Indiana heads into a week three matchup against a top 10 Cincinnati team looking to continue to build its resume that has now turned national.
Look no further than a season ago when Cincinnati turned in a 9-1 season and a trip to the Peach Bowl. But, it was the opponent in the Peach Bowl that is intriguing from an Indiana standpoint.
The Bearcats lost by three points to Georgia and former Bulldogs' defensive backs coach Charlton Warren. Now at Indiana, Warren brings a different perspective when game planning for Saturday's matchup.
"Watching that game, watching the two games that they've played this year, they all give us clues into what we can expect based on what we would do, so you try to find like schemes that they would play against," Warren said.
In that game, Georgia won 24-21 and held the Bearcats to just 305 yards and 206 passing yards - 40 yards less than the passing average coming in and over 100 yards less than the prior three games.
Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder is back once again and looks to add to his 538 yards and six touchdowns he has thrown in his first two games of 2021.
In total, Ridder has played in 38 career games and has 7,443 yards and 63 touchdowns to just 21 interceptions on 964 passing attempts.
"They have a quarterback that's played a lot of football. It's hard to trick him," Warren said. "He's seen a bunch of things and he can make checks. He's one of those guys, he can truly hurt you with his arm, with his legs and with his brain. And so very accurate, very tough, very fast."
Ridder can hurt you with his arms and his legs, like Warren said. In addition to his passing, he has rushed for over 580 yards in his first three seasons. He has also totaled 23 career touchdowns - including his one this year.
"The quarterback, he's 6'4, real tall. But when he wants to scramble, man, he can cover ground, he can cover five yards a step," McCrary-Ball said. "And he's fast along with that."
One thing Warren and his UGA defense did well last year against Cincinnati was getting to Ridder. Georgia had eight sacks in the game.
"We normally do, just in general, the last five games the opponent played, and we do a breakdown. So we're looking at five or six games. And it may be it's more about not necessarily the last five, the last five that played are most similar to our style, our defense," Warren said of his preparation. "And so when you go into a breakdown, and that's what you start with, you go out into the other games they played the previous year. So we'll look at 12 to 14 games, when it's all said and done to see tendencies buy down and distance by personnel by formation and formulate a game plan."
Despite the amount of pressure on Ridder, the Georgia defense was only able to get one turnover from him. That's something that he prides himself in.
But, it's a situation that he's put in a lot. In those 38 career games, he's been sacked 71 times.
"This is a very experienced quarterback who has seen a ton," Warren added. "... It's going to come down to us executing and making plays and taking the ball away in order to give us a chance to win the game.
"Playing them last time tells you how much you have to respect what they do schematically, how hard and well they are coached and how well he can execute under pressure and under zone... very smart quarterback and one of the best in the country."
"We still want to take the ball," McCrary-Ball says. "At Iowa, we could have had one or two. Against Idaho, we left a few on the table."
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