Bearcat Bowl VI: What Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda (And Probably Didn’t) Happen

Cincinnati football’s Spring Game, dubbed Bearcat Bowl VI, was cancelled yesterday afternoon due to severe thunderstorms. Instead the fabricated practice was cut down to an hour in length and played in the controlled environment of the Sheakley Athletics Complex. It seems that all of Butch Jones’ Spring Games have been interrupted or at least affected by the weather. It’s either because Butch hasn’t gone to church enough lately or the big guy upstairs was so bummed the game wasn’t televised/streamed online that he made it rain on our parade. Because I’m stubborn, I’m going with the last one and I’ll take that explanation to the grave.

Anyways, here is a brief summary of the Bearcat Bowl that never was.

Munchie Legaux had a pretty solid day passing the ball going 7 – 13 for 89 yards and a touchdown in about a one-and-a-half quarters of work. He also had another 23 yards on the ground and in general seemed to run the offense well. It’s clearly he has nearly fully grasped this offense and his legs will take him far on read option plays. Brendan Kay and Patrick Coyne lead the offense for the remainder of the day. I was happy to see Kay completely healthy and he seemed to do well running the second team offense. He finished the day 4 – 8 with a couple of runs of his own. Finally, redshirt freshman Patrick Coyne also ran with the twos but mostly handed off the ball during the afternoon. However he did make a pretty pass across the middle to tight end Blake Annen for a 16 yard touchdown. Here’s what Butch Jones had to say about his quarterbacks:

"“Overall I think we had a very productive day. I was encouraged by how much confidence all three showed out there. We still have a lot of work to do to get where we want to be by September 6th and there will still be opportunities for one of them to win the starting job.”"

Munchie’s the starter. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

On to the rest of the offense, the line did a good job giving George Winn (12 carries, 37 yards), Jameel Poteat (8 carries, 23 yards), and Ralph David Abernathy IV (6 carries, 12 yards) nice holes to run through. There were a couple of false start penalties and it was nice finally seeing Sam Longo on the field for the first time backing up Dan Sprague at Center. Each of the runningbacks bring something different to the table and it will be interesting to see how the coaching staff cycles them in and out this fall. The receivers looked pretty good. Kenbrell Thompkins led the squad with 6 catches for 45 yards and caught the Legaux touchdown pass. His routes looked smooth as usual. I also liked seeing Shaq Washington and Chris Moore finally on the field. The young receivers combined for 5 catches for 29 yards and will push the starters this season.

Cincinnati’s defense gave up just the two touchdown passes and forced the offense to methodically works its way up the field. The secondary didn’t give up a pass of more than 18 yards despite letting Annen get open across the middle. But by and large they looked good. Solomon Tentman appears fully healthy, ready to takeover the MIKE linebacker role for J.K. Schaffer, and Maalik Bomar did a great job in gap control. He and Drew Frey were clearly the most vocal players on defense and one of them will probably be named defensive captain this coming year. The defensive line, not unexpectedly, was manhandled early with Jordan Stepp and Camaron Beard adjusting to playing defensive tackle on a starting basis. They adjusted quickly and the battle became pretty even in the trenches. Walter Stewart picked up a pair of sacks.

"“There were a few mistakes on defense and obviously we need to correct those. But I liked our intensity especially out of our defensive backs. Some individuals I want to call are are Trenier Orr and Walter Stewart. You know, Trenier has been working hard this offseason and ran with the first team for most of the day. Walter, who I think had a sack or two, has really been bringing our younger ends along.I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and have a lot to review on film this Summer.”"

Clearly there are a lot of strong signs from this team going into the Summer which is bound to be the longest one on record. Phew, how many days ’til September 6th?

REMEMBER: None of what was just written probably actually happened but I am really encouraged about this team heading into the Summer and Fall.