2014-15 Season Previews – (American) – Bearcats
For this year’s Bearcats club, Notre Dame transfer Gunner Kiel looks to add to what is already an embarrassment of riches at the quarterback position.
For this year’s Bearcats club, Notre Dame transfer Gunner Kiel looks to add to what is already an embarrassment of riches at the quarterback position.
The UCF Knights were outstanding last year under the stewardship of Blake Bortles, who was simply the first QB selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in this year’s NFL Draft.
In a relatively newly-formed conference that’s seen plenty of new faces and upheaval, the ECU Pirates are a model of stability – one that’s carried over from the mostly dismantled Conference USA.
After some nice years in the Mid American Conference, Temple returned to the Big East last season and was welcomed with a two win conference season. Now they are in the American Athletic Conference and the prospects don’t look much better under new coach Matt Rhule.
June Jones is an established coach and when he left Hawaii for SMU big things were expected. After a disastrous 1-11 start the Mustangs have played .500 or better each season since, participating in bowl games the last 4 seasons – winning 3.
Rutgers is another former Big East member that is just passing through the American Athletic Conference this season. Former coach Greg Schiano built Rutgers into a respectable program but they never quite made it to the top of the mountain to win anything significant – though it was a nice story.
Memphis is one of the few FBS schools driven by hoops, which is why they were happy to join the former Big East. Even though the league has dramatically transformed the football program is still pretty subpar making its chances of being even mediocre probably about the same as in their former league, Conference USA.
Its definitely a new era for the South Florida Bulls. After a decent first season coach Skip Holtz was not able to elevate the program as expected and quarterback B.J. Daniels has graduated, having never lived up to the potential many had in mind for the athletic marvel – now both are gone.
Everyone is expecting the Louisville Cardinals to exit Big East (I had to) on top. They were the best team a year ago and have the best quarterback, coach and roster top to bottom. Everything seems to pointing their way except for the fact that other programs may be highly motivated to beat them given the circumstances.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Connecticut participated in a BCS bowl (2010 Orange). Sure they may have snuck in representing the worst of the AQ conference but they were generally having successful seasons with solid 8-5 record under their former coach.
The Cincinnati Bearcats are a very good program trying to find their place amongst a realigned college football world.
When coach Kevin Sumlin left Houston for Texas A&M and was replaced by offensive coordinator Tony Levine there was great hope for a Cougars program to continue to enjoy its recent success. If last year is any indicator the run may be over as the Cougars stumbled in their final season in Conference USA.