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August 28, 2024 11 mins
UC color analyst Jim Kelly joined us to preview the 2024 UC Football season. 

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Mogar. If you see is opening the
season on Saturday at home against Towson.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
That game is going to be a two to thirty.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
It will mark the twenty fifth consecutive year with Dan
Hord and Jim Kelly calling the action behind the microphone.
Pregame coverage will start at one thirty, and as he
does always before the season and often regularly during the season,
Jim joins us to to talk about the team. It's
awesome to have the season here. Great to have you

(00:30):
back with us. Jim, how are you.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Mo How you doing, I'm doing great.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I know a major storyline in the broadcast on Saturday
is going to be who are these guys? All the
new players? And I know you're more familiar with some
as opposed to others, simply because the volume of players
who are either starting their college football careers that you
see or continuing their college football careers at U. See

(00:56):
of all the new players at different positions, give me
a handful that to you in game one, you expect
to stand out and are most interesting to you?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, I think you have to take a look at
the areas that the Bearcats do not have people returning.
And secondly that in my opinion, where the kind of
the well, we'll just say the weakest spots on the
field last year, which is a wide receiver group, and
then in the secondary number one would be the secondary.

(01:28):
Quite honestly, that was kind of the group that was lacking.
The receivers weren't great last year, but at the same
time they did, you know, they did what they had
to do at times. Now the secondary and ties exactly
into what you're talking about Mo in reference to being
new players that secondary that was there last year. A
number of those guys were asked to leave the program.

(01:51):
Some of them, you know, just kind of decided to
leave on their own. And so what you're looking at
in it is probably out, I mean, and let's throw
in there also now the three three three five defense
that Cincinnati is going to put in. So you're looking
at five guys in the secondary on the field at
the same time, and you have to be at least

(02:13):
two to three deep, and so if you look at that,
you're talking ten to twelve to thirteen different guys. And
as you go down that list and you look at
the two deep one, two, three, four, five, six, seventy
nine of that eleven or twelve are transfers, so quite
a bunch of new faces. It is really hard to
even still put your you know, get your hands around

(02:35):
it at this particular point in time. But fortunately with
being the camp Hire ground for you know, maybe eight
or ten different days out there for practice and seeing
them once or twice at Nippert, now you start to
get a handle on who's who. They're all going to
get the play and they all show promise. So from
that perspective, the secondary looks like it's going to be

(02:58):
much improved over last year. And you know some of
those people that you need to look for in the
linebacker group, there's a couple of guys as well, but
you look at guys like may K Miller, Jordan Young
was there last year, but then you got Jaqualan Shanks
thanks rather in behind him. Jordan Robinson is a transfer
of Kentucky. Josh Mincoln's who's a transfer from Louisville. Kuai

(03:21):
Stokes is in Ohio state transfer. Derek Cantayne, who's a
also been chosen as one of the captains, which I
think is quite impressive considering you just transferred in here
comes from Virginia Tech. Logan Wilson, who plays the same
spot as Derek, is from North Texas. Omani Arnold comes

(03:41):
from Idaho. So you can see there's quite a few
transfers here, and there are at other positions as well.
But that secondary, which was honestly pretty bad last year,
is much improved. And I think you're going to see
I think you're going to see them play very, very
aggressive against Towson, who's a team that likes to throw

(04:01):
the football. So from that perspective, and then you look
on the other side, you've got Jamoy Mays who came
in from Chattanooga, Tony Johnson from Florida, Atlantic, Tyron Smith
from UTEP. You know, Aaron Turner came from Yukon two
years ago. Xavier Henderson of course, eg Xavier Henderson was

(04:22):
the leading receiver last year. He was from Florida. And
so you've got quite a few transfers. The good part
there is and I guess I left one guy out
that should be mentioned, and that that would be the quarterback,
Brendam Sort You came in from Minniea. And the reason
I did that is almost in watching him so much,

(04:43):
it almost feels like he's been a part of the
part of the offense for a while. But he is very, very,
very very steady, A big guy six ' three about
two point thirty, can run the ball, has a strong arm,
has a really nice touch on the deep ball, things
that we didn't see last year. So I I do
think there's a lot of new faces. It's going to
take a while for everybody, like I said, get their

(05:05):
arms around them and figure out who's who. But at
the same time, I see a lot of talent out
there on the field.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
So that's where I was going to go next, because
I think there's I think there's enough talent that it's
reasonable to expect that this unit, this team coalesces well
enough in the Big Twelve with a reasonably favorable conference schedule,
that they can have a winning season in the league.
What worries me are nothing against Towson, the two early

(05:34):
non conference games against Pittsburgh, who they played last year
with a quarterback who was terrible, and Miami, who beat
them last year at Knippert Stadium. And I kind of
look at those two games ago and if they could
just get by them, you know, then I feel like
as familiarity builds, and as these guys come together, well,
if they can get those two early, they have a
chance to have a really nice season. But I really

(05:56):
worry about their ability to win those two games early
just because there are so many new guys.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Is that an off base way of looking at things?

