After this weekend's developments, it's not a massive surprise, but still a shock to the UC staff. Rivals250 WR Malik Elzy has opened his recruitment and decommitted from the Bearcats. Illinois will be the obvious favorite here, but UC is still in it and the staff believes they can get him back on board. Still, a big loss at this point for the class:

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Guys, I talked to one of UC's recent visitors, but one who does not yet have a UC offer, three-star DE Andrew Hanchuk. He was at UC a couple of weekends ago for the USF game and homecoming.
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Hanchuk does have a pair of scholarship offers, from West Virginia and Toledo. He earned both at camps over the summer. So for now, those are the obvious two in the lead. I am surprised he doesn't have at least a couple more MAC offers. Seems like a hard-nosed kid from what I've seen.

Hanchuk told me he did camp at UC back in June. And he's stayed in regular contact with assistant coach Mike Tressel. Hanchuk is on the Bearcats' board, just not quite high enough to get that offer, as they're waiting on a couple others right now. But once a couple commit elsewhere, Hanchuk might be next up for UC.

The game was Hanchuk's first at UC. He told me he really liked getting to know assistant coach Walter Stewart more on the visit. And between him and Tressel, Hanchuk believes both are straightforward guys, though neither really talked about what they want to see before they'd offer.

The only two visits Hanchuk took this fall aside from UC was to West Virginia for the Kansas game they lost and to Toledo for its game against Central Michigan. No other visits planned right now, either. This is a kid who will likely benefit once his highlights come out and he hits the spring camp circuit, including with Rivals.

Still quite early, but Hanchuk is very interested in UC. Just have to wait and see what unfolds and if he does get that offer.

Full story coming.

I mean, what a cool dude, what a cool thing to do:
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A little midweek Q&A with reporters. Miller didn't want to push any NCAA rules in addressing the scrimmage with Ohio directly, But he did allude to a few things:

Video and a blurb from today's weekly press conference, ahead of UC's game Saturday at SMU:

Hey all, if you haven't seen (just check our Twitter if not), UC commit Malik Elzy had a big game on Friday night. But what caught plenty of eyeballs is that he was wearing Illinois gloves. I'll post that tweet below, but what I wanted to point out was that yesterday morning, UC commit Amare Snowden responded: "They're just gloves" and then took the tweet down probably two minutes later. But since it was in response to the tweet from Rivals, which our site was tagged in, we saw what Snowden tweeted before he deleted it.

I'm not 100% sure what to make of Snowden's response. He's been as active as any of the Bearcats' commitments in the 2023 class, as far as actively recruiting and keeping tabs on the guys currently committed. It seems that Snowden isn't too concerned. I know there's plenty of speculation, as the Illini have actively been recruiting Elzy. But I also know Snowden is actively in contact. I think Illinois will recruit Elzy right up to the moment he signs his letter of intent on signing day. But for now, it doesn't seem like there's a HUGE cause for concern. Still, we'll be monitoring Elzy until signing day in December.
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Williams gives an overall recruiting update sharing he wants to visit Cincinnati to learn more about the program.

Luke Fickell has been contacted by both Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Money talks, but I’d expect Fickell to stay at Cincinnati

UC stays at No. 21 in the AP poll, after not playing this weekend. The Bearcats are up two, to No. 19 in the coaches' poll.
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As we try to do for all of UC's commitments, I had a Rivals analyst (Adam Friedman in this case) break down Simms and talk about what it means for the Bearcats:

With the 2023 basketball recruiting cycle coming to a close, there’s one other name to keep an eye out that’s not Isaiah Collier.

As you know, Collier will announce a decision on November 16th. Many people connected in the industry believe he’ll head west for USC. That’s up for debate.

I spoke with a source connected to Kilgore CC (TX) and they said Cincinnati is still in play for combo guard DaVeon Thomas. Baring Collier’s decision, Cincinnati could make a full court press on the 6-foot-1, 185 pound sophomore.

Miller saw Thomas in person which led to an offer back in June. Thomas has seen interest from other power 5 suitors including WVU.

With limited scholarships, the transfer porter, etc - it’ll be interesting to see how Miller and Co. play this recruitment. But Thomas and Collier might be Cincinnati’s most realistic options to finish the 2023 class.

Here are some highlights the South Carolina native:

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