Cincinnati is in with the big boys: ‘Never thought we’d be here’

DALLAS — On one sideline Friday at AT&T Stadium will be No. 1 Alabama, a program that makes the College Football Playoff with a regularity that entitles its fans and annoys everyone else.

“You can’t let the moment be too big for you or act like you haven’t been there before,” Crimson Tide linebacker Christian Harris said. “At the end of the day, this isn’t a vacation that we took; it’s a business trip.”

On the other sideline is No. 4 Cincinnati, a program that has won 22 of its past 23 games without convincing anyone outside of the 513 area code that it is a peer of college football’s big boys.

Bearcat tight end Josh Whyle believes in his team, and even he sat down for a Zoom news conference Wednesday morning and began, “Never thought we’d be here.”

“When I got recruited, I mean, a long time ago,” said Whyle, a junior, “they were coming off a 4-8 season, and nobody thought UC could be here at any moment.”

Alabama has turned the home of the Cowboys into a second home, going 5-0 over the past nine seasons, two of them College Football Playoff semifinals. Last season’s 31-14 semifinal victory over Notre Dame in the displaced Rose Bowl is the closest margin of the five victories. Cincinnati never has played in AT&T Stadium. Even the Bengals are 0-1 there.

It’s just another game? You try thinking it’s just another game when you’re stuck for a week in a swanky hotel, dodging the Omicron variant. Or when you’re suddenly grabbing national attention that the Alabamas come to expect.

“The hardest part is things like this, if I’m being honest,” safety Bryan Cook said. “Never had an interview at nine o’clock in the morning. It’s fine. At the end of the day, you have to compete. I have no problem doing this. Don’t get me wrong. But it’s not something you get in week two of the season.”

Sixth-year nose tackle Curtis Brooks stressed the importance of the Bearcats sticking to the routine that has produced a 13-0 record. But he acknowledged the scene Friday afternoon will be anything but routine.

“Breathtaking. I’m sure it will be,” Brooks said. “As soon as the ball goes down, I’m sure the butterflies will all go away. But I know the first runout, the first glance of the crowd, will be something spectacular.”

Junior wide receiver Tre Tucker recalled thinking, after the Bearcats went 11-3 in 2019, his freshman season, “Wow, we’ve reached a high point. How much higher can we go?” He said now he understands that there is no ceiling.

“I think this program is on its way to becoming a top-10 program in the future, which is one of [Coach Luke Fickell’s] goals that he always talks about,” Tucker said. “I think that’s definitely within reach.”

If Cincinnati wins Friday, or acquits itself well, the Bearcats will be a lot closer to confirming their status as a top-10 program. That is the opportunity that Cincinnati has created for itself in securing a playoff berth against an Alabama.

There are no greater stakes than advancing to Indianapolis to play for the national championship. But the Cotton Bowl affords Cincinnati a measure of its stature even more so than the game at Notre Dame this season. The Bearcats took control of that game early and won 24-13, beating a team that lost to no one else. The Fighting Irish finished the regular season 11-1 and No. 5 in the final CFP rankings.

The Crimson Tide players are not automatons. The program may have reached the playoff seven times in eight seasons, but the players themselves don’t go year in and year out. They’re only in Tuscaloosa for a short time. Sophomore nose tackle D.J. Dale described this week as “a dream come true. I feel like, growing up as a kid, you dream of being in this position. So I’m just happy to be here. It’s a blessing.”

A dream, yes. A blessing, sure. But also a business trip. For Cincinnati, the College Football Playoff semifinal is so much more. It’s an arrival, an opportunity and a step up in weight class. How well the Bearcats carry that weight Friday afternoon will go a long way toward determining their fate.