July 24, 2025 • 9 mins
Chad Brendel of Bearcat Journal joined us to preview fall camp for the UC football team.
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Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
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Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaking of the Ray Saint Clair Roofing Hotline. Our buddy
Chad Brendel is here and he joins us every Thursday,
and we'll move him to three forty five once Bengals
training camp is over. But between now and then four
to twenty, as we look ahead to the upcoming UC
football season, I feel like I haven't talked in a while,
especially on this show. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's been a while. I feel like I haven't talked
to you in a while. I haven't hosted the show
in a while. Like I you know, I thought this
was load management summer, and then you just worked all July.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I worked. I took a lot of time off in June.
I've worked all in July. I've got load management kind
of kicks back in in early August for a while.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Okay, well that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yes, yeah we will.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I miss tarn could you not? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Not Terrence. That's the best reason to come to work,
you see it Again's fall camp is that there's got
to be a long list of stuff that Scott Sadderfield
has to figure out. What's at the top of that list.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I think the biggest couple questions one for me wide
receiver really stands out because I think you've got a
more than serviceable Big twelve starting quarterback too, potentially really
good big twelve starting quarterback in Brendan Soersby. Think you
should have a strong offensive line, and you should have
(01:23):
a good running back room. Joe Royer's your tight end.
The only thing we don't know because essentially everybody's new.
How about this, Moses, This makes you feel good. Barry
Jackson is the only wide receiver on the roster to
have caught a forward task at the University of Cincinnati. Great. Yeah,
(01:44):
so you know, if if you're gonna get up to
you know, Dave Simone on the BCJ podcast last night,
like he's adamant that if it's gonna get where they
want to get it, they've got to score thirty points
a game. You're gonna score thirty points a game. As
if you're good at wide receiver. They've got a couple
(02:04):
guys I like Iris Allen Jeff Caldwell. Those two guys
I think are as good, are better than they've had
in recent history. So you know, you hope that they
can be the answer. But wide receiver is a huge
one for me, and then can they get a pass rush.
I mean, this is going to be a really good
(02:25):
quarterback league in twenty twenty five. If the quarterback can
just stand back there and pick a part of defense,
Cincinnati's defense is going to be in trouble and they're
not going to be as good as you know, I
think Tyson Bite envisions them being. Those are the two
big spots for me as we go into camp.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
All right, well, fling it back to the guy you
called serviceable. He wasn't even that in the second half
of the season last year. Look, I there's so much
I like about Brendan Sorosby right from a leadership perspective,
in tangibles, helping to recruit kids like you know, you
talk to people in the program, they like he brings
professionalism to the job. There's so much that I like.
But I hated watching him those last five games. How
(03:06):
much of that do you put directly on him versus
the circumstances around him.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
There's a decent amount that's on him because there were
you know, you go back to the West Virginia game
that was on him. That wasn't a product of you know,
a bad offensive line or whatever it was. He just
tried to force things, made bad plays, put his team
in a bad situation, and it ended up resulting in
a loss. And that stuff can't happen, especially now he
(03:36):
started half a season in Indiana, he started a full
season at Cincinnati. This is now a veteran quarterback, though,
and veteran quarterbacks do not put their teams behind the
eight ball in close games. And you know, that's the
big step he has to make. Sometimes you got to
take the sack. Sometimes you've got to have the wherewithal
(03:56):
to throw it out of bounds. And last year at
especially down the stretch, he made the wrong play. And
that's got to be a maturity level from him that
increases going into his junior season.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
When you talk about the defense, I think number one,
people are going to say second year with this particular
scheme with Tyson Vite number two. You know, last year
Dante Corleone had to play catch up from week one.
They had some early season injuries on the defensive line.
That should automatically be better this year. Is that a
fair or reasonable assessment?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Absolutely? Reasonable? I mean one. I thought the defense as
we got towards the end of the year improved quite
a bit, Like I thought they were playing pretty good
ball by the end of the football season. And that
is a defense that we know works in this league
because it's worked for a decade at Iowa State, and
this is, you know, almost a knockoff of that defense.
(04:55):
So the defense can work. What are you going to
get out of corleone? You know, in a year where
he should be back to full health. You should have
a really strong linebacker group, veterans across the board. You've
got some young energy in that room. Can they be
(05:16):
better in the secondary because they Boy, we went from
twenty twenty one the best secondary in the nation, maybe
one of the best secondaries in the history of college football.
And that's not hyperbole, Like if you look at how
all those guys have turned out, what they look like
in the pros two. They can they cover anything, And
(05:41):
you know it's it's a situation where they're relying heavily
on Matthew McDoom to be a number one corner. I
think they're relying heavily on Logan Wilson to make that
switch from safety to corner. If those two position group,
but those two spots in the defense are good, I
think this is going to be a really good defense
(06:03):
because they have a lot of the other requisite pieces.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Special teams is interesting to me. First of all, it
has to be better and it's not just missing field goals.
