All Episodes

September 25, 2025 • 14 mins
Tony talks Bearcats with Keegan Nickoson from BearcatJournal.com about UC's matchup with Kansas this weekend, on ESPN 1530!
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sixty is back on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome back, Hey, thanks to our friends at Penn Station.
Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
Hour number three. Some Bearcat conversation. Let's continue the conversation
with the man covering the Bearcats for Bearcat Journal dot Com.
My second favorite Nickoson up to this point until I
learn about more Nickoson's and then he may drop down

(00:29):
the list a little bit further. It's Keegan Nickoson. What's up?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Keegan?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
There's way too much animosity between us right now.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
We have to come together. Tony.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Are you going to Kansas?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I am not.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
I wish I could.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, there goes down to it for later in the season.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
What does it does, Chad Brendall just give you guys,
like a certain amount of games you can go to
on the road.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
No, It's the thing I do is basically ask him
if I can go somewhere, and then he tells me
about two days before and then I figure it out
from there. So we're really running a high class organization
here at Barricat Journal.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
All right, all right, Well, he needs to stop doing
photo shoots. That I've seen on social media. Just get
back to the x's and o's. Here I mentioned that
this game's Saturday Kegan to me feels like a hinge
game for the Bearcats because I could see them. If
they win, you get a lot of momentum. Here comes
Iowa State, but they come into Knippert Stadium and you
get the ball rolling, as opposed to if you just

(01:34):
don't get the win and things don't go well, can
that snowball? How much do you put on just this
game itself when you look at what the rest of
the season looks like.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, I think I agree wholeheartedly. It's kind of a
weird game and that I feel like a win at
Kansas is a big resume builder. I feel like it
would convince a lot of fans up their optimism for
the rest of the year. But then a loss, and
even then they're a loss. It's kind of just the
same old Oh well, this is the usual team that
we've seen and nothing's changed just because of what we've

(02:09):
seen in big games since Scott Saderfield and one score games.
And I think, you know, it's going to be a
sold out crowd, It's going to be a Rocket's atmosphere,
it's family weekend. It's going to be a really, really
tough game, but it's a game that they can ultimately win,
and I fully agree that. You know, if they go
into Kansas and win, you start looking down the rest

(02:31):
of the schedule, and you know, I don't think there's
a team on there that Cincinnati isn't is going up again.
So they say, oh, we just we can't beat this team,
especially I've just seen what Texas Tech did the.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Utah Yeah, I think Texas Tech right now is the
best team in the Big Twelve, but I still think
it's wide open. They don't play Texas Tech in the
regular season. What do you make of just this team, Keegan,
because I still don't know the loss against Nebraska where
it feels like they battled their tail off, but the
offense just didn't show up. Sworersby makes a mistake at
the end, and then it's a win against Bowling Green,

(03:04):
but there were moments in that game where it just
didn't feel clean. And then you dominate a terrible Northwestern
State team and your guys only play a half and
then you have a bye. I think there's a lot
of people watching this game Saturday, that don't really know
who this team is yet.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, and I would completely agree with that. And I
knew going into the season if they were to lose
to Nebraska, the kind of opinion or the excitement around
the team, it wouldn't be there at all unless they
beat Kansas, and I knew it would be basically three
weeks of you know, we'll see what happens. This is

(03:39):
probably the same team that's going to be around six
to seven wins and they're not going to live up
to the potential, but they're just going to do just
enough for Scott Stadterfield to keep his job. And now
it's got on. Now it's a big twelve season. You
have a bye, you've got some injured players hopefully coming back,
but not say program being questionable. But I can't really

(04:00):
PenPoint it. I think they have a good quarterback. I
think they have really good wide receivers. I would like
to see the receivers kind of carry on what they
did against Bowling Green in Northwestern State against Kansas. I
think they can. But I can't really go into this
game thinking that they're going to light them up for
three hundred and fifty yards because I haven't seen them
do it against quality competition. Don't know what the running

