Bearcat Blitz

Bearcat Blitz: UC Football Posts Worst Performance of Season, Basketball Rolling

Cincinnati football got dominated 41-15 against Kansas State on Saturday. We dissect the horrific outing and check in on a cruising UC hoops outfit across this Bearcat Blitz. Follow Russ and Neil on social media! Twitter: @russheltman11, @MeyerNeil6

Duration:: 39m
Broadcast on:: 25 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

Cincinnati football got dominated 41-15 against Kansas State on Saturday. We dissect the horrific outing and check in on a cruising UC hoops outfit across this Bearcat Blitz.

Follow Russ and Neil on social media!

Twitter: @russheltman11, @MeyerNeil6

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Try it today at Progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states. Need new glasses or one of fresh new style? Warby Parker has you covered. Glasses started just 95 bucks, including anti-reflective scratch-resistant prescription lenses that block 100% of UV rays, every frame designed in-house, with a huge selection of styles for every face shape, and with Warby Parker's free home try-on program, you can order five pairs to try at home for free. Shipping is free both ways too. Go to warbyparker.com/covered to try five pairs of frames at home for free, warbyparker.com/covered. [MUSIC] Time for Bear Cap Blitz on the Believe Network. I'm your host, Russ Elman. He's my co-host, Neil Meyer. You might notice a little bit of a change in the intro there. That's what you get when the football team gets plastered 41 to 15, and the basketball team destroys their first power conference opponent of the season by 20+ points. We're shifting the basketball season, people. It is official. There is no reason to give this football outfit the further intros on the football side of things. The game disasters performance on Saturday night, arguably the most disappointing outing of the Scott's Battlefield era, given where they are in the timeline, 41 to 15 defeat at the hands of the Kansas State Wildcats, was 41 to 9, the score to garbage time touchdown that did not really matter in the grand scheme of things. All in all, though, we will get to that to start the show, some bad news to start, and then some great news to close it with Cincinnati undefeated in its road trips over the past week, covered both spreads on the betting side of things, so they outperform what the odds makers thought they would do. It's just been a stellar start to the season for the seventh ranked team in the country on Ken Palm's Analytical Numbers on KenPom.com. Before we get to all that, though, bet online of the world's most trusted betting platform and your number one source for online betting right here on Bearcapped Blitz. From the earliest odds, the in-game live betting bet online provides you with all the action and the ability to watch the games as they happen with the largest selection of odds on everything from football, NBA, and college, basketball, NHL, UFC, and the rest of the MMA world. Head to bet online today to get in on the action with America's most trusted site for online wagering bet online. The game starts here. Welcome in Neil Meyer, my co-host of the front office news, Cincinnati's rival state. I am, of course, Russ Helton of Cincinnati Bearcats on SI, and you can catch Bearcapped Blitz on Talking Cast with Russ Helton on our YouTube page or on Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever podcast platform. You frequent, you can catch us there and people not wanting to frequent back to this result. Neil, 41 to 15 will start on the offensive side of the football for Cincinnati who falls to five and six on the campaign. They have followed the exact, nearly, the exact final month finishing that I projected going into the year, had them losing three in a row, entering this game and fighting for one last chance to get a bullbid. I was confident they'd be able to pull it off before the season and rally around Scott's battlefield and get this victory against TCU this weekend. Neil, from what I saw on Saturday, especially on the offensive side of the football, I am a lot less confident in ending up finally, fully picking the Bearcats later on this week to be TCU and what now will be another underdog opportunity for Scott's battlefield, given they are betting underdogs at home against the Hornfrocks. Yeah, no, most certainly Russ and I know you and I both gave our predictions before the season and we both had this team going either six and six or seven and five, but the opportunity to go six and six is still there, but it's going to take a lot on Saturday, versus a very tough TCU team right now who's arguably one of the hottest teams within the Big 12 conference and 35 team nationally and most analytic metrics. And on a roll right now is TCU, so it's going to be an interesting match up on Saturday with the Hornfrocks. Obviously, as you mentioned, being underdogs at Nippert Stadium is something they haven't really seen all season or haven't been underdogs at home all year. So it's going to be a first time they've been home dogs. It's going to be interesting to see how this team comes out in response. Obviously