TicketsCINCINNATI – The No. 4-ranked Cincinnati football team signed 19 players and added one transfer on Wednesday during National Early Signing Day.
The Bearcats' class is currently rated No. 25 by ESPN and No. 33 by 247Sports, marking the highest-rated class in the American Athletic Conference and the highest-ranked in school history.
The 2022 Class is represented in 10 different states, including eight players from Ohio and three from Florida. The class features nine mid-year enrollees who will start classes next month and be eligible to participate in spring practice.
Of the 19 high school signees, three are consensus four-star recruits (Derrick Shepard, Mario Eugenio, Jonquis "JQ" Hardaway) – two of which will play in the national all-star games. Hardaway was selected to play in the 2022 Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 2, while Eugenio is slated to play in the All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, on Jan. 8.
Most of the signing class was in early Wednesday morning before the Bearcats held practice as they continued bowl prep for No. 1 Alabama.
"Recruiting is the lifeblood of what we do and how you build," head coach Luke Fickell said. "For us, this is the way we build our program…this is the way we continue to grow our program through recruiting. It is not going to change and we are excited and happy about the class we got. I think we have nine high school guys and one transfer that will be in here as of January 10 to be involved in all of our winter workouts and spring football which gives us and those guys a big advantage to see if they can help us early on, especially with the amount of seniors we are losing."
Cincinnati will leave for Arlington, Texas on Dec. 26 and face the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the 86th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT on Dec. 31.
Complete Signees List
QB Luther Richesson 6-3.5, 205 Nashville, Tenn./Lipscomb Academy
RB Stephan Byrd* 5-11.5, 200 Canal Winchester, Ohio/Canal Winchester
WR Marcus Peterson 6-2, 190 Lake City, Fla./Columbia
WR Quincy Burroughs 6-2, 185 Jacksonville, Fla./Raines
WR Jojo Bermudez* 5-9.5, 170 Egg Harbor City, N.J./Cedar Creek
OL Ethan Green 6-7, 270 Fremont, Ohio /Fremont Ross
OL Jonathan Harder 6-5, 280 Delaware, Ohio/Olentangy Berlin
OL Luke Dalton* 6-5, 300 Crystal Lake, Ill./Marian Central Catholic
DB Pat Body, Jr. 6-1, 185 Monroeville, Pa./Gateway
DB Oliver Bridges 6-2, 180 Potomac, Md./The Bullis School
DB Jonquis "JQ" Hardaway* 6-3, 190 Phenix City, Ala./Central
DB Kalen Carroll* 6-1, 170 Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove
DB Ken Willis* 5-11, 160 Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain
DB Jonathan Thompson 6-2, 215 Columbus, Ohio/St. Francis De Sales
Sniper Cincear Lewis* 6-2.5, 185 Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo Central
DE Tyler Gillison 6-4, 245 Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington Central
DT CJ Doggette* 6-2, 275 Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington Central
DT Derrick Shepard 6-3, 305 Dayton, Ohio/Archbishop Alter
DE Mario Eugenio 6-3, 245 Tampa, Fla./Gaither
Transfer
K Ryan Coe* 6-3, 225 McDonald, Pa./South Fayette/Delaware
* - mid-year enrollee