Preview: Miami football takes on Cincinnati Bearcats in final Battle for the Victory Bell

No matter the result, when Saturday’s contest is over, it will be a somber day for college football in Ohio. 

One of the oldest rivalries in the sport (and the oldest non-conference rivalry) will be at its end for the foreseeable future. 

The Miami University RedHawks and University of Cincinnati Bearcats first began playing each other in 1888. The first game was on Dec. 8 in Oxford – the first college football game played in the state of Ohio. The final result was a 0-0 tie.

This year, at the 129th match between the two programs, with the Bearcats leading the series 61-60-7 over Miami, the two teams will go to war once more. They will take the field at TQL Stadium, home of FC Cincinnati, for the first football game played within those walls and be sure to give the spectators a final game to never forget. 

“I’ve learned that (the rivalry) is serious,” Miami freshman wide receiver Scoop Smith said. “I’m coming from a big rivalry in high school. We played a team that was red, and we weren’t allowed to wear red at all. Obviously, it’s not as big as this. These are two cities that are going against each other, but I take it very seriously. 

“I heard how rocking this place gets when we beat UC,” Smith said. “I just can’t wait to play. I can’t wait to be in the atmosphere. I’m built for the big moments. Just going in there and praying that we do what we’re supposed to do and come back and make this town a happy place.”

Last time out for the RedHawks was a stark difference from their first game against the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. The College of the Holy Cross Crusaders traveled to Oxford from Massachusetts, took the field at Yager Stadium for Miami’s home opener and saw the kind of team Head Coach Chuck Martin wants the RedHawks to be. 

After a dominant first half in which redshirt freshman quarterback David McComb threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns (with a rushing touchdown) across a perfect 13 for 13 on completions, the RedHawks went into the locker room up 42-0. From there, the strategy was getting other players reps and staying healthy.

In the end, Miami walked away with a 45-7 win to bring their record to 1-1.

“We handled Holy Cross, (who are) not as big, strong and fast as Pittsburgh obviously, so we did it under way less pressure,” Martin said. “We made good decisions, and now you’ve got this (Power Four)team that is big, strong and fast and going to make you make decisions physically and mentally. You’re under duress every second, and this week was a step toward it. Now, can we take another step and be way better?”

For McComb, the game against Holy Cross was a big step forward. Perfection is an impossible expectation, especially against an opponent like the upcoming Bearcats. However, the more snaps he plays, the more comfortable he will get. And unlike game one against the Panthers, he now has a frame of reference for what a Power Four Conference team looks like.

“(McComb) showed that he can make just about every throw,” Martin said. “I wasn’t pleased with his decision-making against Pitt, but I was very pleased (against Holy Cross). He really saw everything he had, and he took a step forward, and he should. 

“Is week three going to look like week two? Probably not,” Martin said. “We’re playing Cincinnati, not Holy Cross. But we’re very optimistic that week three is going to look a lot better than week one as far as how we run our offense, defense and special teams. (McComb’s) doing wonderfully after two weeks.” 

McComb was able to find six different receivers through the Holy Cross game, including redshirt junior Lynel Billups-Williams, who led the pack with 73 yards on four receptions with a touchdown, and a handful of running backs who made their impacts felt, as well. 

Redshirt sophomore D’Shawntae Jones, redshirt junior Rodney Nelson and sophomore running back Lazaro Rodgers all took snaps with McComb under center. Jones had the only touchdown among the group, while Rodgers led the way with the highest average yards per carry. And against Cincinnati, the effort will have to be a combined one again.

The Bearcats will enter the final Battle for the Victory Bell with a 2-0 record, having beaten Boston College 34-15 and smoked Western Carolina 62-10. Through their first two games, they’ve run 141 plays to their opponent’s 130 but have earned 400 more total yards (1,029 - 629). 

Individually, Miami will have to deal with a strong one-two punch in the backfield of Cincinnati’s offense. 

Fifth-year Georgia Southern University transfer quarterback JC French IV has completed 31 passes on 38 attempts, a Big-12-best completion percentage of 81.6. Although he has only 322 yards in the air on the season, good for second-to-last, he also has the fewest number of attempts in the Big 12.

On the ground, he has rushed for 104 yards, showcasing his versatility in the pocket, but the run game flows through fifth-year running back Gi’Bran Payne, a transfer from Martin’s former coaching home before Miami, the University of Notre Dame.

Payne returned home to Cincinnati and is now second in the Big 12 in rushing yards with 210. He’s 11 off the lead with eight fewer attempts than Texas Christian University junior running back Jeremy Payne. He’s also second in the Big 12 in touchdown rushes with two. 

“(Defending Cincinnati) is going to be really difficult,” Martin said. “They’re an unbelievable rushing team. They’re 31 for 38, so they don’t throw it a ton, but they’re wildly efficient when they do throw it and get a lot of chunk plays off their pass game. (Head) Coach (Scott) Satterfield has been unbelievable at designing run games for years. They’ve got at least three draftable offensive lineman, a whole stable of tailbacks, fast receivers and a quarterback who is playing fantastic. So no one has really slowed them down on offense, and it’s going to be a huge task for us.”

The Miami offense will have a tough time against a suffocating Cincinnati defense as well. The Bearcats have two players in the top 10 for total tackles in the Big 12, along with a fifth-year safety, MJ Cannon, who is tied for seventh in pass breakups and also has an interception.

Just as it was for week one, the RedHawks will be walking into a (mostly) hostile environment for a game with major implications. The talk won’t be about the record after the whistle. Instead, it will be about the pride that the two teams and fanbases have in winning the Battle for the Victory Bell. Execution for the RedHawks against a Power Four school will be of utmost importance, especially after their showing against the Panthers in week one. 

“Whether we were jittery, whether we wanted it too bad, whatever it was week one, we didn’t execute at all,” Martin said. “So now, we take a deep breath, and we’ve got to focus on executing. It’s going to be TQL (Stadium), Saturday afternoon, Battle for the Victory – there’s a lot of reasons to have outside thoughts. (But we’ve) got to just focus on playing the game. We didn’t do a great job of that at Pitt, so we’ve got to do a better job of that at Cincinnati.”

Despite plenty of roster turnaround over the offseason, the Miami players are excited to participate in a historic rivalry game. And with the bell tolling the end of this chapter between these two programs as it’s known today, the game will mean that much more, and the coaches of both programs have testified that to their players.

“We’re ready,” Smith said. “We’re a new team, too. I feel like Pitt was a fluke. Everyone (is trying to) judge us off that, and that’s fine. We can be the underdog. We can be judged. But the guys in the locker room, the coaching staff, everybody knows the type of team that we have. We’re excited. We’re ready to go.”

The 129th and final running of the Battle for the Victory Bell will take place at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 19 at TQL Stadium in downtown Cincinnati.