Like every operation towards the end of the season was
a mess. So they move on from Kerry Combs. At
the outset of the offseason, Scott Saderfield's telling everybody, well,
we're all going to sort of chip in on special teams, okay,
and then midway through I think it was at for springball,
(06:27):
they hire a special teams coach. Is that all going
to add up to a unit that can help the
Bearcats win games in the margins?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
The that's the hope, that's the that's the dream, I
guess you could put it. I think it was an
a situation where really they were kind of thinking it
was going to be by committee, and then they had
a chance to get you know, a really good younger
(06:57):
not younger, but like a really good becoming special teams coordinator,
and they jumped on that opportunity. Look, now, special teams
lost them games last year. Yes, Special teams was dreadful.
It was that five game losing streak, I mean, and
it wasn't one phase of special teams, it was most
(07:19):
of them. And if they can get that fixed and
stop this situation they had where they were just getting
dominated in field position, they couldn't get points like it
was just a wreck. And if it's even decent now
(07:40):
it's what the Bengals defense, right, If they can go
from bad to decent, then this thing might be in
a pretty good place. It might not win them games,
although I you know, I'll see if you get this,
I think you will. I've seen a punter win a game, yes, yeah,
Kevin Huber Rutgers a one what twice and at the
(08:01):
three ones? Yeah, Like I've seen a punter win a game.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Brian Kelly said that season Kevin Huber was their best player.
Look at the talent on that team. That says something.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Right, So, you know, just little stuff, make make the
chip shot field goals. You know, be able to get
good hangtime on your punts. Dave brought up a great point,
Like everybody last year was raving about Mason Fletcher the
tackle he made against West Virginia. Yeah, that tackles thirty
(08:30):
yards down the field. Meal, Yeah, West Virginia took over
at the thirty two yard line, Like Okay, great, he
made a nice hit on that play, but it was
a play that costs you in part, helped cost you
the game. So if they can fix special teams, that
at least mitigates some of the like margin of error,
because this is a league where the games are going
(08:52):
to be close. Like we are well aware of that,
most of the games in this league are going to
be close. If your special teams are bad, boy, you
have made things significantly more difficult on yourself.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I'm looking on the schedule. You are in for me
next Thursday. They haven't put out August yet, but I
see you are here next Thursday.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So is it Thursday? Holy Wednesday?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I'm off. I'm off Thursday and Friday. Friday is the
first of August. And you know, we don't have the
August schedule out yet even though it's a week away.
But on July thirty first, you're going to be here.
So so there you go.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Okay, I'm I'm looking forward to it now. I'm rather excited.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It's trade deadline day. You might when they when the
Reds trade for a ju Haenio Suarez, you may be
on the air that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Hopefully they do it before then like you could probably
use him over these next five six days, you can
go get a napuk.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You are correct about that, all right man, Thanks so much,
Speaking of the Ray Saint Clair Roofing Hotline. Our buddy
Chad Brendel is here and he joins us every Thursday,
and we'll move him to three forty five once Bengals
training camp is over. But between now and then four
to twenty, as we look ahead to the upcoming UC
football season, I feel like I haven't talked in a while,
especially on this show. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's been a while. I feel like I haven't talked
to you in a while. I haven't hosted the show
in a while. Like I you know, I thought this
was load management summer, and then you just worked all July.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I worked. I took a lot of time off in June.
I've worked all in July. I've got load management kind
of kicks back in in early August for a while.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Okay, well that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yes, yeah we will.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I miss tarn could you not? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Not Terrence. That's the best reason to come to work,
you see it Again's fall camp is that there's got
to be a long list of stuff that Scott Sadderfield
has to figure out. What's at the top of that list.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I think the biggest couple questions one for me wide
receiver really stands out because I think you've got a
more than serviceable Big twelve starting quarterback too, potentially really
good big twelve starting quarterback in Brendan Soersby. Think you
should have a strong offensive line, and you should have
(01:23):
a good running back room. Joe Royer's your tight end.
The only thing we don't know because essentially everybody's new.
How about this, Moses, This makes you feel good. Barry
Jackson is the only wide receiver on the roster to
have caught a forward task at the University of Cincinnati. Great. Yeah,
(01:44):
so you know, if if you're gonna get up to
you know, Dave Simone on the BCJ podcast last night,
like he's adamant that if it's gonna get where they
want to get it, they've got to score thirty points
a game. You're gonna score thirty points a game. As
if you're good at wide receiver. They've got a couple
(02:04):
guys I like Iris Allen Jeff Caldwell. Those two guys
I think are as good, are better than they've had
in recent history. So you know, you hope that they
can be the answer. But wide receiver is a huge
one for me, and then can they get a pass rush.
I mean, this is going to be a really good
(02:25):
quarterback league in twenty twenty five. If the quarterback can
just stand back there and pick a part of defense,
Cincinnati's defense is going to be in trouble and they're
not going to be as good as you know, I
think Tyson Bite envisions them being. Those are the two
big spots for me as we go into camp.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
All right, well, fling it back to the guy you
called serviceable. He wasn't even that in the second half
of the season last year. Look, I there's so much
I like about Brendan Sorosby right from a leadership perspective,
in tangibles, helping to recruit kids like you know, you
talk to people in the program, they like he brings
professionalism to the job. There's so much that I like.
