CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati's success on the football field hasn't deterred its students from other priorities – like the Bearcats' rivalry with Xavier University.

While UC students were guarding the Oscar Robertson statue outside Fifth-Third Arena on Wednesday night, Xavier's D'Artagnan statue was hit with eggs and slices of cheese.

The incident comes days before UC plays at Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout. The game is Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on FS`1.

In what has become a tradition, UC students were deployed around the Oscar Robertson statue this week in defense of potential Xavier pranksters.

"The week before the Crosstown Shootout, Xavier fans will try to put a (Xavier) jersey on Oscar," Cam Kirzner, an Operations Mangement major, said. "So what we do is camp out all night throughout the week. We run games and activities for students, do giveaways and make sure that Xavier doesn't mess with Oscar."

D'Artagnan was picked as Xavier's mascot in 1925, when the college took the nickname the Musketeers from the classic Alexandre Dumas novel "The Three Musketeers." A statue of D'Artagnan was first placed on campus in 1968. It was replaced with a newer statue in 2000, when Xavier's Cintas Center opened.

The Robertson statue honors the Hall of Fame guard who played with the Bearcats and starred in the NBA with the Cincinnati Royals and the Milwaukee Bucks. He was the first NBA player to average a triple-double in a season and the only player until 2017, when Russell Westbrook duplicated the feat. Robertson led the Bearcats to two Final Fours and won a gold medal with the 1960 Olympic team.

Correction: The last name of Cam Kirzner was misspelled in this article. It has been corrected.

CINCINNATI — University of Cincinnati fans celebrated the Bearcats' perfect regular season Friday at local restaurants and bars.

“I’ve been a superfan! I grew up in Cincinnati, I’ve had season tickets since 2006, I don’t even remember the first game I went to — that’s how big of a superfan I am,” Joseph Kelly said.

Kelly, a junior at UC, watched the team play East Carolina with his friends on Short Vine — a staple for students and alumni.

“It’s awesome. I couldn’t have been in school at a better time," Kelly said.

A few East Carolina fans did sneak into the watch party — including Byron Walton's nephew.

"Hey, it's a holiday weekend," Walton said. "We have a lot of family in from out of town. It's so great to get everyone together."

Walton said the two have a nice rivalry, though his nephew admitted he was nervous to go to bar. While they are not on the field, fans felt the pressure for the Bearcats to complete a perfect regular season — especially with the College Football Playoff on the line.

"We came out of the gate slow," Walton said. "You can feel the anxiety, you can feel that weight, but once that settles...the team does what they do."

And what they did was win. Now, Bearcats fans are hoping the team wins the AAC championship Dec. 4 in hopes of becoming the first team outside of a Power Five conference to compete in the four-team playoffs.

"The OSUs, the Alabamas, they get this every year," Kelly said. "UC fans don't get this every year, so I think it's just awesome that we finally get to experience it. Hopefully, we can keep this rolling for years and years and years."

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CINCINNATI — When University of Cincinnati head football coach Luke Fickell says he could not do it without his wife, he is telling the truth.

While the coach of the undefeated Bearcats is on the sideline Saturday, Amy Fickell is taking care of their children – getting the kids to football, volleyball and wherever else they need to go.

"It's not any different than any other mom probably. I just do most of it by myself — and there's six of them," Fickell said.

The Fickells' youngest twins, Lakyn and Lucian, are in first grade; Ashton and Aiden, their oldest twins, are in eighth grade; daughter Luca is a junior at Saint Ursula; and son Landon is a freshman at UC. All of the kids have after-school activities.

"My youngest twins just finished their football season last weekend, my oldest twins are in their football playoffs Saturday, my daughter is in her volleyball districts Saturday and then my oldest is, you know, on the football team at UC," Fickell said.

Fickell's day is filled with more than just chauffeuring her children from game to game. On Oct. 28, Fickell finished bible study, picked up her kids from school and headed to UC practice to hand out Halloween candy to the team — getting a chance to see her husband and son.

"You know she has seven kids," Luke Fickell said. "Six real ones and me she calls the seventh, so she's got a lot on her hands."

Fickell said she does not mind the heavy lifting, understanding her husband's difficult job.

"I just kind of get it done here because he's got a lot," Fickell said. "He's got a lot on his plate, so that's kind of just how we work."

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That can mean Fickell is representing both parents at most of their kids' events.

"I go to football games, and I holler at my boys," Fickell said. "You know, it bugs me just as much as it bugs him when they're not tough, and they're not going full go — I can't stand it. You kind of have to be that little bit of a dad, too, because there isn't a dad there watching."

During the football season, Fickell said, the children do not get to see their dad a lot, maybe seeing him before bed on Wednesday or Thursday nights, but their family motto is "it's about quality, not quantity" — and this family is a team.

"To have our kids be able to do all the things that they do, for her to be able to handle it the best way, knowing that I'm not going to be much of a help in a lot of things...not everybody can do that and not everyone can handle that," Luke Fickell said.

Fickell left UC practice to take her older twins to practice, pick up her daughter from volleyball and — at one point — eat dinner. She does not complain, though, saying she knew what she was getting into.

NEW ORLEANS — Desmond Ridder twice connected with tight end Josh Whyle for touchdowns, and No. 2 Cincinnati remained unbeaten with a 31-12 victory Saturday over a struggling but feisty Tulane squad that kept the game competitive deep into the second half.

Jerome Ford rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown — his 14th this season — for Cincinnati (8-0, 4-0 American Athletic Conference), which briefly trailed in the second quarter and led by just two points at halftime.

Ridder passed for 227 yards and three touchdowns to go with his 47 yards rushing, but also was sacked in the end zone for a safety and intercepted. Whyle caught four passes for 79 yards.

Tulane (1-6, 0-4), which was playing without starting quarterback Michael Pratt because of his concussion during last weeks loss at SMU, lost its sixth straight, but did have a few standout performances.

Running back Tyjae Spears, coming back from a knee injury that wiped out his 2020 season, rushed for 106 yards on 19 carries, highlighted by his 47-yard touchdown in the first half.

Third-string QB Kai Horton, a freshman, started for Tulane because backup Justin Ibieta also was hurt. He completed seven of 16 passes for 79 yards. He was intercepted twice and sacked four times.

The Green Wave regularly employed direct snaps to running backs in hopes of easing the burden on Horton and also throwing off the Bearcats. While that didn’t produce a victory, it kept Cincinnati from putting the game out of reach until the fourth quarter.

After Cincinnati scored first on Ridder’s 16-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Whyle, Tulane surprisingly surged into the lead in the second quarter with a series of successes that began with linebacker Marvin Moody wrapping up Ridder in the back of the end zone for a safety.

On the ensuing possession, Spears’ long TD run made it 9-7.

The Bearcats responded by driving 80 yards for a score in five plays, highlighted by Whyle’s 28-yard catch, Ridder’s 37-yard scramble and Ford’s 3-yard TD run in which he pushed through a pack of defenders.

Cincinnati looked primed to pull away when Evan Prater intercepted Horton’s screen pass in Tulane territory, but Macon Clark intercepted Ridder several plays later, returning it to midfield.

Soon after, Horton fumbled as he was sacked by Malik Vann, but the loose ball bounced up to 6-foot-4, 305-pound offensive lineman Rashad Green, who bowled his way forward for a 15-yard gain.

That set up Merek Glover’s 41-yard field goal to make it 14-12 at halftime.

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