Cincinnati Bearcats football gets WR Xzavier Henderson from Florida

His name is Xzavier Henderson, he’s from Miami, went to high school at Columbus, and is coming to Cincinnati to play for the Bearcats. Henderson had been listing UC on his Instagram bio and on Friday sent a video on his account from the Cincinnati training room that read, “Today, I woke up a Bearcat”.

Florida transfer receiver announced his intentions to play for the Cincinnati Bearcats Friday via an Instagram story.

Henderson is a 6-foot-3-inch wide receiver who has played with the Florida Gators for the past three seasons. He entered the transfer portal April 22 after starting 11 games for Florida last season. He had 38 catches last season with a couple of touchdowns and over three seasons snared 73 balls for 835 yards and five scores. Included in that was a five-catch, 110-yard effort against national champion Georgia last season. The touchdown was a feature play for Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson, the first-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in the recent NFL draft.

Henderson is a four-star recruit according to 247Sports.com and his ranking of .9700 is higher than anyone on last year’s Bearcat roster.

More to know about Henderson

He is from Miami, as in Florida. His high school was Columbus, as in Christopher Columbus High, a private Miami school.
He was recently ranked No. 7 by CBS among the top uncommitted players in the transfer portal.

Then-Florida Gators wide receiver Xzavier Henderson (3) catches a punt during the second half at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Thursday, April 13. Henderson is transferring to Cincinnati.

What does it mean?

Immediately, UC gains an experienced receiver with a notable resume, similar to Donovan Ollie who transferred to UC from Washington State and Dee Wiggins who previously played for the Miami Hurricanes and Louisville before joining the Bearcats. Henderson, like Wiggins, is a south Floridian.

He also has ties to another pair of Bearcats who played with him at Florida. Defensive back Jordan Young was a Henderson teammate the past two seasons in Gainesville.

More importantly, transfer quarterback Emory Jones Jr. was a Florida quarterback in 2020 and 2021 with Henderson before playing 2022 with Arizona State. The pair have connected on touchdowns in the past.

Henderson also had 137 yards in kickoff returns for the Gators and 270 yards in punt returns during his three seasons. Henderson also played in the 2020 All-American Bowl with another UC quarterback, Evan Prater. Recent NFL draftees Paris Johnson Jr. (Cardinals/Ohio State/Princeton) and Michael Mayer (Raiders/Notre Dame/Covington Catholic) also played in that contest in San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Henderson was also a teammate of current Bearcats Jordan Young and D.J. Taylor while both were at Florida. All three attended a Black Student-Athlete Summit May 22 in Los Angeles.

Also fresh out of the portal….

The Bearcats also picked up two more Power Five transfers Thursday with the commitment of 6-foot-5, 246-pound defensive end/linebacker Kyree Moyston from Virginia Tech and 6-foot-1, 200-pound safety/nickel George Udo from BYU.

Udo had 13 tackles for the Cougars last season. His best year came in 2020 when he had 25 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.

Moyston only appeared in the opening three games for the Hokies last season as a freshman.

Preseason Athlon All-Americans

More honors for redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Dontay “The Godfather” Corleone and junior punter Mason Fletcher as bother were named Preseason All-Americans by Athlon Sports.

Athlon puts Corleone on the second team even though he was already tabbed a Walter Camp Preseason First Team All-American earlier in the offseason. He was the nation’s highest-graded defensive player by Pro Football Focus with 45 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and two forced fumbles in 11 games. Corleone was an Associated Press Third Team All-American last season and American Athletic Conference First Team.

Fletcher was an AP Third Team All-American last season and AAC Special Teams Player of the Year. The Ray Guy Award finalist was fourth in the nation with a 46.2 punting average.

Overseas volleyball

In preparation for their inaugural Big 12 season, coach Molly Alvey’s Bearcat volleyball team is heading to Europe in June.

The Bearcats play in Budapest, Hungary June 1, Maribor, Slovenia June 3-4, Pula, Croatia June 6 and June 8-9 in Milan, Italy. The Big 12 slate begins Sept. 23 at home against Central Florida.

Cincy Reigns and Reds

UC’s name, image and likeness collective Cincy Reigns is having a baseball get-together at Great American Ballpark June 24. The game between the Reds and Braves starts at 4:10 p.m. that Saturday with gates opening at 2:40. It’s the annual Cincy Reigns Days with UC football coach Scott Satterfield throwing out the opening pitch. A portion of ticket sales ($5) goes to support Cincy Reigns to use name, image and likeness to promote worthy charitable causes. In addition, the general fan giveaway that day is a replica Hunter Greene jersey.