Cincinnati Bearcats 2025 Football Preview

Season openers are always a bit of a challenge, as what might look like a good (or bad) team on paper might turn out to be just the opposite when games actually kick off. And now in the transfer portal era with so many players switching teams, it’s even more of a challenge. How do these new players fit into another program? Are teams upgrading talent or inheriting issues that led players to leave their previous team. Take the Cincinnati Bearcats, who went 5-7 in 2024. Seven starters return from that team, but they are adding nine starters from other programs via the portal.

What that means to me is that what Cincinnati did on the field as a team last season is almost irrelevant to this…