(04:21):
game is outside of Brenain Soresby. And then defensively, you
know Jake Golda and Zante Cordon are going to show up,
but outside of that, what are the DB's doing.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
What's the rest of the defensive line doing.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
So this is going to be a big test and
it's going to show where this team is because you're
not going into the loudest stadium against eighty thousand opposing
fans in a really hard environment. This is going to
be a loud stadium and it's going to be a
hard environment. But I don't think they're going toough to
go to a silent count by any means. You should
be able to go in there, go mano Amano with

(04:56):
Kansas and you should have a chance to beat them.
And it's really going to see what team we have
by the end of the game on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
I look at this team and the offensive line up
front not giving up a sock. They've been fantastic. We've
started in the last couple weeks, and again you don't
know because of the opponents, but the receivers have done more,
which isn't hard to do after what they did against Nebraska,
they found Joe Royer Moore. How important is it now
going to the Big twelve Kegan for them to figure
out a way to get this running game going more

(05:25):
consistently outside of you said other than Brendan Sowsby.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, I think it's huge because all that does is
make the passing game better. And I think one of
the things that I overlooked after last season after moving
off from Corey Kiner, was actually how ridiculously good he
was at running back. I kind of just looked at
it as, Okay, he could break a lot of tackles.
They need a power guy to kind of kind of

(05:52):
compliment Evan Pryor, and they got that in Tylie Walker.
But Corey Conner was a really, really, really good running back.
I think Cincinnati won't have someone like his caliber for
a pretty long time. And you're starting to see that difference,
and you know, it was good against Nebraska. It wasn't great,
but it definitely showed that they should have ran the

(06:13):
ball based on the earlier turns of the game, and
then they just wanted to throw the crap out of
the ball against bulling Greens. So this is again, everything
is on the table to see where it's actually at.
Where it's the passing game whereas the running game. Obviously,
the best tape scenario is a really balanced attack. Maybe
get two hundred rushing yards, maybe get two hundred and

(06:34):
fifty passing yards, and then see what happens. But you know,
I think it's very important just based off the Scott's
out for type of offense. It's based on the zone
run and then you take shots down the field and
they have the quarterback and the receivers to do that.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Kansas does have a big twelve win at home against
West Virginia. They were able to score on special teams
in that game as well. What is the difference you've
seen it. It's felt night day to me on how
much better this team has been, at least on special
teams compared to what they were last year.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah. I think it's it's discipline and it's the commitment
to it. You know, I can't really talk about the
specific drills that they're doing at practice, but the amount
of time spent on it, the amount of attention to
detail that's put into it by special teams coach lut
Pascal and kind of the whole staff. If we're being honest,

(07:27):
everyone's involved with these special team drills and it's starting
to pay dividends. And that's that's the other thing. Like
special teams has been good. But if you're also going
to say that special teams has been average, I would
agree with you. What we saw the last two years
was a really really bad special teams And you're starting
to see what just an average special teams can do

(07:50):
in terms of it not killing you in the hidden
yardage battle and giving your opponent the ball at the
forty or on their forty. So I think it's playing
a big part and I look forward to it continuing.
And you know, Max Fletcher is second in the Big
twelve and net yardage and punting and Kansas is punters first,

(08:12):
So it's going to be a special team shootout, which
are you know? Those are all my favorite games. Love
good Pitcher's duel. But I think it's really good. The
past has done a great job. And as we get
down in this big post, guys, so you're going to
see the dividends that a good or average special teams
unit can pay.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
The early returns on Kansas this year three and zero
at home, they did go on the road and they
played a Missouri team who's fourth twentieth in the country
right now. For no, they Missouri has a win over
South Carolina, who's a good football team. They beat Kansas
forty two to thirty one. What does this game come
down to in your opinion? Again, I haven't studied enough

(08:53):
Kansas yet. I know that UC has the talent to
win a game like this. What does this eventually come
down to? On South if you see wants to get
a win, I.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Think it's limiting Jaden Daniels or Jalen Daniels arm He
is twelve passing touchdowns from the year. He's done a really,
really good job. They're kind of moving on from a
really good running back, just like Cincinnati did and Devin Neil.
They have Lashawn Williams, and I believe it's Daniel Hishaw
who Highshaw is actually I think doubtful, so he might
not even play after missing the second half last week.

