ARLINGTON, Texas – Alabama head coach Nick Saban and the SEC Champion Crimson Tide culminated its preparations for the 2021 College Football Playoff (CFP) Semifinal at the 86th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Thursday afternoon with a walk-through at AT&T Stadium.

No. 1 Alabama will take on the No. 4 Cincinnati Bearcats on Friday afternoon in the first of two CFP semifinal games. The winner of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic will meet the winner of the Capital One Orange Bowl for the CFP National Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana on Monday, January 10, 2022.

It is the second straight year in which the Crimson Tide's CFP journey begins at AT&T Stadium. Alabama won its CFP Semifinal appearance against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the 2021 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Capital One, held at AT&T Stadium last season.

Alabama last played nearly a month ago (December 4) at the SEC Football Championship Game in Atlanta, Georgia. The Crimson Tide defeated the then-No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs 41-24 to win the SEC title.

"I think when you have this much time between games, when you start practicing way before Christmas, you're practicing, it seems like the game is a long way off," Saban said during Thursday morning's head coaches' press conference. "And then when you really finally arrive at the site, you say, wow, this is for real. It's coming up quickly. We have a regular week to go through.

"And the goal from a coach's standpoint, from our standpoint, is to get the players gaining a sense of urgency, a sense of focus the closer they get to the game and not having practiced so much they start getting bored with what they're doing. And I haven't seen that from our team."

This year's matchup marks the fifth meeting between Alabama and Cincinnati and the first since 1990 when the Crimson Tide defeated the Bearcats, 45-7, in Birmingham, Ala. The Tide is undefeated all-time against Cincinnati.

The 2021 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the 86th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic is Friday, Dec. 31 at 2:30 p.m. CST on ESPN and ESPN Radio. Kickoff is slated for 2:40 p.m.

This year's Classic is a part of the ESPN bowl lineup for the eighth straight year. Sean McDonough and Todd Blackledge are set to the call the action from the booth with Molly McGrath and Laura Rutledge reporting from the sidelines.

ESPN Radio returns as the Classic's national radio partner for the eighth consecutive year with Sean Kelley and Barrett Jones in the booth and Ian Fitzsimmons on the sidelines to describe all the action from AT&T Stadium.

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