Cincinnati- The Cincinnati Bearcats were back in action Saturday for their annual Spring Game, as the Bearcats were looking to get ready for the 2022 season. After a historical season in 2021, the Bearcats team would be looking to fill the shoes of guys like Desmond Ridder, Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, Coby Bryant who stamped their name into Bearcat history during their career at Cincinnati. The Bearcats are coming off a perfect season where they went 13-0, were back-to back AAC Champs, became the first “Group of Five” team to break down the walls en route to the College Football Playoff, where they fell to Alabama 27-6 back on December 31, 2021.
The Quarterback Battle-The hot topic of the spring for many is the quarterback battle as redshirt sophomore, and Cincinnati native Evan Prater, and Ben Bryant will look to fill the big shoes left by Desmond Ridder who is now off to the NFL where he is projected to be drafted anywhere between the first round and mid second round of this years NFL Draft. Bryant, returned to Cincinnati after spending his junior season at Eastern Michigan where he threw for 3,121 yards, 14 touchdowns, completing nearly 68% of his passes in 2021 before he decided to return back to Cincinnati to finish out his collegiate playing career.
Evan Prater led the Bearcats first team offense to start the Spring Game where he connected with a streaking junior wide receiver Tyler Scott down the sideline for a 40 yard touchdown on the first drive, the ball was a rope down the sideline as Prater was looking to show off his arm strength early. The Cincinnati native also made a lot of big plays with his legs, a once highly touted duel threat recruit out of Wyoming High School, Prater was looking to showcase his skillset this afternoon. The Bearcats have found themselves quite a few weapons on the offensive side while Alec Pierce heads to the NFL look for Nick Mardner to fill that deep ball roll. Mardner a 6-foot-6 receiver who transferred from Hawaii, will be a huge red zone target for the Bearcats, as we have saw his ability to go out and get the ball with his frame and athleticism. Mardner is another one of those freak athletes, coming off the 2021 season where he recorded 46 receptions, tallying 916 yards, five touchdowns, averaging roughly 20 yards a catch. Mardner instantly looks to fill in for Alec Pierce, as the guy who can go up and get the deep ball, or the out routes near the sideline. We saw him go up and get a deep ball today from Prater on the sideline for 40 yards. look for Mardner to be a huge factor within the red zone, being 6’6″, matching up with guys like Leonard Taylor, and Josh Whyle, the Bearcats should be seeing the end zone quite a bit this fall with the trio if guys like Mardner, Whyle, Taylor, you even throw Tyler Scott and Tre Tucker in that mix. Whoever is the starter for week 1, they’ll have a lot of options to create mismatches for opposing teams defenses.
Evan Prater was looking to lead the quarterback battle early today after throwing two touchdowns, one to Tyler Scott on a 40 yard pass, another one to a deep ball to redshirt freshman Chamon Metayer. Ben Bryant started the 2nd half for the Bearcats and found the end zone as well as he connected with Metayer for his 2nd touchdown of the day. This should be a very fun quarterback battle heading into fall camp when the Bearcats return to Camp Higher ground later this summer where Bryant and Prater will look to battle it out for the quarterback one spot. The battle though could go either way as they wrap up Spring Ball, as Bryant and Prater both have had a great start to their spring, and they both aren’t shying away from the competition within the quarterback room.
“I think I’ve grown a lot over the Spring, I think that’s due to Coach Gino (Guidugli). Also Bringing Ben (Bryant) it fuels us every day, we want to compete, were all competitors, were coming out here trying to get to work, watching the film, critiquing ourselves a little bit more than we would if he wasn’t here. I think that healthy competition that Coach Fickell preaches, I think has benefited us a lot this spring.” said Prater.
“I think the spring is all about seeing what you can and can’t do. You can’t be scared to make mistakes, you have to just come out and let it fly. I don’t think either of us try to worry about it too much on the quarterback battle. We just try to go out there and play the best we can, and keep growing, being the best quarterback we can be. I think I have come a long way since the beginning of Spring.” said Bryant.
Redshirt freshman Chamon Metayer was able to give some thoughts on the ongoing quarterback battle and what he has seen from Evan Prater and Ben Bryant here early in the spring.
“Besides Evan and Ben, what I have seen from the whole quarterback room, that’s a very talented room, they’re all equally great, it’s just going to be a competitive battle at the end of the day.” said Metayer.