first Nippet night game as well, the season fans wanted one. They get the opportunity there, a 6pm kickoff. It's not the official Nippet night with the APM or 730 kickoff time, but it's a little earlier Nippet night. Nice and freezing for the fans to enjoy a Nippet night. Nice and freezing for them. Lovely. Still, still expect a full Nippert Stadium on Saturday, but it's going to be interesting. The bowl berth is still there, but they're going to just kind of tickets out there, Neil. I don't know if we're going to be seeing a full Nippert. Well, holiday weekend Black Friday as well always makes things difficult for those traveling, but overall, another opportunity still looms for Cincinnati to get to that six game and get to a bowl game for the first time under Scott Satterfield. But right now after losing four game straight, Cincinnati is searching for some momentum here in just about every measure as possible. You know, looking at the offense, just another disastrous day, especially when you think about a day where Corey Kiner goes for 9.3 yards per carry 140 yards and you only put up nine points when the game really matters, one touchdown scored when the game really matters. Brendan Soresby not helped by his receiving core at all. And he once again didn't help himself create many plays out of mostly nothing in this one. 21 of 39, 200 yards, two touchdowns and another interception, he turns the ball over again in this game, 108.7 pass a rating, lowly 54.54% completion mark, but Neil, he was actually the highest graded player on Cincinnati's offense in this game, 71.4 overall, the receiving core once again continues to let Soresby in this offense down while Soresby has just been unable to answer and lift things up individually in his own right, 71.4 overall grade for Soresby in this one. He had a season high, three passes dropped by his receivers in this game. It's rough, rough night all around, especially for Joe Royer, who was one of the five lowest graded players offensively in this game, 51.5 overall grade for Royer. Tony Johnson had a nice day, really the only receiver and only pass catcher, largely outside of playmaker, outside of Corey Kiner that did anything in this one, 68.2 overall and then 66.1 for Luke Kandra. DeAndre Buford has been an abject liability all season long, really his entire Bearcats career. Flat out bad, two games, the season graded above 62 overall and once again below 50 in this game. Second worst grade on the entire team with a 44.4 mark, Brady Lichtenberg came in from Mop up duty. He was the lowest graded player on the offense. So there's no reason to think that if you're going to bench print and Soresby for any reason down the stretch here a lot like they would, that things are going to get better on the quarterback side of things. And Francis Sermon, man, he continues to be a liability for this offense, 50.8 overall grade, more issues in the blocking game in this one, just a lot of problems, Neil. And when you think about offensively, receivers weren't getting open once again, they were unable to throw the ball down the field. It continues to be a massive problem when you look at them on 15 plus yard passes in this game, one of eight after going, I believe, over three or one for three in the last game, one of eight for 33 yards. There is no reason to respect this passing offense right now, Neil. And that's why you put up nine points in non garbage time play all while Corey Kiner ran for 140 yards. It didn't matter at all because the receivers in Brendan Soresby and this offense overall led by Brad Glenn leading the receivers and as the offensive coordinator part of this brain trust putting together this offense, he has not been good enough at all. The receivers are getting worse as the seasons have gone on across two seasons at Cincinnati and the offense has gotten worse as seasons have gone on as Scott Satterfield. What's going on, man? Like what is going on with the offense in a unable to put up 25 plus points in the past, I believe, definitely the past five games, maybe the past six games. I've not put up 25 plus since the loss at Texas Tech. And they just, he didn't have an answer. They didn't have an answer in the press conference. They're searching right now. They don't have an answer for what's going wrong. And in back-to-back seasons, Neil, you have a four plus game losing streak smack you in Scott Satterfield's tenure. It's just unacceptable. You cannot lose four games in a row each season while you're at, you see it's just you're never going to pick up momentum doing that. You're never going to check off your next goal doing that. And right now, it feels like one of the biggest regular season games of the decade for this program, the feeling and the end outness on Scott Satterfield from this fan base is teetering heavily, heavily. I feel it in my writing. I feel it from the fan base. You feel it from everybody talking. They're out right now. They're completely out on Scott Satterfield justifiably. He's given no reason for them to be in, given the 60th ranked recruiting class coming in in 2025 and another season where you're below or at 500 match the game on Saturday, Neil, especially