It's been 23 days since Cincinnati played in a game. By Saturday, it'll be 28 days. And much of that has been beyond the Bearcats' control, though it looms as at least a storyline ahead of their American Athletic Conference date Saturday against Tulsa.

Cincinnati last played on Nov. 21, a 36-33 triumph at Central Florida. Positive cases of COVID-19 throughout the Bearcats program resulted in the cancelation of their Nov. 28 game at Temple, then their game Saturday at Tulsa. Still, coach Luke Fickell said he and his staff have done their best keep their players and staff engaged.

And as Fickell said today on the AAC's teleconference, the hope is there will be little rust when the game kicks off. That included having an inter-squad scrimmage Saturday.

"Just even going through what a pre-game feels like, what shifting from kickoff to defense, to punting and just the normal interactions of a game, because to me, the things that happen, fundamentally, you're lax," Fickell said. "You haven't run the kickoff team out there, you haven't substituted on third downs and situations like that. We tried to go through, in some ways, a mock game, as best as we possibly could, just to get minds back into the flow of things.

"Nonetheless, I hope and believe our guys, with the maturity and the older guys that we have, that we have done a good enough job since we've done it twice this year. But Saturday will tell."

Cincinnati hosts Tulsa at 8 p.m. ET Saturday for the conference championship. The game will be televised on ABC.

Check out Fickell's full Zoom teleconference with members of the media above.