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The offense this season is going put up a ton of points- Think in the 30-40/game area. But it all starts with the offensive line. I have full confidence in Hooey, Hoffman, and Martinez to do their jobs and do it well. But center and right guard scare me to death. At center, Evan Davis is penciled in as the starter right now. But he was penciled in as the starter before the Fresno State game last year and was quickly replaced with Jason Kelce. It was a good move but Davis has yet to give me confidence that he can handle that position physically. Supposedly he was splitting reps near the end of camp with left guard Randy Martinez so the coach staff at least has a backup plan in case it all goes to hell. The right guard position has question marks of its own to deal with. Heading into the game, I think we’ll see both Austen Bujnoch and Andre Cureton get the majority of snaps there as they are both fighting for the starting spot. Bujnoch currently leads the race but I think we’ll see who really gets locked down in that spot by who gets the most snaps out of the two of them.
I’m expecting Cincinnati’s offense to put up 4 or 5 touchdowns in the first half, if not the first quarter. Zach should be pulled by then and give Munchie and Luallen the rest of the reps. In that same vein, if Butch Jones pulls the same hand-it-off-to-George-Winn-30-times again, I’m going to pull my hair out. It was complete insanity and did nothing to better Chazz Anderson’s understanding of the offense, really hurt the team during the USF and Syracuse games last season, and would do nothing for Munchie/Luallen’s development especially when one of them will likely take over in 2012. That schedule is brutal, by the way, with away games at Ohio State, at Virginia Tech (technically), and at TCU. The offense will lean on whoever wins that job to carry the torch. As far as running backs go, same situation. I want to see Poteat, Teague, and Abernathy get 10-15 carries each against Austin Peay, so long as Teague’s injury still isn’t bothering him.
At the pass catching positions, tight end Blake Annen should get the most reps out of anyone else in the group. He’s listed as TE-1 and while he has impressed in camp has very little real game experience. I’d like both D.J. Woods and Anthony McClung pulled when Zach does with Kenbrell Thompkins, Orion Woodard, Shaq Washington, and Alex Chisum continuing to get reps. Finally, the fact that Dyjuan Lewis hasn’t cracked the two-deep at any position indicates that he’s still extremely rusty after having not played live football for almost a year. He’s extremely talented but will need a few games to knock the rust off. Opponents like Austin Peay should do the trick and I’d like to see him get as many reps as possible.
Moving to the defense, let’s start with the line. The Bearcats should be 8 – 9 deep at that position so I fully expect to see a solid rotation throughout the game to mix in the starters and backups. I fully expect this to be one of the best units in the Big East and depth that is finally there should help. Cincinnati needs to use that to their advantage and manhandle Austin Peay’s pass defense. To the linebackers, there’s a lot of youth back there so I’d be inclined to see Bomar and Schaffer taken out of the game when UC is up by 4 or 5 touchdowns. I’d probably included Ben Pooler in that group as he’s the third starting linebacker and is very susceptible to injuries. Blair, Tentman, Clemente, Temple, and Jackson should see a lot of live reps in this game. The starting safeties (no matter how much I object to them being placed there) of Frey and Richardson should get a lot of reps in this game but Lambert and Murray should be filtered in some to see how they have progressed. At cornerback and nickleback, I’d like to see what Deven Drane can do along with the battle between Chris Williams and Reuben Johnson. Overall, the starters and backups should split the reps for most of the game.