for this offense, for Scott Satterfield, for him to pick up and feel like any momentum can come out of this season. They have to get a win or at least have to show some life offensively and get above that 25 plus point mark for the first time in almost six weeks. Yeah, Russ. Obviously, as you mentioned, so you look down at the schedule, Cincinnati was riding a two game winning streak just about a month ago following the victory over UCF and verse arguably one of the best teams in the country right now in Arizona State. Now it was a different Arizona State team, but right there you have your win. Read asterisk, Neil. Complete asterisk. That was not the real Arizona State. Sam Levitt is 56, maybe 70, 70 position spots higher in terms of quarterback rankings. Then what I think it was some guy named, I don't remember what the guy's name was. The backup for Arizona State, but he was, he was horrible, played like a bottom 30 quarterback in the country. Sam Levitt has played like a top 35 quarterback all season. I'm fully convinced Arizona State wins that game if they have their starting quarterback intel. Yeah, it obviously would. Well, how many points are they scoring that one, Neil? Yeah. But overall, that's the point I'm getting to there, Russ as you look down at the last six games as you mentioned, dating all the way back to arguably dating back to Texas Tech, they put up 19 verse UCF, 24 verse Arizona State, 23 verse Colorado, 24 verse West Virginia, 17 verse Iowa State, 15 verse Kansas State. The offense has quickly sputtered downwards since big 12 play has started outside of that shootout versus Texas Tech. The offense has been struggling to find anything going. And I mean, you're looking at the positives to take away from Kansas State, Corey Kiner averaging nearly 10 yards a carry. And Russ, you and I have been saying it for a while. Sometimes you wonder why he's not getting 20 carries a game. And Evan Pryor getting maybe 10 behind him that running offense is something that they need to utilize. And maybe that allows things to open up in the passing game, but Cincinnati run, Neil, they were, they were letting them run. They were willing to let them run. They played that too high that three safety show covers like so many teams have played over the last month. They didn't care if you see ran the football because they knew that they were not going to be able to execute in the red zone. And that's exactly what happened again in this game. Two for two in the red zone, but they only got there two times. And they were just unable to move the ball consistently in both the passing and the rushing game to get in the red zone, even getting at the ability of school. Yeah. And then you look down after this game. I mean, you're looking down and you're three of 12 on third downs and O for five on fourth downs and you run 69 total plays, three of 12 is not going to win you any games in the big 12 going three of 12 on third downs, especially with how good this conference is. And then oh, and five on fourth downs and yes, most of those were probably towards late in the game with the game already out of hand, but you have to find ways to convert on third downs, Russ, and I think for the most of big 12 play, you and I have talked about this as well off the air, but since I've been playing behind the six and that's a huge down part into what they're trying to do on the offensive things, but when you're playing from behind the sticks, it's not going to do you much good in those third down situations when you're having to go third and eight, third and 12, third and 10, whatever it might be, but you got to find a way to get ahead of the sticks to play this offense into what they are trying to do, with Scott Satterfield and Brad Glenn there as offensive coordinator, but overall they just need to hit the easy layups that they get, Brendan Swords being missed another easy wide open, what could have been another touchdown to Evan Pryor, another home run hit and ball, and they miss that opportunity again, but you have to find ways to capitalize on what teams are giving you and if you can't hit those little short, short dink passes, take those chunk plays when the opportunity presents itself, it's going to be hard to get anything going in the passing game as well. So overall, it's going to be interesting to see what the offense looks like versus TCU obviously being what could be the final week of the season pending on the outcome of Saturday, but overall, the offense has to be better, especially with the veteran offensive line as you mentioned, DeAndre Buford and fully healthy, fully healthy line is fully healthy and still have not been able to get the production out of the offense that this team has been hoping for and heading into the season for us. I mean, everyone looked down at this team as that was the centerpiece of this offense was the returning offensive line alongside Corey Kiner. And then on top of it, Corey gets going for a hundred or a thousand yards for the second consecutive season. That's a big accomplishment, but outside of that, the last few weeks, there has been no offense outside of the run game. Nine tackles for loss