One team that may be pretty surprising going into the 2016 season is the Cincinnati Bearcats as they could make some noise in the AAC. They have a good problem right now as any one of their three quarterbacks could win the starting job.
Last year, the position was held down by Gunner Kiel and true freshman Hayden Moore. The latter filled when Kiel went down with a nasty head injury and proved that he can lead the team to success.
This coupled with Kiel injuring his shoulder in the spring has left head coach Tommy Tuberville with a pretty sticky situation to start the season. He has to choose between those two and redshirt freshman Ross Trail and Kiel’s injury has dropped him to the bottom of the depth chart.
“Gunner didn’t practice but about three or four days and hurt his shoulder,” Tuberville told Cincinnati.com. “Coming out of camp, I’d say Hayden is No. 1, Ross is No. 2 and Gunner is No. 3, but that’s just because he didn’t practice. They’ll all basically start out even-up, as we always do. We’ll pick somebody and go with them.”
However, this doesn’t mean Kiel can’t sneak back up into the starting role. Tuberville said that if he can get healthy and stay that way, he could get the starting job back, but the most important thing is that he believes in all three of their guys competing for the job.
“He’s doing good, but the main thing is he’s got to stay healthy. I think we have three guys that can get the job done. We have a new quarterback coach and offensive coordinator. With a little bit of a new offense, I think that makes it an equalizer.”
Last year, Kiel threw for over 2,700 yards and 19 touchdowns while Moore threw for nearly 1,900 yards and nine touchdowns. Both quarterbacks threw 11 interceptions on the year.
The Bearcats open the season on Sept. 1 against Tennessee-Martin.
Can’t get enough of Campus Sports? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to stay updated with the latest news and exclusive giveaways!
*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
