here's a game that has a lot of interesting factors. bearcats have just been shunned by the big 12 expansion committee (or will be at 5:30 this evening in the worst kept secret in college football). ecu had an unanticipated bye because of the flooding from hurricane matthew in a two week stretch where practice was limited. ecu has lost 4 in a row since stumbling over the wolfpack in game, like the Clemson game, that the wolfpack lost rather than the pirates winning. cincy has lost 3 of 4 coming off their own bye. early tickets appear to be coming in on the bearcats but the line has backed up from -2 to -1. pirate defense cant stop anyone and the bearcats are not much better. does turbeville want to make appoint after the B12 rejection? anybody have a take on this game?
ecu @ cincy
- Thread starter loophole
- Start date
Loop, I don't know much but they did play one common opponent. ECU lost at S Florida by 16 and Cincinnati lost to S Florida by 25 at home! I was a little surprised when I saw that Cincinnati was only laying like 2, but then again I had to tell myself they are not as good as in past years; but that could be said about E Carolina also. How in the world did ECU beat NC State. To me that small number Cincy is laying as a home favorite is a red flag. I just couldn't take Cincy here, but probably not ECU either.
UC trying to salvage disappointing season
Alex Pace and his University of Cincinnati football teammates believe there is plenty of time for the Bearcats to salvage a disappointing season, with UC standing 3-3 (0-3 American Athletic Conference) at the midway point.
The Bearcats next play East Carolina (2-4, 0-2 AAC East) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Nippert Stadium. Both teams come off a bye week, with UC riding a two-game losing streak and ECU a four-game skid. The Bearcats are a 1 ?-point favorite, according to Las Vegas lines.
Pace, a senior defensive tackle, said Tuesday that the team prefers to look ahead instead of back. UC stands last in the AAC East, but three more wins would mean bowl eligibility.
?A bowl game is always in mind, just because you want that not just as a team but for the university, for the program to keep that going so you can bring in recruits and show them,? Pace said.
UC has reached bowl games in each of the last five seasons, a program record for most consecutive bowl appearances.
?A successful season is just getting back to how we want to be as a team,? Pace said. ?We didn?t start off right, but we?ve got a second half of a season to play, six more games. Like coach (Tommy) Tuberville told us, we could win them all, we could lose them all. We could win two, we could win three. It depends on how we prepare each week.?
After ECU, the Bearcats? final five games will be at Temple (4-3, 2-1 AAC East), home against independent BYU (4-3), at Central Florida (3-3, 1-1 AAC East), home against Memphis (5-1, 2-0 AAC West) and at Tulsa (4-2, 1-1 AAC West).
UC junior Mike Boone and fellow running backs hope to be part of a Bearcats revival. UC ranks just 116th nationally in rushing offense at 124.8 yards per game.
?It?s a good opportunity to finish with a good record, and just grow as an offense and as a team,? Boone said. ?We just keep pushing every day. We know we can turn it around. We?ve been in this situation before. There?s motivation to still finish with a great record.?
Tuberville, speaking at his weekly media luncheon, said players and coaches all need to produce.
?We?ve got six big games in a row,? Tuberville said. ?We know we?ve got to improve at every position to have a chance to win any of these games coming up. It?s gonna be very hard. We understand what we?re getting into. If we don?t improve, the wins and losses won?t improve. We?ve got to play better. We?ve got to coach better.?
Tuberville said morale remains high, despite himself and his team being criticized on social media and on sports talk radio.
?Attitude?s good,? Tuberville said. ?Guys are ready to play.?
Tuberville said some revisions have been made on the two-deep chart, but he did not divulge specifics.
POWER OUTAGE: Tuberville said the lack of a running game and shortage of big plays have hurt. Primary running backs Boone and Tion Green have long runs this season of just 18 and 24 yards, respectively. In the passing game, UC has had only five completions longer than 30 yards.
UC is averaging only 23 points per game, tied for 105th nationally. The Bearcats averaged 33.8 points last year.
Defensively, the Bearcats are allowing 25.3 points per game and stand 53rd in scoring defense. Last year, UC allowed 31.2 points per game.
?Defensive side of the ball, we have played better this year,? Tuberville said. ?We?ve got to have some help out of the offense. We?ve got to have some help out of special teams.?
QB WATCH: Sophomore Hayden Moore returned to start at quarterback in UC?s last game, a 20-9 loss to UConn on Oct. 8. Moore missed the previous two games with an ankle injury.
Indications are that Moore will start Saturday, but Tuberville still keeps that window open. Tuberville said that redshirt freshman Ross Trail and fifth-year senior Gunner Kiel remain in the mix.
