WEST HARRISON, Ind. — University of Cincinnati senior offensive lineman Vincent McConnell had to be helped off of the practice field Sunday.
As his teammates finished the morning two-hour practice, the team's third of fall camp at the Higher Ground Conference and Retreat Center, McConnell sat off to the side as he received treatment from the Bearcats' medical staff.
After a dip in the cold tub and devouring a few pickles, the 6-foot-5, 300-pound lineman, wearing a huge smile, hopped back up to his feet and rejoined his teammates.
The issue?
"It's just cramps," McConnell told The Enquirer.
The fifth-year senior was just the latest of a host of Cincinnati players who were hit with cramps during the team's first three practices of camp.
McConnell, like UC head coach Luke Fickell on Friday, said the cramps are just a result of a little anxiety due to the level of intensity at which the Bearcats are currently operating.
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"This is the hardest camp I've ever been a part of," McConnell said. "It's just the intensity that everybody is bringing to camp this year. We know that we have to do more this year than we've ever had before. Last year, we came up short. This year, we know that in order to get to where we want to go ... we know that if we practice like we have in the past camps, we're going to come up short. We've been grinding out here. Everybody's bringing that intensity to camp and getting after it."
The Bearcats went 9-0 and captured the first American Athletic Conference championship in program history last season, only to come a three-point loss to Georgia in the Peach Bowl away from perfection.
Both McConnell and UC offensive line coach Ron Crook said the 24-21 loss to the Bulldogs on New Year's Day still stings.
"I think they performed well," Crook said. "Obviously not quite well enough. We had the lead. We need to keep the lead. That's your job as an offense and we weren't able to do that."
Now, the goal for Cincinnati is to do more, be better and live up to the standard set by McConnell and the team's other leaders.
"We need to bring more intensity to every thing that we do," McConnell said.
With just 27 days before the season-opener at home against in-state rival Miami University (Sept. 4), and a nonconference slate that also includes road tests at Indiana (Sept. 18) and Notre Dame (Oct. 2), McConnell and the Bearcats know the time to fine tune and iron out any remaining kinks from last season is running out.
Success for senior quarterback Desmond Ridder and the UC offense starts up front with the offensive line, and as the group's leader and lone returning senior starter, McConnell is making it his priority to make sure everyone in the group is ready for the road ahead.
"I really want to create some great players with our young guys," McConnell said. "We've got some really good depth going on. Even our old guys have a lot of developing to do. We have a 'Play Hard' board. it shows that you go hard every single play. Right now, we only have one guy that's on there. That's Lorenz Metz. I'd like to have all of the starting five on there. By the end of camp, hopefully we can do that."
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Metz, a 6-foot-9, 326-pound junior, played in eight games on special teams and as a backup offensive tackle last season. Metz could be in the mix for one of the starting tackle spots depending on how the next few weeks shake out.
Crook, who lost 2020 starting tackles James Hudson (Cleveland Browns) and Darius Harper (Los Angeles Chargers) to the NFL, said he currently has nine or 10 linemen he feels comfortable playing on game day. It remains to be seen if 6-foot-5, 311-pound Stony Brook transfer James Tunstall will be in that group. Cincinnati is still waiting on the NCAA's ruling on Tunstall's availability for the 2021 season.
"He's been great. He came in and fed our culture right away," Crook said of Tunstall. "He just kept his mouth shut and worked and got better. He can definitely help us. We're excited to find out where things stand with him."
In the meantime, Crook continues to shuffle the deck up front, even playing McConnell at center Sunday for the first time in McConnell's career.
"It's going to shuffle a lot throughout camp," Crook said. "One of the things that we always try to do is move guys from the right side to the left side and see if that's a better combination. Move guys from two to one and one to two (first-team and second-team offense) and see if it's a better combination. One of the things we always say is there's nothing better than good competition.
"At the end of the day, our No. 1 goal is figuring out how do we go from being really good, both as a team and as a unit, to being great."
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