Cincinnati-- Brian Kelly is a rising giant in coaching; he won pair of national titles in D-II, then got Central Michigan to bowl and went 10-3 in his first season with Bearcats. UC has seven starters back on offense, six on defense from unit that led the country with 42 takeaways LY. Bearcats have to break in a new QB this season, but with ten seniors starting on defense, this should be another bowl-cound team for coach Kelly.

UConn-- Huskies were 8-1 at one point LY, then lost three of its last four games, getting waxed 66-21 by West Virginia, and 24-10 by Wake Forest in Car Care Bowl, but UConn had only 10 seniors and overachieved, getting nine touchdowns from its defense and special teams. Huskies have a senior QB, depth on the offensive line and a solid coach, so expectations won't be a problem. Expect UConn to go bowling again this season.

Louisville-- 6-6 wasn't good at school that had 41 wins in four years before that, so Steve Kragthorpe's first year at UofL was not pleasant. Cardinals gave up 120 points combined in games 2-4, then gave up 131 more in its last three games, after losing in midseason at home to Utah, 44-35. They overhauled staff on defense, brought in ten JC players for depth, but they need to break in a new QB too. Looks like a rebuilding year for U of L.

Pittsburgh-- Dave Wannstedt has been recruiting like crazy, but is 16-19 in three years at Pitt, so Year 4 needs to be a good one. Panthers played good defense LY, but an injury-riddled offense turned ball over 24 times and wound with freshman QB running things-- not good. If offense doesn't give opponents a short field to work on, Pitt has enough team speed to be bowl team this season. For Wannstedt's sake, they had better be.

Rutgers-- Seven starters back on offense, eight on defense, so Rutgers figures to go bowling again in '08, hopefully to a better bowl than the International Bowl (no offense). Gone is star RB Rice and three starters on offensive line, but they have Teel as a 5th-year senior QB, so they should get more out of passing game. Knights were first team ever LY with a 2,000-yd rusher, a 3,000-yd passer and two 1,000-yard WRs. '08 should be good.

South Florida-- Bulls were ranked #2 in country at one point in a wacky season, then stumbled to 3-4 finish, but nine wins for second year in row is good stuff for USF, which has ten of its starters back on offense, including 3rd-year starting QB Matt Grothe. South Florida is a large school located in a recruiting goldmine- they're going to be good for long time. How will the weight of expectations change things? Not that much.

Syracuse-- Whoever fired Paul Pasqualoni was an idiot; SU is 7-28 in three years under Greg Robinson, and things ain't any better now than they were three years ago. AD Gross doesn't seem to know that central New York ain't Texas or USC, so it is really hard to have a great football team at Syracuse. Three of their first four games are Northwestern/Akron/Northeastern, if they ain't at least 3-1, Orange will have a new coach in 2009.

West Virginia-- They were going to have shot at national title, then a 13-9 loss to rival Pitt unraveled everything and wound up with WVU alum Rodriguez bolting for Michigan, paying lot of cash ($4M) to break his contract. New coach Stewart had an 8-25 record in three years at VMI in the mid-90's; is he ready to lead a program at this level? Mountaineers are 33-5 in last 38 games; at least they have a senior QB to lead them in 2008.
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