Quarterback Gunner Kiel could be the key to Cincinnati's success
To say that it’s been a weird start to the 2014 college football season for the University of Cincinnati would be misleading.
In fact, their season won’t officially begin until the Bearcats’ opening kickoff against the Toledo Rockets. The Bearcats spent the first two weeks of the season on back-to-back "bye" weeks.
In yet another new-look AAC that now features the likes of Tulane, East Carolina and Toledo, the Bearcats have a good shot at winning a division title.
But with a solid offensive line, a talented group of receivers and an experienced defense, the team' biggest gap is the sport’s most important position.
Over the last six years, Cincinnati went through eight different starting quarterbacks. The Bearcats’ brass were looking to end the trend when they announced that Gunner Kiel would start against the Rockets.
According to Rivals, the former five-star recruit was considered to be the best new quarterback in the nation in 2012. He is now set to make his college debut against Toledo on Friday night. Prior to joining the Bearcats in 2013, the redshirt sophomore spent his freshman year at Notre Dame before transferring to Cincinnati in 2013.
The Indiana native initially committed to Indiana University and then to LSU before enrolling at Notre Dame.
"It's time to learn from your mistakes and your successes," head coach Tommy Tuberville said about Kiel to USA Today. "We need him to just lead the offense. Hopefully we can see that same leadership that we saw from him last spring at the end."
At 6-foot-4 inches and 208 pounds, Kiel has great size to back up his impressive resume - he threw for over 4,800 yards and 61 touchdowns in two years as his high school’s starting quarterback - but it will be interesting to see if he can translate that success at the college level.
Hopefully for Tuberville, the Bearcats found their quarterback of the future. If Kiel can live up to the hype, Cincinnati should prove to be the team to beat in the AAC.