given up in this game, four sacks allowed and then you're fully healthy offensive line, really fully healthy offense. So the most part outside of Joey Belgian not playing much this year. I mean, Neil, they have been wildly lucky with how healthy they've been amidst a wildly lucky and fortunate scheduling break this season. And Neil, tell me how many teams this, this, this program has beaten in 2024 in the Big 12 conference ranked above them. You want to tell me how many teams they've beaten that are higher than them in the standings right now. Um, probably just Arizona State. That would be correct. And what did we say about that game? They won by 10 points, put up 24 against the backup quarterback at home. It's just, it's not even close to good enough at all. And now they get to face a TCU team that is rolling, coming off a 49 28 win over Arizona. And we talked about the layups being to hit those, even if they hit that layup against with, with Evan Pryor, our source, we'd Evan Pryor, still only 22 points. You got a whole lot of other issues on the other side of the ball that would have made that touchdown really irrelevant anyways, because of how much dominance and smacked in the mouth. That's not even a term, but I just made it up because you got to mix up, mix up up with how just just disintegrating this team has looked over the past four to five weeks, defense no different. This break on Bear Capitalts. This episode brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, hoping it all works out? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can get a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll help find you options within your budget. 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Back here on Bearcat Blitz, my head's in a pretzel, my words are in a pretzel, my brain's in a pretzel, after this Bearcat's football team has gone from five and two to five and six back-to-back years with four game losing streaks for the first time since the 2016 and 2017 seasons, 41 points allowed against Kansas State. A big reason why, Neil, it was their lowest graded game on PFF this season, 58.4 overall team grade for Cincinnati. They have now, Neil posted the three lowest graded games. This season, all within the last four weeks, 62.9 at Colorado, 62.8, home against West Virginia, 76.4 against Iowa State, so they've perked up a little bit there, still got doubled up 34.17, and then the 41.15 loss produces a 58.4 overall grade for this team and the lowest defensive grade of the season, not hard to see why at 52.8 overall from this one. They got absolutely boat race, Neil, 41.15, smacked in the mouth, driven up and down the field. They give up 40 carries for 281 yards and seven yards per attempt, 72 yards in the touchdown for quarterback Avery Johnson, 143 yards on 9.5 yards per carry for DJ Giddens, two touchdowns for him. Neil, this was an absolute home domination on the offensive side of the ball by Kansas state, literally from start to finish, not even close to prepared for the amount of physicality that they've faced on the side of the ball. Yeah. And Ross heading into this one. You and I both talked about after watching Kansas State's head coach, Chris Cleiman's press conference earlier in the week last week and heading into this one. Once he said that they were going to let Avery Johnson quote unquote, let Avery Johnson lose. I mean, the team rolled fired up and I mean, look what happened. And next thing you know, they made the change that offensive coordinator and Avery Johnson is looking like what Kansas state wanted them to look like at the beginning of the season. And of course, it just happened to come against Cincinnati. But I mean, Cincinnati just had no answer rush to the rush or rush to the run game. Like Kansas state was getting whatever they wanted in the run game. And I mean, it was clear from the very first drive, what Kansas state was trying to do. Larry Johnson's first drive, first carry goes 33 second carry goes for a 21 yard tour. And I mean, Russ, I think right then in there, everybody kind of knew what this game was about to be like. And they knew they were going to pound Cincinnati in the mouth and run the football. And that's exactly what happened. But DJ Giddens was DJ Giddens. And there's a reason why he is one of the best backs in the big 12. But arguably Cincinnati has done a decent job at containing run the highly profiled running backs in this conference, but man, we'll see a tough, tough match up on Saturday night Russ, 15 carries 143 yards, two touchdowns and any time a guy is averaging 10 yards a carry like Corey Kinder was in this game, you're not going to stop that much often. And then along of 32 yards, Avery Johnson, 10 for 72, it touched out including a 33 yard run as his longest run of the night. But any time you run for 40 times, and then you get rack up nearly 300 yards of total offense on the ground, it's going to be a long day, that's going to wear your defense down. And that's exactly what happened in this one. Despite the time of possession, Russ, being relatively close, Cincinnati just their defenses had no inability to stop the run. You can say they were missing Jake