2008 Big East Preview: Cincinnati Bearcats

This isn’t exactly a traditional preview. Everyone has the same questions about Cincinnati – can Dustin Grutza replace Ben Mauk? Will their defense suffer now that it’s a year removed from Dantonio and Narduzzi? I’m interested in those questions – but other people are answering them. Each team in the Big East has a storyline this year. For Rutgers, it’s probably how they’ll replace Ray Rice. In the coming days, I am going to tackle the underlying theme of each non-Rutgers team this season. The plan is to draw analogies to several relevant NCAA teams of recent memory, trying to discover any information of merit or explanatory power. I searched the team records on CFBDataWarehouse for roughly the past 25 years. The sample size is not as big as would be ideal, but that’s life. So without further adieu.

Cincinnati: Can a new coach ever live up to a big first year?

Football!

I’m back, but still not really settled in…

Kevin Haslam is at “100%“.

Anthony Davis is a “little sore“, but will play on Monday.

Obviously, the team’s special teams will need to play much, much better this season.

As per Luicci, Schiano is considering not kicking to the Fresno KR, and Kordell Young has a slight limp. Wait, what?

Looks like phase one of construction will go right up to the wire.

Pat Hill was on Sporting News Radio yesterday.

New Jersey – the most progressive state in the country?

Big East: Week one

Is Ben Mauk finally done? Dustin Grutza gets the call tonight vs. Eastern Kentucky.

It doesn’t look like Andre Dixon will play tonight vs. Hofstra.

Fresno State is important, but Kentucky is the key OOC game for the Big East this weekend.

Could a feisty Bowling Green team derail Pitt’s season before it even gets on track?

USF breaks in two new corners this weekend.

Syracuse is totally in the Pam Ward zone on Saturday. I’ll be flipping back and forth between that and the VT game.

West Virginia will be merely tuning up vs. Villanova.