He was demoted to third string, promoted to starter and demoted again during the Bearcats' 4-8 2016. But he missed the bowl game after the 2015 season for personal reasons, then was hurt for most of the next spring. Kiel earned honorable mention All-American Athletic Conference honors in 2014 and finished the next year among the nation's top 25 passers. Kiel signed with Notre Dame, redshirted during the Fighting Irish's run to the January 2013 national title game and eventually transferred to Cincinnati, 90 miles east of where he grew up. He committed to LSU, then decommitted, prompting then-coach Les Miles to say that Kiel "did not necessarily have the chest and the ability to lead a program." Kiel committed to Indiana, then decommitted. He even had the name is there a better name for a passer than Gunner?īut things didn't work out. His father and two brothers were college quarterbacks, and his uncle Blair was a Notre Dame quarterback drafted by the Bucs in 1984. ESPN's cameras spent enough time in his hometown, Columbus, Ind., to make a community known for racing (Tony Stewart) and basketball (Chuck Taylor) talk more about football. Kiel had the size (he's now 6 feet 4, 225 pounds). It wasn't long ago that such an opportunity seemed like a given. "Just waiting for someone to give me an opportunity," Kiel said, "because I'll make the best of it."
After everything - the humiliation and the humility - he still has a chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a pro quarterback. The gap seems large between Winston and Kiel, and what Kiel could have been and what he has become.īut Kiel doesn't see it that way. With a strong showing in Saturday's East-West Shrine Game at Tropicana Field, he might work his way onto an NFL roster. He has been named a starter, thrown 50 touchdown passes in his first two seasons as Cincinnati's starter and lost the starting job again.
Since his days as the top pro-style quarterback in the 2012 class, he has committed to two colleges, signed with a third and transferred to a fourth. Two miles northwest of Monday's parade, there was Kiel, practicing alongside players from Manitoba and Idaho before a girls soccer team took over the field at St.