Cincinnati Football: 3 takeaways from Cotton Bowl semifinal vs. Alabama

2. Desmond Ridder failed to rise to his full potential

A huge reason why Cincinnati made it to the College Football Playoff this season was the efforts of veteran quarterback Desmond Ridder. Returning for his senior season under center, Ridder threw for more than 3000 yards and accounted for 37 total touchdowns on his way to an eighth-place finish in the 2021 Heisman voting.

Ridder, though, was also a huge reason why Cincinnati failed to complete the Cinderella story at the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The Bearcats quarterback managed to complete only 17 of his 32 passes, falling 12 percentage points below his season completion rate. After throwing for an average of 245 yards through the first 13 games of the year, Ridder managed to rack up only 144 yards through the air against Alabama.

It wasn’t that Ridder necessarily cost Cincinnati the game. He did a solid job protecting the football against Alabama, as he finished without a turnover and generally made reasonable decisions. The problem was that the Bearcats needed a transcendent effort from their quarterback to have any chance at pulling off the upset, and instead they got a pedestrian performance when it mattered most.

Ridder still has a long professional career ahead of him, as many NFL draft projections have the Bearcat passer going in the first or second round next spring. This was the kind of performance that could see him slip to early on the second day of the draft, though much of his struggles can be attributed to a lack of time to work in the pocket and make his reads. A slew of tipped passes also hurt his completion rate.

In the end, Ridder’s performance was not the primary reason why Cincinnati won’t be playing into January 2022. What it shows is that any future Group of Five challenger will need their most talented individuals to play the games of their lives if they hope to advance to the College Football Playoff title game.