This weekend was a huge splash for the Bearcats as Luke Fickell and staff came to play in terms of recruiting where they locked down a total of eight commitments within the span of 48 hours as the first weekend of official visits and camps have started the Bearcats were quick to add to the class of 2023 to say the least. The Bearcats came into the weekend ranked 15th in the 2023 class rankings on Saturday, but then all of a sudden by the end of the day Sunday they were as high as No. 5 in the recruiting rankings after landing eight commitments in the class of 2023 over the weekend. The Bearcats are making it known they’re here for the long haul after coming off back-to-back undefeated seasons where their only two losses came in bowl games to the last two National Champions in Alabama and Georgia.
It all started when four-star safety/cornerback Daeh McCullough announced he was going to come to the Bearcats. Which was the biggest get of the day as McCullough is the son of former NFL player Deland McCullough. McCullough was committed to play for his father at Indiana before his father decided to take the Job with former Bearcats defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame and become the Irish’s new running backs coach. Daeh on the other hand decommitted from the Hoosiers back on May 19th, and quickly was rumored to be linked to Cincinnati and just two short weeks later here we are. McCullough a four star safety comes in ranked as the Bearcats highest defensive recruit ever, and 2nd all time behind quarterback Evan Prater as the 2nd highest rated recruit in program history. He was actually on his official visit with the Bearcats this weekend, where first year defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs played the lead recruiter for the highly touted safety out of Indiana. Not only was McCullough looking to enjoy his time in Cincinnati for his official visit, but he also told Luke Fickell and the staff he would be committing to the Bearcats on his birthday as well. The Bearcats knocked this one out of the park as they land McCullough, who is currently ranked the 19th best safety in the country, and 2nd ranked player in the state of Indiana, holding offers from schools like Florida, Michigan, Arkansas, Penn State, as the 6-foot-2 safety had a lot of offers and has decided that Cincinnati will be his new home and will look to learn under highly touted cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs who has the reputation to be one of the top defensive back coaches and recruiters in the country.
The Bearcats would then move onto three-star offensive tackle Josh Gregory who is from Saint Louis, Missouri where he attends Christian Brothers High School. Gregory reminds me a lot of a guy like Lorenz Metz already just because of his size, Gregory stands 6-foot-7, and isn’t even done growing yet potentially. There is one thing I will say for people who don’t know new Bearcats offensive line coach Mike Cummings, is he loves the bigger and physically guards and Gregory fits that mold perfectly as Cummings loves for his guards to get physical up front. Gregory was ranked the 85th offensive tackle in the country where he held offers from Memphis, Northwestern, Minnesota and has also received some interest from schools like Iowa and Iowa State.
Mike Cummings wasn’t done yet though as he landed his second commitment of the day up front as the Bearcats landed three star offensive tackle James Jenkins. Jenkins, a Tampa Bay native was recruited by new offensive coordinator Gino Guidugli and the Bearcats were starting to make a strong standpoint of the guys they were looking to add to the 2023 class as the 6-foot-5 offensive tackle was currently unranked according to 247 Sports, but don’t let that say anything as Jenkins holds a ton of offers from P5 schools including Purdue, Colorado State, Miami(FL) Ole Miss and more. Again, Jenkins joins Gregory as the type of guys Mike Cummings loves to have up front on the offensive line, as the Bearcats continue to beef up that offensive line as they head to the Big 12 in the near future. Jenkins was someone the Bearcats were keeping an eye on for quite some time as the Bearcats were looking to make the 6-foot-5 offensive tackle a big priority over the last couple months, they got the job down and Mike Cummings lands a highly touted offensive line prospect in James Jenkins.