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Well, no, it's not an off base way of looking
at it. It takes a while to get everything together
when you basically, in this particular case, have a lot
of new players. But let's not forget that Pittsburgh has
about thirty transfers as well. Been reading a little bit
on them. They are still haven't decided on a quarterback yet.

(06:28):
They've got an incumbent who took over pretty much after
the Cincinnati game last year because Pittsburgh had a horrible
quarterback in that game. And then they've also got a
transfer in from Alabama. But they've got other spots. In
reading through their stuff and just the reporters not necessarily
what the team was putting out, but the people that
were watching it felt that they were really much they

(06:50):
were really in disarray early in the summer. Well, they're
starting to take shape, just as Cincinnati is. And then
you look at Miami, they probably they lost more guys
than they've gained, but they still have the nucleus of
that team back from last year. They lost four or
five really good football players in the transfer portal, but
they've done a nice job of filling in for those

(07:12):
where they had to. Plus they've got the bulk of
their guys back. So those are key games. And then
let's go to game four, which is a home game.
So the schedule certainly favored Cincinnati with three out of
the first four at home, and the fourth game in
that four game set is forty miles up the road,
where you're going to have more fans there than will
the home team probably, but you know that's Houston and

(07:36):
be that fourth game, and they've got a new coach
and about thirty new transfers as well, so they're kind
of going through the same thing. I'd rather face teams
like that early in the year than I would later
in the year. And that's the part I think everybody's
saying about Cincinnati. I'd rather play them early than later.
But your point is well taken. If they can win

(07:57):
those two games, they've got a really really good shot
at four and oh going into the meet of their schedule,
which their next game after that would be in Lubbock,
Texas at Texas Tech, which is going to be very tough.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Down a few minutes with Jim Kelly, he and Dan
hord Antony Pike to call. On Saturday, you see hosting
towsand at two thirty, I feel like I have talked
so much about Brendan Soresby, and in recent days I've
listened to him so much and I've heard so many
people opine on him that I feel like he's going
to be able to hit the ground running and be
ready to go.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
I know it's not quite that simple.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
So at least early in the season, and again, understanding
the caliber or level of opponent they play on Saturday,
what things do you expect them to be able to
do offensively that we maybe didn't see a year ago.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, Number one, this is a running football team. If
you look at what Scott Sadderfield's teams have done in
the past, not once have they rushed for under two
hundred yards since he took over his head coach at
Appstay a few years ago. He was able to do
that at Appalachian State, he was able to do at Louisville,
and he was able to do that last year Cincinnati,
So I don't think you're going to see them not

(09:04):
run the football. They certainly are going to. They've got,
you know, again, one of the things that we haven't
talked about it in this interview, but one of the
things in their favor is they have their whole offensive
line back from last year, plus two extra guys, so
they're really strong at that. Not to mention, you've got
Corey Kiner back at running back, and you've got additional

(09:26):
running backs in there that I think are really really
good as well, and that's Chance Williams, who's a transfer
from Grambling. You've got Evan Pryor who's a transfer from
Ohio State. So you've got a lot coming back on
the offensive sides. I think they're going to be able
to run the ball in Townsend gave about four hundred

(09:47):
and forty six yards a game last year. They gave
a lot up through the air, too, So I want
I do think they're going to want to mix it up.
They're going to see Sowresby. Even though Cincinnati could win
this game with running the ball every play, I think
you're going to want to see, you know, a lot
out of out of Sowersby. We saw a lot out
of Memory Jones last year in the opener. It didn't

(10:07):
pan out during the entire year. But I do think
you're going to see Brendan Sowersby have one heck of
a football game, both running the football in more than
you know, more than that passing the football. So you know,
I wouldn't be shocked to see Cincinnati put up a
good number of points. I don't think they'll they'll get
into the seventies, but you know, maybe in the forties

(10:28):
and fifties and be able to really kind of take
over this game early. And I think that's a key thing,
and particularly in these early games, that they come out
of the shoot are able to score early and get
up on top not just on not just on top
of Towsond, but when we when we you know, start
talking about Pittsburgh in Miami and then Houston as well.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, get started on Saturday, Cincinnati hosting Townsend at two thirty.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Cannot wait. We'll see you then, man, Thank you as.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Always looking forward to it. All right, No, thanks, there you.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Go, Dan Horror, Jim Kelly, Tony Pike have the game
on Saturday. There's no better crew in broadcasting. No better
crew in college football broadcasting, and I'm also.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
A part of it.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Game at two thirty pregame coverage at one thirty from
Knippert Stadium.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Speaking of Tony Pike, he joins us, next.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
You're dealing with an urgent orthopedic injury, just walk into
Ortho Sinsey. No appointments ever needed at Ortho since the
orthopedic urgent care and they've got extended evening and sad

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