Getting to Know the 2012 Bearcats: Offensive Line and Special Teams

The Cincinnati Bearcats have 15 offensive linemen listed on their roster. A surprising amount of them are freshmen and sophomores. Since offensive line is kind of hard to talk about, he blocked some guys, he gave up some sacks, he snapped the ball, let's fold the special teams into this segment. This does not cover the return men. They have other positions. This is only for the specialists. All of these players are specialists. If UC ran out of receivers, they could move some QBs or running backs or corners over. If they ran out of linemen, they would be screwed. Just like if they lost their kicker and punters. We just saw USC have to go for 2 because their kicker got hurt. It's not implausible. It is rather implausible that they all get hurt at the same time. Things don't normally work like that. 

Positions covered: Linebackers, DBs, D-Line

Offensive Line

 

Eric Lefeld

Lefeld played in every game last year. He started against Louisville and USF, and then the last 5 games of the season. Those were all starts at right tackle. This season, he moves to the blind side. He replaces Alex Hoffman, who was pretty good. Lefeld is a 6-6, 287 pounder. He's a sophomore. If things work out like we all hope, he's going to be at left tackle for the next 3 years. 

Parker Ehinger

Ehinger is a redshirt freshman from Michigan. He is 6-7, 290. A man that large should be starting we all think to ourselves. The coaching staff feels the same. Parker is one of the men in the running to play right guard. He's an -OR- on the depth chart. His name comes second though. He will see a lot of action. When it comes on rushing Parker Ehinger, you don't dare-inger. His name is actually EIN-ger, which completely ruins that phrase. It was fun while it lasted. 

Dan Sprague 

Sprague is a junior from Worthington, Ohio. He played in 5 games a year ago. Most of them were the 5 games you expect. One of them was the bowl game. Sprague should see a lot more playing time as long as things don't go sideways, because he is the starting center. 

Ryan Leahy

Leahy is a freshman from Cincinnati. He went to LaSalle. He is 6-6, 269 pounds. He's not listed on the depth chart. Most of the offensive linemen have taken a redshirt year. I wouldn't be surprised if Leahy joined that club. 

Sam Longo

Sam transferred from Ohio State. I mentioned that Parker Ehinger was an -OR- at right guard. Sam Longo is the first name in that situation. He is 6-5, 286. If Butch Jones went off height and weight, Longo would not start. Fortunately for everyone, Jones goes by who is better on the field. Since he doesn't really know, we will all find out tomorrow night. 

Austen Bujnoch

Bujnoch is 6-5, 285. Big men run in the Bujnoch family. His dad was an NFL lineman. His brother, Digger, was a lineman at UC in the middle of the decade. Bujnoch started every single game at right guard last season. For his junior year, he, like Lefeld, is moving to the left side. He's the starting left guard. He figures to start the next 2 seasons at one of the guard positions. 

Deyshawn Bond

Bond is a freshman from Indianapolis. He is one of the Warren Central 4. At 6-2, he is the shortest offensive lineman. He will probably redshirt. Since he is a freshman, one has to wonder how often Bond has been pranked with Gold Bond powder. I would guess at least once. 

Cory Keebler

Keebler is a redshirt sophomore. He saw action in 9 games last season. He is pretty much in the same role as his freshman year. He's backing up Eric Lefeld. Cory will see action, no doubt about it. It won't be a ton of time, but he will get on the field. 

Justin Murray

Murray is a redshirt freshman. He is not on the two deep depth chart. He is almost an average size for an offensive lineman at 6-5, 272. His weight brings the almost. At 272, he is one of the leanest of the linemen. Only Leahy weighs less. He is not related to the next man on the list. 

Daniel Murray

Daniel Murray is not related to Justin Murray in any way. Justin Murray is black, Daniel Murray is not. Justin Murray is on the Bearcats roster that was released in the game notes, Daniel Murray is not. 

Dominic Mainello

Dominic Mainello is a walk on. He is a sophomore. He is also the back up center to Mr Sprague. Mainello hasn't played as a Bearcat. He will when they blow the doors off some bad teams later in the season. He's the man wearing 69, so he's the one that will make all the kids laugh. 

Kevin Schloemer

Schloemer is a sophomore from right here in Liberty Township. I'm not in Liberty Township. I shouldn't have used right here. Schloemer got into the Akron game a year ago. He's not listed on the depth chart, so it would take injuries or very ineffective play or a discipline problem for him to see the field in a significant manner. He will probably play when UC is winning by a lot. Think of him as a 6-7, 290 pound victory cigar. 

Sean Hooey

Hooey is the man pictured at the top of the article. He is a mountain of a man at 6-9, 295 pounds. He went up against it last season, playing 7 games. He started 6 of them. He missed every game after the Pittsburgh win. Hooey is back and hopefully better than ever. He was at right tackle last year, and he is the starter at right tackle this year. His size makes him someone who could appear on NFL radars. He's a senior, so the time to prove it is now. 

Andre Cureton

Cureton is a big junior. He played in 4 games last year: Austin Peay, Akron, NC State and Miami. He will be backing up Austen Bujnoch. Cureton backed him up last year as well. Cureton is notable for the change his body has gone through at UC. He came to Cincinnati at over 360 pounds. He cut 60 pounds last season. He's at 299 now. At 299, he's still the biggest Bearcat. But he's not the most gigantic one. 

Sean McClellan

McClellan is a junior. He has another thing in common with the man above him as he played in the same 4 games as Cureton. McClellan didn't make the two deep. He's a solid guy to go to in a pinch. He's hoping for some blowouts this year. 



Special Teams

Tony Miliano

Miliano is a sophomore kicker. He hit 17-25 a season ago. He was 7-7 on 20-29 yard kicks, 2-6 from 30-39 and 8-12 from 40-49. He had 4 of those kicks blocked. Most notably in that was the game tying attempt against West Virginia. Miliano hit a 48 yard kick against NC State. He made 4 field goals against Pittsburgh. He's a solid kicker. He's the golden toe.

Eric Ernst 

Listed on the website, not listed on the game notes roster. 

John Lloyd

Lloyd is a walk on from CHCA. He wears number 20. He's the guy who isn't a defensive back wearing it. He's the back up punter. I'm sure he's good at it. He made the team, he can't be that bad. 

Pat O'Donnell

The man known as the freak is the punter for the Bearcats. He also kicks off. He was first team All Big East last year. He's on the Ray Guy watch list. He was a finalist for the Guy award last year. He averaged 43.8 yards a punt. 26 of his 63 punts went inside the 20. He boomed 17 of them over 50 yards. Only 8 of his punts were touchbacks. 9 of them were fair caught. He kicked 7 touchbacks on kickoffs. He's great. 

Kirk Willis 

Willis is a redshirt freshman from Granville, Ohio. Like most long snappers, he is a walk on. He literally has one job to do. If he can't snap, he will not play. Long snappers have to fear losing their ability to snap. Especially at the college level where you can disappear at the blink of an eye. In the pros, they make fun of you for years. In college, you get sloppy drunk at frat parties and depress everyone. You also try to pick up girls by saying you were on the team, but you were the long snapper. Then you make an inappropriate joke asking if she has a long snapper. Lesson, don't fuck up long snapping.