CINCINNATI -- Chris Moore and Mekale McKay were each yelling at the TV Sunday night but for different reasons. The two University of Cincinnati wide receivers had Denver Broncos receivers as part of their fantasy teams. Moore had Demaryius Thomas, who despite being targeted 11 times had just four catches for 48 yards. McKay had Julius Thomas, who turned seven catches from Peyton Manning into 104 yards and three touchdowns in Denver's 31-24 win against Indianapolis.
"My guy Julius Thomas did a nice job with Peyton Manning. He really surprised me but I'm happy," said McKay.
"Jamaal Charles hurt me this week. And Demaryius Thomas. It was a rough one," said Moore.
Moore and McKay will get to stop watching others catch footballs and play a game themselves Friday night when UC (finally) opens its season against Toledo at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bearcats have been off the first two weeks of the college season because of a scheduling snafu that leaves them as the only FBS team yet to play its first game. Head coach Tommy Tuberville has had to become creative in finding ways to keep his team focused on Toledo without going stir crazy from all of the extra time practicing against one another.
The potential of Moore, McKay and a wide receiver group that goes nine-deep on the opening depth chart is one thing that has Tuberville excited for this opener and the upcoming season.
"It's what you strive for," said Tuberville. "We didn't have it last year, obviously, but it's something we've been blessed with to this point. Now, knock on wood, we need to keep them healthy."
Tuberville did the expected on Tuesday at his weekly press conference by naming sophomore Gunner Kiel as his starting quarterback. Kiel will have numerous targets at his disposal.
Of the nine receivers on the depth chart, seven of them -- including Moore and McKay -- are juniors to go along with sophomore and Nate Cole and senior Ralph David Abernathy IV.
Shaq Washington was the leading receiver last season with 78 catches for 783 yards. Moore led the receivers with nine touchdown receptions among his 45 catches, while McKay had seven touchdowns on just 16 catches. He averaged 30.3 yards -- nearly one-third of a football field -- when he caught the ball. McKay got a late start with the Bearcats last season. The Louisville native transferred from Arkansas to UC in August 2013 in order to be closer to home and his ailing grandmother, who raised him. The NCAA granted McKay his eligibility immediately because of his family circumstances.
"It was definitely a learning process," said McKay of last season. "After I got the plays down it was more about learning my adjustments and learning my alignments where I could extend my routes. After I learned everything it went pretty well."
Moore has turned into the team's best route runner, according to Tuberville. That's a far cry from what he was able to give the team his redshirt freshman season. He had four catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns. He had a 65-yard score against Temple and a 25-yard touchdown catch against Duke in the Belk Bowl.
He's spent a lot of time evolving his game.
"In high school that's all I did -- go deep and catch the ball. When I first got here that's all that I did. If you want to be a great receiver, you've got to do everything," said Moore, who said he studies Larry Fitzgerald tapes from his college days at Pitt and in the NFL with Arizona. "The body control he has to be able to know where the ball is going to land is amazing. I try to work it and learn how he does it. I go on YouTube and search all of the Larry Fitzgerald college highlight tapes. I find them and you see he knows how to block defenders off of his body. He knows where the ball is going to be at."
The Bearcats have added junior college transfers Johnny Holton (6-3, 190) and Casey Gladney (6-2, 185) to the position group as well as getting Alex Chisum (6-3, 195) back from a redshirt season. Washington (5-9, 174) and Abernathy IV (5-7, 161) are the only receivers listed smaller than 6-1.
"I think if we can pick up where we left off last season at the end of the regular season then this offense has a chance to explode because of the speed that we have," said Tuberville. "We have a lot of speed that can stretch the field. Now we just have to work on consistency and everyone learning their position."
One potential problem with this many receivers is finding enough playing time and receptions for all of them. None of them is anticipating such an issue to develop.
"We have guys with length, size and speed. We can stretch the field in many ways. It's going to be a lot of trouble for a lot of teams to guard us," said McKay. "We're like brothers. We all do it in a good way to where everyone feels equal and good enough to step up and make a play at any moment. We don't want one guy thinking that someone likes someone else better than the other. It's not like that. We share a bond. We're friends. We're family. We get on this field and it gets crazy."
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