Cincinnati Football: Breaking down the Bearcats series history against SMU

Since becoming conference opponents last decade, the Bearcats are 5-1 against SMU including a win in the first trip to Dallas in 2014. Make sure to review the all-time series history between the programs before kick off takes place on Saturday at noon!

The first meeting against SMU occurred in 2013 as the Bearcats came away with a 28-25 win at Nippert Stadium. Less than a year later, Cincinnati traveled to Dallas for the first time in program history and quarterback Gunner Kiel helped pull off a 41-3 win.

Each of the next two matchups went to overtime as the road team won both games. SMU survived in a last-second win in 2017 before Cincinnati bounced back with a 26-20 win in overtime as James Wiggins returned the game-winning touchdown in 2018.

Cincinnati Football: Breaking down the Bearcats series history against SMU

The most recent matchup took place last season as Cincinnati blew past the Mustangs 48-14 at home to stay unbeaten. In the latest trip to Dallas in 2020, the Bearcats took down SMU 42-13 to secure the largest win over a ranked opponent in school history.

Even though the all-time series is still relatively new, the conference rivals have played in several marquee matchups and that will resume this Saturday. During a press conference this week, Luke Fickell discussed the history against SMU via Cincinnati Athletics.

"“We have to recognize we’re on the road and road games in the league are really difficult. I think the score can be misleading if you look at it from two years ago. It was a battle and it was a hard fought game. In the fourth quarter, they turned the ball over so the score may look a little lopsided. Two years before that, we had an overtime game against them. So it’s been a battle the last two times we’ve been there. We have to understand and recognize that. We always talk about the environment that we’re going to walk into so that’s important for us when we’re talking about the maturity of our team. I don’t think there’s any one particular thing that we have to do better. It’s more just the fundamentals and then be able to adjust.”"