The Cincinnati Bearcats have the worst defense in America. And no, that’s not hyperbole. UC ranks 125th-of-125 D-I FBS schools in total defense. It’s been an extremely frustrating season thus far for the Bearcats, to say the least. UC sits four wins short or bowl eligibility with 7 games to play, and it appears that it will be a struggle for this team to reach that threshold. There are all kinds of reasons for the devolution of this defense – reasons we’ve already discussed ad nauseam here at Cincy On The Prowl. Bad coaching by Hank Hughes, bad execution (lack of focus, overpursuit, blown assignments, etc.) by the players, the injury bug, and a lack of talent and depth on the defensive line and in the secondary.
As terrible as I think Hank Hughes is performing his duties as Defensive Coordinator right now, as bad as the injury bug continues to plague this team on both sides of the ball, and as bad as the players on the field continue to execute, I believe that there is one overarching cause of the wretched, dumpster-fire, middle school football defense we’ve been seeing. It’s a lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball. If not for Tubbs and Company bringing in several key transfers, the offense would be just as bad, and the defense would be even worse. What’s that you say? Dead last is as low as you can go? Trust me, it could be way worse.
In his press conference on October 14, head coach Tommy Tuberville hinted at why the talent level of this defense is so bad. It echoed something I have been saying and discussing with friends for quite a while, and today I decided to vent my frustration and write about it. Coach Tubs took the high road, refusing to play the blame game and call anyone out, but here’s what he had to say:
"“We’ve recruited a lot more speed since we got here. We’re going to build this on speed. We’ve recruited a lot of JuCo kids. MeKale McKay, Johnny Holton, Casey Gladney, Gunner. A lot of transfers. If we hadn’t have had those kids, where in the world would we be? Think about that. And they’ve only been here for a year-and-a-half. And I’m not blaming anybody else. I’m just saying, just look at our program had some of these kids not been here, because of what our coaches [TT’s staff] did in recruiting. We’re gonna recruit. We’re gonna recruit the heck out of ’em. We go over recruits every day. We’ve got 22 committed, and they’re better than the ones we recruited last year. That’s where I lose my patience: If we don’t recruit. I’d be worried to death about the future if I didn’t know that our guys didn’t understand what they needed to recruit, and if they couldn’t sell the program.”"
As I said earlier, I don’t think Hank Hughes is managing this defense very well, at all. But this is not totally Hank Hughes’ fault. I will not sugarcoat this: Much of the blame for this defense should fall on Butch “Hold The Rope/Represent The C/Snap And Clear/insert any other corny catchphrase here” Jones. During his three years, Butch Jones won some games with Brian Kelly’s decent players, all the while recruiting really bad players to replace them. This isn’t meant to be an affront to the current young men who put on a Bearcats uniform and represent my alma mater. These guys try hard and lay it out on the line, but they just aren’t the greatest players. This is an indictment of Lyle Allen “Butch” Jones. I knew the guy was a nut job from the first time he set foot on campus. He addressed the crowd at a UC basketball game in early 2010, and started bellowing catchphrases as throwing up his hands to pump up the crowd – Except that his catchphrases were lame, and his raise-the-roof gestures looked a lot like John McCain (McCain has a damn good excuse, but Jones is just weird).
The players that Jones recruited to be members of this team are what they are – Which is just not a very good football team. As I said, this isn’t meant to disrespect those guys, but I have to call a spade a spade. The bigger problem with Butch’s recruiting is the guys that aren’t even part of this program right now that Butch Jones offered scholarships to. Remember back in early 2013, right after Butch interviewed for any job he could before ultimately bolting for the creamsicle orange of Rockytop Tennessee? Jones had just guided UC to it’s second 10-win season in a row, all on the back of Brian Kelly’s players. Isiah Pead, George Winn, Zach Collaros, Brendon Kay, Travis Kelce, JK Schaffer, Walter Stewart, Derek Wolfe, Dan Giordano, Pat O’Donnell – all Brian Kelly’s players. Players who won 20 games in two seasons, even pulling together to win the 2012 Belk Bowl despite having graduate assistants calling plays (Jones had already taken most of the staff to Knoxville).
I’m sure you remember those names, and the great years they gave us. But maybe you don’t remember that in early 2013, shortly after Tommy Tuberville took over as head coach, Tubs and his staff pulled scholarship offers to a dozen or so of Butch Jones’ “prized” recruits. Why would Tuberville do such a cold-hearted thing like pulling scholarships that Butch had offered? Here’s the simple answer: those players sucked. (I warned you that I don’t sugarcoat things, remember. The truth hurts sometimes.)
