Cincinnati Bearcats Football Recruiting Update

Sports may all be cancelled and on hold, but Cincinnati Bearcats head football coach Luke Fickell doesn’t care. He and his coaching staff and working as hard as ever to continue to build the UC program for 2020, 2021 and beyond.

Since the week, Cincinnati has added one 2021 recruit, a 2020 transfer, and lost a 2021 recruit.

2021 class continues to grow

Saturday, Leroy Bowers announced his commitment to Cincinnati as part of the 2021 class.

Bowers is another hometown hero from Cincinnati who goes to Princeton High School. Bowers is a 3-star safety, currently ranked #42 in Ohio and the overall #73 safety. The Bearcats secondary is absolutely loaded with young talent from recent and future recruiting classes and Bowers has a chance to be a special addition to the group.

He also had offers from Maryland, Pittsburgh, and Kentucky.

Cincinnati has 7 commits for 2021 and even though it’s very early in the process, the Bearcats class is ranked #26 nationally, currently ahead of teams like Oklahoma, Nebraska, Auburn, Texas A&M. It’s early...but it’s still notable.

2020 transfer adds depth

On Sunday, Fickell and his staff received a nice Easter treat, as Notre Dame WR Michael Young announced his decision to play for Cincinnati in 2020.

Young is a former 3-star, top 500 national player from Louisiana. On paper, Young’s stats aren’t impressive - 17 catches, 177 yards and 2 TDs.

5 of the Bearcats’ 7 leading receivers from 2019 are gone - Josiah Deguara, Rashad Medaris, Malick Mbodj, Michael Warren, and Thomas Geddis.

Young brings experience into a young and inexperienced, but extremely talented WR room for 2020. The room includes Alec Pierce (37 catches, 652 yards, 2 TD), Jayshon Jackson, Tre Tucker, Trent Cloud, Blue Smith, Gavin Prater Marquez Bell, Norman Love and others.

Young is eligible immediately for 2020 and has two years of eligibility remaining. That means he will (likely) be on the Bearcats’ roster when UC visits his old stomping grounds in South Bend to face Notre Dame on October 2, 2021

Gain 1, lose 1

On Tuesday, Treylan Davis announced that he would be de-committing from Cincinnati.

Davis is the 74th ranked player player in Ohio and the 85th overall TE as part of the 2021 class.

Like WR, the TE room for Cincinnati is filled with talented, but inexperienced players. Josiah Deguara’s graduation leaves a massive void - he leaves behind 39 catches, 504 yards, and a team-leading 7 TD catches. Cincinnati signed two tight ends as part of their 2020 class (Jack Campbell and Payten Singletary) have a couple of exciting sophmores (Josh Whyle and Nate Lawler) and other guys like Cam Jones and Leonard Taylor.

The tight end room is so crowded that Wilson Huber will move from TE to linebacker in 2020.

Always disappointing when a player de-commits, but the loss of Davis shouldn’t have a major impact on Cincinnati long term.

The big one

If you have been following college football recruiting at all, you know who Corey Kiner is. He is a local running back who plays at Roger Bacon, is a 4-star prospect who is ranked 166th nationally, #8 on Ohio and #20 overall at the RB position.

Kiner has offers from all of the top schools - Ohio State, Penn State, LSU, Notre Dame, Florida, Michigan, and Louisville. Those last two, he is reportedly very warm on. There is also a third school he is warm on - Cincinnati. Yes, Cincinnati doesn’t fit in with those other top schools, but many current and future Bearcats players have been recruiting Kiner hard and the whole Bearcats coaching staff is involved with this one.

Well, Kiner has made his decision.

Okay, it’s not THE decision, but it’s still an important decision. Now, Bearcats fans can sit back and wait for the fireworks on the 4th of July.