Finalizing the 2012 Class with Preferred Walk-Ons Dylan Coombs and Franklin Bruscianelli

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In addition to 28 scholarship athletes who signed their Letters of Intent with the Cincinnati Bearcats, two preferred walk-ons also joined the group; Dylan Coombs and Franklin Bruscianelli. Adding these players is nothing new for college football programs and it’s an opportunity to find a diamond in the rough. Overall it isn’t wise to load up on walk-ons (most programs don’t) but with 85 players on the roster, it’s okay to roll the dice with a few. The duo the Bearcats snagged have lots of upside and come from programs that have a strong culture of winning. You can never have too much of that on your football team. While traditional LOI signees will receive an athletic scholarship, both Coombs and Bruscianelli will be applying for the Lindner Honors Program and receive a scholarship this way.

Dylan Coombs

As the name suggests, Dylan is related to UC’s DB, special teams, and associate head coach Kerry Coombs. In fact he is Coach Coombs son and will be spending plenty of time with dear ol’ dad over the next four years as a defensive back. There’s some super athletic gene in the Coombs family because both of Dylan’s siblings, brother Brayden and sister Cortney, played on varsity teams at their respective schools. Bradyen is actually now working with the Cincinnati Bengals. So Dylan has a strong family history that will likely push him to succeed.

Overview

Dylan Coombs Highlight ReelCoombs plays cornerback in a very solid Colerain secondary. Remember, his teammate Andre Jones (S) will also be joining the Bearcats this fall. Coombs has solid height for a CB but is extremely small. He clearly uses speed to his advantage covering wide receivers and chasing down ball carriers. He has long, lanky arms that allows him to at least get a finger on passes thrown in his vicinity. If he’s not going to pick the ball off, he’s at least going to try to deflect it. Overall, Coombs is a pretty solid defensive back.

Franklin Bruscianelli

As you can probably tell from the picture above, Franklin comes from an extremely successful program. So successful that while in high school he won three-straight Illinois state championships. He’ll certainly bring a winning attitude to the Bearcats. You can watch a

video of his signing here

.

Overview

Franklin Bruscianelli Highlight ReelBruscianelli has pretty good size for a middle linebacker. At 6’0″ 220 lbs, he fits in nicely as a run stuffing field general of the defense. But for all that size, he doesn’t seem to throw it around very much. Bruscianelli doesn’t really run through blockers and ball carriers. However he does appear have solid speed from that position and covers ground well although he’d have trouble against taller tight ends. His bread and butter still appears to be stuffing the run between the hashes and could develop into a great contributor if he improved his ability to shed blocks and attack the ball carrier.

Outlooks

Coming on as walk-ons trying to climb the ladder against players who are on scholarship to play football isn’t easy. What’s more, both are joining a 2012 class full of players who will accept athletic scholarships to play at Cincinnati. Not including these two, the Bearcats signed 5 defensive backs and 4 linebackers in the 2012 class. Add onto that the current DBs/LBs on the roster and that’s a lot of players for Coombs and Bruscianelli to jump. I love adding intelligent players who come from winning programs but I don’t think either of these two walk-ons will advance farther than the practice squad. It’s nothing personal but it’s a fact of life that that is where most walk-ons wind up.