?We?re having good competition,? Tuberville said. ?We?ve got three guys that have played now, been there. We?re looking for somebody to step up in the next three days, and see who it?s going to be. I?m looking for the best guy, as we all are.?
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Alex Pace and his University of Cincinnati football teammates believe there is plenty of time for the Bearcats to salvage a disappointing season, with UC standing 3-3 (0-3 American Athletic Conference) at the midway point.
The Bearcats next play East Carolina (2-4, 0-2 AAC East) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Nippert Stadium. Both teams come off a bye week, with UC riding a two-game losing streak and ECU a four-game skid. The Bearcats are a 1 ?-point favorite, according to Las Vegas lines.
Pace, a senior defensive tackle, said Tuesday that the team prefers to look ahead instead of back. UC stands last in the AAC East, but three more wins would mean bowl eligibility.
?A bowl game is always in mind, just because you want that not just as a team but for the university, for the program to keep that going so you can bring in recruits and show them,? Pace said.
UC has reached bowl games in each of the last five seasons, a program record for most consecutive bowl appearances.
?A successful season is just getting back to how we want to be as a team,? Pace said. ?We didn?t start off right, but we?ve got a second half of a season to play, six more games. Like coach (Tommy) Tuberville told us, we could win them all, we could lose them all. We could win two, we could win three. It depends on how we prepare each week.?
After ECU, the Bearcats? final five games will be at Temple (4-3, 2-1 AAC East), home against independent BYU (4-3), at Central Florida (3-3, 1-1 AAC East), home against Memphis (5-1, 2-0 AAC West) and at Tulsa (4-2, 1-1 AAC West).
UC junior Mike Boone and fellow running backs hope to be part of a Bearcats revival. UC ranks just 116th nationally in rushing offense at 124.8 yards per game.
?It?s a good opportunity to finish with a good record, and just grow as an offense and as a team,? Boone said. ?We just keep pushing every day. We know we can turn it around. We?ve been in this situation before. There?s motivation to still finish with a great record.?
Tuberville, speaking at his weekly media luncheon, said players and coaches all need to produce.
?We?ve got six big games in a row,? Tuberville said. ?We know we?ve got to improve at every position to have a chance to win any of these games coming up. It?s gonna be very hard. We understand what we?re getting into. If we don?t improve, the wins and losses won?t improve. We?ve got to play better. We?ve got to coach better.?
Tuberville said morale remains high, despite himself and his team being criticized on social media and on sports talk radio.
?Attitude?s good,? Tuberville said. ?Guys are ready to play.?
Tuberville said some revisions have been made on the two-deep chart, but he did not divulge specifics.
POWER OUTAGE: Tuberville said the lack of a running game and shortage of big plays have hurt. Primary running backs Boone and Tion Green have long runs this season of just 18 and 24 yards, respectively. In the passing game, UC has had only five completions longer than 30 yards.
UC is averaging only 23 points per game, tied for 105th nationally. The Bearcats averaged 33.8 points last year.
Defensively, the Bearcats are allowing 25.3 points per game and stand 53rd in scoring defense. Last year, UC allowed 31.2 points per game.
?Defensive side of the ball, we have played better this year,? Tuberville said. ?We?ve got to have some help out of the offense. We?ve got to have some help out of special teams.?
QB WATCH: Sophomore Hayden Moore returned to start at quarterback in UC?s last game, a 20-9 loss to UConn on Oct. 8. Moore missed the previous two games with an ankle injury.
Indications are that Moore will start Saturday, but Tuberville still keeps that window open. Tuberville said that redshirt freshman Ross Trail and fifth-year senior Gunner Kiel remain in the mix.
?We?re having good competition,? Tuberville said. ?We?ve got three guys that have played now, been there. We?re looking for somebody to step up in the next three days, and see who it?s going to be. I?m looking for the best guy, as we all are.?
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Tuberville, Cronin react to Big 12 news
blob:http://www.cincinnati.com/2b0d4454-9495-42de-99e8-6e5c6a43bf23
blob:http://www.cincinnati.com/2b0d4454-9495-42de-99e8-6e5c6a43bf23
Pirates get healthy during bye week
East Carolina head coach Scottie Montgomery is happy to move forward from what was a long and unconventional week due to Hurricane Matthew.
?A huge thanks to all of our service members, police department, fire department, City of Greenville and government agencies that helped us through the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew,? said Montgomery.
After traveling back from South Florida during Hurricane Matthew and not arriving back until Sunday afternoon, the Pirates caught a break when ECU and Navy officials agreed to move the Thursday night game back to Nov. 19, spelling out an early bye week for both teams.
