As thick as Dontay Corleone of the Cincinnati Bearcats is on the defensive line, Ball State transfer Taran Tyo is a slightly taller version of a human brick wall on the offensive line.
As much as the UC secondary has struggled in the Big 12, one of the starting safeties could be a former Division I quarterback. Xavier Williams is one of two players on the team with the same first name as the Jesuit institution on Victory Parkway. Both pronounce it in the manner that makes Musketeers fans cringe: "X-avier".
Both are part of Coach Scott Satterfield's new class of 15 transfers and 13 high school signees. Here are their stories.
Better late than never, Tyo is Cincinnati Bearcat
Taran Tyo played at Versailles High School and hails from Greenville, northeast of Dayton. During a previous regime he came to Nippert Stadium for a camp and the offensive line coach said he'd be in touch with an offer.
If you're familiar with the term "ghosted", you know what happened. Tyo, now at 6-foot-4 and 326 pounds, made his way to Ball State where he was Third Team All-Mid-American Conference last season. The Cardinals were the No. 2 passing team in the MAC and Tyo was part of their pass protection. The last two seasons he's started 11 games at right tackle and 12 games at right guard. This spring, he has spelled captain Gavin Gerhardt at times at center.
"I thought I had performed pretty well at the camp," Tyo said of his past experience. "I come from a smaller high school. Not a lot of guys get recruited out of there."
Tyo was down on UC, but offensive line coach Nic Cardwell and head coach Satterfield brought him around. Color him happy to be back at Nippert in uniform and he'll do his talking in the trenches.
"I'm pretty quiet hanging with the guys or whatever," Tyo said. "I like to do a lot of my talking on the field. I don't like to really trash talk to anybody. I like to talk through my play and be nasty on the field."
Cincinnati Bearcats offensive lineman Tyo has displayed 'Godfather' strength
Dontay Corleone is generally recognized as the strongest Bearcat on bench press, but Tyo's squat numbers have raised the eyebrows of Director of Football Performance Niko Palazeti.
"Bench is like 350 right now, I hit 605 by four on squat (estimated one lift max of 685.7)," Tyo said. "Dead lift? I'm not sure. Probably close to 6 (as in 600)."
UC coach Satterfield talks Tyo
"He's been a pleasant surprise," Satterfield said. "He's been able to play guard and center. He can play both at a high level and that gives us a lot of value up front. Obviously, Gavin (Gerhardt) can play center but ...
