Here are the AAC rankings:

114. USF

107. Navy

105. Temple

91. ECU

76. Houston

58. Tulsa

52. Tulane

50. SMU

36. Memphis

34. UCF

12. Cincinnati

https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/co...7632109_18

Well, at least Tulsa is higher than the default 70 to 90 we're usually put at.

Cincy seems to be the consensus #1 in all the early polls. Looking at the analysis of percentage of starters returning, Cincy lost more than I imagined but not their best skill guys. UCF & the Malzahn offense will have to develop but the pieces are there. Memphis is ranked all over the map from 2nd to 7th. Will be interesting to see who gets the Memphis QB job & how productive he can be. He has great receivers coming back, all of the RBs (that weren't up to previous years), theoretically a better OL & better D across the board (but several key newcomers). SMU has a lot of good but new pieces & ECU should be competitive, Tulsa too. Not sure about UH, especially their coach but they have talent.

(07-12-2021 08:21 AM)Atlanta Wrote:  Cincy seems to be the consensus #1 in all the early polls. Looking at the analysis of percentage of starters returning, Cincy lost more than I imagined but not their best skill guys. UCF & the Malzahn offense will have to develop but the pieces are there. Memphis is ranked all over the map from 2nd to 7th. Will be interesting to see who gets the Memphis QB job & how productive he can be. He has great receivers coming back, all of the RBs (that weren't up to previous years), theoretically a better OL & better D across the board (but several key newcomers). SMU has a lot of good but new pieces & ECU should be competitive, Tulsa too. Not sure about UH, especially their coach but they have talent.

I agree with most of that. Non-A5 teams get the shaft overall on rankings, but I think this one generally has the groups right.

Cincy is the clear favorite. Not all, but probably the majority of preseason rankings I've seen have UCF and Memphis next, close together. Usually, SMU is next or in the UCF/Memphis group, followed by some grouping of Tulsa, Tulane and Houston. Then the rest.

I think Houston is perhaps too low, as well as ECU, but I understand the doubt. Navy is always a wildcard. Temple and USF seem to be the bottom.

Also, this one has UConn above our bottom 3. I don't buy that for a second.

(07-12-2021 08:35 AM)TripleA Wrote:  

(07-12-2021 08:21 AM)Atlanta Wrote:  Cincy seems to be the consensus #1 in all the early polls. Looking at the analysis of percentage of starters returning, Cincy lost more than I imagined but not their best skill guys. UCF & the Malzahn offense will have to develop but the pieces are there. Memphis is ranked all over the map from 2nd to 7th. Will be interesting to see who gets the Memphis QB job & how productive he can be. He has great receivers coming back, all of the RBs (that weren't up to previous years), theoretically a better OL & better D across the board (but several key newcomers). SMU has a lot of good but new pieces & ECU should be competitive, Tulsa too. Not sure about UH, especially their coach but they have talent.

I agree with most of that. Non-A5 teams get the shaft overall on rankings, but I think this one generally has the groups right.

Cincy is the clear favorite. Not all, but probably the majority of preseason rankings I've seen have UCF and Memphis next, close together. Usually, SMU is next or in the UCF/Memphis group, followed by some grouping of Tulsa, Tulane and Houston. Then the rest.

I think Houston is perhaps too low, as well as ECU, but I understand the doubt. Navy is always a wildcard. Temple and USF seem to be the bottom.

Also, this one has UConn above our bottom 3. I don't buy that for a second.

Agree. It about torpedoes the author's credibility for me.

LOL @ UConn and clownshoe GT ahead of us.

I just don't know what Memphis will be this year. My biggest concern is the running game. Our biggest strength the past six years was our biggest weakness last year. My next biggest concern is QB. On paper we look real good, but that's on paper.

(07-12-2021 08:21 AM)Atlanta Wrote:  Cincy seems to be the consensus #1 in all the early polls. Looking at the analysis of percentage of starters returning, Cincy lost more than I imagined but not their best skill guys. UCF & the Malzahn offense will have to develop but the pieces are there. Memphis is ranked all over the map from 2nd to 7th. Will be interesting to see who gets the Memphis QB job & how productive he can be. He has great receivers coming back, all of the RBs (that weren't up to previous years), theoretically a better OL & better D across the board (but several key newcomers). SMU has a lot of good but new pieces & ECU should be competitive, Tulsa too. Not sure about UH, especially their coach but they have talent.

What helps Cincinnati is they have guys to fill the spots they lost (and they returned a bunch of starters for a normal year, just not for this year). I think their front 7 on defense will be better this year, despite losing real guys on the line and at linebacker. The guys they brought back are exceptional and the guys filling the spots of those who left probably are better talents.

