Cincinnati Football: Collaborative Preview of UC vs. USF
This season’s scheduling nightmare continues. Tonight it takes the form of senior night for USF who is coming off its biggest win in a long time. Next week is senior night for ECU who needs the win to become bowl eligible. We could very easily end the season 6-6. The Enquirer’s Tom Groeschen made his prediction at 36-34 in favor of UC. Let’s look at what your Cincy on the Prowl staff has.
Be sure to pay extra attention to Chris Bains since last week he got the EXACT score of the game.
Chris Bains
South Florida appears to finally be hitting its stride late in Willie Taggart’s third year as head coach and, for his job’s sake, he’s fortunate they’re finally starting to come together. Unfortunately it couldn’t come at a worse time for the Bearcats who need to win their final two games to even have a shot at winning the AAC East and go to the championship game. On the flip side, UC is playing its best football of the season, with the offensive clicking like its usual self and the defense finally coming along. With the Bulls fighting for their first winning season in half-a-decade, this won’t be easy for UC, but I think they win a close one.
Cincinnati 30, South Florida 27
Ben Levin
All of the sudden, USF looks amazing after completely destroying Temple last week. On paper, UC should absolutely win, but this game scares me, especially with the Bearcats hitting the road on a short week. The game will revolve around stopping USF sophomore RB Marlon Mack, who has rushed for 100 yards six times this year, and burned Temple for 272 total yards (230 rush, 42 rec). If UC can bottle up Mack, there’s no way Quinton Flowers can beat them through the air, but if USF gets the ground game going, it could be a long night. UC has to keep running the ball like it did against Tulsa (a.k.a. give Mike Boone 18 carries). I can easily see the Bearcats losing, but I’m going to be optimistic and say that the ‘Cats execute and Flowers can’t keep up with Kiel.
Cincinnati 33, USF 23
Travis Holmes
Not only has USF looked impressive in its most recent victories, but even in defeat as they gave Navy all it could handle on the road. A few weeks later, that effort looks more impressive than it did even at that time. Aside from Marlon Mack, the emergence of Rodney Adams as a legitimate threat in the passing game has opened up the field immensely for Quinton Flowers. Simply put, this team is dangerous.
As for the Bearcats, this team is 8-1 this season. 5-1 against the opposition, and 3-0 against themselves. In other words the only team that has flat out beaten UC this year is BYU as the Bearcats gave away losses to Temple, Memphis, and Houston. I truly believe the only team in this conference that can beat Cincinnati is Cincinnati. I don’t see this changing Friday night as I have a sinking feeling the Bearcats will make too many mistakes against a red hot opponent on the road.
USF 30, Cincinnati 26
Mike Jorgensen
I don’t like this game at all. It has bad news written all over it. Cincinnati is more talented by far, but we’ve only played to our potential for about 5 quarters this season. Tuberville lost last time he had to play at USF and could do so very easily again. Keys to the game: less than 5 turnovers, run Mike Boone, special teams go unnoticed. I think Cincinnati has everything in needs to win, but I’m still calling it for USF.
USF 38, Cincinnati 31
There you have it. Be sure to keep up with us on Twitter (each blogger’s name has a link to their Twitter account) during the game so you can hear the rants hot off the press and listen to me defend Gunner’s efforts.