Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 12/28/2021

It goes without saying that this is a phenomenal opportunity for our team. I know, as a coaching staff, we’re very proud of our guys having gone through this entire season with a target on our back and a lot of super seniors coming back specifically for this reason, having the ability to fight and strain through, and put ourselves in this situation, because we know there’s a lot of teams in this country who had those same goals and aspirations going into this season, fired up about the opportunity to play Alabama. They’re in these situations often, and that’s where we’re striving to be.

I wanted to get your thoughts about Ahmad [Gardner] and Coby [Bryant] and their special relationship and how cornerbacks can become almost like partners in a team, they describe themselves as a dynamic duo, and what you’ve seen in their growth and how they work off each other?

Yeah, you know, it is sort of special. And it’s sort of amazing that they are the dynamic duo and they feed off each other so much. Because when you look out there on the football field, they’re 53 1/3 yards apart. One is on one sideline and one is on the other. Both great football players, both great football IQ, but they really balance each other out in terms of personality. Coby is the type of guy that’s all about business at all times. He makes sure everybody in that room is locked in. Ahmad is the type of guy who, certainly, on the field, is locked in from start to finish but has the ability to keep the room loose, keep the defense loose, make sure we have fun as we’re preparing like professionals. I think their personalities complement each other, really help their position group, each of them, and our defense as a whole.

Piggy-backing off that last question, those guys, when they got to Cincinnati, do you see that as a development sort of achievement in how far they’ve come, or were they overlooked, or is it a combination of both? How did they get to this point?

I think anybody who reaches this point, it’s a combination. And there has to be the innate talent there. Obviously, those guys have that. The developmental piece, yeah, a little bit of credit to coaches, Coach [Luke] Fickell, Coach [Perry] Eliano, but a lot of development credit goes to them and their ability to work and never be satisfied and always scratch and claw. And our defense, what we’re able to do is based on those two guys being able to lock down their jobs. You can’t do what we do without two great corners.

So as has been mentioned, you have some great individual players, but you’ve put together, together with the other coaching staff and players, a defense that allowed 4.32 yards per game ‚Äì I mean, yards per play, 305.8 yards per game. That doesn’t happen by accident. There’s a lot of players that don’t get noticed, and we’re talking about some of the star players. Who would you say is an unsung hero, a player that doesn’t get enough attention on your defense, and why are they so important to you?

You know what? You could go through D-line, linebackers, DBs, and name unsung heros. That’s how we got to this point. We talk about unit strengths and four units coming together on game day to be the strongest in the nation. That’s our Black Cat brand of football.

But to name a couple, Curtis Brooks, our nose tackle, might be the MVP of the defense. Even though we sit here and talk about the corners and some of the other guys, that guy is definitely an unsung hero and owns the middle of the defense.

Joe Dublanko as the mike, having the ability to communicate and run the show and finish plays as well, probably doesn’t get enough credit for how he finishes plays.

The safeties, Arquon Bush, you know, you don’t get to this point as a great defense without having leaders and unsung heros in every single position group. And I feel like that’s what we have.

You got several guys rated high on the draft boards, and Cincinnati hasn’t had a first-round pick in 50 years. And, of course, Alabama always fills up the draft, it seems like. How much do you see this as an opportunity to showcase the school’s talent?

I guess that’s not the way we choose to look at it, as an opportunity to showcase our talent, as much as our unit strength and our team strength and our team chemistry. And we feel like everybody coming together is the only way to beat an Alabama or anybody else that’s in the playoffs. Our guys are excited to match up. I mean, anytime you get a chance to play a team who has highly rated players, a team that has highly rated units, a team that has a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, we’re a very, very competitive group of guys. So we’re excited for that opportunity. We do not feel like we need to show anybody else that; we’re just excited for us to have the opportunity because we believe in ourselves.

How have you seen this Alabama offense change since the last couple times you coached against them at Michigan State? And just what sort of element do Bryce Young and Jameson Williams add to this offense that maybe it didn’t have 5, 10 years ago?

You play these guys and there’s going to be superb talent at various spots. It’s just a matter of who that person is and what position they’re playing. Every time I’ve faced Alabama, there’s been big-time wide receivers. Jameson is no different. He’s flat-out fast. You watch their explosive play reel, and it’s a highlight show.

Bryce Young at quarterback, he’s unbelievable. He knows where to go with the football. He understands, even when free pressure is coming, how to drift away from that and buy himself a little bit more time. He has the ability to extend plays.

Alabama’s always going to have running backs that you really have to be concerned with that will run physical. So that doesn’t change. Obviously, the names on the back of the jerseys change, but different coordinators. I think the passing game has been something that’s been really, really explosive this year.

I think their ability to get different receivers and play to their strengths has been something that we’re aware of. Obviously, some guys are in, some guys are out. That will change the game plan. We’re going to have to adjust during the game.

