Famous College Underdogs Comment on Cincinnati's Playoff Push

The Bearcats are trying to be the first Group of 5 team to ever play for a chance at the National Championship

CINCINNATI — Everyone loves a good underdog story, including former underdogs themselves. Yahoo! Sports writer Pete Thamel caught up with sports figures who've been counted out over the years to gauge their thoughts on what Cincinnati is pulling off in 2021.

Thamel spoke with everyone from Gary Patterson, to Urban Meyer and basketball figures like Brad Stevens.

Patterson's 11-1 TCU team was left out of the 2014 College Football Playoff despite going into the final weekend ranked No. 3 and closing with a 55-3 win over Iowa State.

“There is a precedent,” Patterson said of the committee choosing to drop a team from the Top 4. “They’re going to have to justify that [if it happens to Cincinnati] a lot better than what they did last time. I tried to handle that with class. What good would it do to complain about it? Who knows what TCU could be right now if we’d been allowed to play in the playoff?”

Meyer has a family tie to the Bearcats run. His son, Nate, plays wide receiver at UC and is in his senior season as a walk-on. The Jacksonville Jaguars head coach helped lead multiple Cinderella teams in the 2000s at Bowling Green and Utah.

“Obviously, the way he’s done it,” Meyer said of Fickell's program building. “He’s done it the right way and built it with local players. I’m careful about who I’d let my son go play for. Luke Fickell is a no-brainer.”

Boston Celtic executive Brad Stevens helped lead Butler Basketball to multiple Final Four appearances last decade and know's what it's like to be the hunted team.

“I always think back to how hard it was to win conference games, they all knew you and you were their Super Bowl,” Stevens told Yahoo! Sports. “When I pay attention to Cincinnati, I pay attention to the fact that they’re playing with an incredible amount of stress or pressure against teams that have none of that.”

The 12-0 Bearcats battle No. 21 Houston on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on ABC. Cincinnati has never been 13-0 in school history. Read the full article from Yahoo! Sports here.

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