Cincinnati @ Connecticut preview
Rentschler Field
Last Meeting ( Oct 19, 2013 ) Connecticut 16, Cincinnati 41
Coming off its most impressive win of the season, Cincinnati hopes to avoid a letdown on Saturday when it travels to Connecticut. The Bearcats posted their season-high fourth straight victory last Thursday in a 54-46 shootout with East Carolina, remaining one-half game off the pace in the American Athletic Conference. “We’ve been beat up mentally and physically. We’ve got our foot in the door for the conference (title), but it’s just in the door,” Bearcats coach Tommy Tuberville told reporters.
Quarterback Gunner Kiel has been among the walking wounded for Cincinnati, but threw for a career-high 436 yards and four touchdowns just over a week after he left the Bearcats’ Oct. 31 win over Tulane after one play due to an aggravation of a rib injury. The Huskies, who travel to AAC-leading Memphis before hosting winless SMU in the season finale, come out of their bye having dropped five of six. UConn was unable to build upon its first league win of the season on Nov. 1 against UCF, dropping a 35-21 decision to Army in Yankee Stadium one week later.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network. LINE: Cincinnati -9.5.
ABOUT CINCINNATI (6-3, 4-1 AAC): Kiel was tabbed as the AAC Offensive Player of the Week and freshman kicker Andrew Gantz – a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award – won the conference’s special teams honors after converting a 47-yard field goal with 15 seconds left. The Bearcats finished their win over East Carolina with 586 yards of total offense, marking the 35th consecutive game in which they have amassed at least 340 yards. The running game has fueled the team’s winning streak as Cincinnati has averaged 232 yards on the ground over that span after totaling 234 during its preceding three-game slide.
ABOUT CONNECTICUT (2-7, 1-4): Asked to sum up his team during a recent AAC coaches’ weekly conference call, Huskies coach Bob Diaco said, “We're a bad football team. We're just way less bad than we were when I got here in December … it's still a mess, but it's a lot smaller mess." To that end, the Huskies have averaged 26.3 points while also posting three of their top four total-yardage efforts of the season. Sophomore receiver Noel Thomas has emerged over that same stretch, catching 12 passes for 192 yards and four touchdowns after registering five receptions for 40 yards and no scores in his first five contests.
EXTRA POINTS
1. Cincinnati, which has scored at least 34 points in each of its last five games in the same season for the first time since 2007, will attempt to do so in six straight for the first time in school history.
2. UConn has dropped three straight in this series and is 2-8 all-time against the Bearcats.
3. Cincinnati is 32-of-35 in the red zone this season, with the three non-scores coming on two kneel downs and a missed field goal.
PREDICTION: Cincinnati 38, Connecticut 17