It was a spectacular and historic season for the University of Cincinnati. The school made the College Football Playoff, becoming the first so-called Group of Five program to make the playoff. UC became the first American Athletic Conference champion to reach the playoff. The Bearcats had a perfect regular season before running into a powerful Alabama team in the Cotton Bowl playoff semifinals. Coach Luke Fickell did a masterful job of developing talent and coaching the Bearcats\u2019 defense. Even though Cincinnati lost defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman before the 2021 season began (to Notre Dame, where Freeman spent one year as defensive coordinator but was elevated to head coach after Brian Kelly surprisingly took the LSU job), the Bearcats did not miss a beat on that side of the ball. Fickell had everything under control, and as a result, UC made history for itself and its conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2021 Bearcats were so good and so deep that they created nine NFL draft picks. Only Georgia, Alabama, LSU, and a few other select schools generated more draft picks than the Bearcats. It was simply a year in which coaches and players brought out the best in each other, and now the program has to turn the page and see if it can do this all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incoming transfer running back Corey Kiner is just one of many new faces on a roster which has to identify talent and begin the developmental process from ground zero, just as it did in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key Personnel Lost<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The nine NFL draft picks don\u2019t even include the other very good players who became undrafted free agents in the NFL and will have a chance to crack a 53-man pro roster this fall. Among all the high-profile players Cincinnati lost to the NFL, the two biggest are Sauce Gardner, who was taken with the No. 4 pick by the New York Jets, and quarterback Desmond Ridder, who went to the Atlanta Falcons at pick No. 74. Eastern Michigan transfer quarterback Ben Bryant will be part of a battle to replace Ridder this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alec Pierce is one of the many Bearcats who is off to the NFL, another notable departure. Losing a receiver of Pierce\u2019s quality means incoming transfer Nick Mardner will have a very important role to play on the 2022 Bearcats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Important Incoming Freshmen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Edge rusher Mario Eugenio is a four-star prospect. He picked UC over Michigan and Iowa State. He is an Under Armor All-American. Cornerback J.Q. Hardaway is a four-star recruit. He is also an Under Armor All-American. Cincinnati recruited at a very high level, a product of the program\u2019s tremendous success last year. Luke Fickell has this train rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key Position Battles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The departure of Desmond Ridder puts a supreme spotlight on the quarterback spot. The Bearcats need to find their new leader under center and make sure the most important position on the field does not become a noticeable weakness this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biggest Offseason Goal(s)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It starts with developing a quarterback, given how much comfort Ridder gained with the offense. Cincinnati is going to be good on defense; the key to maintaining elite status in college football is for the offense to avoid a regression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a spectacular and historic season for the University of Cincinnati. The school made the College Football Playoff, becoming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":14470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22614,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22611\/revisions\/22614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}