Cincinnati- Yesterday, the Bearcats wrapped up their final Spring practice of the season, as they now head into the summer camps before they look to keep the ball rolling after a historical season in 2021. A group to keep an eye on though heading into the 2022 season, is the Bearcats offensive line, a line that will be returning all of their starters from last season minus Vincent McConnell. The Bearcats also welcomed in their new offensive line coach, Mike Cummings to Cincinnati after spending the last three seasons at Central Michigan University, where he coached potential first round NFL prospect Bernhard Raimann and Luke Goedeke who is also an NFL draft prospect. Cummings also coached the 2013 NFL Draft No. 1 overall pick Eric Fisher during his time at Central Michigan.
Good news for Bearcats offensive line coach Mike Cummings, he is returning a lot of talent and proven starters up front to protect either Ben Bryant, or Evan Prater in the upcoming 2022 season. Offensive lineman returning for the Bearcats are Jake Renfro, Lorenz Metz, Dylan O’Quinn who were all selected to the AAC 1st team a season ago. The Bearcats also got great news as lineman James Tunstall and Jeremy Cooper both announced earlier this year, they would be using their extra year of eligibility and return for the Bearcats in 2022. Cummings, not only has a load of talent up front to protect either Bryant or Prater, but he has guys who have not only saw significant time over the past two seasons as the Bearcats paved their way to the history books, but this offensive line also has so much depth and we have saw that here early in the spring as the Bearcats wrap up spring ball and I will break it down for you below from what we saw during Spring ball.
| Left Tackle | Left Guard | Center | Right Guard | Right Tackle |
| James Tunstall | Jeremy Cooper | Jake Renfro | Lorenz Metz | Dylan O’Quinn |
| John Williams | Dartanyan Tinsley | Gavin Gerhardt | Landon Fickell | Cam Jones |
| Luke Collinsworth | Mao Glynn | Joe Huber | Luke Dalton |
I talked to lineman James Tunstall earlier this week on his decision to come back for his extra year after transferring in from Stony Brook before the 2021 season, Tunstall had the option to go ahead to the NFL since he graduated this past winter, but decided to come back and use his additional year of eligibility due to the pandemic.
“I feel like the decision to return was pretty easy, I’m sold into what coach Fickell has going on here, I’m sold into the culture we have here. I just wanted to be able to come back and take advantage of that extra year of eligibility in order to best prepare myself for the future that I want,” said Tunstall.
