2011 Cincinnati Football Predictions, Odds, Picks and Schedule – 2011 Cincinnati Bearcats NCAA Football Preview

2011 Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Expert Predictions, Picks, Vegas Odds and Schedule – Cincinnati NCAA Football Preview: In 2009, the Cincinnati Bearcats completed a perfect regular season and came within a Texas Longhorn’s field goal of playing for the national title. The program then lost head coach Brian Kelly and quarterback Tony Pike before the start of last season, the Bearcats spiraled to a dismal 4-8 record. In 2011-12, Cincinnati figures to land somewhere between the undefeated team of two seasons ago and the disappointing team last year.

Only five starters are back on offense, but three most important pieces are among the returnees. Quarterback Zach Collaros, 1,000 yard running back Isaiah Pead, and wide receiver D.J. Woods are all back for a unit that led the Big East conference in a bunch of statistical categories. Last season, Cincinnati led the conference in points scored, yards per game, passing yards and third down conversions. In other words, the Bearcats boast one of the top offenses in the college game, and scoring points isn’t this team’s problem.

Defense was a different story one year ago as the Bearcats got whipped for 28.0 points per game. Cincinnati couldn’t stop anybody last season, giving up 28 points or more nine times. The silver lining is that all 11 starters from last year’s team are back. The downside is that having all the pieces return from a terrible unit isn’t necessarily a good thing. Common sense says that another year of experience and playing together should improve the defense, but it’s not often that a team with BCS bowl aspirations plays this poorly on the defensive side of the ball.

In fact, Cincinnati gave up more points than any other team in the Big East, along with the second-most yards per game. No team was worse at defending the pass than the Bearcats, and their eight interceptions were also a conference low. Turnovers in general were rare for Cincinnati, meaning not only was the defense porous, it wasn’t opportunistic either.

With the Big East being one the weakest and wide open conferences, it’s tough to predict exactly how tough Cincinnati’s schedule actually is. Out-of-conference matchups against Tennessee and North Carolina State could go either way, and a home game against West Virginia appears to be the toughest conference matchup. Going on the road in conference against Pittsburgh and South Florida will both tests the Bearcats as well.

It’s hard to imagine that the defense won’t improve at least a little with all 11 starters returning this year. Meanwhile, the offense should continue to be one of the most effective in the conference, if not the best once again. The end result should be a major bouneback year for the Bearcats. West Virginia is still the team to beat in the Big East, but Cincinnati will be back in contention this season.

2011 Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Predictions: 9-3 Record

Preseason 2011 Cincinnati Bearcats NCAA Football Odds:
Odds to Win 2012 BCS Championship: +8000
Odds to Win 2011 Big East Champonship: +500
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2011 Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Schedule
Sat, Sep 3 Austin Peay 7:00 pm —
Sat, Sep 10 at Tennessee 3:30 pm —
Sat, Sep 17 Akron 3:30 pm —
Thu, Sep 22 North Carolina State 8:00 pm —
Sat, Oct 1 at Miami (OH) 1:00 pm —
Sat, Oct 15 Louisville TBA —
Sat, Oct 22 at South Florida 12:00 pm —
Sat, Nov 5 at Pittsburgh TBA —
Sat, Nov 12 West Virginia TBA —
Sat, Nov 19 at Rutgers TBA —
Sat, Nov 26 at Syracuse TBA —
Sat, Dec 3 Connecticut TBA —

Check out NSAwins.com’s official 2011 Big East Football Predictions, Odds and Preview article.

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