What Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell said about Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman
Luke Fickell didn’t downplay anything about this week’s game between his No. 7 Cincinnati Bearcats (3-0) and the No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-0).
He did anything but that.
“This is what you’ve always dreamed of,” Fickell said. “This is what you want. This is what these guys have worked for. Not just to play Notre Dame because that’s always a big deal. But to have the matchup where you’re legitimately two top-10 teams that a lot of people are excited about watching.”
Fickell was asked if this week’s game is the biggest regular-season matchup he has coached in since he arrived at Cincinnati five years ago. He said yes, and that list includes a trip to Ohio State to take on the No. 5 Buckeyes two years ago.
Fickell was an assistant and interim head coach (2011) for the Buckeyes from 2002-16. He graduated from Ohio State and started his coaching career there as a graduate assistant in 1999. Even with all those ties to the OSU program, Fickell still said this game against Notre Dame is a bigger one for his Bearcats.
The difference is where Cincinnati is now as a program compared to where it was then. The Buckeyes blew out the Bearcats 42-0. This time around, Cincinnati is a two-point favorite (per BetMGM) over the Irish at Notre Dame Stadium — a venue where head coach Brian Kelly’s team has won 26 times in a row.
This game isn’t about going to hallowed ground, participating in a game against a historic opponent, collecting a check and heading home for Fickell and company. It’s not about atmosphere and ambiance. It’s about competing and winning.
Fickell was asked if he is going to make time to get together with Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, who spent the last three years on his staff, during the 24 hours and change the Bearcats will be in South Bend.
His answer said it all.
“No. No. No,” Fickell said. “If I was coaching against my own father or own brother it would be just like it is. Those unique days, those Saturdays, there are only 12 guaranteed ones a year. You go about them the same way whether it’s your brother you’re coaching against, one of your former guys, one of your best friends, whatever that is, you respect the day, you respect the kids who have prepared for it and you go about it that way.
“There is plenty of time in the offseason to do things like that to me. I see all the NFL things and guys taking pictures after games and I just kind of scratch my head. I don’t understand it quite as much, but that’s them. This is us.”
Fickell acknowledged that yes, there is a touristy element in play for all but one of the players on his team. Former Irish wide receiver Michael Young Jr. is the only Bearcat who has played at Notre Dame Stadium.
But once Friday’s walkthrough is completed, Fickell expects everyone to have suppressed nostalgic jitters so they can focus on not just sharing the field with what he called “one of the best teams in the country” but being in a position to beat that team when the clock hits triple zeroes.
“It’s big. We’re not going to lie to you,” Fickell said. “But once the thing is kicked off, you can’t let all the emotions of all the different stuff that’s going on affect you and how you go about things. The emotions throughout the week can drain you. You need to be at your best on Saturday.”
Fickell said it himself — this is a “measuring stick” moment for Cincinnati. The Bearcats showed in last season’s 24-21 loss to Georgia in the Peach Bowl that they can hang with the country’s top-tier programs. This is a chance to show they can beat them, too.
Luke Fickell on coaching against Marcus Freeman
“I think there obviously will be some familiarity on both sides of the ball from things that we’ll do and things they do defensively just by the nature of being around guys for a very long time.
“But like anything, there are always changes. [Current defensive coordinator] Mike Tressel brought things into us that might not be natural or normal to people watching unless you’re actually breaking things down, and I’m sure watching their defense a bit there are a lot of things that are different as they’ve evolved in one year.
“The familiarities, you have an idea of that. But once the ball is kicked off, a lot of those things go out the window. It has a lot to do with preparation and making adjustments.”
On Freeman’s relationships with current Cincinnati players
“They have relationships. And it might be different on kids because they haven’t gone through it as much. That 19-year-old that maybe did have a great relationship with Coach Freeman, that was recruited by him.
"But once the ball is kicked off, all those things you don’t think about until 0.0 when the thing is all said and done. But again, things can distract us all from what it is we got to do.”
On the season Notre Dame has had
“They’re a really good football team. I think the unique thing you notice and see is they’ve been battle tested. I don’t know if you would probably say that for us. We’ve been battle tested just a little bit since we didn’t play well in the first half of games. Obviously, the Indiana game being on the road was a battle test.
“These guys have been tested each and every week. They’re used to it in the sense that they always get everybody’s best because of who they are. But to see how they’ve won and what they’ve had to go through to win I think tells you that they’re a really good football team and a really good football program. That’s how you grow. You can see them getting better and better.
“In scoring 31 points in the fourth quarter of last week’s game, you just see a team and a program that plays well down the stretch as they get better, whether it’s in a game or in a season. That’s when you know you’re in a battle.”
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