Will Gunner Kiel Be Cincinnati’s First QB In Recent History To Start Every Game?

Here’s a crazy fact for you; since the 2007 season the Cincinnati Bearcats have won four conference championships, compiled five double-digit win seasons, and gone to two BCS bowl games. But during that time UC has witnessed their starting quarterback start every single game in a season just once.

That quarterback was the unforgettable Ben Mauk, or Bennie Heisman to those of you who were chanting his name back in the day. He trotted the Bearcats out onto the field at Nippert Stadium to begin a systematic evisceration of the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks on August 30th and ended the season leading Cincinnati victoriously into the locker room after beating Southern Miss 31-21 in the PapaJohns.com Bowl. And to this day Mauk is the only quarterback who could say he started the first and last game and every one in between.

Since then the Bearcats have been blessed with talented arms at this position, from Dustin Grutza to Tony Pike to Brendon Kay. Some had gifted legs, like Zach Collaros and Munchie Legaux. But none of them managed to make it through an entire football season unscathed. Let’s look at it year by year:

• 2008: Dustin Grutza suffered a broken leg in the Oklahoma game and was lost for the season. Tony Pike wound up playing for a couple of games before he himself broke his forearm against Akron. Chazz Anderson filled in for him before he returned against UConn and finished out the year.
• 2009: Pike started the season but broke his arm against South Florida. Zach Collaros replaced him for a few games.
• 2010: Collaros started in 2010 but he too suffered an injury, bruising his knee against the same Bulls team he ran all over the year prior. Anderson filled in for him for a game.
• 2011: Collaros again was hit with the injury bug when he broke his ankle against West Virginia, at which point Munchie Legaux had to finish out the regular season.
• 2012: It wasn’t an injury that sidelined Cincinnati’s starting quarterback but ineptitude with the ball in his hands. Legaux was benched midway through the Syracuse game in favor of Brendon Kay who guided the Bearcats to victory. He wound up finishing out the season and winning the starting job in the Belk Bowl.
• 2013: Legaux was under center from the opening snap of the first game but suffered a gruesome knee injury against Illinois that he’s only now coming back from. Kay once again took over for him and started the rest of the season.

Six seasons, eight different starting quarterbacks, none that played a full season. “Next man in”, indeed.

So I’m extremely curious to see if Gunner Kiel snaps that trend by not snapping any part of his body this season. The good news is that Kiel, unlike Brendon Kay, doesn’t have a history of major injuries. So there’s little risk of him tweaking a surgically repaired knee or elbow.

Also, his offensive line is large, strong, and experienced, which will go a long way to keeping him upright. Plus his wide receivers are talented enough to get open quickly so that should mitigate any danger of Kiel holding onto the ball too long. And if he does take a hit, which he inevitably will, his 6’4″, 208 lbs frame should be large enough to absorb the impact.

Those are all just theories, though, as no player on this team has yet to play a down and we don’t know how they’ll perform under the live fire of an actual game. Even so, all signs point to a healthy Gunner Kiel in his first season leading Cincinnati’s offense, football gods willing.