But I hated watching him those last five games. How
(03:06):
much of that do you put directly on him versus
the circumstances around him.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
There's a decent amount that's on him because there were
you know, you go back to the West Virginia game
that was on him. That wasn't a product of you know,
a bad offensive line or whatever it was. He just
tried to force things, made bad plays, put his team
in a bad situation, and it ended up resulting in
a loss. And that stuff can't happen, especially now he
(03:36):
started half a season in Indiana, he started a full
season at Cincinnati. This is now a veteran quarterback, though,
and veteran quarterbacks do not put their teams behind the
eight ball in close games. And you know, that's the
big step he has to make. Sometimes you got to
take the sack. Sometimes you've got to have the wherewithal
(03:56):
to throw it out of bounds. And last year at
especially down the stretch, he made the wrong play. And
that's got to be a maturity level from him that
increases going into his junior season.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
When you talk about the defense, I think number one,
people are going to say second year with this particular
scheme with Tyson Vite number two. You know, last year
Dante Corleone had to play catch up from week one.
They had some early season injuries on the defensive line.
That should automatically be better this year. Is that a
fair or reasonable assessment?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Absolutely? Reasonable? I mean one. I thought the defense as
we got towards the end of the year improved quite
a bit, Like I thought they were playing pretty good
ball by the end of the football season. And that
is a defense that we know works in this league
because it's worked for a decade at Iowa State, and
this is, you know, almost a knockoff of that defense.
(04:55):
So the defense can work. What are you going to
get out of corleone? You know, in a year where
he should be back to full health. You should have
a really strong linebacker group, veterans across the board. You've
got some young energy in that room. Can they be
(05:16):
better in the secondary because they Boy, we went from
twenty twenty one the best secondary in the nation, maybe
one of the best secondaries in the history of college football.
And that's not hyperbole, Like if you look at how
all those guys have turned out, what they look like
in the pros two. They can they cover anything, And
(05:41):
you know it's it's a situation where they're relying heavily
on Matthew McDoom to be a number one corner. I
think they're relying heavily on Logan Wilson to make that
switch from safety to corner. If those two position group,
but those two spots in the defense are good, I
think this is going to be a really good defense
(06:03):
because they have a lot of the other requisite pieces.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Special teams is interesting to me. First of all, it
has to be better and it's not just missing field goals.
Like every operation towards the end of the season was
a mess. So they move on from Kerry Combs. At
the outset of the offseason, Scott Saderfield's telling everybody, well,
we're all going to sort of chip in on special teams, okay,
and then midway through I think it was at for springball,
(06:27):
they hire a special teams coach. Is that all going
to add up to a unit that can help the
Bearcats win games in the margins?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
The that's the hope, that's the that's the dream, I
guess you could put it. I think it was an
a situation where really they were kind of thinking it
was going to be by committee, and then they had
a chance to get you know, a really good younger
(06:57):
not younger, but like a really good becoming special teams coordinator,
and they jumped on that opportunity. Look, now, special teams
lost them games last year. Yes, Special teams was dreadful.
It was that five game losing streak, I mean, and
it wasn't one phase of special teams, it was most
(07:19):
of them. And if they can get that fixed and
stop this situation they had where they were just getting
dominated in field position, they couldn't get points like it
was just a wreck. And if it's even decent now
(07:40):
it's what the Bengals defense, right, If they can go
from bad to decent, then this thing might be in
a pretty good place. It might not win them games,
although I you know, I'll see if you get this,
I think you will. I've seen a punter win a game, yes, yeah,
Kevin Huber Rutgers a one what twice and at the
(08:01):
three ones? Yeah, Like I've seen a punter win a game.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Brian Kelly said that season Kevin Huber was their best player.
Look at the talent on that team. That says something.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Right, So, you know, just little stuff, make make the
chip shot field goals. You know, be able to get
good hangtime on your punts. Dave brought up a great point,
Like everybody last year was raving about Mason Fletcher the
tackle he made against West Virginia. Yeah, that tackles thirty
(08:30):
yards down the field. Meal, Yeah, West Virginia took over
at the thirty two yard line, Like Okay, great, he
made a nice hit on that play, but it was
a play that costs you in part, helped cost you
the game. So if they can fix special teams, that
at least mitigates some of the like margin of error,
because this is a league where the games are going
(08:52):
to be close. Like we are well aware of that,
most of the games in this league are going to
be close. If your special teams are bad, boy, you
have made things significantly more difficult on yourself.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I'm looking on the schedule. You are in for me
next Thursday. They haven't put out August yet, but I
see you are here next Thursday.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So is it Thursday? Holy Wednesday?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I'm off. I'm off Thursday and Friday. Friday is the
first of August. And you know, we don't have the
August schedule out yet even though it's a week away.
But on July thirty first, you're going to be here.
So so there you go.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Okay, I'm I'm looking forward to it now. I'm rather excited.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It's trade deadline day. You might when they when the
Reds trade for a ju Haenio Suarez, you may be
on the air that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Hopefully they do it before then like you could probably
use him over these next five six days, you can
go get a napuk.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You are correct about that, all right man, Thanks so much,
Mo Egger News
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