Though bye weeks are always used as a break from the game?s physical nature, the new bye week couldn?t have come at a more perfect time. For a defense suffering from injuries, it will be rewarded as its starting defensive tackle Demetri McGill and starting cornerback Corey Seargent return Saturday. Both players have been the anchors of their units.
?With our [new] open date, I thought it fell right where it needed to fall,? said Montgomery. ?Half way through the year, we were at a point and time where a lot of people didn?t know that a lot of our guys were bumped and bruised, and here we just went through a gauntlet of games and so it came at a good time.?
The offense will see quarterback Philip Nelson make his way back into the starting lineup after leaving his second straight game with an injury. Though Montgomery can?t disclose Nelson?s injury enough to pinpoint exactly what it is, he said it isn?t bad enough to sideline him at practice. He expects him to be dressing for Saturday?s meeting with Cincinnati unless something goes heinous by the end of the week.
Another thing the offense will see, for the second straight week, is utility player James Summers? move into the lead running back role.
?We want to utilize [Summers] as much as we can,? said Montgomery. ?What we realize is a lot of the things that we?re going to do moving forward, getting the ball at the line of scrimmage, getting the ball downhill, we think that he can help us immediate with some of those issues and then take some stress off our offensive line. We also think that Anthony Scott can help us as well, we?re going to try to create more of a one-two punch with them.?
Montgomery added, ?I like the way James, knock on wood, until this point-in-time has taken care of the football. Protecting the football is more important than any amount of yards or anything else.?
A healthier and slightly revamped ECU football team will look to go into a (3-3, 0-2 AAC) Cincinnati team and salvage a season that started off hot.
?This is a conference game, and it?s a night game. And night games, if anyone has played in night games, they just come with a different feel,? said Montgomery. ?You think about them all day, you?re preparing all day, you?re working forward to it, your mind is locked in on what you have to do and then you have to go out and you have to perform. When you have to perform, the energy you receive in a night game, especially if you?re a visitor, is unreal.?
East Carolina head coach Scottie Montgomery is happy to move forward from what was a long and unconventional week due to Hurricane Matthew.
?A huge thanks to all of our service members, police department, fire department, City of Greenville and government agencies that helped us through the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew,? said Montgomery.
After traveling back from South Florida during Hurricane Matthew and not arriving back until Sunday afternoon, the Pirates caught a break when ECU and Navy officials agreed to move the Thursday night game back to Nov. 19, spelling out an early bye week for both teams.
Though bye weeks are always used as a break from the game?s physical nature, the new bye week couldn?t have come at a more perfect time. For a defense suffering from injuries, it will be rewarded as its starting defensive tackle Demetri McGill and starting cornerback Corey Seargent return Saturday. Both players have been the anchors of their units.
?With our [new] open date, I thought it fell right where it needed to fall,? said Montgomery. ?Half way through the year, we were at a point and time where a lot of people didn?t know that a lot of our guys were bumped and bruised, and here we just went through a gauntlet of games and so it came at a good time.?
The offense will see quarterback Philip Nelson make his way back into the starting lineup after leaving his second straight game with an injury. Though Montgomery can?t disclose Nelson?s injury enough to pinpoint exactly what it is, he said it isn?t bad enough to sideline him at practice. He expects him to be dressing for Saturday?s meeting with Cincinnati unless something goes heinous by the end of the week.
Another thing the offense will see, for the second straight week, is utility player James Summers? move into the lead running back role.
?We want to utilize [Summers] as much as we can,? said Montgomery. ?What we realize is a lot of the things that we?re going to do moving forward, getting the ball at the line of scrimmage, getting the ball downhill, we think that he can help us immediate with some of those issues and then take some stress off our offensive line. We also think that Anthony Scott can help us as well, we?re going to try to create more of a one-two punch with them.?
Montgomery added, ?I like the way James, knock on wood, until this point-in-time has taken care of the football. Protecting the football is more important than any amount of yards or anything else.?
A healthier and slightly revamped ECU football team will look to go into a (3-3, 0-2 AAC) Cincinnati team and salvage a season that started off hot.
?This is a conference game, and it?s a night game. And night games, if anyone has played in night games, they just come with a different feel,? said Montgomery. ?You think about them all day, you?re preparing all day, you?re working forward to it, your mind is locked in on what you have to do and then you have to go out and you have to perform. When you have to perform, the energy you receive in a night game, especially if you?re a visitor, is unreal.?
agree #cruncher, funny line movement here. line opens @ cincy -2- sucker line, and then backs up to -1- with around 75% of tickets on the bearcats. same thing with the total, looks like good action on the under and the line goes from 60 to 64. under makes sense with both teams off a bye but hard to play with that movement.