(09:26):
He's their starter. But Daniels is kind of back to
his true form. He was a Heisman candidate and I
think it was twenty twenty three, then battled some injuries
and those injuries lingered in the twenty twenty four, he
threw a lot of interceptions but finished the year pretty strong.
So I think it's it's going to be a quarterback battle,
kind of like the Nebraska game. And if you can

(09:49):
kind of keep the explosive plays under wraps and be
really really good in the red zone, I think that's
where you see will get an advantage. Also, I believe
Kansas is in the hundreds in the country in third
down conversion percentage, which I mean the Scott Satasfield has
said nothing more than this defense needs to get off

(10:11):
the field and talks about time of possession. So if
you can get them into some third and medium, third
and long situations and get the ball back in UC's hands,
Kansas has showed the inability to convert on those downs.
So limit Jalen Daniels for some certain longs and then,
as I say every time you ask me this question,
get some freaking turnovers. And I think this Kansas team

(10:35):
is going to throwable enough, maybe even press.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
And take a couple of shots downfield to get some interceptions.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Keegan, before I let you go, i'd be remiss here
not to just ask you. We earlier in the week
learned about the UC basketball schedule opening the Big twelve
slate with Houston coming into fifth third Arena, no easy
way to dip your toes into the Big twelve water
with what we know about the non conference schedule and
even the news that they're going to travel to Arkansas

(11:02):
and face Arkansas in October twenty fourth. Knowing these and
knowing what the non conference looks like, do you think
they have enough work to be done that's going to
get them ready for the start of Big twelve play.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
I think kind of in comparison to the last two years.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
I would say yes. I think they're going to Clemson,
They're playing Georgia on the neutral site. I still don't
think that the last two years the struggles in Big
twelve play were because of a bad non conference slate.
And I completely understand fans wanting to play those big
non conference games. One because it's cool, like it's awesome

(11:44):
to play really good teams, but it also it does
prepare you really well. But you know, I don't know,
I don't know if this slate is good enough for
you to go in and get a bunch of wins
and then go into the conferens slate. But I also
think that it's fine, and I love the exhibition.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Games that they're playing too. Arkansas is going to be
really really fun, a.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Care source game, just like they played against Ohio State
last year. So I don't know if it's going to
be the non con that's going to decide what this
team does in Big Twelfth Play. I think you're going
to see that in January. And what does this team
look like in January? Have they jailed with so many

(12:29):
new players? Who can you rely on offensively to go
to go and get you a bucket? How are the
two true freshmen reacting to Big Twelfth play? And Keishon
Tiller and Shawnabia because both of their roles are going
to be even.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
More increased than what they initially thought before the season.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
The Chisel James not being with the team, so there's
a lot of things that you're going to learn. And
I just remember beating Georgia Tech last year, but I
think it was like thirty five points and you go,
this is I mean, this is a top five team
in the Big Twelve. And then they get in the
Big Twelve play, lose at Kansas State and everything just

(13:06):
goes down. So don't buy in too much to whatever.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
Happens in the non conference.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
And just be ready for January because that's when the
real marathon starts.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
It does feel like the roster is better constructed to
play together and to work off of each other. We'll
obviously talk more about that as basketball season approaches. That
is Kegan nickoson Bearcat Journal dot com. Always appreciate your time, Keegan,
I'll miss you in Kansas. But for those that want
to follow along even though you're not going to be
in Kansas to your coverage of the Bearcats, what's the

(13:38):
easiest way to do so?

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah? Follow me at k Nicholson forty two, follow Bearcut
Journal on Twitter, make sure you subscribed to the website,
and if you need somewhere to watch the game, hosting
a watch party at Holy Grail on the Banks noon
on Saturday. Go drink some Sinsey Light.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
I don't know if I'm allowed to say that on
the radio, but go drink, drink some Sincey light.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
And uh and support Barricoyt Journal. We love it.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Keging, You're the man. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
We appreciate you. Thanks Tenning.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, Kegan Nicholson Barky Journal dot com. Well we'll touch
and go here when we come back. And then I
believe we'll get Mowagrant Studio today, maybe for quick kits
we'll see since E three sixty, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station, more than a few of our
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.