Five Star Defensive End CeCe Jefferson Planning Official Visit To Cincinnati For The Houston Game

At the time most of the people who follow recruiting laughed it off  as being ridiculous on the face of it. Well it's not as much of a joke as it was, because CeCe Jefferson is indeed going to be visiting Cincinnati on the first weekend in December for the season finale against the Houston Cougars. Obviously we are a long way out from that weekend, and cancellations can frequently do happen in recruiting. For the Bearcats staff this is a huge deal.

So, how did we get to the point where one of the consensus top 10 players in the country is coming in for a visit? Mike Boone is the starting point. Boone and Jefferson both attended Baker Country High School outside of Jacksonville. The Bearcats were relatively late in the game with Boone. The offer came on the 22nd of October, when Boone was still nominally committed to FIU. On Halloween he flipped his commitment from the Panthers to the Bearcats. My guess, and it is just a guess, is that it was about that time when the Bearcats offered Jefferson and started to pursue him in earnest. It's starting to look like that year of effort is going to pay off in a visit to Clifton.

For any school getting a recruit to come and see the campus is a huge deal, but its monumental for UC. Because there really is nothing else like the Clifton campus out there, and that in and of itself is a selling point. There is one other selling point that the Bearcats have, one that the majority of Jefferson's suitors don't have, instant playing time. Jerrell Jordan, Terrell Hartsfield and situational end Brad Harrah will all be exhausting their eligibility this year. The only defensive ends with relevant playing time returning in 2015 will be Silverberry Mouhon and Mark Wilson, both of whom are natural weakside defensive ends. The strongside is wide open and CeCe Jefferson would get a long, hard look at shoring up that spot.

The Bearcats are still very much a longshot here. Florida remains the favorite to land his signature, but if they fire Will Muschamp all bets are off. Ole Miss made a strong run into contention, Alabama is still Alabama meaning they tend to get who they want. Georgia is a traditional recruiting titan, particularly in the Jacksonville area. The odds are not in the Bearcats favor, but then again the fact that there are odds for UC in this battle is pretty remarkable in and of itself.