The Cincinnati Bearcats are less than a week away from being back in Nippert and welcoming fans and Miami of Ohio into a Week 1 clash. The Bearcats are coming off an amazing year where they won the American Athletic Conference, made it to a New Year’s Six Bowl, and went toe to toe with a Power 5 top team in Georgia. There was a disappointing end to the season, but players and fans know that this year could be an even better year. With tough matchups looming in Indiana, Notre Dame and UCF there were a lot of questions that needed to be answered before the season started. One of the main questions was who would protect Desmond Ridder and what would this offensive line look like after losing big names like James Hudson and Darius Harper?
This would all be tested in camp higher ground and before the first game this upcoming week. So far the unit has lived up to the test. Last year, they got a huge push by freshman center Jake Renfro who took on a major role and excelled to help the Bearcats win their first AAC Championship in school history. The story of camp higher ground was the exceptional play of left tackle John Williams and right tackle Dylan O’Quinn. Both have been extremely good tackles and will be looking to replace a huge void that was formed by now Cleveland Browns offensive tackle James Hudson and Darius Harper. The Bearcats also showed a lot of depth on the line as coach Crook showed many formations throughout camp that had guys switching in out. Two guys to look out for that will need to play huge roles for the Bearcats to have a great season will be Lorenz Metz and James Tunstall. Tunstall is a new transfer that will hope to help the Bearcats at tackle, be a workhorse and creating time for Desmond Ridder. Metz is another story as he is a monster on the line, but had some trouble last year. Metz looked really good in camp and has seemed to make strides moving over to guard. If that is the case then the Bearcats could see a lot of success on offense this season.
The Bearcats will also be relying on their guards to help their new tackles as they will have to rely on Vincent McConnell and Jeremy Cooper. Both of them like the rest of the line had an exceptional camp and really made strides in giving Ridder time. The Bearcats’ success will rely on the young guys to step into key roles and buy Ridder time and give him a chance. With the offensive weapons Ridder has the Bearcats could be seeing their name pop up a lot when it comes to College Football Playoff talk later in the season.