Golday due to the injury and banged up. Obviously, he's been a key part, but there was nothing you could do in that situation when guys were busting holes in wide open coverages, getting six, seven yards a carry, especially versus a high power team in Kansas State. The run defense simply had to be better. Obviously you rush three teams are going to double team Dante Corleone like we've seen all season until you get pressured to the quarterback, teams are going to use and abuse that and run the ball at will and a performance like Saturday, that's going to be the outcome you get until you find ways to stop the run. Zero QB hits and zero sacks. That's almost like, that's, that's really hard to do, Neil. Like I guess the guy like Avery Johnson as well, you don't get one QB hit, a guy who is not a very good passer, very raw in that sense, is a guy who's going to hold on to the football, is going to look to run at most points if he doesn't like what he's seeing downfield. It's just an inexperienced still as well. Right. Like and you don't hit the quarterback one time, one time in a game where your backs against the wall, it's just, everything was there for them to respond for them to get up off the mat and prove that they can compete, not beat some of the best teams in this conference, but just compete with the best in this conference. And we're still waiting to see that from this defense and this program in general. I'm not counting a beating Arizona State at home with a backup quarterback as you competing and beating the best of the best in this conference. And when he pointed it out recently, they still haven't beaten a true big 12 team. Arizona State's brand new and you could maybe count that as a bit true, big 12 win, but I don't know. Like I said, it's against a backup quarterback. That's a massive asterisk. Yep. And looking back on the stats from it, Jeff Sims went 12 for 25 in that matchup. Yeah. He wasn't very good at all in that game, like not accurate, not good Jeff Simms. Thank you. That was some like random create a player name that was that was escaping me that front, but 41 to 15, no sacks, no quarterback hits, you know, they gave up nine plays of 10 plus yards on the ground, not Gary's for 10 plus yards, just not even close to being able to stop Kansas State in this game. Five more passes of 100 six yards total or five more passes of 15 plus yards, they give up 14 total big plays on the ground and through the air, just not going to win football games doing that. And I've tried to give them the benefit of the doubt I have. I've tried to. It's just it's along with the rest of the fan base with the fan base themselves. It's getting really hard to see how this is going to get much better. You got a guy like Dante Corleone. Maybe he comes back next year because Neil, it's been a precipitous fall in production from Dante from his fresh, Richard Freshman campaign to last year to this season. Maybe there's some lingering fatigue, some lingering issues with the blood clots that hampered his production throughout this year, but another game where you don't really notice Corleone in this one, he overall, believe had just one tackle. Yep, one tackle overall was as 66, I believe overall grade in this one. So it was in the top five on defense, but that's not saying much from this album outing, 66.3 overall. Neil, he's gone from 93.8 grade in 22, 83.3 and 23 to 78.8 this season, gone from elite to just very good. And you can feel it with how they are getting smacked in the mouth in the rushing game. Been a couple of good performances here or there stopping the run. But all in all, obviously this one, not even close to good enough. And every time Neil, it feels like they've faced an elite rushing attack, they've gotten destroyed. Yep. And that outside of Camp Scatterbo, but what are they not having that game? They didn't have their starting quarterback, who is a top 40 player in the country and will be on a lot of the major all transfer teams, first team player, all transfer teams at the end of the season. I already saw he was on ESPNs from a couple of weeks ago, just a really disappointing afternoon or a really disappointing evening from the Cincinnati Bearcats football team, a football team that it's just really hard to say they have improved, that things are getting better and that things will continue to get better going into next year. When you think about outside the top 50 recruiting class in 24, another outside the top 50 recruiting class in 25 and no real pathway to bring in a quin-Sean Judkins or like that from the transfer portal. I bring it in some five-star player that everybody knows about, they're going to have to, once again, mine the smaller ranks, they're going to have to hunt for the diamonds in the rough, trying to throw it together that way. It's getting to feel like, Neil, like the Bearcats football program is feeling like the Bengals of the Big 12, the Jaguars of the Big 12, where you have to get elite coaching talent to outweigh the issues you have putting together a roster and the issues you have just being under the guise of the Big Brother, Ohio State and this state because they have clearly not been able to recruit it to a high level thus far, a high enough level to out maneuver Ohio State and other Big Ten outfits around the area as well. But to a much more positive side of things in terms of basketball after this on Bear Catwoods, this is a mini-meditation guided by Bombus. Repeat after me, I'm Comfy, Comfy, I'm Cozy, Cozy. I have zero blisters on my toes, blisters, and that's because I wear Bombus, the soft socks underwear and t-shirts that give back, one purchased equals one donated. Now go to bombus.com/listen and use code "listen" for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash "listen" and use code "listen" at checkout. This episode brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, hoping it all works out? