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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Desmond Ridder and No. 23 Cincinnati wrote a much happier ending to their season.
Ridder ran for 105 yards and three touchdowns and threw a scoring pass to lead No. 23 Cincinnati to a 38-6 victory over Boston College on Thursday in the lightning-delayed Birmingham Bowl.
It was a cathartic win for a team coming off back-to-back losses to No. 15 Memphis, including in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
"I don’t know if you guys ever lost a conference championship, but that’s not a good taste,” said Ridder, who missed the regular-season finale with a sore throwing shoulder. "If we had lost today, three losses in the end, that’s not a good taste for anyone.”
They didn’t have to worry about that possibility for long, dominating after the delay of about 1 1/2 hours midway through the first quarter.
The Bearcats (11-3) reached 11 wins for the second straight season.
"There was a bad taste in our mouth,” Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell said. "And kind of the way the night went with the weather and things like that, and the delay. There was some talk about, 'Hey, this thing might not get off.'
"There was no way that I was going to leave Birmingham without those seniors and those guys in that locker room having an opportunity to go out there and put their hard work on display for one another. If we had to stay here 'til midnight, we would have stayed here 'til midnight because those guys deserved that.”