But the bottom line is they have great players. They’ve had great players in the past. We feel like we have great players. And I know our guys are excited just to have the opportunity to go against the best. And we feel like that’s who we are as well. So yeah, great players. We’re excited to go up against them. We feel like we have guys that match up, and they’re excited to do it.

I have a question about dealing with really good tight ends. You see in the NFL now, it’s become a revelation of these freaky athletes. Obviously, they’re coming from the college game, but we don’t see quite the same level of production. I guess other than them being big, strong, and fast, what is challenging about dealing with a talented tight end in the college game?

You know, Alabama specifically, they have three different tight ends that have three different skill sets that you have to be aware of, all well-rounded, but differing strengths. We do feel like our defense is designed with some players on the field that match up pretty well.

Our sniper position where Deshawn Pace and Ty Van Fossen play, that’s an extra safety on the football field, [Bryan] Cook, we have guys that we feel good about in those situations.

But the bottom line is the size and speed combination, the size and speed and skill combination that people put out at those tight end position where they can play a wide receiver or get in the box and be physical, yeah, that makes life tough. We’ve tried to design our defense to have match-ups for exactly that.

This is your first time in the playoff, but it’s certainly not your first time experiencing big game moments. How is that going to help your team in this situation?

Well, first of all, it’s not my first time in the playoffs. I have been in the playoffs once before. But that’s neither here nor there.

I think that there’s some trust that’s grown between our staff, our players, and especially with a veteran group, where we all feed off each other. We recognize Coach [Luke] Fickell has been in these situations before. Coach [Mike] Denbrock has been in the big-game situations.

We trust each other. We feed off each other. There’s a calmness with the experienced veterans that we have on the sideline. And that’s something I’ve really noticed this year, especially, hey, we faced some adversity. We had a stretch there where people were giving us things that we’d never seen before, and we have to adjust. And that experience and that trust will be a huge factor. Because we know we’ll take some punches, but we’re just going to keep delivering the body blows, continue to fight, continue to fight, continue to fight. That’s what we believe is our identity, and that’s what we’ll hang onto. And we trust each other.

Just what can you say about Luke Fickell, what he’s meant to this program and what he’s meant from his vision that you’ve heard and what he’s addressed over time to getting to this point right now where you are on nation’s highest stage.

He’s a special person. He has the ability to really push guys when they need to be pushed and make sure we are really prepared and about business when it’s time to do that, but also allows players and coaches to be individuals, allows players to have a good time, have fun, celebrate. So there’s a great trust in our team in our leader because we know he will have us prepared, he wants what’s best for us, he wants us to have a good time.

We’ve talked about enjoying this experience, believing in ourselves, knowing that being us, being the Bearcats, playing Black Cat football, that’s enough. That’s enough. So there’s a high level of trust. Everybody sees his vision. We believe what he tells us, and it trickles all the way down from the top to the bottom. There’s no doubt about that. So our guys will be in there believing in the Bearcats, there’s no doubt. We’re ready for this.

The three-three-five was a bit new to you, or at least this version of it, when you got to Cincinnati. I’m just curious how instrumental guys like [Coach] Perry Eliano and [Coach] Brian Mason and [Coach] Colin Hitschler and [Coach] Greg Scruggs were in helping you understand where this team was at when you got to Cincinnati?

Oh, huge, huge. Those are great coaches, great football minds. But, more importantly, you could tell right off the get-go that they were all in and we were in it together. But they were huge. There’s no doubt. I did not walk in the building thinking, with this veteran group of coaches and this veteran group of players, that we were going to change a whole bunch of things.

We had to be who we are. We had to continue to play, for the most part, exactly how we’ve played in the past because our kids believe in it. It plays to our guys’ strengths. Obviously, you always adapt, you always evolve. I have to be who I am as a coach, I’m not trying to be somebody else as a coach. But their knowledge, I lean on them to this day. There’s no doubt. I lean on those guys to this day and really appreciate the fact that it was obvious we’re in this together, a family.

You have, as you mentioned, an extremely high defensive IQ between your coaching staff and a lot of your veteran players. Please explain how you strike the balance between getting exotic, throwing new looks or some things out there that maybe aren’t on film already and then still being able to have your guys play fast and free?

Yeah, so that’s sort of what experience does, to be honest with you. You have been in these situations. You know what we do as a base so inside and out that you can spend a little more time focusing on those wrinkles, focusing on a few things that we know the offense hasn’t seen.

You’re playing against a great quarterback, a great offensive coordinator, you have to give them some looks that they don’t know exactly what they’re looking at. But because of that experience, the way our older guys lead our young guys and how well they know what we do, we’re able to spend time on those new things, and Alabama will see some things they haven’t seen before.