go in my pocket. As a fan, I like having my team get paid, but for me it's a means to an end. So in the short term, I prefer the first option because of the opportunity it presents. I can appreciate the concepts of growing pains and up-and-downs.

But per the terms of the listed options looking just at football, a lifetime ceiling and floor of .500 doesn't do much for me regardless of the opponent. If that's as good as it gets, frankly I think I prefer option B and winning championships.

Off the top of my head, when I look at Illinois football for roughly the last few decades, for example, I don't envy anything about them other than the opportunity they get having all those resources. I mean if it's just about "my team" playing the absolute best competition, I'd focus almost exclusively on "my team" in the NFL.

Agree with Hawk here. I enjoy winning.

I enjoy not being middle pack.

I'll likely miss not being middle pack next year.

Watching some of SMU vs BYU and it's amazing how inept UCs offensive line was today.

I still can't believe how quickly the season went from possibly hosting the AAC Chip game to playing with a depleted roster and coaching staff in cold, rainy Boston in a toilet bowl. It's like making a wrong turn outside an all inclusive resort and ending up in drug cartel territory.

I just don't get the negativity in this fanbase right now. We had a "down" year. We're coming off an insane 5 year run. We've done a jump like this before. Expecting some growing pains is reasonable. Thinking we have some low ceiling in the big 12 is overly pessimistic. This program has time and time again given us reasons to believe in it over the past 2 decades. We may struggle at times the next two years but we're way ahead of where we were when we joined the big east. Let's enjoy the ride.

(12-17-2022 09:56 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  Watching some of SMU vs BYU and it's amazing how inept UCs offensive line was today.

They were garbage most of the season. Luckily we played against a bunch of bad defenses or teams who missed the clue bus on how to scout us.

Bearcatman and I were saying in week #1 everyone should blitz the hell out of us.

(12-17-2022 10:21 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  I just don't get the negativity in this fanbase right now. We had a "down" year. We're coming off an insane 5 year run. We've done a jump like this before. Expecting some growing pains is reasonable. Thinking we have some low ceiling in the big 12 is overly pessimistic. This program has time and time again given us reasons to believe in it over the past 2 decades. We may struggle at times the next two years but we're way ahead of where we were when we joined the big east. Let's enjoy the ride.

I think most of know the next few years will be rough but we need to support the program.

Post 50, I'm getting to be about done with supporting programs through impending bad years. We have a few of them coming in both football and basketball. Yay sports...

I give the UofL interim HC credit for having some class at the end and running the clock out instead of trying to score again.

UC’s offense looked horrible, but honestly it looked bad all season.
We can complain (rightfully so) about QB play, but Caleb Williams would have struggled against that UofL defense playing behind UC’s OL.

Everything is still raw for the fanbase right now. We lost our home win streak. Lost an opportunity to win another conference chip and play in another NY6 bowl. Lost our head coach who interviewed for another job weeks before the last game. Lost our recruiting class. Lost in embarrassing fashion in a toilet bowl game. We don't have a serviceable QB on the roster at present. Uncertainty with a new coaching staff and roster turnover. All of this occurring in less than 30 days. Other than that it's fair to middlin' around here.

Seriously though, the stomach burn will get better in due course. It will help if our hoops team can make a bit of a run in conference play to help make the time pass.

I was at a bar celebrating Christmas with the family. The game was on but it was obvious early that UC wasn't playing in it, so we just kind of glanced at the score occasionally.

On to the rest of recruiting season.

(12-17-2022 10:21 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  I just don't get the negativity in this fanbase right now. We had a "down" year. We're coming off an insane 5 year run. We've done a jump like this before. Expecting some growing pains is reasonable. Thinking we have some low ceiling in the big 12 is overly pessimistic. This program has time and time again given us reasons to believe in it over the past 2 decades. We may struggle at times the next two year5s but we're way ahead of where we were when we joined the big east. Let's enjoy the ride.

It's a lot easier to be negative and then repent when your team wins than to be positive and have your team lose. If I want the Bearcats to dominate a conference and win 10 games a year, let's just join the MAC.

(12-18-2022 08:15 AM)Bearcatdh58 Wrote:  

(12-17-2022 10:21 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  I just don't get the negativity in this fanbase right now. We had a "down" year. We're coming off an insane 5 year run. We've done a jump like this before. Expecting some growing pains is reasonable. Thinking we have some low ceiling in the big 12 is overly pessimistic. This program has time and time again given us reasons to believe in it over the past 2 decades. We may struggle at times the next two year5s but we're way ahead of where we were when we joined the big east. Let's enjoy the ride.

It's a lot easier to be negative and then repent when your team wins than to be positive and have your team lose. If I want the Bearcats to dominate a conference and win 10 games a year, let's just join the MAC.

Not sure that being realistic qualifies as negative unless a person just wants self affirming unicorns and happy emojis regarding his team.

The reality is we had a coach-centric program. Said coach left at the worst possible time. We needed momentum to enter the B12 on an upward trajectory. Momentum went poof a couple weeks ago and we are back to a G5 possibly getting in over it's head.

With Fickell leaving we would take a step back for a couple years even if we stayed in the cruddy AAC. The timing of moving to the B12 and the timing of the guys on the 2 deep who are transferring out and who have graduated means we are going to go from the CFP to possibly weak sister-ing our way to a 4-5 win kind of year in just two seasons. That sucks but it's not being negative. It's being eyes wide open. This roster has big problems.

I'm not sure who we could have or should have hired or why we did or didn't but Satt feels like a longer term slow and steady rebuild kind of hire. That's going to be understandably hard for a lot of folks to come to grips with over the next couple of seasons if this plays out like many envision.