Deionte Buckley Back On Official Bearcats Roster. At Tight End.

While perusing UC’s football roster yesterday, as my obsession with this program tends to make me do in the offseason, I noticed that Deionte Buckley has been officially relisted with the rest of the team.

The running back of course transferred out of Cincinnati a couple of seasons ago, due in large part to the log jam at the position that he was unable to rise above. But then activity on his Twitter account suggested to fans (me) that he had returned to the Bearcats. Now it appears it’s been made official.

But there’s one little problem. The 5’9″ Buckley is listed at tight end.

Deionte Buckley Tight End

Either Deionte Buckley is the shortest tight end in college football since right around 1908 or this is a major typo, which I wouldn’t put past whoever manages the roster page.

More than likely the former is the case here, with Eddie Gran utilizing the tight end in a H-back role. It’s relatively underutilized with the rise in popularity of spread ’em out, pass it until the quarterback’s arm falls off offenses in the last couple of days. But that same time the H-back gives purpose to tight ends, who can be leveraged out of the backfield as additional blockers up the middle or another ball carrier the defense has to account for.

So placing Buckley in that position makes sense if Gran wants to maximize his abilities while not stealing reps from his other running backs Mike Boone, Hosey Williams, and Tion Green.

It begs the question, though, why didn’t those at Go Bearcats simply list him as a H-back? You’d think typing the letters “HB” are just as easy as “TE”. They’re even closer to each other on the keyboard. Or they could have gone with the open ended “TE/HB” to cover their bases.

Regardless of the semantics, it’s encouraging to see Deionte Buckley back on the roster and the staff actively working with him to make sure he sees the field.