Breaking down the running back room
The Bearcats saw Jerome Ford rise to stardom in 2021, heading into spring ball the question was who will fill that void, would it be Ryan Montgomery, Ethan Wright, Charles McClelland, Myles Montgomery, but then they add a hometown kid in Corey Kiner who decided to transfer home after his freshman season at LSU, where he recorded 79 carries, for 329 yard and two touchdowns, where he averaged 4.1 yards per carry. Kiner will look to play an immediate impact as everyone has seen what Kiner did at Roger Bacon High School down the road, where he was named Mr. Ohio and was a four star prospect before heading to LSU under now former Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron. Heading into fall camp though, we saw Ethan Wright make the switch to safety for the upcoming season, which was a position he played back in high school for people who didn’t know, and now with a jam packed running back room, Wright wanted to help the team in any way possible to contribute to the team.
Redshirt freshman Myles Montgomery is off to a great fall camp and has shown a lot of potential for the Bearcats as he enters his second season in the red and black. Charles McClelland is also back for his 5th season and will look to be the veteran leader in that running back room. Ryan Montgomery has dominated the special teams aspect over the years for the Bearcats, where he earned a nod to the Paul Hornung Preseason Watch List, given annually to the most versatile player in the country.
Who replaces Sauce Gardner, Coby Bryant and Bryan Cook
The Bearcats lost three key members of their secondary to the NFL Draft this past April, where they saw consensus All-American Sauce Gardner become the highest Bearcat drafted in program history in the first round to the New York Jets, As well as Jim Thorpe Award winner Coby Bryant, who was drafted to the Seahawks in Round 4, and hard-hitting safety Bryan Cook, who was drafted by the Chiefs in Round 2.
The one thing the Bearcats have in that secondary is depth, and that is a great thing to have if you’re defensive coordinator Mike Tressel and cornerback coach Kerry Coombs.
“It isn’t going to be like Coby plays every snap to the field, and Gardner plays every snap to the boundary, it won’t be like that, so we have to take advantage of the tools we do have, and right now that is depth,” said Tressel.
The Bearcats have a load of talent sitting in the fire for those open spots in the secondary amongst those are freshman JQ Hardaway, senior Ja’quon Sheppard, sophomore Bryon Threats, redshirt sophomore Sammy Anderson, sophomore Isiah Cox, senior Justin Harris, redshirt senior Taj Ward, or redshirt sophomore Todd Bumphis. The Bearcats could look to have a pretty young secondary as they look to fill the void of guys like Gardner, Cook, and Bryant, but having guys like Arquon Bush and Ja’von Hicks return for the extra year of eligibility was huge for the Bearcats secondary, as they now embrace that leadership role as they look to take on a larger role within the locker room heading into the 2022 season.
