Cincy Athlon #18

[OSU8085]

http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/16673/no-18-cincinnati


When the Bearcats began spring practice, coach Brian Kelly joked that he was running "The Gong Show," especially on defense. Players had a chance to impress him, and if they didn’t they got gonged. Let’s hope there were far more "Gene, Gene the Dancing Machines" than "Unknown Comics" for the Cats, who enter ’09 with close to a brand new defense, thanks to the departure of 10 starters from last year’s Big East title team.

they've lost A LOT and are still ranked 7 spots ahead of my beavs. That'll be interesting since cincy comes to reser early in the season.

[Hawkeye]

I agree. You don't lose guys like Barwin, Mickens and Smith without seeing a dropoff.

[CatClaw]

I agree. You don't lose guys like Barwin, Mickens and Smith without seeing a dropoff.Especially when you are changing the entire defensive scheme from a year ago with something like ten new starters or something ridiculous like that.

[Hawkeye]

Yeah, I just looked at their depth chart on Rivals.com and wow did they ever lose players on defense. Looks like they will get Revels and Manalac back at LB......and Nelms will most likely be moved to OLB if he is fast at all. Looks like Hughes or Matthews might be the NT...and I am guessing they get Brad Jones back at SS.

Pike has a year left too, right?

[CatClaw]

Yeah, I just looked at their depth chart on Rivals.com and wow did they ever lose players on defense. Looks like they will get Revels and Manalac back at LB......and Nelms will most likely be moved to OLB is he is fast at all. Looks like Hughes or Mattews might be the NT...and I guessing they get Brad Jones back at SS.

Pike has a year left too, right?Basicly Pike and the WR are going to have to carry this team....good thing they run the spread! Manalac is a tackling machine, but doesn't have very good wheels. It could be pretty painful watching this defense at first.

[OSU8085]

Sometimes athlon is pretty crazy.

OSU may have lost its secondary and top 2/3 WRs in Stroughter and Morales as well as a few olinemen but riley has loads of talent to reload with. Seems like cincy is going to have a lot of early troubles on defense and then when you lose those WRs on offense.

As far as the OSU-Cincy game it'll be interesting as we got whooped in the 2nd half in the last meeting because of the QBs combined 6-7 turnovers.

[Chris Raiden]

Pike throwing to Gilyard is a great combination, should keep them in some games. Offensive line's fairly solid, this team could make some noise this year.

-RD