The University of Cincinnati football team opened its 2022 campaign with a loss. It was the Bearcats' first loss in the regular season since Nov. 29, 2019.
The mistake-ridden 31-24 defeat Saturday at Arkansas all but squashes any shot Cincinnati has at qualifying for a second-straight appearance in the College Football Playoff and greatly diminishes its chances of playing in a New Year's Six bowl.
But ultimately, it was just one loss.
Luke Fickell said Tuesday his mission now is to make sure that "obviously tough" defeat doesn't snowball into a drastically disappointing season for the Bearcats.
"Moving forward, the most important thing for us is we walked in here on Sunday and said, 'Hey, let's focus on these three things to make sure we learn and then we grow.'"
The first thing on that list was for the Bearcats to humble themselves, Fickell said.
"Regardless of what we thought we were going to do or where we thought we were going to be, humble yourself to know you've got to get better," he said. "I know I had to."
Secondly, Fickell said he proposed a challenge to his team.
"Challenge ourselves with how to move forward.," said the sixth-year Cincinnati coach. "Try to look back and and say, 'OK, what maybe didn't we do well in our preparation?' Challenge ourselves to make ourselves better. This is as coaches and as players."
Lastly, Fickell said he and the Bearcats need to own their responsibility for the loss.
"What we see on film, that's who we are," he said. "We've got to own the fact that we didn't get the job done. We've got to own the fact that this is our team. We've got to find the ways to move forward."
Moving forward starts immediately for Cincinnati.
The Bearcats will host FCS opponent Kennesaw State (0-1) in their 2022 home-opener Saturday at Nippert Stadium (3:30 p.m. on ESPN+). It's the place where Cincinnati has won 27 straight games, the second-longest active home winning streak in the FBS behind only Clemson (34).
"Obviously, we're excited to be back home this week more than anything," Fickell said. "It's tough starting on the road, but regardless of that, to be back at Nippert Stadium with the student body and the student section, the city and the community is something for us that is really exciting. It's been a while. It's been quite a while."
Kennesaw State, which lost 27-17 Thursday at Samford, presents an entirely different challenge for the Bearcats defensively than Arkansas: The Owls run the triple-option offense like Cincinnati's familiar American Athletic Conference foe Navy and even 2020 opponent Army.
"All of them are similar in ways and they all are different in some ways," Fickell said. "When you look at them (Kennesaw State), statistically, they throw the ball more than what a Navy has done or an Army has done when we played them.
"... All triple options pose a lot of problems. We've got to be a little bit different than we have been just to make sure we're sound in their ability to throw the football a little bit more. But nonetheless, it's always a very unique challenge. And it's not just a challenge for the defense, it's a challenge for the offense, because you've got to play so complementary because they do limit the possessions that you get. So you've got to make sure you're taking advantage of every one of those opportunities, whether it's offensively or special teams-wise."
Offensively, the key for Cincinnati on Saturday will be getting more consistent play out of senior starting quarterback Ben Bryant.
Bryant, in his first start for the Bearcats since that Nov. 29, 2019, loss at Memphis, completed 26 of 43 passes for 325 yardsa, two touchdowns and an interception at Arkansas. Bryant threw both of his scores in the second half after throwing a pick on the Bearcats' opening drive.
"It's a process," Fickell said. "When you talk about playing clean, clean isn't just the penalties. Clean isn't just the false starts. Claan is getting into that rhythm with some tempo. I know when you're moving the ball, it's a lot easier to have rhythm and tempo. But I think that maybe we didn't do a good enough job of giving the offense an opportunity to play with a little bit more rhythm and tempo in the first half as we did in the second."
But whether it's on the offensive or defensive side of the ball, the biggest issue the Bearcats need to address by Saturday afternoon is keeping their helmets on. Cincinnati had far too many instances last week where a player's helmet fell off during play.
"We're going to put double-sided tape inside there and we'll use Stickum on their heads," Fickell joked. "We're going to tighten our chinstraps a little bit. That was something that was kind of out of the blue for us. I don't know if it's you don't tackle as much in fall camp, you don't recognize those things. But it's probably a lot simpler than that. I think that you just can't get comfortable with playing a little bit loose with your helmet. We've got to strap them up a little bit tighter. If that's not the case, and they keep coming off, then we probably have a bigger issue that we've got to dive in a little bit deeper than just tightening them down. I would hope that's going to get the job done for us."