Cincinnati Bearcats Right Tackle Cory Keebler Is Out For The Year

From the Enquirer

University of Cincinnati starting right tackle Cory Keebler is scheduled to undergo knee surgery on Monday and will miss the rest of the football season, UC spokesman Ryan Koslen said.

Keebler was injured twice during the game last saturday with Ohio State. He returned from first but the second injury resulted in him being carted off the field. This really sucks for Keebler, a one time preferred walk on who earned a scholarship became a regular contributor and a starter in this, his final season in Clifton.

Red shirt Junior Justin Murray started the Miami contest in Keebler's place and played very well for the Bearcats. He also played the majority of the Ohio State game and again acquitted himself well. There is not going to be a huge drop off in production because Murray is now playing at right tackle.

Where this hurts the Bearcats is with their depth up front. For this offense to play as fast as Eddie Gran wants they need to have a lot of offensive linemen who can rotate in and out of positions to keep everyone fresh. In camp they had eight or nine. But with Deyshawn Bond being injured for most of September, Kevin Schloemer missing the Ohio State game and now Keebler missing games and now being out for the year the Bearcats haven't been at full strength up front since the first  half of the Toledo game.

The Bearcats really can't afford anymore injuries up front before they will be forced to start pulling red shirts off freshmen or flipping defensive linemen over to the other side of the ball. We are not yet to that point, but a couple more injuries to guys in the rotation and we will be there.