FUELED BY BCS RUN, CINCY KEEPS TWO TOP RECRUITS IN TOWN

As a city, Cincinnati has never been short on football talent. The problem for the University though, was keeping that talent in town. It looks like head coach Brian Kelly has started to make progress on building a fence around his hometown recruiting.Tight end Alex Smith and offensive lineman Kevin Schloemer both committed to Kelly and the hometown Bearcats this weekend. Both are local high school products and keys to a new recruiting class that is hoping to build on last season’s Orange Bowl appearance.According to Smith, the new winning ways were a big factor."Those weren’t even his recruited players, and he goes and wins a championship that UC has never seen before,” Smith told the Cincinnati Inquirer. “It’s on the rise, and I want to be part of that."Smith, a 6'5" 230 lb. tight end out of Lakota West High, already has offers from many top programs, including Michigan, Michigan State, Kentucky, and Illinois. Schloemer, his 6'7" 275 lb. teammate has offers from Illinois, Nort Carolina State, and Indiana.With the conference more unstable at the top than it has been in years, it’ll be interesting to see if the Bearcats can stake a claim to the top of the Big East.