Jones’ massive shortcomings in recruiting have reared their ugly heads in this 2014 season. I say “heads,” because the problem is two-fold. First, the players currently on the roster aren’t that good. This is the first year that the roster is devoid of any of Brian Kelly’s players. This is Butch’s team. Maybe his “Hold The Rope” slogan meant, “hold on for dear life while the opposing offense drags you for an extra ten yards.” But the second problem is that Butch’s recruiting was so bad, that Tuberville had to pull 10-12 kids’ scholarships, because they simply were not suited to play major college football. Tuberville was forced to replace them with the best players that still happened to be uncommitted at the eleventh hour (and there’s a reason they were still uncommitted). This created the total lack of depth on the defensive line and in the secondary that we see today. Bad players, plus no depth, equals worst defense in America. That sounds like a good hashtag. #WorstDefenseInAmerica (not to be confused, of course, with #HottestCollegeInAmerica).
Here are a few general observations on Butch Jones’ three recruiting classes:
- In three years, Butch recruited only two Defensive Tackles. Yes, two. And one of those, 2-star DT Roney Lozano, left the program after playing in only one game and recording only one career tackle. Other guys who are currently playing Defensive Tackle have been moved from other positions, including the other side of the ball.
- Many of Butch’s “prized” recruits have turned out to be colossal busts. When Tuberville says “just look at our program had some of these kids not been here,” I shudder. More on that below.
- Here are some “prized” Butch Jones recruits that have turned out to be bad football players:
- QBs: Munchie Legaux, Bennie Coney, Cody Kater (Cody who? Exactly, transferred to MAC), QB Patrick Coyne (transferred to FCS)
- Others: RB Jameel Poteet (transferred to FCS), CB Trenier Orr (transferred to FCS), LB Solomon Tentman (career backup, quit team), WR Dyjuan Lewis (never played a down due to academics), S Marcus Foster (left program)
- Really, the only position groups Butch had any success with were WRs and LBs. Every other position group is solidly below average. Tuberville has had to bring in transfers to avoid total disaster this year.
Here are the current depth charts, with the coach who recruited each player. Again, when Tommy asks us to imagine where this program would be without the transfers he’s brought on board, it could be way worse. Cross off every one of TT’s players on the two-deep, and the depth chart becomes a nightmare. UC would be starting a true freshman at corner, a true freshman at RB, Munchie at QB with who knows who backing him up, would have even less D-line depth, and would not have their only deep-threat WR. Bearcat fans, it could definitely be way worse.
Offense (first team) (second team)
WR 2 McKay, Mekale TT(Trans) 80 Chisum, Alex BJ
WR 82 Morrison, Max BJ 84 Cole, Nate BJ
WR 19 Washington, Shaq BJ 8 Gladney, Casey TT(Trans)
LT 71 Lefeld, Eric BJ 89 Cunningham, Korey TT(True So)
LG 75 Schloemer, Kevin BJ 65 Burwell, Tyreek BJ
C 59 Bond, Deyshawn BJ 56 Mainello, Dominic BJ
RG 78 Ehinger, Parker BJ 73 Leahy, Ryan BJ
RT 74 Murray, Justin BJ 98 West, Chad BJ
TE 81 Dowdy, DJ BJ 10 Golic, Jake TT (Trans)
QB 8 Kiel, Gunner TT(Trans) 2 Evans, Jarred TT(Trans)
RB 21 Moore, Rodriguez TT(Trans) 27 Boone, Mike TT(True Fr)
WR 15 Moore, Chris BJ 3 Holton, Johnny RS TT(Trans)
Defense (first team) (second team)
DE 92 Mouhon, Silverberry BJ 99 Jordan, Jerrell TT (Trans)
DT 90 Beard, Camaron BJ 83 Burton, Chris TT(True So)
DT 70 Mitchell, Brandon BJ 50 Pace, Alex BJ
DE 95 Hartsfield, Terrell TT(Trans) 93 Harrah, Brad BJ
WLB 43 Temple, Nick BJ 23 Wilson, Eric TT (Trans)
MLB 48 Luc, Jeff BJ(Trans) 57 Casseus, Clemente BJ
SLB 9 Payne, Leviticus BJ 40 Brown, Kevin BJ
CB 3 Wilder, Howard TT(Trans) 32 Stephens, Linden TT (True Fr)
FS 22 Edwards, Zach BJ 20 Jacobs, Carter TT (True Fr)
SS 29 Jones, Andre BJ 5 Tyson, Mike TT (True So)
CB 8 Witty, Adrian BJ 13 Coleman, Grant TT (True So)
Specialists
As Redshirt Freshmen, Tuberville’s specialists (Geraci and Gantz) have beaten out and vastly outperformed the Seniors that Jones recruited (Lloyd and Miliano).
So while this season is going to be tough to stomach, and while the current staff could certainly do a better job, I have the utmost confidence that once the young players Tommy Tuberville and company have recruited gain more experience, get bigger, and get stronger, we will see many of the issues on defense come to an end. Tommy was left with a bare cupboard by Butch Jones, and Butch deserves a lot of the blame. Have fun going 5-7 a few more times and getting canned in a few years, Butch. I’m sure you will build mediocrity “Brick by Brick” (his new corny catchphrase) in Knoxville.