Cincinnati Football: 5 Things the Bearcats Learned from Last Year

After what many would consider a surprising season in 2011, the Cincinnati Bearcats are starting spring practice with high expectations for 2012.

Butch Jones showed vast improvements in his second year under the helm at Cincinnati.

While a 10-3 season and a Liberty Bowl victory were a success, Cincinnati is looking for a even more in 2012.

We thought we learned a lot about Butch Jones and his Bearcats in 2010, but after a second year in the program, we have learned a lot more.

Here is what we learned about the Bearcats in 2011.

While many people may have doubted the coaching abilities of Butch Jones after the 2010 season, not many are doing that anymore.

Jones proved himself in 2011 and now Bearcats fans are just hoping to keep him around for longer than three years, which is the tenure of their two previous coaches.

He is not only a great motivator, but also an excellent coach who gets the most out of his players every time out there. 

When Zach Collaros went down last year, it was certainly cause for concern.

The emergence of then-sophomore quarterback Munchie Legaux put Bearcats fans at ease as he was able to step in and grow week-to-week.

Now Legaux will have a full offseason to develop his game.

He is long, lanky and can beat teams with his legs and arm.

Legaux can certainly play and he proved that in 2011.

In 2010, Cincinnati seemingly always found itself in third-and-long, partly because they failed to use the ground game.

They made an effort to run the ball in 2012 and did so with a lot of success.

Even though Isaiah Pead is gone, Cincinnati will still have a few players who can run the ball in 2012.

They are not the high-flying offense that they were under Brian Kelly and learned last year that they have to run the football in order to succeed.

They did just that.

After being downright awful for the previous two seasons, the Bearcats defense was rather impressive in 2011 and it all came from the experience gained the previous two years.

While Brian Kelly may have struggled to coach the defensive side of the ball, Butch Jones just needed a year to get things under control and allow his team to grow.

The defense did lose a lot from last season, but they were much improved and not a glaring weakness like in years past.

True freshman Ralph David Abernathy IV was a stud last season on special teams and no play was bigger than his kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Liberty Bowl.

Freshman kicker Tony Miliano showed signs that he could be impressive over the next few years and the Bearcats were vastly improved on special teams.

Their success on special teams enabled them to win a game or two they may not have won without.