Hayden Moore’s first bowl experience reinforced the importance of preparation.

Moore was a redshirt quarterback watching Cincinnati take on Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl last December when starter Gunner Kiel went down with an injury that forced senior walk-on Michael Colosimo into the game. Colosimo threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass, but the Bearcats were well behind by that point and closed the season with a 33-17 loss.

Three days shy of a year later, Moore will take a turn leading the Bearcat offense in Kiel’s place when Cincinnati faces San Diego State in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve.

“This year I knew I had to be ready no matter what,” Moore said after a Bearcats practice at Aloha Stadium.

Kiel threw for 2,777 yards and 19 touchdowns to lead an attack ranked first in the American Athletic Conference in total offense and fifth in the Football Bowl Subdivision. But the junior did not make the trip to Hawaii due to a personal issue and Moore is slated to make the third start of his freshman season in Thursday’s game.

“When you’ve got problems at home you need to take care of those and (Kiel’s) doing that and we wish him the best,” Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville said at Monday’s Hawaii Bowl press conference, “but we’ve got to go on and Hayden has had good practices and we’ll see how he plays.”

Moore, a 6-foot-3 right hander from Clay, Ala., enters the bowl game with significant playing time and a school record already behind him. He took over for Kiel in the first quarter against Memphis on Sept. 24 and completed 31 of 53 attempts for a UC-record 557 yards and four touchdowns in a 53-46 loss.

Moore then led the Bearcats to a 34-23 win over Miami (Fla.) in his first career start that was followed by a 38-24 loss at BYU. Kiel reclaimed the starting spot a week later and held it through the end of the Bearcats’ 7-5 regular season.

“(Moore) did a nice job in leading us to a win (against Miami), but it’s not just about your quarterback,” Tuberville said. “It’s all about the people around you.”

The cast surrounding Moore includes six senior receivers in the two deep, including second-team All-AAC pick Shaq Washington, and an offensive line led by 6-foot-7, 318-pound first-team all-conference tackle Parker Ehinger.

Washington, UC’s career receptions leader, caught a team-high 88 passes for 971 yards and six touchdowns this season. Fellow senior wideout Chris Moore averaged a team-high 21.1 yards per reception on 39 catches, seven going for scores.

“It’s definitely amazing, they help me out in so many ways,” Moore said of the senior-heavy receiver corps. “Just having the confidence in them that they know where they’re going, they know what they’re doing and knowing they’re going to catch whatever I throw their way.”

The upperclassmen also enter the game with faith in the freshman.

“We have 100 percent confidence in Hayden Moore,” Washington said. “He came in before and stepped up big, and now this time at least he knows he’s going into the game as the guy and he’ll be the guy the whole game.

“We know he’s got the ability. He proved that before. So now we just have to come out and take care of the football and make explosive plays.”