The Bearcats had the best season in their program’s history in 2008, winning 11 games and the school’s first Big East championship. However if two-time Big East Coach of the Year Brian Kelly hopes to lead his squad to another league championship it may take his best coaching job yet.
That’s not to say that the Bearcats won’t have talent returning in 2009. The problem is that the majority of the starting experience is all on the offensive side of the field. The biggest hurdle for Cincinnati in 2009 will be replacing ten different starters from last year’s defense.
The lone returning starter, safety Aaron Webster will lead a surprisingly veteran defense for a group that lost ten starters. Three seniors, Alex Daniels, Ricardo Mathews and Curtis Young will likely take over starting roles on the defensive line, with sophomore Derek Wolfe also looking to make an impact.
All three seniors saw action in all 14 games last year and combined for 53 tackles. Curtis Young had four sacks and Daniels recorded one sack.
The linebacking corp will be anchored by senior Andrew Revels who was seventh on the team in tackles in 2008 with 59. Former quarterback and transfer from Notre Dame, Demetrius Jones moved over to linebacker, and will compete for playing time. …
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