USA Today and CBS Predict UC and the AAC

With only 22 days before the Bearcats open up the season with Purdue, we are getting a lot more in depth previews about Cincinnati football. The latest two that are definitely worth checking out come from the USA Today and from CBS.

USA Today

USA Today is running down their preseason countdown. They put Cincinnati at 34. Pretty much in the same area as the USA Today or AP poll. I can't see too much harm in that. The writer Paul Myerberg thinks Cincinnati has some of the best units in the league. Namely the offensive line:

The Bearcats' offensive line is the best in the American – and this without any debate. The entire group returns from a year ago, giving Tuberville, Gran and line coach Darren Hiller a top-notch foundation upon which to build this offense. How good is this group? Two starters, junior left tackle Eric Lefeld and senior left guard Austen Bujnoch, are the best at their position in the American. Another pair, senior center Dan Sprague and senior right guard Sam Longo, will earn all-conference honors. The one unknown – and this only in comparison to his four fellow starters – is sophomore right tackle Parker Ehinger, who needs only time and added experience to develop into a frontline starter. This line is elite.

You really can't go wrong with that. This line was very good last year and it should only be better this season. Whoever wins the RB battle in camp is going to get a great opportunity to showcase their skills behind it. Same goes with Brendon Kay in his potential first year of starting.

Myerberg is also a fan of the linebackers:

UC's linebackers are terrific. Much like Kay, who gained a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA, senior middle linebacker Greg Blair (138 tackles) returns for an added season after the former JUCO transfer missed nearly all of 2011 due to injury. Blair is – here comes an understatement – one of the best linebackers in the American; he's also one of the league's top players regardless of position, not to mention a heavy favorite for conference defensive player of the year honors. He's joined on the strong side by junior Nick Temple (54 tackles), a disruptive if occasionally inconsistent presence on the outside, while former Florida State transfer Jeff Luc ascends to a starting role on the weak side. How good is Luc? Good enough to play anywhere – and good enough to be an all-conference pick as a first-time starter. Blair is the unquestioned leader, a sideline-to-sideline rover with elite ball-sniffing skills; Luc, however, might be a breakout star. Very rarely do you see 250-pound weak side linebackers with this degree of athleticism.

I didn't need a reason to be more pumped for the Jeff Luc era, but that gave me one. It's going to be a lot of fun watching those guys on the field.

With those pieces in place for success, how does USA Today think Cincinnati will finish?

Whether UC ends up inside a national ranking depends on how well it handles the final month. November hands the Bearcats their lone chance to shine nationally: Cincinnati must take advantage of the opportunity, beating solid-to-strong American teams after two months spent winning games in the shadows of an easy schedule. The bad news? Because of some personnel issues – as noted above – I'm a little hesitant to plug UC as anything more than one of the top two or three teams in the American, albeit one that could end the year inside the top 25 due to the easy schedule. The good news? I have little doubt that UC will be better in November than September, so it'd be foolish to ignore the possibility that the Bearcats end up shocking heavily favored Louisville to win the American and reach the BCS. This team has that potential.

This could be a very special year. The schedule seems ripe. The biggest game of the season, the biggest game in years potentially, is at home to close the season for a Keg of Nails. It doesn't get much better than this. By the way, read the whole article. I copied select points. It's a nice, long look at the Cincinnati Bearcats from a great writer. That's not a suck up line. How can you tell? Bearcats Blog wasn't mentioned in any of the 6 or 7 links at the bottom. Not bitter, just crying a lot.

CBS

CBS Sports covered the American as a league. Because of that, they ran an all conference team.

That's right, only 3 Bearcats on the all conference team. No Eric Lefeld. No Tony Miliano. No one else who made first teams in other publications. You can probably guess who CBS thinks will win the league based on how one team has someone in every spot. Greg Blair was even shut out of defensive player of the year discussions, and that ended up being a tie.

It wasn't all doom and gloom for the Cats. They did end up in the most intriguing game against Louisville. They also were the team with the bold prediction. 

Bold conference prediction: Cincinnati will be undefeated in league play when they host Louisville on Dec. 5. This is absolutely a bold prediction, particularly with back-to-back road games at Rutgers and Houston in November, but it is also the best-case scenario for the league. Last year the Thursday night finale between Rutgers and Louisville lacked some its luster due to late season losses for both teams. If both teams are undefeated in league play, the game will get much more national hype.

CBS doesn't really seem high on Cincinnati in general, even though they picked them second in the league.

2. Cincinnati: Tommy Tuberville has the opportunity to make the Bearcats the class of the American, and his first year should be a great start thanks to some key returnees from the Butch Jones era. Cincinnati returns all five starters along the offensive line and boasts and experienced front seven that is highlighted by senior linebacker Greg Blair. A third straight 10+ win season might be too much to expect, but it would not be a surprise.

A 10-3 season doesn't seem like it would be too much to expect. A 10 win regular season seems to be right on the brink of most predictions. I don't think it would be that surprising. Jeremy Fowler doesn't think Rutgers and Houston, the two biggest road tests, are going to be that good, 6th and 8th place picks respectively, but anything can happen.