Bye Bye Bearcats Seniors: #85 Jeremy Dollin

The final pass catcher of Cincinnati’s graduating 2015 class is a player most UC fans had never heard about until around this time last year.

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Jeremy Dollin came to the Bearcats by way of Virginia. A local kid from Indian Hill, he graduated high school with little interest from collegiate programs to speak of. The Cavaliers were however one of those schools and Dollin reciprocated it by signing a letter of intent with the school as a member of the 2010 recruiting class. But it was perhaps even more miraculous that the tight end even made it that far.

Dollin was born with a birth defect called craniosynostosis. I won’t even pretend to get into the details of it but the jist is that it’s a defect when one or more of the joints in a baby’s skull close prematurely. Thus, the skull isn’t fully formed and the brain and head become misshapen when fully grown. Obviously an extremely serious condition to say the least.

Even though Dollin underwent surgery to correct this, it was probably unclear whether or not he would be able to play contact sports. But the doctors apparently gave him the green light and Dollin took advantage of that with the Cavaliers, becoming the first player ever to be born with craniosynostosis and play collegiate football.

The tight end was redshirted his first year in Virginia and didn’t see the field until his sophomore season. Over the course of the next two years Dollin appeared in 11 games, generally on special teams, until he was able to earn his bachelors degree following the 2013 season. As a graduate transfer he was able to leave the Cavaliers without having to sit out like normal transfers.

So Dollin came home to Cincinnati, where he played his final collegiate football season. With so many wide receiver options at Eddie Gran’s disposal, he didn’t see the field much but did get some run with the backups and on special teams on occasion. But I’m pretty sure if you asked Dollin he’d say that playing in front of friends and family was far more important than any accolades on the football field.