Cincinnati Football: 5 reasons Bearcats will beat Bruins again
By Dante Pryor
3. Bearcats have better mix of youth and veterans
We found something out about the Bearcats last season: they have a wealth of young talent. Luke Fickell has recruited as well as any of the top Group of Five schools and on par with most lower-tiered power five schools.
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This bared fruit last season when they decided to pull veteran quarterback Hayden Moore — ironically against the Bruins — in favor of young quarterback Desmond Ridder. You also saw it when 2017 leading rusher Gerrid Doaks was lost for the season with injury and his replacement Michael Warren II rushed for over 1,300 yards and 14 touchdowns.
We even saw it when a young secondary, one that was supposed to struggle, was the best group of defensive backs in the American Athletic Conference. All of that youth won 11 games, and it all comes back with a year more experience.
Not only that you have good veterans on offense like tight end Josiah Deguara and wide receiver Rashad Medaris. The same can be said of the defense as well. You have to love the fact they have lost of redshirts on defense like James Wiggins and Jabari Taylor. The redshirt means they’ve been part of the program and know the system. That’s huge.