Well it looks like UC is becoming one of the go to destinations for players looking for a place to land upon transferring out of another program. Earlier this year Darrell Scott formerly of Colorado and now of parts unknown took a visit to UC about the same time as Kenbrell Thompkins. There was a nice little article to prove the point on cincinnati.com but they apparently can't be bothered to keep links active for more than a month. My bet is because the 35 cents it would cost to buy the 100k of RAM to store the story is to rich for their blood. Anyway trust me on that, point Darrell Scott visited. Kenbrell Thompkins is technically a transfer because he signed his LOI to Tennessee, even though he didn't attend classes in Knoxville. Vidal Hazelton is another transfer who is set to make an impact this fall. I won't go through the list of transfers who have had success the past few years coming to Cincinnati but it is a fairly lengthy list.
The newest transfer that is being linked to UC is Zach Mettenberger. In most cases of a player transferring there are some issues with off the field behavior that usually leads to a suspension or dismissal from the team for the nefarious catchall of "violation of team rules." That is the case for Mettenberger as well. He was a strong candidate to win the Dawgs starting QB job prior to his dismissal. Mettenberger was arrested for underage consumption at the beginning of March. Throw in a hint of sexual battery and Mettenberger was assured of a change in environment. He is an extremely talented player, the 11th best pro style QB in the 2009 class. The question is whether this is a few bad decisions made by an extremely young kid or the first signs of repetitive bad behavior. UC and Louisville appear to be the favorites to land Mettenberger.
One of the more highly recruited quarterbacks as a senior at Oconee County (Ga.) High School in 2008, Mettenberger is expected to visit Cincinnati and Louisville later this month, according to people close to the situation. After sitting out one season under NCAA transfer rules, Mettenberger would have three years of NCAA eligibility remaining.
The kid does come with baggage. No denying that fact but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing him in the Red and Black for a couple of reasons. I think that everyone deserves a second chance speaking as someone who has made numerous mistakes in college, but as someone who will be graduating in June after spending the last two years correcting mistakes I made for the first four years of college. The second point is that this program, and more importantly this team has shown a tremendous capacity for accepting transfers with sketchy issues in their past and making them better players.