ATLANTA – It would have been the biggest win in program history. It would have put a period on a perfect, unblemished season. It would have been another huge statement in the growing call for the powers that be to expand the College Football Playoff and give more teams a crack at playing for a national championship.
But instead, it wasn't.
The University of Cincinnati football team entered the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl on Friday with a 21-10 lead over Georgia and the weight of the entire Group of Five on its back. But the load proved to be too heavy, as the Bulldogs (8-2) took advantage of some questionable late-game clock management decisions by the Bearcats' coaching staff and scored 14 unanswered points to escape Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a 24-21 win.
"It's tough. It hurts," UC coach Luke Fickell said as he fought back emotion. "Every one of those guys in there hurts because they care so much and they worked so hard and sacrificed. It is what it is. We'll be better because of it."
Fickell suffered his first bowl loss in four seasons at Cincinnati (2-1) and the Bearcats (9-1) end one of the most unpredictable and unprecedented seasons with a crushing defeat.
"I think we'll always take away the commitment that these kids have had this year for this," Fickell said. "... It's easy to sit back and watch and wish there were more people in the stands and things like that, but what these kids and guys have gone through, these young men and what the coaches and doctors and everybody has gone through, I don't think you'll ever forget the sacrifices and the commitment from a lot of people. I hope every one of our kids remembers that because this is what life is really about, and you've got to make sacrifices, you got to grow up no matter what the situation is."
What we learned from Friday's loss:
Everyone has a bad game, even coaches
Cincinnati offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock deserves a lot of credit for quarterback Desmond Ridder's maturation and success this season.
His patience and play-calling helped guide the 6-foot-4, 215-pound junior to one of the most productive seasons in 2020 and in UC history. But Denbrock (and Fickell) also deserves a lot of the blame for Friday's loss.
With the quality of both opponents, regardless of who were and were not on the field, there was no doubt that the game would come down to which team could execute late and exhibit better clock management in the final minutes. Cincinnati could not.
With a late 21-19 lead, the Bearcats snapped the ball on a moving game clock twice, once with 12 seconds and another with 10 seconds left on the play clock. That gave the Bulldogs 22 seconds of extra life.
Then, with Georgia having no timeouts with 1:41 left to play, Cincinnati passed deep on third-and-2 instead of running the ball. The questionable clock-management decisions by Denbrock and the offense saved at least 40 seconds if not more for Georgia, which ultimately kicked the go-ahead 53-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining.
"We play to win," Fickell said. "... You know, we're not going to go back wondering and trying to play the wishing and wanting game. We're going to be aggressive. We are going to go and give our guys an opportunity. There's a lot of different things we do different when you go by hindsight, but we are going to play to win."
No Wiggins, No Gardner, big problem
Having to replace one All-American is tough. Having to replace two? Sheesh.
That was the challenge facing Cincinnati defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman.
Senior safety James Wiggins was unavailable due to a nagging calf injury that kept him out of most of the American Athletic Conference championship game on Dec. 19, and sophomore cornerback Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner also was forced to watch from the sideline after experiencing back pain in pregame warmups.
"They both been in and out of practice all week and questionable," UC safety Darrick Forrest said. "So not having them out there tonight, it was very hurtful. I just wish we had them."
Wiggins and Gardner both were on the preseason watch list for the Jim Thorpe Award, presented annually to the best defensive back in college football. Then the two went out this season and were the two standouts on one of the stingiest secondaries in the country.
The two earned first-team All-AAC and Associated Press second-team All-American honors, and they left a massive hole in Cincinnati's defense on Friday.
Without the two on the field, the Bearcats secondary gave up deep-ball completions of 38 yards, 51 yards and 55 yards in the first half. Georgia wide receiver George Pickens accounted for the 51-yard grab and added a 16-yard touchdown as Bryan Cook struggled in coverage in place of Wiggins.
Sophomore Arquon Bush slid over from his usual nickel slot to fill in for Gardner.
The unit settled down a bit in the second half but could never find a groove good enough to slow down Georgia quarterback JT Daniels, who finished the season with a perfect 4-0 record under center for the Bulldogs.
"We're not there yet," Fickell said. "That's what keeps motivating you, and I think that, you know, there's a lot of things we're going to take from this that we know we can do. But it also helps us and makes us hungrier to say, hey, we know what we've got to get to, and there's a few other steps that we've still got to be able to take, you know, closing it and sealing it and those kinds of things are one of those steps."
No Doaks, no problem
Fifth-year senior running back Gerid Doaks was limited to just seven carries for 13 yards in the AAC title game due to an ankle injury. That injury kept him off the field again on Friday.
Doaks earned first-team All-AAC honors this season after compiling nine total touchdowns (seven rushing and two receiving), matching his career totals entering the season.
With Doaks out, the Bearcats struggled to get anything going on the ground, that is until the second half.
Backup running back Jerome Ford, a redshirt freshman who transferred from Alabama, opened the third quarter with a 79-yard touchdown run.
The score capped a two-play, 49-second drive that gave Cincinnati a 21-10 lead. It also was the longest rush allowed by Georgia since the 2003 SEC championship game. Then LSU running back Justin Vincent scored on an 87-yard rush against the Bulldogs in the first quarter.
"Of course it hurt, but at the end of the day, we've got another season to start, and I feel like this would be good motivation going into the next season to work harder and finish, practice the things that we missed today," Ford said."
Ford finished with a game-high 97 yards rushing.