Linebacker Will Anderson Claims Alabama is 'the Underdog in This Game' Against Cincinnati

The 2021 Bronco Nagurski Award winner made the comments on Monday.

CINCINNATI — Alabama's best defensive player has an interesting perspective on the Cotton Bowl. Linebacker Will Anderson's team is a double-digit favorite over the Cincinnati Bearcats, but not in his eyes.

“To me, I still feel like we’re the underdog in this game,” Anderson said. "I mean, you know, all year we have been disrespected. I’m pretty sure we’re still probably getting disrespected out there.”

The linebacker is referring to Alabama's last game when they were an underdog for the first time since 2015. They dispatched Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs like so many former Nick Saban assistants from years past.

Alabama and Saban have a history of feeding off the "yummy rat poison" lobbed at them by doubters, but it's hard to see the correlation here. The Crimson Tide never slipped outside the top four despite losing to an unranked team (at the time) in Texas A&M and were immediately placed at No. 1 when they took out Georgia 41-24 in the SEC Championship game. Predictions will start to come in waves as the week progresses, but the Bearcats aren't a trendy underdog pick.

“Right now, we’re not really worried about the external factors,” Anderson said. “We just have to worry about what’s going on inside the facility at the practice field and in all the meetings and stuff like that. And I think that’s our biggest concern right now, making sure that we’re ready for this game.”

All of the CFP teams are doing everything in their power to limit the factors Anderson brought up. Media viewing at practice for all teams is canceled for the rest of the week after Cincinnati was the only open practice on Monday.

UC takes on Alabama this Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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