SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Cincinnati football team did it.
Since the spring, the Bearcats had been talking about their two-game non-conference stretch against back-to-back Power Five opponents. Several of the players admitted that fall camp consisted of the most intense practices of their football career.
It was all in preparation for Sept. 18 at Big Ten foe Indiana and Saturday against the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium.
No. 7/8-ranked (Associated Press/Coaches) Cincinnati (4-0) used the loud UC fans in attendance to help propel them to a 17-0 lead en route to a 24-13 win over No. 9/7 Notre Dame.
More:Desmond Ridder shines as No. 7/8 Cincinnati defeats No. 9/7 Notre Dame 24-13 in South Bend
UC handed the Irish (4-1) their first loss of the season and snapped their 26-game home winning streak.
Up next: The Bearcats open American Athletic Conference play Friday at Nippert Stadium against Temple (3-2, 1-0 AAC), which defeated Memphis 34-31 on Saturday. Kickoff against the Owls is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN.
What we learned from Saturday's win:
UC's "Blackcats" defense is still the "Blackcats" even without Freeman
Cincinnati's defense may be under new management (first-year defensive coordinator Mike Tressel), but the "Blackcats" are still the "Blackcats."
It was Marcus Freeman who built this UC defense and popularized the nickname. But it was the Cincinnati players who absolutely dominated on Saturday in front of their former defensive coordinator.
Freeman left UC in January to take over the Notre Dame defense. On Saturday, Freeman watched as his former unit forced three turnovers in the first half and forced Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to shuffle through quarterbacks like a deck of playing cards.
"We wanted to show him that we're still the same defense whether he's calling the shots or not," Cincinnati senior defensive lineman Malik Vann said of Freeman. "We just wanted to come out here and show on a national scale that our defense can play with anybody and our team can play with anybody in the country."
More:Ahmad 'Sauce' Gardner, Coby Bryant are Cincinnati's impenetrable cornerback tandem
Notre Dame starting quarterback Jack Coan was benched due to ineffective play. HIs replacement, freshman Tyler Buchner, couldn't get anything going either. Drew Pyne had marginal success, but even he knew to stay away from No. 1 on the other side of the ball.
"That corner's pretty good," Pyne said after the loss.
That corner is AP preseason first-team All-American cornerback Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner. The junior Detroit native, a former recruit of Freeman's, recorded his eighth career interception – and second of the season – when he picked off Coan in the end zone to stop the Irish in the red zone at the 10:03 mark in the first quarter.
Gardner was the opening act for what was an impressive day on the grand stage for the "Blackcats."
Desmond Ridder for Heisman
Cincinnati's fifth-year senior quarterback put on a show Saturday. It could very well be his Heisman moment.
Ridder accounted for 323 yards of total offense (297 passing yards, 26 rushing yards) and three total touchdowns, tossing for a pair of first-half scores and putting the game away with a six-yard rushing score with 5:08 left in the game.
Ridder opened his postgame media session by yelling, "How about them Bearcats?"
"You have a chance in everything you do when you have a guy like Desmond Ridder," UC coach Luke Fickell said. "He makes everyone around him better, and not just because he's a great quarterback, but because he's an incredible human being with his giant heart."
Giant heart and giant game.
Ridder has been lights-out this season, completing 64% of his passes (73 of 115) for 1,045 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions. His three rushing touchdowns only continued to add to his already school-record rushing scores by a quarterback.
More:Daugherty: Go ahead and say it, UC's best victory ever
"He's incredibly special," Cincinnati wide receiver Alec Pierce said. "He's a great leader. He's the leader of our program. He just sets the tone every day, and then you can see his talent on the field. He can do it all. He can win with his feet, he can win in the air. He's playing incredible this year."
The list of Heisman Trophy hopefuls is short. But after Saturday, Ridder better be on it.
"They need to start talking about that," Pierce said.
If UC runs the table, put them in
Cincinnati is no longer just some fun, cute story bubbling under college football's surface.
The Bearcats (again) proved on Saturday that they are much more than just a Group of Five team. They are a legitimate threat to the college football crown, and if they go unbeaten in conference play for the second straight year, they deserve to be in the College Football Playoff.
"We're definitely getting the respect now," Vann said. "Especially coming on the road and getting a top-10 win. I don't think there's too much people can say or criticize about us."
Are you listening, College Football Playoff selection committee? Are you watching?
The Bearcats have a lot of football left to play in the 2021 season. But they will be favored in every game the rest of the way. If they win them all, they will have earned and deserve a shot at the sport's biggest prize.
More:Herbstreit: If undefeated, UC could be College Football Playoff's first Group of Five team
"We'll hopefully have to continue to fend off people talking about that," Fickell said. "That's a great thing. But for us, we have to hone in. We have to keep doing what we're doing. There's a lot more this team can do. We haven't played our best ball yet"
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