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can get a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help find you options within your budget. Try it today at Progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliate. Nice and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states. Need new glasses or one of fresh new style? Warby Parker has you covered. Glasses started just 95 bucks, including anti-reflective scratch resistant prescription lenses that block 100% of UV rays, every frame's designed in-house, with a huge selection of styles for every face shape. And with Warby Parker's free home trion program, you can order five pairs to try at home for free. That's free both ways too. Go to warbyparker.com/covered to try five pairs of frames at home for free, warbyparker.com/covered. It took a lifetime to find the person you want to marry. Finding the perfect engagement ring is a lot easier. At bluenile.com, you can find or design the ring you've always dreamed of with help from bluenile's jewelry experts who are on hand 24/7 to answer questions and the ease and convenience of shopping online. For a limited time, get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code POD at bluenile.com. That's $50 off with code POD at bluenile.com. From a four-game losing streak on the gridiron to a five-game winning streak to open the season for Cincinnati Bearcats basketball, they go 2-0 on the road this past week, they go 3-0 on the road. One more football game, likely one more football game given they are underdogs. This upcoming outfit to cover in the 24-season, but a lot to cover with the Bearcats basketball team moving forward. 81-58, easy. No question win over Georgia Tech on the road. They cover just like a breeze as seven-point favorites. Jizzle James, 14 points. Connor Hickman, 14 points. Dylan Mitchell, 14 points. Simas Lukas, 12 points. Neil, they've had four or more double-digit scores in every game this season. It feels like we are watching one of, if not the deepest teams in the country. They've been one of the most dominant teams in the country. I won't say they've been one of the best because they have faced the 300th ranked strength of schedule on Kenpom.com right now, so they haven't really faced anybody of substance outside of Georgia Tech who they destroyed as a top-one team in the country on Kenpom. But man, Neil, the way they were able to just power through without the end skilings and this one, Dylan Mitchell led the way on the boards. They powered through Arrington Pages, foul trouble, easels, out in seven minutes and just got great production all across the board offensively. They're getting balanced showings from everybody. Jizzle James, another 14 and seven. Hickman, his best and most efficient outing as a Bearcat, 14 points on six of eight shooting. Then Mitchell with his first double-double as a Bearcat all while Lukasha's goes another 40% mark from three. They're cooking, Neil. They're rolling, 52% field goal percentage for Cincinnati. I believe they're number two nationally and effective field goal rate so far this year and held Georgia Tech to 36% from the field. Neil, with how good this defense is, if they are number two nationally and effective field goal rate all season long, they will be right there in the last two weekends of the NCAA tournament competing for the national championship. That's a fact. Yeah, no, but certainly that is a fact there, too, Russ, and I think the best thing to take away. Or not to if you're shooting that well and playing that great as you think. I think the biggest thing to take away, too, Russ, over the last week for Cincinnati is how much better Connor Hickman has been playing in the natural two position with the return of Dade Thomas. I think you can't talk about that. That's what I wrote about this morning for the Alabama State game. You can't talk about this basketball team without talking about Dade Thomas's impact on this team since his return, because you look at it, what he did versus Northern Kentucky. Connor Hickman had one of his best games. Then you go down on the road to Georgia Tech, Dade Thomas has another solid performance. Connor Hickman then has his best game of his season and Bearcat career, 14.6 of eight shooting, and Dade Thomas's impact of this team, we've heard West Miller talk about it multiple times, but his impact is more impactful than people might realize due to the depth and the talent