Gunner Kiel Update: Day-To-Day With Injured Ribs

The Cincinnati Bearcats moved their win total in the American Athletic Conference to two with a victory over South Florida 34-17 last night. But they may have lost their star quarterback Gunner Kiel in the process.

The 6’4″ sophomore was slammed to the turf by a USF defensive tackle as he was escaping a sack late in the second quarter. Kiel was helped off the ground and walked gingerly to the locker room grabbing his lower right back. He never returned and backup Munchie Legaux finished off the game for Cincinnati.

Now we’re learning that UC has officially listed his status as the inauspicious “day-to-day”.

Kiel originally injured his ribs against the Memphis Tigers on October 4th, a game in which he also started but did not finish. The quarterback was able to return to the sidelines, though, instead of being confined to the locker room like last night. Thus it appeared as if he was being held out for precautionary reasons as opposed to suffering a serious injury. With the fact that Kiel didn’t return to the field against South Florida and has been tagged as day-to-day, it’s a little more concerning.

So I’m not especially confident in his status right now. The Bearcats and Tuberville will of course be hush hush about the whole situation so we might not know Kiel’s chances of playing against Tulane next Friday until kickoff, much like the Miami (FL) Hurricanes two weeks ago.