The secondary has all their corners back. Losing two excellent safeties would hurt most teams, but the guys they returned have been big contributors in the past. I don't see a dropoff from the secondary and they were as good as any unit in the country last season.

Offensive line is really the only position where you could see a dropoff, specifically the two Tackle spots that were really great last year for us. Many of us our optimistic about the talent there, but it is far less proven than the other spots we are filling.

We aren’t last!

(07-12-2021 06:41 PM)Memphis Yankee Wrote:  I just don't know what Memphis will be this year. My biggest concern is the running game. Our biggest strength the past six years was our biggest weakness last year. My next biggest concern is QB. On paper we look real good, but that's on paper.

Hopefully our OL is much improved and opens some holes.


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(07-13-2021 09:45 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(07-12-2021 08:21 AM)Atlanta Wrote:  Cincy seems to be the consensus #1 in all the early polls. Looking at the analysis of percentage of starters returning, Cincy lost more than I imagined but not their best skill guys. UCF & the Malzahn offense will have to develop but the pieces are there. Memphis is ranked all over the map from 2nd to 7th. Will be interesting to see who gets the Memphis QB job & how productive he can be. He has great receivers coming back, all of the RBs (that weren't up to previous years), theoretically a better OL & better D across the board (but several key newcomers). SMU has a lot of good but new pieces & ECU should be competitive, Tulsa too. Not sure about UH, especially their coach but they have talent.

What helps Cincinnati is they have guys to fill the spots they lost (and they returned a bunch of starters for a normal year, just not for this year). I think their front 7 on defense will be better this year, despite losing real guys on the line and at linebacker. The guys they brought back are exceptional and the guys filling the spots of those who left probably are better talents.

The secondary has all their corners back. Losing two excellent safeties would hurt most teams, but the guys they returned have been big contributors in the past. I don't see a dropoff from the secondary and they were as good as any unit in the country last season.

Offensive line is really the only position where you could see a dropoff, specifically the two Tackle spots that were really great last year for us. Many of us our optimistic about the talent there, but it is far less proven than the other spots we are filling.

The thing about Cincinnati is that our success the past 3 years has mostly been spearheaded by low-to-mid 3-star guys our staff developed. A lot of those players were holdovers from the Tuberville era or players from the first couple Luke Fickell classes as he was getting established. As those players graduate and move on, the players replacing them on the depth chart are higher-level recruits than we've ever had, even during the Brian Kelly years.

As an example of this, our 3 top NFL prospects for the 2022 draft are Desmond Ridder, Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner, and Myjai Sanders. Looking at 247's composite ratings, Des was rated a .8180, Sauce was a .8314, and Myjai was a .8513. The average ratings for our 2020, 2021, and 2022 classes are, respectively: .8531, .8524, and .8586. One of our main insiders, Chad Brendel, has commented that the incoming freshman class has a lot of guys who have the body composition of players who usually only go to blueblood programs. I believe he also mentioned that several of the freshmen are already working out with the big boys, so to speak, keeping up in the weight room with some of the strongest upperclassmen on the roster.

So when I think about the results our staff has had with under-the-radar guys who came in raw, often skinny or with soft bodies, I can only imagine what they will do with the guys they are bringing in now who are physical specimens from day one.

Looking forward to getting UCF back to the championship game and the top 25. Having only 1 team in the top 25 is a disserve.

(07-17-2021 01:51 PM)Sideshow2313 Wrote:  Looking forward to getting UCF back to the championship game and the top 25. Having only 1 team in the top 25 is a disserve.

I'm anxious to see how we look this year. I still don't know how good our coach is. Having to deal with Covid his first year as head coach is not fair to judge him yet. New QB, but on paper he might be our best QB ever. It's definitely a transition year, but we seem to be getting dissed more than I think we deserve to be.

(07-17-2021 07:46 AM)tnzazz Wrote:  

(07-12-2021 06:41 PM)Memphis Yankee Wrote:  I just don't know what Memphis will be this year. My biggest concern is the running game. Our biggest strength the past six years was our biggest weakness last year. My next biggest concern is QB. On paper we look real good, but that's on paper.

Hopefully our OL is much improved and opens some holes.


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Sounds like it is. Fingers crossed. Silverfield was an offensive line coach after all.

In theory ECU could be primed to make a big jump. New coaches 3rd season, finished year 2 strong, and return basically everyone. I want to be optimistic it happens, but after being this bad this long I've gotta see it before I believe it.

(07-19-2021 08:16 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  In theory ECU could be primed to make a big jump. New coaches 3rd season, finished year 2 strong, and return basically everyone. I want to be optimistic it happens, but after being this bad this long I've gotta see it before I believe it.

This.