Coachesclinic.com Featured Matchup: #7 Cincinnati vs #9 Notre Dame

• By Caleb Hopkins

For this week’s College top 10 matchup, the Cincinnati Bearcats travel to South Bend, Indiana to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish! Only meeting for the 2nd time in both schools’ history, can Notre Dame remain unbeaten in this series, or will Cincinnati even it out, giving the Irish their first loss of the year?

At 4-0, Notre Dame looks to surge ahead, knocking the Bearcats out of the top 10 with a win this Saturday. Senior running back Kyren Williams, averaging nearly 4 yards a carry, looks to stay dominant against the Cincinnati defense.

At 3-0, Cincinnati aims to move into the top 5 with a win over the Irish. Quarterback Desmond Ridder, 4th in the Heisman race, looks to remain perfect and bring home a win for the Queen City.

Let’s take a closer look at who will win this matchup.

The University of Cincinnati

Luke Fickell and the University of Cincinnati football program have made tremendous leaps in the past 5 years, in both recruiting and physical gameplay.

In his course, Clifton Style, he takes their downtown, concrete jungle roots and using it to their advantage, with over 65% of their current roster from the state of Ohio, with almost 75% of their roster within a 300-mile radius of campus.

With that much soul attached to their university, and state, the Bearcats look to come in firing on Saturday.

Luke Fickell, Cincinnati Football - Clifton Style

Making his first return to Notre Dame since coaching there for 7 seasons, offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Mike Denbrock looks to keep this well-balanced yet spectacular offense on the prowl. 

A simple yet easy tight end driven RPO, a specialty of Denbrock’s, he moves from a 2x2 formation into 3x1, allowing QB Desmond Ridder to make easier run reads or passes to the flat.

Mike Denbrok - TE Driven RPO's

This builds on their past concepts of incorporating the TE into the RPO scheme, which can be found here.

To maintain their dominance offensively, the Cincinnati offensive line needs to own the trenches. The Notre Dame defense is aggressive, not to mention they’ve only allowed a combined 23 points in their last two games.

How can they do it? 

Ron Crook, a 27-year veteran offensive line coach, uses the “4 hands” drill to…

- Keep the inside gap open

- Teach you how to maintain leverage in every scenario

- Give your o-line more power off the ball, every time

Ron Crook - Run Game Blocking Fundamentals

Brian Mason, the special team’s coordinator for the Bearcats, looks to take advantage and win the special teams portion of the game.

They want to create one thing this weekend, and that’s chaos. They don’t do fair catches, they don’t always kick it to the same place, and forget a punt return team

Their punt block team is ready to create chaos. Coach Mason noted in his clinic talk,

“We want to create as much chaos, momentum, and explosive plays and do our part.”

Brian Mason - Chaos Kills - Cincinnati Punt Block Fundamentals and Schemes

VS

The University of Notre Dame

The Irish will be running an outside zone blocking scheme, making huge lanes for senior back, Kyren Williams. 

Jeff Quinn, Offensive line coach for the Irish, breaks down his playside reach block, key for the play to work.  He said,

“We need an aggressive first step, a quick second step, a high low hand placement, and we lift, drive and finish.”

Jeff Quinn - Outside Zone Concept vs Various Fronts, Blitzes, & Line Games

The Notre Dame special teams unit has been absolutely tremendous this season, keeping kick-off returns under 12 yards per attempt. 

Brian Polian, special teams coordinator & associate head coach, harps on perfection and execution for his unit. In this drill, the coverage team looks to stack the return team, striking the chest, then ripping through to the bag. 

“Long stride, short stride, gather it up.” 

It’s that simple to be perfect on kickoff coverage.

Brian Polian - Fundamental Drills for Special Teams