Full story on the Bearcats moving up. Tulane is No. 19.

I mean, I'm not sure what to say about this one. Great start, then downhill from there. This one was ugly:

Full press conference from today. Lots to play for on Friday with Tulane:

The Butkus award named its five finalists today. The award goes to the best LB in the country. Below are the finalists. Winner announced Jan. 21:

Jack Campbell, Iowa
Jamon Dumas-Johnson, Georgia
Daiyan Henley, Washington State
Ivan Pace Jr., Cincinnati
Drew Sanders, Arkansas

Wes Miller and the team are about 40-50 mins from tip off here in Maui…

The Bearcats got three practices in since arriving on the island. The Cats and Miller understand the task at hand against Arizona. A fast pace team that can score the ball at a high level.

From talking to Wes and staff since arriving on the island - win or loss, they know championships aren’t won in November. And Wes specifically thinks Arizona is a top 5 team…

Highlights and game story from last night:

One more look back at the win, with Pro Football Focus' individual grades:

Thought it would be better to just post the press release I received this morning:

Supporters of the University of Cincinnati Athletics programs announced on Monday the launch of Cincy Reigns, the first Name, Image and Likeness (“NIL”) fundraising collective formed specifically to help Bearcats’ student-athletes in all sports monetize their personal brands while supporting the Greater Cincinnati philanthropic community. Cincy Reigns will provide several different ways for Cincinnati fans, donors, passionate supporters, alumni and businesses to contribute to the collective to provide NIL and direct financial opportunities for UC student-athletes.

Cincy Reigns was founded with the goal of using the NIL of the University of Cincinnati student-athletes to help promote worthy charitable causes and make positive contributions to our local communities. The Cincy Reigns vision is to create NIL opportunities for all 450+ student-athletes on UC’s 18 varsity teams.

“In order for UC’s student athletes and programs to thrive in the new NIL landscape predominant throughout college athletics, we must create a vibrant and robust financial ecosystem for our coaches and players,” said Brian Fox, Chair of the Cincy Reigns Board of Directors. “We are calling on all Bearcats supporters to get involved with Cincy Reigns to elevate the NIL opportunities for our student-athletes, so we can compete among the best on and off the field.”

Cincy Reigns derives its name from the lyrics of the University of Cincinnati’s pep song “Red and Black.” The final line is emphatically sung: “The Red and Black shall reign!”

In addition to operating a limited liability company that will serve as a clearinghouse for generating NIL deals from the business community, Cincy Reigns will also operate a nonprofit corporation, having filed Articles of Incorporation with the Ohio Secretary of State. Cincy Reigns will also soon file its Form 1023 — Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code — with the Internal Revenue Service so that donors can hopefully get the full benefit of a tax write-off for their donations.

Cincy Reigns is a third-party entity (operating both a nonprofit corporation and limited liability company) that will work closely with UC compliance, licensing, legal and UC’s sports marketing professionals to protect UC student-athletes and ensure compliance with all NCAA and UC NIL policies an guidelines.

Consistent with numerous other NIL Collectives across the country, Cincy Reigns has a two-part leadership structure comprised of a Board of Directors and a Board of Advisors. The Board of Directors is responsible for the legal governance, financial accountability, and casting the vision and direction of Cincy Reigns. The Board of Advisors will serve as a sounding board for UC’s student athletes as they navigate professional decisions and opportunities

Additionally, Cincy Reigns wants UC’s student athletes to thrive on and off the field, during their time as students, and well after graduation. Accordingly, Cincy Reigns will offer character and life education opportunities for student-athletes so they learn how to successfully compete at more than just the sport they love.

Another weekly honor for the Bearcats, this one from Ryan Coe:
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The Bearcats lost the battle of statistics last Friday, but fortunately, they won the game. That’s the most concise way to describe the UC/ECU game for me.

Looking Back:

Looking at the PFF grades, several jumped out at me:
-Joe Huber’s 87.7 grade might be his best performance of the season, and James Tunstall’s 76.5 grade may have combined with it to give the Bearcats its best OT grades for a few years.
-However, in watching the game, UC (once again) struggled to run the football, and Bearcat football has always been at its best when UC has a running game. Too often, the lack of a running game has hurt.
-After performing well vs. Navy and playing the entire game, Dontay Corleone‘s PT was again scaled back to 20-25% of the total plays with a grade of 76.2. I understand that Jowon Briggs also played well during his 55 snaps scoring 72. But I’d want to find a way to get my weekly highest graded defender on the field more than only 1 of every 4-5 plays.
-There was an ongoing discussion/feud on the field among players that carried over onto Twitter between fans and/or websites. My take probably won‘t be popular among UC fans, but Byron Threats has twice been disqualified due to targeting. I know Threats probably sees himself as an enforcer, and in both games where he was targeted, there was a lot of jawing on the field. Threats is a valuable part of the defense, but he doesn’t help his team when he’s disqualified.

Looking Ahead:
-Despite being a true freshman, E.J. Warner can cause the opposition some problems, and the Temple aren’t shy about giving him the opportunity to sling the football around.
-Temple was 2 to 1 in passing vs. running last week, and for good reason. Warner was 42 of 59 for 486 yards and 3 TD in the Houston game, and the Owl QB was sacked only once. Temple has scored 90 points combined the last two weeks. They’re getting better.
-The Bearcats have struggled in every “true” road game this season. Chances are Saturday will be more of the same.

