UConn Ninth in AAC Preseason Poll

The American Athletic Conference preseason media poll results were released this weekend and our UConn Huskies finished tied for ninth with Tulane at 98 points, 4 points ahead of last place Tulsa and seven points behind eighth place Temple. Woof.

Tommy Tuberville's Cincinnati Bearcats were picked as the favorites following last years 9-4 campaign in Tuberville's first year as head coach. They return 16 starters including their quarterback, running back, and unanimous all-conference tackle Eric LeField. They were probably a better team than last years record indicates given the injury troubles they suffered.

UCF finished second to Cincinnati by fifteen points, getting seven first place votes to Cincinnati's 17. They finished 10th in last years final AP rankings after beating Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. Third place finisher Houston received six first place votes. Here are the full results:

It looks like going into the season the perception is that UCF and Cincinnati will be fighting it out for the title with Houston and East Carolina not too far behind. SMU, USF and then Memphis appear to be ahead of the rest of the pack and then it bottoms out. Unfortunately UConn falls into that final category. I have a hard time believing Temple and Memphis will be better than us this year, but what do I know.

Read into this what you will, obviously zero games have yet to be played and with a brand new head coach and an offense from this century anything can happen. Maybe this kind of bulletin board material will motivate the players as they prepare for the upcoming season. And hopefully the improved dietary, health and conditioning guidance the players have received can translate to improvement on the field. Otherwise it might be time to revise our expectations for this season.