Barwin, Mickens, and Canfield NFL Opportunities

Below are the teams to watch come draft day for some of the NFL bound Bearcats.

Connor Barwin

Round: 2^nd

Analysis: Most likely to a 3-4 defense seeking OLB, last year eight teams primarily used a 3-4 defense (Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns) and this year after the Steelers success five teams are likely changing to the 3-4 (Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, New York Jets and possibly Kansas City Chiefs).  Given the present popularity for the 3-4 defensive scheme and the importance of versatile OLB that can rush the quarterback this should make Connor a hot commodity come draft day.

Teams (with priority to fill position):

High Priority – Arizona, Baltimore, Cleveland, New England

Moderate Priority – Denver, Green Bay, Kansas City, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco

Low Priority – Dallas, New York Jets, Pittsburg

 

Mike Mickens

Round: 2^nd-3^rd

Analysis:  Mickens is being viewed as a cover CB that can defend the long ball due to decent size, vertical, and recovery speed.

Teams:

High Priority - Atlanta, Cleveland, Green Bay, Miami, New Orleans, Tennessee

Moderate Priority - Baltimore, Dallas, Jacksonville, Minnesota, New England, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, St. Louis

Low Priority – Arizona, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, New York Giants, San Diego

 

Trevor Canfield

Round: 3^rd-4^th

Teams:

High Priority – Buffalo

Moderate Priority – Arizona, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City, Pittsburg

Low Priority – Atlanta, Carolina, Denver, Green Bay, Jacksonville, Minnesota, New England, New Orleans, New York Jets, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington

Huggins Tribute

Check out the Bob Huggins tribute video that they showed before the WVU game.

FB 2009 Home Schedule finalized

With UC and Illinois signing a contract last week the Bearcats home football schedule for the 2009 season has been finalized.  UC will play home games against So. East Missouri, Fresno State, Illinois, Louisville, West Virginia, UConn.  This is a loaded home schedule with 3 huge Big East games and two solid out of conference match ups (Fresno and Illinois).  The real question is can we land some primetime ESPN coverage again or possibly college Gameday.  With the UC-Illinois game being later in the season, would the top Big Ten school and the top Big East school garner gameday on UC's campus.  This is probably a long shot but interesting to consider at least.

Pike and Gilyard receiving praise from Mel Kiper

Below are Kiper's rankings of prospects for the 2010 NFL Draft.  Pike and Gilyard both made the top five lists in their respective positions.

Quarterbacks 1. *Sam Bradford, Oklahoma 2. Colt McCoy, Texas 3. Tim Tebow, Florida 4. Tony Pike, Cincinnati  5. Tim Hiller, Western Michigan Wide Receivers 1. *Damian Williams, USC 2. Eric Decker, Minnesota 3. Brandon LaFell, LSU 4. *Demarvius Thomas, Ga. Tech 5. Mardy Gilyard, Cincinnati  *Asterisk denotes third year sophomore

Joe Boisture - 2010 FB recruit

According to Rivals.com the Bearcats are one of the top three schools for quarterback Joe Boisture a 6'6" QB out of Saline, MI.  Boisture is one of the best quarterback prospects in the nation.  He visited UC's campus two weekends ago and has already visited Boston College.  The other school thought to be in contention is UCLA.  UC has offered Boisture a scholarship and he seems to be their top recruiting prospect for the 2010 class.  He seems to be the prototypical pocket passer that Kelly is seeking for his high flying passing attack.  Boisture is on Rivals top 250 to watch list for 2010.

Alex Smith Update

Alex Smith (TE from Lakota West) is being considered for multiple national All-American All-Star games.  He was recently interviewed for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.  Other Cincinnati prospects being considered for the U.S. Army All-American bowl are Jordan Hicks from Lakota West (LB who has an offer from UC but will likely sign with Texas) and Andrew Norwell from Anderson (OL who has signed with OSU).  

Alex has also been nominated to participate in the Under Armour All-American Bowl.

UC-Illinois Game

UC and Illinois have signed on to play this year on Nov. 28th 2009 at Nippert stadium.  In return UC will travel to Champagne in Sept 7th 2013.  The game will be televised by the corresponding Big East or Big Ten Network and the home team will have its home conference officials.  Each team will be paid $350,000 the year it travels to its away game in the deal.  Each away team will be guaranteed 400 tickets and will be allotted 3,000 tickets to sell.  

Illinois has emerged as a top Big Ten team the past two seasons as Ron Zook has vitalized their recruitment.  This will be a key late season test for the Bearcats, the game will be towards the end of UC's conference schedule.  Without a doubt this addition will strengthen UC's schedule and give them more leverage in the rankings.

Also, UC season ticket holders can renew their tickets starting today, the final day to renew is on April 25th.  Seat improvement appointments will take place in early May.