Bye Bye Bearcats Seniors: #24 John Lloyd

The second and last specialist on our list is punter John Lloyd.

#24 was UC’s main guy on 4th and forever situations (occasionally picking the 1st downs up on his own) when cannon legged Pat O’Donnell transferred out of the program following his junior year. Rumor has it the lanky, 6’5″ punter conflicted with Tommy Tuberville’s new rugby style punting methods. He was more familiar with the traditional drop-back style so omnipresent across college football and the NFL. Naturally, teaching an old dog new tricks didn’t jive with what O’Donnell wanted for the last season of his collegiate career.

Cincinnati Bearcats punter John Lloyd at UC banquet, courtesy Steve Lloyd.

Thus, he left UC for the Miami Hurricanes, was selected by the Chicago Bears in the 2014 NFL Draft, and the Bearcats moved on without him.

Luckily Cincinnati’s fall back plan was a player in John Lloyd who was groomed to take over whenever he was called upon. It was a year earlier than expect but Lloyd stepped up to the challenge and embraced the new punting style. In 13 games not only with new responsibilities but in a brand new system, UC’s junior punter averaged 42.7 yards per punt, good for 7th all time in the school’s history at that position. His 46 yards per punt average during AAC play was the best in the conference.

Then for some unprecedented reason Lloyd fell out of Tuberville’s favor before his senior year. Replaced by redshirt freshman Sam Geraci, the upperclassmen was sentenced to the bench. This despite, again, a rather impressive junior campaign.

Geraci struggled with the spotlight on him. It’s unclear if that was due to his youth, him being unaccustomed to the rugby style punting, or his nagging knee injury but he was extremely disappointing in 2014. Geraci averaged just 39.4 yards per punt, ranking 93rd in college football. Meanwhile John Lloyd’s 42.7 yards per punt from a season prior would have ranked a respectable 33rd.

To this day I couldn’t tell you why the senior was supplanted by Sam Geraci in 2014. And to this day it frustrates me to no end that Lloyd was supplanted his last season in uniform. His numbers were better than Geraci and he had the poise to handle big game situations. Granted he made his fair share of mistakes adjusting to the new system but it’s not like his replacement blew us out of the water.

How many times did you scream at your television when Geraci shanked a punt 20 yards out of bounds? Probably at least three.

So that’s why it’s more than a little perplexing why Lloyd was cast to the wayside before the season. Tuberville did go with him while Geraci struggled midway through the season but you’d think that would have triggered him to realize that replacing him in the first place made no sense.

As such, John Lloyd’s career at Cincinnati ended with a thud. Even though he wasn’t able to close it out on a high note like I’m sure he would have hoped, few will speak ill of what #24 brought to the punting position under the extremely unfavorable circumstances his junior year. But Lloyd pushed through and put up some of the best numbers in the position’s history at UC. I’m certain most people will remember him for that.

Photos courtesy Steve Lloyd.