2023 Ultimate College Football Preview- Cincinnati

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

The Bearcats had a pretty damn good year, especially coming off the most successful year in school history. It is always difficult to follow up a highly successful year and for the most part Cincy did that. They got back to the AAC Championship game, losing by three. Cincinnati also made the Fenway Bowl, but for the third year in a row lost. They seem to be doing good at getting to big games, just not finishing them. That being said they were one of the most successful group of 5 teams last year and for the last decade. Moving to the Big 12 should assist the Bearcats to keep climbing up the college football food chain.

Head Coach:

Scott Satterfield steps in as head coach of the Bearcats this year taking over for Luke Fickell. Fickell left before the bowl games this past year for Wisconsin. Satterfield comes into Cincy from Louisville and Appalachian State before that. He had great success at App State going 51-24 finishing first in the SunBelt 3 times and never worst then third in six seasons. After a good first season at Louisville going 8-5 and wining the Music City bowl, struggles set in. Going 17-19 in the three seasons after his first at Louisville. For me he leaves a lot left to be desired at a big program. He couldn’t recruit the right players to Louisville, who has always gotten good players in. To believe he can keep Cincinnati on the upward trajectory is I think juvenile. I am not a fan of Satterfield leading the Bearcats, but maybe I will be proven wrong.

Key Players:

Emory Jones transferred into Cincinnati after having a disappointing year at Arizona State. He will be in charge of the offense for the Bearcats. Jones is not consistent enough to be a great QB but has shown flashes of being one. At Florida especially he has shown his talent with his arm and feet. He will be throwing to three transfers as well at WR in Dee Wiggins, Donovan Ollie and Sterling Berkhalter. It will be difficult to mesh with all players transferring in. The defense is losing two huge contributors in Ivan Pace Jr. and Ty Van Fossen who combined had 214 tackles, 24.5 TFL, 9.5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles. Leaders like Deshawn Pace who had 62 tackles, 5 TFL’s, 1 sack and 1 interception, will have to step up even more.

2023 Prediction:

With going into a new, better conference this year I think Cincinnati takes a huge jump back. Not only do I not believe in their coach, or their players, the competition week to week is much tougher. If they can go 7-5 it will be a success. At 8-4 I will admit that Satterfield knows what he is doing. I don’t see that happening, 6-6 is the most realistic outcome. They will still make a bowl but definitely not what the Bearcat fans have been use to. Welcome to the Big 12.