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Doug Gottlieb interviews the head coach of the undefeated #3 ranked Cincinnati Bearcats, Luke Fickell, and they discuss the status of his team up to this point, handling the pressure of being undefeated, coaching super-seniors, how Desmond Ridder is handling the fame and attention, how the defense can continue to evolve, the challenge of facing UCF this weekend, plus the questions about Urban Meyer and USC.
Doug Gottlieb: "Desmond Ridder is an amazing guy. Not only is he a tremendous player, but his upbringing with a teenage mom in Louisville and growing up in Cincinnati to become kind of the star player. How's he handled all of the fame and attention, especially after the Notre Dame game?"
Luke Fickell: "I really do think he's done a great job of that. I'm sure it gets a little bit wearing, but I think he's had the chance to grow up. Not just his upbringing and background, but I think even his redshirt freshman year where he's playing and having success and then going into that second year where even in the league he was looked at as one of the top two or three quarterbacks, and he didn't play up to what he thought or maybe what a lot of other people thought even though we won and then going into year three where he wasn't even listed as one of the top 4 quarterbacks in the league. And he struggled early and then obviously played really well at the end, so I think the greatest thing in the world is he had those failures in the last four years...That's allowed him to be able to enjoy what he's doing now but also stay grounded as to what he has to continue to do because he's seen how fragile those things can be regardless of what they say about ya."