Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 12/27/2021

Thanks very much. First off, let me semi-apologize for my appearance. We just got off the practice field getting ready. We had our Tuesday practice today. Let me just lead off by saying, you know, we’re honored to be included in the College Football Playoff. I think our guys have worked very, very hard for an opportunity like this. They’ve beaten down a lot of doors. They’ve overcome a lot of obstacles to give themselves this opportunity. We’re excited that it’s against the University of Alabama, just because of what that program and their head coach represents. And Coach [Nick] Saban and, obviously, the University of Alabama has been at the top of the college football world for quite some time. And it’s a goal that we’ve had in our program to play for championships. This is an opportunity to kind of continue that goal. We were able to secure our conference championship, obviously, to give ourselves this opportunity.

But we look forward to, you know, the opportunity to play against the best. And the champs are the University of Alabama, and we get an opportunity to see what the Bearcats can do. So, it’s an exciting time for our program. I know it’s an exciting time for our players, our coaches, everybody associated with our organization. And what I look forward to the most is, given the leadership on our football team that has brought us so far as a program, the opportunity on this stage to showcase what they’re capable of doing.

You guys have remade that wide receiver room over in recent seasons. Whether it’s ‚Äì and I guess there’s a surprisingly lack of diva status among those guys, at least from the outside. How do you recruit to that, whether it’s home-grown guys like Alec [Pierce] and Tyler [Scott] and Tre [Tucker] or somebody like Mike that you pull in off the portal?

Well, as you know, and everybody should know, it’s been a real emphasis of ours to try to attract as many playmakers to get this offense a little more explosive over the last couple years. We’ve been very fortunate to do that. As you mentioned, Justin, some has home-grown talent and some through other relationships or prior relationships that we’ve had. I think the ‚Äì there’s maybe a misconception that there’s no divas in that room. There’s not a guy in that room that doesn’t want the ball every time we call a pass play. But I think the best thing we’ve got going for us throughout the entire offense is an understanding that it’s going to take all of us to be successful. Your opportunities will come provided you’re where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to be doing, when you’re supposed to be doing it. And those guys do a great job of doing that. There’s a lot of really quality football players in that room. And we love the opportunity to, you know, not only be deep and have more than one guy available to us to make plays but give those guys the opportunities to impact the game as we go.

I just want to ask how preparation has been this week? Obviously, COVID and reducing the chances for spread has been such a big focus, and things are kind of going crazy with that. How have you been able to keep the guys focused and staying safe in that regard?

Well, Tino, as you know, for the last year and more than a year, it’s been an incredible challenge to keep their minds focused on the task at hand, and it’s something that we talked to them a lot about all the time. It’s something the leadership, the players on the team themselves have put a priority on. To make sure that we don’t limit any opportunities that may come our way by not taking care of the things that we know we can control. Which is, you know, social distancing in the media room, wearing a mask when we need to wear a mask. Following the guidelines that are set forth for everybody out there to try to keep themselves safe. We don’t venture very far from that. I think what we do with, you know, with the younger generation, as I call them, is just constantly try to remind them and keep it in the back of their minds that you’ve worked so hard to provide yourself this opportunity, the last thing we need to do is compromise that by doing something out of character. And these guys have done a great job of kind of focusing and making sure they’re doing what they needed to do to not only stay on field but be successful doing it.

And can I follow that up with just a question on Desmond [Ridder] and since we’re going to speak to him next, what have you seen from him? Obviously, he’s the leader on the team, but going through this week, this is perhaps the biggest game in program history. What have you seen from Desmond Ridder leading the guys in preparation?

Well, I think the best thing that I’ve seen from Des is Des is being Desmond. He’s not out of character. It’s not out character for him to lead our football team in every way. Whether that’s vocally, whether that’s through his play, how he studies the game, how he prepares himself. He’s a great example to everybody around him of how to get ready for a game like this in the challenge that’s ahead for us offensively coming up.

So, I think the best thing about it is, you know, he’s in his comfort zone in a leadership role. And he’s done, not done anything to venture outside of that. He’s just been himself which is plenty good enough to lead this football team.

Just a lot has been made about the Group of Five status with Cincinnati and playing a team like Alabama. You’ve coached at, you know, the Power Five level. What tells you about this team, your Cincinnati team that says they’re on the same level as an Alabama and the Power Five conferences?

Well, I mean, I think it’s strongly led by the senior class that we have. We’ve got over 33 seniors that have been through the wars and been through the fire. Have had disappointments along the way. Have had challenges along the way. Have had struggles along the way. And has done nothing as a group and a football team but overcome those things that people put in front of them. Whether that’s labeling them a non-Power Five team. Whether that’s calling them Cinderella or whatever name that people in the media like to come up with to try to describe this group. I describe them as a football team. A group of men that have a common goal, that grind and fight and scratch and claw every day to make that a reality.

So, you know, I think this is a group, because of the leadership that we have, that’s capable of matching up and having success in any situation.

Do you think that the doubts have fueled this team’s motivation for this group?

I mean, I hope they grow motivation from whatever factor they feel like they need to gain motivation. I think first and foremost, above all else, these guys play for each other. They believe in each other. They’ve been through, as I said, the wars together and the disappointments together. This is truly a family of football players, not just a football team. And they support and they play for each other. And that’s a pretty strong bond to have and leads to a lot of successes these guys have enjoyed.

You played Alabama while you were at Notre Dame in the national championship. I’m curious, I know their defense has evolved since then, but what might be particularly unique or challenging for you in game planning against a Nick Saban-led defense?

I think first and foremost, it’s, you know, how athletic they are. You know, how ‚Äì I won’t say complicated or overly complicated, but they give you so many different varieties of looks and different change-ups and things that they do, I think that’s as much the challenge as anything. And you combine that with the quality of athlete that they have on the defensive side of the ball, whether that be in the front seven, whether that be with the coverage skills in the backend, you know, that presents some real issues.

