Game Preview: No. 22 UC Opens 2022 Season Against No. 19 Arkansas

The reload gets to fire off a few rounds down south to get the 2022 season started.

CINCINNATI — It's almost time to pull the trigger after this reload. Week one of the college football season is here as the No. 22 Cincinnati Bearcats travel down to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for a historic matchup with No. 19 Arkansas.

There has never been a week one top-25 home matchup at Arkansas and now head coach Sam Pittman gets to see how his rising program sets up against another upstart that wants top-10 respect nationally. 

The Razorbacks are 6.5-point favorites as Cincinnati searches for its first SEC win under Luke Fickell. UC is 4-1 in the regular season against the spread when facing Power Five opponents under Fickell.

“Welcome back," Fickell said at his weekly press conference. "Week one is unique to me, and in college football, I know that at any other level, you get to test yourself against someone else, but not in college football. Every year is kind of like this, but to start off with a game like this, on the road in a crazy hostile environment, is going to be unique for us. Having a lot newer faces, these guys have been here, they just haven’t been the recognizable faces. It’s been a long time coming, I know our guys have been incredibly excited"

Let's dive into three key aspects of this game between two programs that have never met.

New Look Offense

We won't know which quarterback is leading the Bearcats this season until they run out for the first offensive snap and that's the most intriguing aspect of this game. If it's Ben Bryant like nearly all of the media expect, then we could see the Bearcats lean into a heavy-passing attack for the first time under Fickell.

Offensive coordinator Gino Guidugli already hinted throughout the offseason that the team will lean into two-tight end sets more often this season. Will that mean more running out of those formations with a dual-threat like Prater or more passing with an NFL-caliber arm on Bryant?

"We obviously wanted to know earlier," Fickell said about a QB decision. "But I thought the way those guys competed made it tougher to do, there’s never an exact right time, but it was important for us to get guys the reps that they need. The [two quarterbacks] are different guys, so there is a plan, and you want to do what you do well, so there will be some adjustments depending on what guy is in the position.”

Regardless, Arkansas boasted the 17th-best defense by FEI last season and should be in the top-25 schools again. 

They return just three of its top nine tacklers but added transfers like former five-star Alabama linebacker Drew Sanders and defensive ends Jordan Domineck from Georgia Tech and Landon Jackson from LSU. Still, Pittman's team lost at least 50% of its tackles, tackles for loss, and interceptions last season.

How these mysterious units match up will decide the game.

Controlling KJ

UC gets to use their QB conundrum as an advantage but there is no doubt who is leading the Arkansas offense in 2022. Junior KJ Jefferson burst onto the scene last season, passing for 2,676 yards, 21 touchdowns, and four interceptions while completing 67.3% of his passes. Jefferson finished 19th nationally in QBR (76.7) and also ran for 664 yards and six more scores.

That final yards tally led the Razorbacks overall, making him and Louisville's Malik Cunningham the only QBs in the country to lead their programs in rushing and passing yards. Jefferson is a human bowling ball with a cannon at 6-foot-3, 242 pounds.

“They [Arkansas] led the SEC in rushing last year," Fickell said about the smashmouth Razorbacks. "In his growth, I’m sure they don’t want Jefferson to be their leading rusher, but he is very dynamic at what he does. He can throw the ball; I think that he is getting better and better at that. He is a dual-threat guy, and not only is he a dual-threat guy to run, but he is also a dual-threat guy to run you over. The unique thing about it is that when Quarterbacks are willing and able to run downhill and not just laterally, they put a lot more pressure on defenses…It is hard to simulate that size guy as a Quarterback, and you just must be prepared for it. You must be able to tackle well, and you must be able to do that consistently.”

Experts picking the Razorbacks are pointing to that daunting rushing attack and Arkansas returning 72% of its offensive line snaps as the biggest reason UC is outmatched. Alabama bullied the Bearcats for 301 rushing yards on 6.4 yards per carry during this team's last game, all after Arkansas led the Power Five with 228 rushing yards per game.

Jefferson and SEC All-Freshman running back Raheim "Rocket" Sanders (578 yards and five touchdowns in 2021) know what formula they want to will on Saturday.

A Power Five Start

Cincinnati has performed very well this century when facing Power Five teams in week one. Dating back to 2004, Gino Guidugli and the Bearcats lost 27-6 to No. 9 Ohio State that season, but UC is 4-0 since then with wins against Purdue, Pittsburgh, and UCLA twice under Fickell.

This time sure feels different from the previous four on this winning streak, and the coaching staff understood that this summer.

“It changes things. We go into camp doing things a bit differently." Fickell said about facing a tough matchup right away in 2022. "I don’t know if there was an exact science on how to handle things, [scheduling] is done so far in advance, but it is what it is. Whatever they line up in front of you is what you must prepare for. Our camp was going to be different this year. Different because of the way that we are starting the season, different because of what the first four games look like, but also different because our team is different…These guys are ready for this, and this is a great opportunity for us.”

In a macro-sense, the Bearcats' slim College Football Playoff hopes ride on this game, all while earning the program serious national respect if they can pull off the upset.

Fans can check out the opening affair on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Make sure you bookmark All Bearcats for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more.

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