On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2021 the No. 4 Cincinnati Bearcats will take on No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide in the Cotton Bowl. It will be the biggest game in program history, Cincinnati is currently 13.5 underdogs despite what Will Anderson, Jr. is saying (see the hyperlink). It is a battle of the AAC’s best versus the SEC’s best, but for Cincinnati who is the key position group?
My answer is the offensive line, they have been solid all season, but at times can take some time to get going against Alabama’s front they will need to be solid or great all game. The positive is this group has experience with three juniors, a senior and a sophomore that will start. The normal starting group is James Tunstall, Jeremy Cooper, Jake Renfro, Vincent McConnell and Dylan O’Quinn. Lorenz Metz has been a spot starter at guard due to a McConnell injury and he played good enough to earn First Team All-AAC. This group has only allowed 20 sacks on the season while Alabama has 45 sacks on the season. Tunstall and O’Quinn will be huge in containing star outside linebacker Will Anderson, Jr. who has 15.5 sacks and 32.5 tackles for loss this season. It will be on Mike Denbrock to scheme right against Anderson, Jr. and do their best not to leave their tackles one on one with him consistently, tight ends helping and running backs chipping will be key to control the outside linebacker. Phidarian Mathis is second on the team with eight sacks plays defensive end in their 3-4 defense at 312 pounds.
The positive is this crew has played a lot of games together, but they can’t kick themselves in the back side with false starts and other controllable penalties. If Cincinnati’s offensive line can keep Anderson,Jr., Mathis and crew under control then it will make their upset hopes that much more attainable.
On New Year’s Eve, the Cincinnati Bearcats have a chance to make history and the front five are going to have to hold it down if that is going to be the case, so far they have held it down will things change Friday?
