btw, Cincinnati's recruiting ranking that year was 49th.
Does the 49th-best class go undefeated or have 1 loss in a P5 conference? No, not unless it's an embarrassingly bad one, like the ACC.
Other schools ranked 47th-51st in recruiting: Washington State, Pitt, Indiana, Syracuse.
Pitt had a great season against a shit schedule and still lost to Western Michigan. Wazzou went 7-5, IU 2-10, Syracuse 5-7. Cincinnati has the talent of those teams, or close to it. Together, they combined to go .500 as P5 programs.
I wonder how Cincinnati managed to overachieve so much. Could it be their schedule?