The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

The Transfer Portal is working. Transfers LT James Tunstall 6-5 300 and NT/DT Jowon Briggs 6-1 310 are both on campus.
A football team LT doesn’t need have to be a 3rd round NFL draft pick type to settle down the offensive line. All a team needs is a competent LT like transfer Dino Boyd in the 2018 season. If James Hudson had been allowed to play the whole 2019 season (no thanks to Coach Harbaugh), the Bearcats probably would have beaten Memphis once in 2019. If the Bearcats had won the first game at Memphis, the AAC Championship game would have been Navy in Nippert. That sounds like a ticket to another NY6 bowl game in 2019.
The middle of the Bearcats DL is going to be a “no mans land” for opposing RBs. Jowon Briggs is in his 3rd year of college football, and Graduate Marcus Brown 6-2 297 seems to be in his 30th season.
#99 Marcus Brown was playing HS football in 2011 for Naples Lely HS, FL one year before his UC DL Coach Gregg Scruggs first played in the NFL in 2012. After graduating from HS, Brown played at a prep school in 2015. Then his first two years at UC were the Tubbs disaster movie 4 win season in 2016 followed by the 2017 season when new Coach Fickell thought that his Bearcats would win one game all season– and it wasn’t the Michigan game. The 2021 year is Brown’s 6th year at Clifton. His NT/DT linemate is 6-2 297 Graduate Curtis Brown who has also been at UC since the 2016 season.

Notre Dame recruits football players with the slogan “our degree means something.” OK, but a UC graduate degree means much more than any ND undergrad degree, and there are five other Grad students playing football including friend and former Tunstall UConn teammate LB Darrian Beavers.
Let’s compare DT stats:
#92 Curtis Brooks had sacks in the last two games he played in, Tulsa and at UCF. He didn’t play in the game at Georgia. A clutch player with 4.5 sacks, 105 career tackles, and one forced fumble.
#99 Marcus Brown had a sack against Memphis and at SMU in 2020. Another clutch player with four career sacks and 68 career tackles. He missed three games in 2020 but had 35 tackles in 2019.

Jowon Briggs is from UVa and Cincy Walnut Hills HS.
The Cincinnatian has 39 tackles in his first two years with four career sacks.
The 'Hoos (please don’t ask what a 'Hoo is) were 5-5 last year and in 2019 had a really good season with 9 wins and 5 losses. They won their ACC sub-conference but still got blown out in the ACC championship by Clemson 63-17.

At DT Bearcats also have #90 Sr Jabari Taylor 6-1 293 from Akron Hoban who has 43 tackles and 2 sacks.
#93 Sr Elijah Ponder 6-3 275 from Atlanta with 62 tackles and 4.5 sacks
#97 Eric Phillips 6-3 295 is still a Freshman with 6 tackles last year from Cincinnati Colerain HS.

Coach Fickell started four years at NT for Ohio State. He believes that a team’s success begins with the DLine and OLine. I’m not going to disagree with The Coach.
The Bearcats have 10 DTs, 4DLs, but no NTs listed on the roster this year. If I were to pick a Freshman to contribute this year – good luck with the talent, depth, size, and experience of the DL – I would pick RSFr Eric Phillips from Cincy Colerain HS. To pick a true freshman to contribute I would pick his HS teammate Dontay Corleone 6-1 300. The Colerain Cardinals have five Bearcats on the 2021 roster with four from Cincy LaSalle HS and three each from Cincy Moeller HS, Cincy Princeton HS, and Akron Hoban HS. Cincy Walnut Hills HS is next and is tied with many HSs with two new Bearcats: Jowon Briggs and Fr G Glenn Mao, both 310# linemen. Welcome home Jowon Briggs.

This UC DL outmatches ND's OL (coached by former Bearcat OL coach Jeff Quinn) because four 2020 ND OLinemen will probably play in the NFL this year. The schedule works out well for the Bearcats: The Irish begin play
at Florida State
Toledo
Purdue
Wisky at neutral in the four weeks before the Bearcats October 2.

The Bearcats play MiamiOH
Murray State
at Indiana Sept 18
week off
ND Oct 2.

Indiana's schedule begins
at Iowa
Idaho
UC Sept 18

Both ND and IU's starting QBs Jack Coan from Whisky and Michael Penix Jr suffered season ending injuries in Oct/Nov last year. The ND backup QB Fr Buchner didn't play as a Soph in HS nor played as a Senior last year. Calif didn't play HS football last year.
How about DT, DE, LB, S, CB blitz packages in 2021 for the Bearcats!