(Courtesy Scout)
The Cincinnati Bearcats have a quarterback problem. No not this season, with Brendan Kay locking down the starting job and hopefully probably Bennie Coney backing him up. But in 2014, Cincinnati’s quarterback depth will be down right frightening. The problem stems from Trenton Norvell transferring out of the program. Not only that but of the quarterbacks in the 2013 recruiting class, Brent Stockstill transferred to Middle Tennessee State and Kyle Kempt wound up signing with Oregon State after the Tommy Tuberville-Jason Hall fiasco.
So what does that leave us? Well, Kay and fellow senior Munchie Legaux will be graduating after this season. So, as of this post, the only quarterbacks on the roster will be Coney, Notre Dame transfer Gunner Kiel, and Tuberville’s kid Tucker Tuberville.
7.29.2013 UPDATE: Tucker Tuberville has apparently transferred to Auburn. That leaves 2 scholarship quarterbacks on the roster for 2014. We’ve officially hit threat level midnight.
And that’s it.
Behind those three is a vast swath of emptiness. If Brian Kelly saw that lack of depth in 2008 he’d have a heart attack. To rectify that problem Tommy Tuberville can do a number of things, namely adding quarterbacks in the upcoming class. Obviously the task of actually going out and bringing in quality signal callers is easier said than done but this position has to be a priority at the top of his list. At the very least Tuberville must add two quarterbacks to the class of 2014.
But a slightly out of the box and much simpler solution for him can be found on the current roster in true freshman Tyler Cogswell. The class of 2013 signee from Florida originally verballed to Arkansas as a quarterback but switched to Cincinnati and committed as a tight end. It was an intriguing move to say the least. Firstly, he’s a hard-throwing signal caller who seems to run a similar offense to what the Bearcats might operate with under Eddie Gran. At 6’5″ and 221 lbs he has the body already to sustain the hits he would take at the collegiate level.
He also put up the numbers in high school that prove his upside. As a senior, Cogswell threw for over 1,800 yards and 23 touchdowns to just a handful of interceptions. He also completed 55% of his passes. The raw yardage might not jump out at you but it sounds like the offense was built around junior runningback Sony Michel, who is currently a 5-star rated player and the 6th best runningback in the country according to Rivals. Michel rushed for 1,264 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2012. No wonder the coaches gave him the ball as much as possible. Back to Cogswell, the numbers above show me that he has a good handle on the quarterback position and his touchdown-interception ratio along with his completion percentage proves he can manage the game. It just appears that the system around him didn’t allow him to put up huge numbers.
Additionally the move from quarterback to tight end just never made any sense. Despite losing Travis Kelce to the NFL, Cincinnati has a deep pipeline of tight ends waiting in the wings to replace him. They’re young and inexperienced but you have to believe that it would be a tough road for Cogswell to surpass players not only in the system but those who have been catching football (rather than passing them) for most of their high school career. Overall, there are simply too many players at tight end for Cincinnati and a change needs to be made.
So why not Cogswell? He’d fill an immediate position of need for the Bearcats unlike at tight end. He’s going to be redshirted anyway in 2013 so it only makes sense to do so at a position where depth will be needed in 2014 and beyond. I’m not sure what Tommy Tuberville and Eddie Gran have in mind for him but they should look long and hard at giving Tyler Cogswell at red practice jersey at Camp Higher Ground in a couple of weeks.