Getty Cincinnati quarterback Ben Bryant looks to turn things around for the Bearcats on Saturday.
Cincinnati faces an early-season must-win situation against an tough FCS team in Kennesaw State.
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The game (3:30 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on TV, but anyone in the US can watch Kennesaw State vs Cincinnati live on ESPN+ right here:
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Kennesaw State vs Cincinnati Preview
The fall from College Football Playoff team to unranked came quickly for the Cincinnati Bearcats last week.
Arkansas beat the then-ranked No. 23 Bearcats 31-24 on September 3. It marked the first regular season loss for Cincinnati since 2019, and the Bearcats played a full schedule in 2020 during COVID.
“What we see on film, that’s who we are,” Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell said about the loss via Keith Jenkins of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “We’ve got to own the fact that we didn’t get the job done. We’ve got to own the fact that this is our team. We’ve got to find the ways to move forward.”
Cincinnati’s players now have their backs up against the wall with Kennesaw State coming to town on Saturday. The No. 18-ranked team in the FCS has been a stellar playoff regular for years. The Owls also badly need a win after falling 27-17 to Samford on September 1.
“Obviously, we’re excited to be back home this week more than anything,” Fickell added. “It’s tough starting on the road, but regardless of that, to be back at Nippert Stadium with the student body and the student section, the city and the community is something for us that is really exciting. It’s been a while. It’s been quite a while.”
A Cincinnati loss could negatively impact when and were the Bearcats would land a Bowl game berth. Kennesaw State losing could lessen the chances of an FCS playoff berth let alone getting a home game in the postseason. Cleaning up mistakes from the first game could make the difference on Saturday for either team.
“It’s a process,” Fickell said per Jenkins. “When you talk about playing clean, clean isn’t just the penalties. Clean isn’t just the false starts. Clean is getting into that rhythm with some tempo. I know when you’re moving the ball, it’s a lot easier to have rhythm and tempo. But I think that 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.”