Cincinnati slipped one place from its rankings on Tuesday after being ranked 9th in the rankings by many critics of the College Football .L playoff fun and its selection committee, although not happy the previous Saturday.
No. 23 Barclays’ regular-season final against Tulsa was canceled due to 19 issues, including the final. Both teams avoided playing in back-to-back weeks and turned their attention to the American Athletic Conference Championship game set for Saturday night at Nippert Stadium. The committee moved the undefeated Barracks one place down while Iowa State, which has two losses in the season, moved up one place. Cincinnati saw the same adjustment in the top 10 of the rankings as Florida, losing to the home LSU as a 24-point favorite. Since Cincinnati was also ranked fifth by the top five teams, the outrage was centered solely on whether the Barclays were being penalized and whether it was possible for the Group Five team to make it into the top four.
That playoff outrage will be Saturday’s backdrop, but it won’t focus in the locker room either. That’s because Luke Fickle is playing one of his seasons in Cincinnati’s program history, and allowing the playoff chatter to focus on finishing with the championship would be a serious disappointment.
The two are quite similar in their history against each other. Tulsa has a slim lead in the head-to-head series from 17-15-2-2, but both programs have only played three times this decade. After beating Golden Hurricane 30-37 in 2001, the Bearcats won 24-13 in 2019.
So while the playoff frenzy will revolve around the game, the program will focus exclusively on finishing one of the best seasons in history, with the conference championship for the Nippert Stadium action trophy case.
Storylines
Cincinnati: One of the three asons of success for Cincinnati has been a strong defense. Barclays ranked No. 4 nationally in defense scoring with 15.0 points per game, No. 2 in pass efficiency defense and No. 10. in total defense. -With quarter points, a great performance to close out the games. But quarterback Desmond Ryder has taken a huge step forward in 2020, and as a result, the entire offense of barracks. Reader was named the American Athletic Conference Conference Efficient Fisher Player of the Year, with a total of five touchdowns (16 passing, 11 rushing), in which he threw 1,224 yards with 10 touchdowns and rushed to 455 yards with 11 touchdowns. According to Cincinnati, the last FBS player to reach the mark in five games was Lamar Jackson, who had his Heisman Trophy in the 2016 season.
Tulsa: For all the talk about Cincinnati’s defense, Tulsa must be credited with helping the defense move forward in this title game. The Golden Hurricane is second behind Cincinnati in the ACC, second in both scoring defense and total defense, and it comes at a unique time in its sixth year as head coach for Philip Montgomery. He arrived in Montgomery after a successful tenure as an offensive coordinator at Belter, and before his best season (10-3 finish in 2016) the team scored at least 30 points in every game except losing to Ohio State. It was also the last season of the 201st season when Tulsa got a place in the bowling game, which contributed to why the team was selected No. 9 in the preseason poll by AAC Media. This stellar defense has not only helped take the UCF, SMU, Navy and Tulane – all the teams are ahead of Tulsi in that prediction poll – but he is one of the biggest stars of college football in Zeven Collins. In seven games of action, Collins has totaled 51 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, four sacks, four interruptions, two interception return touchdowns, one forced, one fumble recovery and safety. He’s a big-time player, stepping into the main moments, serving as two of the four interception game-cleaning or game-winning plays.
Viewing information
Event: AAC Championship Game
Date: Saturday, December 19 | Time: 8 p.m.
Location: Nippert Stadium – Cincinnati, Ohio
TV: ABC | Live stream: fuboTV (try for free)
Cincinnati vs. Tulsa Forecast, scored
Latest hurdles:
Cincinnati Barracks atsts-13.5
Cincinnati has won 19 straight games at Nipert Stadium and I don’t think the line ends here with the New Year’s Six on the line and the American Athletic Conference title. However, this number is a bit too large for a game between two strong defensive teams. Tulsa may need turnover to get points, but I think Golden Hurricane could reach 10 or 14 and cover that number. Pick: Tulsa +14.5
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