Cincinnati Bearcats Football Lagging Behind Brendan Sorsby After TCU Pro Football Focus Grades

CINCINNATI — The Pro Football Focus grades are live for Cincinnati's 45-23 drubbing at the hands of TCU to close the 2025 regular season. They barely outgraded last week's overall performance with a 68.5 overall to limp into bowl season 7-5 on a four-game losing streak.

On offense, Brendan Sorsby got let down by his teammates again in easily the best showing on that unit (82 overall grade). He did not commit to playing in the bowl game later this month as Cincinnati scrambles to give him a reason to stick around for next season. He is one of six UC players with an 80-plus grade this season and the only one above 85 overall (90 overall for Sorsby).

He finished as the nation's 10th-best quarterback by ESPN QBR (81.5 overall) and will arguably be the most sought-after passer in the nation if he enters the transfer portal. The rest of the top five TCU grades went to Evan Tengesdahl (74.8), Patrick Gurd (73.4), Noah Jennings (69.4), and Gavin Gerhardt (67.6).

" Yeah, at the end of the day, in this day and age, even if you know you're graduating or thinking about going somewhere else. Nowadays you're playing and every rep matters, whether you're staying and playing for the guys in the locker room or playing for yourself and that's honestly the message," Sorsby said about his speech to the team during the weather break. "We only have this team one time. We were a really close team.

"We were a really close group, put in a ton of work together, but at the end of the day, even if you want to take the selfish route, you still have to perform and still have to display your talents out there. So at the end of the day, we had to come out and execute. We didn't do that tonight. I still think there was some really good out there, there was some really bad too, but I think the guys showed up. I think we put a lot of effort out there, but obviously it didn't go the way we wanted to."

Joe Royer paced the group at the bottom during his worst run-blocking season in college (47.3 run-blocking grade in 2025). He had a 49.6 overall mark against TCU. The rest of the bottom five went in this order: Elijah Jones (54.3), Isaiah Johnson (54.9), Cyrus Allen (56.2), and Gavin Grover (57.3).

Flipping to defense, Jalen Hunt flashed at the top with a 75.2 grade, followed by Simeon Coleman (72.1), Antwan Peek Jr. (70.5), Jake Golday (70.1), Daniel James (69.7), and Rob Jackson (69.7).

It was a horrendous overall performance for the defense, which had 12 players grade out at 60 or lower. Logan Wilson got diced up in coverage for a team-low 35.6 grade, followed by Mikah Coleman (45.6), Tayden Barnes (50.1), Matthew McDoom (53.2), and Ormanie Arnold (53.8).

McDoom and Arnold have been disappointments from the transfer portal, particularly McDoom, who's dropped to a 65.4 season PFF grade (78-plus each of the last two seasons) and has one interception to 37 catches allowed (39 total the last two seasons).

Cincinnati swung and missed on its secondary transfer portal fixes. They will have one more chance for an eighth win sometime this month when bowl matchups are announced on Sunday.

Bookmark Bearcats Talk for the latest news, breakdowns, and so much more. Check out our YouTube page as well, starting with the video below.

Also, don't miss the podcast, Bearcat Blitz, wherever you get your shows!

Apple: http://apple.co/4fI26zj

Spotify: http://bit.ly/3OqvD4l

YouTube: http://bit.ly/414XiQ6

-----

Be sure to keep it locked in on Bearcats Talk, as we cover the trials and tribulations of the Big 12!

Follow Bearcats Talk on Twitter: @BearcatsTalk

Like Bearcats Talk on Facebook: Bearcats Talk