Cincinnati Football: Five players to watch in home opener against Kennesaw State

If the Cincinnati Bearcats are able to jump out to an early lead against Kennesaw State like expected then it should be an opportunity to show off the team’s impressive depth. Here are five players to watch in the highly-anticipated home opener on Saturday.

Cincinnati Football: Five players to watch in home opener against Kennesaw State

Corey Kiner (Bearcats running back)

In his first game with the Bearcats, Corey Kiner looked comfortable in the backfield and ran with even more physicality than I expected. During the weekly press conference, Luke Fickell discussed Kiner’s performance via Cincinnati Athletics.

"“He did a great job. That was one of those question marks, I had no real idea of how it would go exactly. I thought he did a great job. He was physical, took care of the football and made a couple of big plays.”"

The Cincinnati native scored the first touchdown of the season and recorded a team-high 59 rushing yards on 12 attempts. Kiner will likely split most the of carries with Charles McClelland and I’m expecting both to have plenty of success this Saturday.

Bryon Threats (Bearcats safety)

After appearing in 12 games during his freshman campaign, Bryon Threats was hoping to carve out a significant role this season. Despite missing a few tackles, the sophomore safety played with a lot of energy and displayed elite speed against Arkansas.

Fickell explained what he saw from Threats against Arkansas last week via Cincinnati Athletics.

"“He was one of those young guys that the moment was not too big for him. I thought he played pretty well. Obviously we all made mistakes. It was a difficult game for us and for young guys in particular but he definitely flashes. He is going to be really good.”"

Threats was fourth on the team with six tackles last week and there’s no reason to doubt his ability to replicate that performance in the home opener. If he can clean up a couple mistakes and continue to improve, Threats will be a force in the secondary.

Xavier Shepherd (Owls quarterback)

Every triple option offense needs a difference maker under center and Xavier Shepherd is exactly that for Kennesaw State. The junior quarterback has dangerous speed when escaping the pocket and won’t be easy to bring down in open space.

In the season opener, Shepherd totaled 135 passing yards and one interception on 13 attempts. On the ground, he racked up 64 rushing yards and one touchdown on 35 carries in the loss against Samford.

Even though most of his damage is on the ground, the Nashville native isn’t afraid to take chances through air. Shepherd set the school-record with four passing touchdowns and was recently named preseason conference player of the year.

Dontay Corleone (Bearcats tackle)

Jowon Briggs, Jabari Taylor and Malik Vann will continue to start and take the majority of snaps but the reserves must play at a high level too when called upon. Dontay Corleone definitely did that last week with two tackles in limited playing time.

Fickell broke down Corleone’s showing off the bench last week per Cincinnati Athletics.

"“It was a great test. Dontay did a really good job in there. We were kind of thrust into it. I was kind of hoping he would be a guy that only had to play 15 snaps in the first few weeks. Obviously not having Dom Perry threw a lot more onto Dontay’s plate. I thought all of those guys did a good job.”"

Defending the triple option means the defensive line will get a lot of attention on Saturday. One of the bright spots from the loss at Arkansas was the defensive front’s depth, which should be on full display this weekend as well.

Preston Daniels (Owls running back)

In addition to Shepherd, another player to keep an eye on is junior running back Preston Daniels. Kennesaw State will rely several ball carriers including Gabriel Benyard, Isaac Foster, Jordan Lay and more but Daniels is the best of the bunch.

Even though Kennesaw State’s offense struggled to move the ball against Samford, Daniels ran for a team-best 8.0 yards per carry. The 5’11, 255-pound running back compiled 64 rushing yards and one touchdown in the season-opening loss.

Many others will have an opportunity to make an impact on Saturday including Arquon Bush, Nick Mardner, Dylan O’Quinn, Eric Phillips, Jaheim Thomas and more. Meanwhile, the Owls will also lean on Carlos Allen, Nykeem Farrow and Oscar Gonzalez.