2008 CincinnatiBearcat Preview
The last two years the Cincinnati Bearcats have not been picked to finish very high in the Big East Conference. The 2006 Bearcats were picked near the bottom of the Big East conference by every major publication. They were coming off of a 4 win season, and though returning nearly every player it was clearly going to be a year that would say much for the future of the program. That Bearcat team ended up losing 4 road games to top ten teams, but those games clearly strengthened the cats. They only lost one other game that season (early in the year to Pitt), and ended up beating number 6 Rutgerson a Saturday night in Nippert. The young Bearcats had come a long way from 4-7 and the future looked promising.
Before the Bearcats bowl game that season Mark Dantonio left to take the head coaching job at Michigan State. The Bearcats called on Brian Kelly to build on what Dantonio had done. Kelly started changing the offense and lead the Bearcats to a victory over Western Michigan in the inaugural international bowl. The Bearcats brought back a large portion of the team, and Kelly began to significantly change how they played the game.
Kelly shifted the aggressive, man to man, blitzing defense that Dantonio had used with much success at UC into a zone defense which he said would allow the players to see the ball better, make plays, and not give up big plays. The offense had the biggest shift. He asked the offensive lineman to slim down so they could play faster and move. The protections and blocking schemes were much more complicated. The offense went from a pound it out I formation to a spread offense passing attack. The combination of a more dynamic offense, and an experienced, skilled defense led the Bearcats to a 10 win season, their first since the 1960s. With many of the key players back the Bearcats hope to capitalize this season.
On Defense:
The defense will be the key once again to the Bearcats and this defense should be stellar. The Bearcats return two potential first team all Americans in Mike Mickens at CB and Terrill Byrd at DT. Byrd and Mickens anchor an experience defense which gave opposing offenses fits all last season.
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