Another National Signing Day has come and gone and coaches everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief as the players that they’ve been recruiting for the past 1-2 years. While some schools have had quire a time securing all their recruits, Coach Tommy Tuberville and staff did not have to worry as all 25 commits that were expected to sign with the Bearcats fulfilled their commitment and became members of the Bearcat family. All those who follow the UC Football Recruiting Twitter page (@UC_Recruiting), got to see an awesome picture with information on each recruit as their National Letter of Intent was received out of the fax machine at the UC Football offices.
The Good
For the first time in I dont know how many classes, there were no last minute defections from the Class of 2015. It was reported that Kentucky made a late push to try to flip Marquise Copeland, but he stayed true to his original commitment and signed with the Bearcats.
The Bad
Its a reach, but UC made an attempt to flip defensive lineman Kirk Livingstone from UConn after Livingstone was forced to flip his commitment from UAB to UConn. Unfortunately, Livingstone ended up signing with USF. Also, if you were in the extremely small camp that still thought UC had a chance of landing CeCe Jefferson, he committed to Florida today.
Surprises
The final two players to send in their LOIs to Cincinnati were surprises to most people. The first was Lyndon Baines Johnson (yes, like the former President), a defensive lineman measuring 6’6″ and a whopping 270lbs from Holmes Community College in Goodman, Mass.
Bulldog Nation: Lyndon Johnson signs with Cincinnati: http://t.co/s44HR4Eeet via @YouTube
— Holmes Athletics (@holmesathletics) February 4, 2015
Johnson is a relatively unknown recruit, even for people like myself who follows recruiting pretty closely. The staff wanted to add some experience to the defensive line for next year (much like they did when they added Terrell Hartsfield and Jarrell Jordan two years ago.) Fun Fact: The head coach at Holmes Community College is Jeff Koonz, father of current UC football assitant Jeff Koonz so it is safe to say the Bearcats may have had the inside track on landing Johnson.
The final surprise of the day came when Kahlil Lewis, a former WVU commit, signed with the Bearcats. He chose UC over Louisville, UCF and West Virginia. It was known that his commitment to West Virginia was soft for quite some time and after talking with Cincinnati coaches and hearing from UC quarterback commit Ross Trail over twitter, Lewis decided to become a Bearcat. Shortly after the LOI was faxed and everything was official, he tweeted out this picture of him in a UC uniform
Overall Ranking
After all the dust settled, Cincinnati finished within the top 2 of the AAC according to all the major recruiting services sans ESPN since they only care about the top 25 classes. The final rankings were
Rivals: #57 Overall Class, 1st in the AAC
Scout: #60 Overall Class, 1st in the AAC
247 Sports: #65 Overall Class, 2nd in the AAC (Behind USF)
Other Bits
Several former Cincinnati commits who decided to decommit to pursue opportunities at other schools also signed their letters of intent today. Those were: Quintin Hampton (UCF), Joshua Norwood (Ohio State), James Gardner (Miami (OH)), Ulysses Gilbert (Akron) and Antonio Howard (Marshall)
Finally, you can find a video of Coach Tommy Tuberville discussing the Class of 2015 here. Overall, I believe that this class is a great mix of players that will be ready to contribute within 1-2 years and some “project” players as well.
Cincinnati seems to have found its quarterback of the future in Ross Trail, a running back duo that could turn into something special with the speed of Joshuwa Holloman and the power of Taylor Boose. Also, some very solid wide receivers were added in Braxton Neal and Kahlil Lewis, who could become frequent targets of Trail.
On the defensive side, Marquise Copeland could become a problem for opposing offensive lines. The tandem of Matthew Draper and Bryce Jenkinson could give running backs fits. Of course, we will have to wait and see how each player develops but the future of Cincinnati football seems to be in good hands with the Class of 2015.
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