Looking Further Ahead:
-UCF discarded Tulane very similar to how they took care of UC. The game was not as close as the final score, and John Ryes Plumlee proved he is clearly the best signal caller in the AAC. I heard Dan Mullen talking about Plumlee today. Mullen recruited Plumlee to Ole Miss, and he said at one point, he and his coaches thought Plumlee was fast enough to play CB in the SEC if it didn’t work out at QB.
-UCF has an easy schedule agead playing bottom dwellers like Navy and USF, but Navy can present some issues at times with that flex-bone offense, and USF is a rival. If UC can get by with wins over Temple and Tulane, I don’t like the Bearcats in a rematch in Orlando. But if somehow the Bearcats get some help and can host the AAC Championship, getting the UCF sunshine boys in Nippert for a frosty Saturday might give UC a much better shot at getting its 3rd straight AAC title.

Bearcats up to No. 21. Tulane moves up two spots to No. 19
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Harris updates potential OV stops and recruiting interests with Rivals:

Our weekly Q&A, this time with our friends at OwlScoop.com, Rivals.com's site covering Temple:

Breeon Ishmael, a edge from Princeton HS, is taking an official visit to Ann Arbor, Michigan vs. Illinois this weekend.

The senior holds a UC offer. We’ll see if he escapes without committing to the Wolverines.

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This game wasn't always much to watch, but there were literally a few hundred people in the stands. The defense did hold firm and we got our best look at Evan Prater all season. Bryant left with a foot injury in the second quarter:

I’ve watched Tulane several times this year. I’ve been impressed with them every time I’ve seen them other than last week vs. UCF. But I give more credit to UCF than blame on Tulane for that lopsided score.

The Green Wave looked pretty impressive last night vs. a pretty good SMU team. Their defenders are excellent tacklers. Pratt does a nice job running their offense and can hurt you with his arm and his legs- the type of QB that has been tough on UC all year. I also thought Tulane had some excellent speed, although not UCF caliber speed.

It’s going to be cold on Black Friday when Tulane visits Nippert, and although that cold weather coupled with a Friday noon start will likely hurt UC’s attendance, but that weather might turn out to be the Bearcats best friend in trying to upset Tulane.

Following up my previous INsider. You can tell this kid really likes UC. Second gameday visit this fall. Was also at the Indiana game.

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Guys, I've got an update to help you get the bad taste out of your mouths after last night. I caught up with arguably the highest-priority recruit for UC in the 2024 class, four-star running back Jordan Marshall. He and I first touched base early last summer and I've stayed in touch since.
Login to view embedded media Marshall visited UC unofficially two weekends ago, for the Navy game. He's been quite a few times on campus, but that was his first time this season for a gameday. Marshall told me "It's a really special place" and that he loved seeing guys he's grown up knowing, like Deshawn Pace and Corey Kiner. Marshall also likes how close it is to home and how many people he knows. And really, that's a big part of it, is does he want to stay home and be around so many things that are familiar or try something new. Because there's a huge pull to stay home.

Marshall has been recruited primarily by assistant coach Darren Paige, but he really talked about his relationship with coach Luke Fickell. As a refresher, Fickell's oldest kids have gone to Moeller, including Landon Fickell. So Luke has been watching Marshall play since he was young. Part of why he's so high on the radar and has been for the Bearcats. Marshall told me Fickell told him his younger sons "look up" to Marshall. And Marshall said he can talk about other schools with him and get real answers. That seems to be really a big factor.

The weekend before that, Marshall was at Michigan for its win over Michigan State. He told me he likes assistant coach Mike Hart and thinks they're very similar. They can talk about anything and Marshall called him, "my guy." Before that, on Oct. 22, he visited Penn State for its whiteout game against Minnesota. Marshall visited with his mom and said the atmosphere there, what he saw on gameday, "it was really pretty and honestly left me speechless. It was something I’d dreamed of as a kid." So I think it's safe to say the Nittany Lions are quite high on the list.

No visits this weekend, but up next, he'll be at Ohio State Nov. 26 for the Michigan game. I was surprised to hear that this will be Marshall's first gameday at Ohio State. Apparently his grandpa is a HUGE Buckeyes fan and will be on the trip, along with his mom and dad. Marshall was especially excited that his grandpa will be there. So that will absolutely be a visit to watch.

Marshall and I talked about where he is overall in his recruiting process. This is the best quote he gave me: "I think God I don’t have to commit right now. If I picked one, I’d have some regret not going to the other." I think there's some teams at the top, definitely UC, Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State. Outside of that, it remains to be seen. He wants to have a decision by early summer, late spring. So he'll be one to take official visits as soon as he can, in June. And right now, it's naiive to think UC is in the lead. But the Bearcats have and will continue to put on the full press and have as good a shot as anyone to land him.

Full story coming.

I mean, that's an embarrassing loss. Sam was at the game and can add more, but that's a really rough early-season loss. Maui could get ugly.

The 6-foot-4, 190 pound PG is ranked as the 2nd best PG in America by Rivals.com.

He announced today that “a commitment date is coming soon” - I would say we know Collier’s decision date in the next week. That’s a gut feel.

Sources are saying that Collier’s “handler” believe it’s UC. But not 100% sure. They also said Wes Miller “feels OK” about Collier’s nearing decision.

As you all know, Wes Miller has been on Collier as long as any other coach in America. He has recruited the top prospect the right way. I believe the Peach State star ends up as a Cincy commit.

UC back in, at No. 25
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Today's full press conference: