It’s back for a 2nd year in a row; the illustrious Bearcat of the Week Award!
To kick off the new season I’m giving this award to a guy who has been one of the most consistently dominant players on Cincinnati’s “Black Cat” defense, Walter Stewart. The senior has dozens of games under his belt but was never much of a vocal leader until this season. Now in his final year in red and black he has become a solid two-way leader. Walt has always done most of his talking on the field and no surprise he did a ton of it last night. He was easily the most superior player on the field piling up 9 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, two of which were sacks, and a forced fumble which immediately led to Cincinnati points.
That’s what Walt has always done and it appears he will continue this pace in his senior season. But I was especially impressed with how he coached the younger defensive ends on the sidelines. Guys like Silverberry Mouhon, who also got a decent amount of playing time, are the future off this defensive line and Walt is doing a nice job bringing them along. Overall not only does it appear #54 will be as dangerous as ever off the edge in 2012 but he’s doing his best to ensure there won’t be a dropoff when he graduates after this season.