Cotton Bowl Daily Update: Zoom Media Day

BamaCentral's Joey Blackwell and Katie Windham share some of their main takeaways from the Cotton Bowl Media Day in Dallas.

DALLAS — Wednesday was the last opportunity for the media to speak to the Cincinnati and Alabama players before the Cotton Bowl matchup on Friday. 

Media Day normally happens in person with the best access of the season  the media gets to players, but because of precautions with COVID, it was moved to Zoom this year. A lot of the bowl week procedures have changed to avoid COVID spreads among the team, and Alabama tight end Cameron Latu was asked what the team has been doing in all the down time at the hotel.

Latu said that when the team isn't practicing, it's a lot of recovery, watching film and treatment. When pressed further about if there was anything fun the team was getting to do, Latu's response was simple, yet perfectly representative of the culture Nick Saban has built.

"Getting ready to win," Latu said. "That's fun."

The College Football Playoff is a setting that Crimson Tide players and coaches are now really familiar with while the Bearcats are making their first appearance on this big stage. Alabama has won six of the last 12 national championships and doesn't have anything to prove as a program on this stage. However, this 2021 team still wants to provide that they are a championship team, and that comes with consistent play for four quarters.

"For, like, right now in this season, I feel like it would just show consistency," said Alabama defensive lineman DJ Dale. "We showed flashes of the team that we could be and, like, the potential that we have. So I feel like that's what we are focused on right now, just being consistent. And like you said, just finishing, finishing the season strong. And I feel like we have good seasons year in and year out, but it's time to finish."

Two games stand between No. 1 Alabama and finishing strong with a second consecutive national title with the first against No. 4 Cincinnati at 2:30 p.m. on Friday in the Cotton Bowl. 

Keep following along on BamaCentral as we continue providing the coverage from Dallas this week.