The Miami-Ohio Redhawks will open their season with a daunting trip to Nippert Field to take on the #8 ranked Cincinnati Bearcats. Cincinnati is coming off their best season of the last decade, and maybe of all-time, when they ran the table in the American conference and earned a trip to the Peach Bowl. The Bearcats lost to Georgia 24-21 on a last-second 53-yard field goal to finish 9-1. Miami (OH) played just three games last season, finished 2-1, and their just isn’t much to take away from a COVID shortened season.
Cincinnati figures to, again, be the best team in the AAC and opens as a -220 favorite to bring home a second straight American championship. The Bearcats were a solid offense last season led by duel-threat quarterback Desmond Ridder and a potent rushing attack that finished tenth in the nation in rushing offense. Ridder will be back and I expect in year four as the starter will continue his improvement throwing the football. He’ll have four of his top five receivers back.
What separates this Cincinnati team from the rest of the conference is their defense, which has been the best in the AAC for the last three seasons. They return two stud corners including Ahmad Gardner who is expected to be a first-round draft pick in the NFL draft next season. The Bearcats also get back Myjai Sanders to lead a strong, nasty defensive line. With Fickell at the helm and a ton of starters returning, there isn’t much of a reason to think they won’t be one of the best defenses in college football again this year.
Miami (Oh) has consistently been among the best teams in the MAC and that should be the case this season. The Redhawks return nine starters from last year's team, but again they only played three games last season. Brett Gabbert is the expected starter, he played just one game in 2020 before going down with an injury. The concern is up-front, where they lost two all-conference interior linemen.
The defense also returns 10 starters but struggled to stop the run against two rush-heavy attacks against Ball State and Buffalo last year. The defensive line returns almost everyone and added Zach Hummel from Cincy in the portal, they should be solid up-front. Miami (OH) should have a solid defense, but will likely be outmatched by the Cincinnati offense.
