Dan Hoard Talks All Things Cincinnati Bearcats
Dan Hoard Talks All Things Cincinnati Bearcats
Video Transcript
As always, all guests delivered on first word by Bachelor Tractor.
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Dan Hort in the studio.
Let's go.
He battled traffic, got here, lost to traffic, lost to got here.
Yes, I need to choose a different route next time, but I'm here.
Yeah, you're here and happy to be here.
Thanks for the invitation.
Yeah, we're, we're excited you're here.
Tell me why my Bearcats are gonna go bowling again this year.
Uh, I think they can win 6 games.
So if that's the bar for going to a bowl game, I think that that's doable.
They need to get off to a good start.
They opened the season this Saturday against Boston College.
BC went 2-10 last year, so it wasn't a very good team, but they've got a great coach, Bill O'Brien, former Houston Texans coach, former Penn State coach.
You know they're going to be better, so I'm not taking anything for granted, but a home.
Game against the team that's rebuilding, you'd like to think that UC can get off to a 1-0 start this week.
Scott Satterfield going into year 4, said this may be his most talented roster since he's been here in Cincinnati.
Where does that talent shine most for the Bearcats?
The offensive line, no doubt about it.
This could be the the best offensive line in the country, and that's not hyperbole.
The left tackle Joe Cotton's going to play in the NFL.
The left guard Evan Tangas is a.
First Team All-American on every list that you check.
The center Taran Taio is getting some All-Big 12 consideration, and I think the two new guys at right guard and right tackle are very good players as well.
So it begins there, and then there are a lot of new guys.
The wide receivers are pretty much all new.
The running backs are all new.
The quarterback JC French the 4th, obviously new, although he's a two-year starter at Georgia Southern, so.
Their hopes for having a good season really begin with that great offensive line.
It does.
You mentioned JC French though at quarterback.
What have you seen out of him so far in camp that gives you the confidence he can lead this team?
He was really good in spring football, and I had no idea what to expect.
I saw his stats.
I talked to some coaches, but that was the first time I'd ever seen him.
I didn't watch any Georgia Southern games when he played there.
And he completed 70% of his passes in the spring, so that made me think, OK, there might be something here.
And then once fall cap began, it was a little bit up and down.
There were days where the defense dominated, then the next day the offense would be good.
That's fairly typical for any training camp, but I think by and large he showed me that he's good enough to lead this team to.
Success.
What about the weapons?
You know me and weapons.
I need to know all about these Bearcats' weapons that he's working with.
Wide receivers or running backs or both?
Both.
Let's start with the receivers though.
All right, we'll start with wide receiver.
It's a deep group.
I think they're trying to still figure out which guys are going to emerge as the best.
There's a guy , JV Gibson.
Who played at Oklahoma last year, but he got hurt early in the season.
The year before that, he was great at a lower level.
So they're hoping that he's this year's Cyrus Allen.
Cyrus Allen was similar, tremendous a few years ago, then at Texas A&M, didn't do that much, transferred to Cincinnati.
Now it looks like he's going to be an excellent rookie for the Kansas City Chiefs.
So Gibson, you hope that maybe he can be that guy.
I think their slot receivers are really good.
Isaiah Johnson, who's like the only.
Returning wide receiver that played last year that they have.
And Cade Woolford, who came from Kansas, Kent State rather, he averaged like 26 yards every time he touched the ball last year.
Didn't have a ton of touches, but when he got it, he was explosive.
So start with those guys.
Malachi Henry's had a really good camp.
Lorenzo Fenner's had a good camp.
So I think we're going to see a bunch of them early in the season, and then which 3 or 4 emerge as the best will be determined.
And then running back.
Four really good running backs.
Yeah, Jaron Payne, probably I'm going to put him at the top of the list.
I would expect him to start in week 1, but they're going to play 4.
Jaron played at Notre Dame the last 4 years.
Now they had 2 running backs selected in the 1st round of the NFL draft last year, including Jeremiah Love.
Who's number 3 overall.
So there weren't a lot of carries to be had last year at Notre Dame, but Gron played on a state championship team at La Salle, uh, when he was in 10th grade.
Hopefully he is something like Corey Kiner, the guy who comes home, finally gets his chance to get the ball 10 times a game or something like that, and takes off from there.
Last time you joined us was right after Big 12 Media Day, and we talked about Antoine Peak making the position change to the new nickel outside linebacker kind of role.
How has that transition gone so far throughout camp?
He looks like a natural.
He's bigger.
He's up to about 230 pounds, so he's not as big as his dad was, but it's good weight.
He hasn't lost any speed.
They're trying to get him closer to the ball.
He's always had the knack for forcing fumbles, and this defense needs.
Get takeaways.
That's been a huge problem for UC the last couple of years.
They had 2 interceptions last year for the season.
I mean, hopefully they have that in week one this year, but I think having Antoine closer to the line of scrimmage is going to help maximize his ability to get the ball.
When you look at this defense as a whole overall, especially with Nate Woody coming in as defensive coordinator, what do you think could maybe be the biggest strength of this defense or an area that you're hoping to kind of see a little bit more out of from that group?
I'm hoping to see is that the quarterback is actually under pressure occasionally, which wasn't the case at all over the last couple of years.
They played typically 3 down linemen and had 8 in coverage.
It's worked for Iowa State in the Big 12.
It didn't work for Cincinnati.
Whether it was they just didn't have the personnel to play it or the scheme is kind of outdated, I don't know, but it's, it's history now.
Nate Woody worked with Scott Satterfield at Appalachian State.
He spent.
The last six years at Army, they were number 1 in the country in total defense once.
They're in the top 15 3 times, and this is an attack like blitzburgh Steelers back in the day type of approach where it's a 3-4, but at least 4 people will be rushing the quarterback every time they pass.
They're going to be coming from all over the place, so hopefully they confuse college quarterbacks and they can create some turnovers.
How big of a year is this for the program in general to Continue to set the standard that they, they set last year where they get to 7 victories, they get to a bowl game, and establish themselves in a tough, uh, as we know, Big 12.
Yeah, it's tough.
I think you would like to see the program keep ascending.
And they've done that under Coach Satterfield, but it's gonna be difficult this year because of their Big 12 schedule.
There's 16 teams in the Big 12.
You play 9 league games, so there's a lot of luck of the draw involved as to which teams you play.
And if you look at the various websites.
and how they rank the teams in the conference, Cincinnati plays the top 6.
There are other schools that might only play 2 or 3, so that's going to make it difficult.
But again, the hope, I think for all Bearcat fans is that they, they don't go backward, that they continue to ascend.
