Fall camp at the Higher Ground Conference and Retreat Center is winding down for the University of Cincinnati football team.
With two days remaining, including Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage on “family day,” neither senior Ben Bryant nor sophomore Evan Prater have created enough separation to definitively lay claim to the starting quarterback job when the No. 23/22 (Associated Press/coaches polls) Bearcats open the season Sept. 3 at No. 19/23 Arkansas.
While the quarterback battle remains unsettled, so is the ongoing, even-more-crowded battle at running back. Cincinnati has a host of contenders hoping to fill the 2021 first-team All-American Athletic Conference shoes left by now Cleveland Browns running back Jerome Ford.
“I have a unique situation going on with this battle,” Cincinnati running backs coach Darren Paige told The Enquirer. “They all want to be the guy. That competitive spirt has made everyone in the room better. They’ve done a really good job of handling it, but also growing together as a unit.”
The room is packed, with senior Charles "Chuck" McClelland sitting in the front of it. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound senior told The Enquirer in the spring that he was going to make the most of his opportunity to seize the starting job.
After suffering a torn ACL in each knee over the 2019 and 2020 seasons, McClelland is healthy and appears to be back to the speed that helped him rack up nearly 600 total scrimmage yards and five total touchdowns in 2018.
“He’s had a phenomenal spring and he just continued to get better every single day,” Paige said. “He carried it on through the summer. There hasn’t been a letdown at all. I put him in some challenging situations because I wanted to see if he could carry that load and be that guy, and he’s responded to everything I’ve challenged him with. So far, so good. He’s definitely got himself in a good spot to earn that job and be that guy and help us win a lot of ball games.”
McClelland’s biggest threat to the top running back spot in the spring was Ethan Wright. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound junior has since been moved to the defensive side of the ball at safety. Wright’s departure from the running back room creates more space for Ryan Montgomery, McClelland’s roommate at Higher Ground.
“Me and Chuck have always been close,” said Montgomery, who was roommates with Ford during Cincinnati's previous two fall camps. “We kind of came in together. He was someone that I got close with my first year here. We learned together, grew together. Now, we’re brothers. So being able to compete as running backs, and then going home and being able to watch film and bounce ideas off each other has been awesome.”
While Montgomery is competing with McClelland to be the Bearcats' No. 1 running back, he’s also expected to be the team’s No. 1 punt returner. The 5-foot-11, 208-pound senior’s versatility earned him a spot on the preseason watch list for the Paul Hornung Award, presented annually to the most versatile player in college football.
Montgomery said he appreciates the recognition, but he's more focused on fine-tuning his role as a leader and being the team's No. 1 option in the backfield.
“Coach Paige has just challenged us to compete every day in the meeting room, with each other on the field, and compete with being a leader," Montgomery said. "That’s the biggest role I’m trying to take on. I want that leadership role of having my team trust me in any situation in the game.
“But I would love to have both spots (starting running back and starting punt returner), obviously. I just feel like that’s more opportunity for me to make plays. That’s my opportunity to help this team get better. I love punt return. That’s my opportunity to get out in space and do the things I like to do out there. So, yeah, I would definitely like to stay and start in both of those roles – keep catching punts and keep running the ball for this offense.”
Standing in both McClelland and Montgomery’s way are several younger running backs, including LSU transfer Corey Kiner.
The former Roger Bacon High School standout and 2020 Ohio Mr. Football is back home and back healthy after dealing with a nagging hamstring injury early in camp.
"That was a humbling experience for him a little bit, not being able to go right away out the gate," Paige said.
Kiner admitted it was a struggle, saying the combination of the injury and learning a new playbook created a "pretty tough" start to his Bearcats career.
But all is well now.
“I feel great being a Bearcat,” he said. “Everybody that's on this team has welcomed me with open arms. Coach Fick (Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell) has welcomed me with open arms. Everybody’s made me feel like I've been a part of this family since Day 1. It feels great to be home. And it feels great to be around people who are working hard and encouraging me to work hard. It feels good.”
The Cincinnati native signed with LSU over the Bearcats as a senior at Roger Bacon despite being hosted by Montgomery during his visit to the Cincinnati campus. Now, Kiner and Montgomery are pushing each other every day in practice.
“We’ve all been taking reps," Kiner said. "We’ve all been competing and encouraging each other. It’s a battle, but it’s a friendly battle. The best man is going to win. But we’re all going to be happy for each other and we’re all going to continue to encourage each other throughout the whole season.”
McClelland, Montgomery and Kiner are all on Paige's list of possible No. 1 options. He's also giving a hard look to 5-foot-11, 200-pound redshirt freshman Myles Montgomery (no relation to Ryan Montgomery).
“What he brings to the table is effort,” Paige said. “He goes hard. He’s going to run hard. He’s physical. He’s tough to bring down. He’s got great forward body lean. He’ll put his foot in the ground and he doesn’t want to make you miss. He wants to run you over. In the hole, you don’t want to see him. He wants to put that face on you and run right through you.
“To watch him mature through the spring, through the summer, and then the first two weeks of camp have just been phenomenal for him and his growth. Just understanding the protection piece and the other things that backs have to do besides carrying the ball. Watching him grow in that area has given him a chance to put his foot forward and make a strong case that hey, he could be the guy.”
With so many options at running back, Paige said he’s not shying away from the possibility of playing all of them in some capacity. He said a "running back by committee" offense could be a legitimate option for the Bearcats this season.
“Gino (Cincinnati offensive coordinator Gino Guidugli) and I have kind of went back and forth on that as a possibility,” Paige said. “Because every single one of those guys brings value. They really help us in a different aspect of the game. We think there’s a possibility that that could be the situation. We want those guys to play. We think they all could give us an opportunity to win games, move the chains and do the things that we need to do. They’ve all done a great job with the physical pieces and the protections and having to step up and block these linebackers we’ve got in our program. So that’s not out of the question at all.”
Regardless of who’s running in the backfield with the first-team offense on Sept. 3 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Paige said one thing is for sure: That guy won’t be like Jerome Ford.
“Jerome had some unbelievable long speed,” he said. “You get that dude in space, you’re not catching him. He’s showing that on Sundays too. But what I would say is it’s going to look different. I don’t think we’re replacing him. It’s just going to look different. We’ve got some of the same tools in the backfield. It’s just not going to look the same.”