You know, you have to be at least aware of the fact that you’re rarely going to get the same look twice. That you have to be, you know, on your toes with communication with your guys up front, in particular, and your quarterback’s got to be able to see the multiplicity of the things they do defensively and be able to decipher it with not a lot of time on his hands in the pocket. So there’s so many unique challenges to playing an Alabama. Much like the game we were in last year, it’s the best of the best playing defense. And they’re not only great with what they do scheme-wise and confusion with what they do scheme-wise, they got great athletes out there doing it.

I’m just wondering, I know you guys have probably seen Alabama by now. Can you tell me, we all know about Will Anderson. Can you tell me another than Will Anderson, which sounds kind of funny, but can you tell me some of the other players on Alabama’s defense that just jump out on film?

Well, I’ll answer my question probably a little more generally than you hoped. But my answer would be pick one. I mean, I think everybody along their defensive front is, you know, does a great job with body position and leverage and understands their fit, where they’re supposed to be in the scheme. They’ve got two really solid linebackers, inside linebackers that cannot only run, stop the run but do a great job in coverage. They’ve got press corners that are long that can frustrate the crap out of your wide receivers. Two safeties who even if you try to isolate them are going to be a problem trying to create match-ups against. So I don’t know that there’s certain players that I can single out, necessarily. Just to say that you can see across the board the quality of player that they have on the defensive side of the ball. And that they’re well-coached. They’re fundamentally strong in everything they do. And their scheme’s as solid as anything we’ve faced this year.

When you look at Jerome [Ford] and the year he’s had, what kind of stands out? Why he’s made such a big leap and how motivated do you think he’s going to be to face his old team?

Well, I think he’s done a nice job of being fully motivated all year. Obviously, playing against a lot of people that maybe you came in with or played with at one time adds a little something to it for him. But he’s been great all year as far as being on top of his game and doing great things. I think, you know, Jerome is a unique type of individual when it comes to running back. He’s a hard-yard guys, which means he can get in between the tackles and do the dirty work that running backs need to do sometimes, whether that’s falling forward, gaining an extra yard, gaining an extra two yards, whatever that happens to be. And he also has the ability to kind of break out in space and make explosive runs and score touchdowns. You know, with the ball in his hands. And has done a great job of that the entire season. So I think he’s a complete back from that standpoint. And has certainly added a lot to our offense as the season’s gone along.

You kind of got asked about it earlier, but you guys are a two-touchdown underdog, and I’m sure you don’t look at that kind of stuff. But is there any sense of wanting to prove you guys deserve to be on this stage by your performance?

Chris, I hope all is well with you. I don’t believe that at all. I mean, you know, each kid’s going to have kind of his own little motivation thing. I think as a football team, we feel like we’ve earned our way here. We feel like and know we belong here. So for there to be any outside extra motivation that’s needed to get these guys ready to roll or ‚Äì there’s enough of a challenge that’s going to be standing across the field from us, that deserves our full attention. And has our full attention. And you know, I think the thing that some people forget sometimes about this group of seniors and this football team in particular is they did everything that people ask them to do to get to this point. They’ve been successful 13 straight times that they’ve taken the field. And you know, the opportunity that’s in front of us to play next, we’re well aware of how difficult it’s going to be, how much of a fight and a struggle it’s going to be. But one that I think our players going to be prepared for.

And Luke [Fickell] made a comment yesterday that, you know, kind of in the middle of the season there, when some performances maybe didn’t go as well as you hoped, he felt that maybe you guys were maybe putting too much pressure on yourselves. Is that kind of the same mindset you got to get past going into this game?

I definitely think it’s a lesson we learned as the season went along. It’s hard to keep the players away from social media, obviously. ESPN and the like, I mean, God bless them, we love it all. The Twitter world and all of it. But the fact of the matter is, people were trying to label us as this or that or tell us what we needed to do. And you’re not doing this well enough. You’re not doing that well enough. All we really needed to do was be us and continue to win. I think over the course of the middle of the season, in particular, that was a lesson learned for this group of seniors and this football team and for the coaching staff, in particular. To make sure we’re saying the right thing guys and not filling their heads full of things that really don’t matter. What really matters at the end of the day and what we’ve built our program on is the trust, love, and respect that we have for each other when we walk into the locker room. And that hasn’t changed no matter whether we’ve won by 13 or 30. So we just tried to kind of focus more on that, Chris, than we did the rest of the noise.

You kind of touched upon it a little bit in your answer saying the label of Cinderella and the underdog. Just because recruiting is such a big part of the sport, why do you guys think you’ve had so much success developing the Desmond Ridders and some of these younger guys like Alec Pierce, and you know, guys that were lighter recruited than the guys at Alabama and had success?

Yeah, I think that false on two levels. I think, number one, it’s identifying the right individuals that have the potential for growth. To grow their game. And combined with a hunger and to gain knowledge and to gain experience and to gain strength and to put the work in necessary to become better and better and better at what they do. We’ve been very fortunate to have a good track record of IDing those guys and then being able to talking into coming and playing at the University of Cincinnati. And I would say secondly, it’s the coaching staff. I mean, outside of myself, which I don’t know whether I would include myself in this or not, but there’s some great coaches on this staff. Whether that’s up and down the line, whether that’s on offense or defense, and development is a huge piece of what we feel like our responsibility is to these guys that are in our program. Whether they’re true freshman or whether they’re seniors or fifth-year seniors, we don’t change the model. We just keep digging and try to make them better every day and try to find ways from a coaching standpoint that we can help their game grow and put them in a position to have more success. So I think it’s a combination of both those things that have led to kind of what you’re getting at with your question.