Luke Fickell and the Cincinnati Bearcats made it to the College Football Playoff, becoming the first Group of 5 team to crack the CFP field.

But, the Bearcats ended up falling to Alabama 27-6 in the Cotton Bowl semifinal. Now, Fickell is doing some looking back at the game.

In an interview with On3 Sports, Fickell said he didn’t do a good enough job of making sure his team was emotionally ready to face the Crimson Tide:

“Maybe emotionally, we didn’t do a good enough job — I didn’t do a good enough job — of preparing us,” Fickell said.

“We were in good position, but we didn’t execute. I think it might have been a little bit of the big stage, a bit of the jitters.”

Fickell said he thought perhaps he took for granted the experience of playing Georgia in a bowl game following the 2020 season:

“Maybe I took for granted, ‘Well, we played Georgia last year,’” Fickell said. “We played Georgia in front of 8,000 people, maybe.”

Either way, the Tide won the game and the Bearcats were left wondering what could have been. But, Fickell is building a strong program in Cincinnati. We’ll see if the Bearcats can make another Playoff push in the coming years.