Remembering Bearcat Great Dominick Goodman

A trip down memory lane as I look at the current Bearcats roster has me wondering where are all the Colerain Cardinals on this year's offense and defense?  It seems like a long time since there were no starters from Colerain on the team.  This year only 3 freshman from Colerain are on the roster.

From the likes of Evan Davis, Terrell Byrd, Andre Revels, and many other Colerain players, one of my favorites on offense was Dominick Goodman.  While I mostly watch Lakota West, I was able to see Goodman play numerous times and watched all of their games in the regionals and the state championship.  While Goodman was surrounded by incredible talent, like Mister Simpson, and about 7 or more other guys who went on to play major college football, Goodman is one of the best high school quarterbacks I have ever seen.

He was not asked to throw very much as this was the pre-Tom Bolden days when Coach Rick Haynes (now head coach at Lakota East and doing a great job) primarily ran the triple option and passed seldom.  When Goodman did pass, he showed a great arm and incredible accuracy.  In today's modern spread offenses, he would have made an incredible college quarterback.

I am not sure why he was immediately turned into a wide receiver, but it worked out great as he had a terrific career and took UC to new levels they had not seen before. At Colerain, he ran the triple option as good as any Colerain QB has, and his passing left defensive coordinators helpless as they had to put 11 players at the line of scrimmage to have any chance.

I am not sure of that Colerain team's results other than I know they went 15-0 and won the state championship game by a huge margin, but all I can remember is how well Moeller's defense played against them in the regional championship at Miami University, yet still lost 31-6.  That Moeller defense had a great season and did a really good job against the option the first few series, and then all of a sudden Goodman hit his tight end for a big 70 yard touchdown.  Hit him in stride, just a thing of beauty.

His UC career didn't surprise me at all since he was one of those guys you could have put on the field at any position and he would have been a winner.  I am quite surprised no NFL teams worked him out or gave him a look.  When I look around the NFL, I sometimes think the teams need to hire a scout who does not get any data (height, weight, 40 times, bench press, or any other BS metric to meaure guys), but rather this scout is in charge of finding guys who make plays, like Clay Mathews.  I think Goodman is one of those guys who was "too slow" for the NFL, except that everyone he played against was faster than him and still couldn't cover him.

It is the same thing with his Colerain teammate Terrell Byrd.  In 4 years, nobody in the Big East could block him at nose tackle.  It was like trying to block the Ravens nose tackle.  He never got a sniff of the NFL because of his height.  Sometimes I wonder why the NFL teams don't consider trying out some of these guys and see what happens.  It may turn out like the Oakland A's Moneyball concept.

Hopefully the long line of Colerain stars doesn't end and the pipeline keeps sending a few to UC.  And here is a prediction for this year.  I saw Colerain play and this is their fastest team I have ever seen, and they will go 15-0 and bring home Coach Bolden's first state championship.  This team is just too fast to defend and their QB looks a lot like Goodman, only harder to tackle.  I hope the new UC coaching staff is familiar with where Colerain high school is.