Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 12/06/2019

We’re excited to be here. This is our fist time since joining the conference to represent the East, and we’re excited. It’s unique coming back here two weeks in a row, but you guys have made it feel a lot different with everything that is behind this. It’s exciting, it’s unique, but I think it’s going to be an exciting game.

On playing Memphis in back-to-back weeks:

Like I said It’s unique. I don’t think they’re going to change their personnel. It’s the same guys that will be out there, which is similar to what we are. They will be a few tweaks here and there, and after the first quarter, I think it’ll be back to the same battle it was a week ago. There’s not a whole lot you can do differently. If you’re Memphis at 11-1, they aren’t going to change a whole lot. What they have done has been really successful, so I would imagine the will continue to do the things they have done with little wrinkles here and there.

On taking in the success of this season and being East champions:

I don’t do a great job of that. I tried to remind the players Sunday and every day we practiced that 90-something percent of college football teams would trade places with them ‚Äì to have the opportunity to play in a championship game. It’s an incredible honor. It’s hard to step back and think about it and appreciate what we have an opportunity to do when you have quite a task in front of you. Not in just that we played them last week, but a lot goes through your head even more so because you played them last week. It doesn’t allow for a lot of time to sit back and realize how much it has taken to get here and how appreciative we are. But we try to remind our players of that so they can stay in the moment and realize this is the one goal we had as a program that we didn’t really talk about a whole lot when we started the season.

On quarterbacks Ben Bryant and Desmond Ridder:

Ben did a good job last week. For this first time, he really got to play. Last year he probably got in a little more than he had this year because of the nature of the games a year before, even as a redshirt guy in those four games. He hasn’t seen a lot of action this year, but he’s a guy we have an incredible amount of confidence in. Regardless of the outcome and the three turnovers, I was impressed how he handled it. I was impressed with how our guys rallied behind him. He never worried, even when we turned it over twice in a row. If he’s what we’re going with tomorrow, then I think they’ll be right along with him and believing in what he’s done. I think he’ll grow a lot from what happened last week.

We’ve said from the get-go that Des is our quarterback. We have to make sure he feels right. We have enough respect for Des just like we did two weeks ago to say ‚Äòhey, you have to be honest with us. You got to look me in the eye and tell me what you really feel.’ If he feels it and believes in himself, which he does ‚Äì it’s hard for a guy like him and a competitor like he is to say, ‚Äòhey, I don’t know if I’ve got it today.’ That’s something we have to take a peek at and watch. I got a lot of respect for him. I think we respect him enough that he’ll be honest with us, and then we have to evaluate it as well, even in warm-ups.

On the flea-flicker play Memphis ran last week:

No, I don’t think we had seen it exactly. But I knew there was something. We saw something right before half there that they weren’t just going to take a knee on the ball. I think there were a lot of things in there that could have been brought out. I’m sure it could be brought out again tomorrow afternoon. Regardless if you’re a defensive guy or offensive guy, you can’t go into every game trying to defend everything ‚Äì ‚Äòwhat if they do this? Or what if they do that?’ You have to play. You can’t sit back and worry or wonder about what’s the next trick play you have to react and respond to. Sometimes those things do catch you by surprise. It worked for them, but hopefully it doesn’t work for them tomorrow.

On withholding plays last week to prepare for this week:

You’d like to say yes, we held things back like a preseason game. We were already in the championship game and we’d get to play again whether it was at home or here, but no. You go in and prepare to play and win a game. There isn’t a lot you hold back. Are there things mentally for an 18-22 year-old knowing they are in the championship game? I can’t say there’s not. We tried to combat that as much as we could last week. I didn’t want any coaches to think like that by any means, so I surely didn’t want the players to think like that. It wasn’t as if we were holding something back believing, ‚Äòhey, if we play these guys again we’ll have a few plays left in the barrel.’ You go through 12 games of a season, everybody has a good idea of what each other has. I don’t know if there are a lot of secrets left when you get down to the end like this. It’s going to come down who can make plays and who can stop the big plays.

On potential New Year’s Six auto-bid for The American and playoff expansion:

If you haven’t heard me speak much, you might not know I kind of leave that to (American Athletic Conference Commissioner) Mike Aresco. He does a really good job being the mouthpiece for our conference. I don’t get into things we don’t have control over. I have 100-something 18-22 year-olds who take a lot of your time and things to do than sit here and worrying a whole lot of what our destination is based on what happens or what the league will be able to do. I know that this is a really good league. From top to bottom the parody in this league continues to impress me. Last week was the first time we’d played them. I’d watched them and seen them in crossover games, but I think where the league has gone and where we’ve gone, I think it’s starting to be recognized more and more. I don’t think it’s that one team. ‚ÄòWell, it was UCF two years ago that went undefeated and it was an anomaly.’ No, I think you’re seeing year in and year out that there are really good teams. I think it’s going to be more difficult to run a table like UCF did because of the depth of the league. If that’s the case, we’ll have to continue to push to fight to get our own bid legitimately because of what we have done ‚Äì not just in one or two years but in four, five and six years.