on this team that he brings and provides so much for this team. But Russ, man, did Dylan Mitchell look good on Saturday since now he looked good as well. Dylan Mitchell looked fantastic as well and needed. Three if he's hit in a corner three, like even once every two games and Russ, you and I, you and I have seen him work on that three point shot in practice and whatnot. But to see that one go through in the game could unlock a whole different thing for Dylan Mitchell. And I don't know if you guys saw the bench reaction. The bench reaction was fantastic when they saw that get through, but overall, the biggest takeaway to Russ is that's our first road test. We are all kind of questioning, you know, what the road shooting struggles might come into play, but you look down and you see that you shot nearly 50% from the field in this game, 52% roughly, that's what you want to see. Cincinnati is now nine and over to AC dating back to 2008. If I remember right, five and O for the first time in recent years, with an opportunity to loom ahead and potentially start this season seven and O after Villanova, like that's the Villanova was the big, another big game circle and obviously you look at what they're doing right now, not good, but it's still a big, a big time matchup and Cincinnati's just getting better and then there's even more better news with Dan Skilling's return potentially looming quicker than many have thought. So overall, I would honestly be surprised if we don't see him for the shootout, maybe a little surprise before then, but that week gap between the Howard game and the shootout is definitely somewhere, so a place where we could see Dan Skilling's floor return. Yeah, and if that happens, it's going to be dangerous for Cincinnati. It really will be and it's going to be a fun team to watch. Obviously, this is a fun group of guys and a high energy group of guys, but Russell looking down right now, they're not even hitting their peak yet, obviously out rebounded in two of your four games. Great game yet. And they're in their four and one against the spread. Yeah, and four and one against the spread and any of you guys who follow the batting apps or whatnot, seeing what they did versus Georgia Tech at what was it Russ, minus eight and a half heading into that game. Yeah, depending on how you feel in some sort of way for your sports betters out there heading into the big 12 seasons, so overall, the sky's the limit and if they continue to get that production, Russ, where you're seeing four or five guys figuring double figures, this is going to be a team that is expected, not well expected to make it past the second weekend in March. Well said by Neil right there, and I wish we had more time on this bear cap blitz. We are going to give full on segments to give two full segments to the basketball team on Thursday before a quick preview of the final football contest of the year for Cincinnati against TCU. Right where I thought they'd be five and six entering the final game of the year. Still a chance to make this a successful season. It's all about how they respond this week and how well they can contain this TCU team coming in the Nippert Stadium, a Nippet night venue, a scheduling break for Cincinnati. All hope is not lost for this season, but they only got one more chance to make it whole. We'll see if they can. We'll preview all that in the coming days here on bear cap blitz presented by that on line. [MUSIC] >> Three seconds left, shot clock on, four point game, the Julius, put number three. [MUSIC] >> Three seconds left. [MUSIC] >> Three seconds left. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Hey everybody. I'm Trevor Sick. I'm a host of the PFF NFL show here to tell you what you can find on all of our shows throughout the week on Mondays. We have the great release show where myself and Paul Wasserman break down every single game that you just saw in the NFL. On Tuesdays, we have the quarterback breakdown with Seth Delina on Wednesdays. We've got the rookie review with John Ledyard and the preview for the upcoming week in the NFL. So make sure you are subscribed to the PFF NFL show wherever you get your podcast. >> This is a PSA or public sock announcement. Experts have declared Bomba socks as the best way to warm up chili feet. These pairs are super cushy, soft and designed for maximum coziness plus for every pair purchased another pair will be donated. So someone in need of essential clothing can stay warm this winter. Go to bombas.com/listen and use code LISTEN for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash listen and use code LISTEN at checkout. [MUSIC] >> Hey everybody. I'm Trevor Sick. I'm a host of the PFF NFL show here to tell you what you can find on all of our shows throughout the week on Mondays. We have the great release show where myself and Paul Wasserman break down every single game that you just saw in the NFL. On Tuesdays, we have the quarterback breakdown with Seth Delina on Wednesdays. We've got the rookie review with John Ledger and the preview for the upcoming week in the NFL. So make sure you are subscribed to the PFF NFL show wherever you get your podcast. (audience groans)