One player who opened the eyes of the Cincinnati Bearcats coaching staff last fall was
Marcus Waugh. The native of Whitehouse, Ohio and Toledo St. John’s High School
showed he was ready and able to battle at the college level and earn some
playing time at fullback. But just when things were going great, a knee injury
stopped Marcus in his tracks and ended his freshman season.
In 2006 Marcus is back working to regain the spot he looked ready to help the
Bearcats during the 2005 season. Bearcat Insider spoke with Marcus about his
knee and his goal for this spring.
Bearcat Insider: Talk about coming off the injury and how you’re doing right
now?
Marcus Waugh: The knee is totally healthy, but I need to get the muscles
around the knee back to full strength. Doing all this running is helping, but
once it gets tired it hurts a little bit, other then that I feel great.
Bearcat Insider: You’re being held out with limited contact, is that getting
to you now?
Marcus Waugh: A little bit. I’m ready to get cleared and excited to hit
somebody. Eight months of just sitting around not able to hit anybody and
watching a season go by gets to you.
Bearcat Insider: You had a real good fall camp and looked like you could have
earned some playing time, how hard was it to stand back and watch?
Marcus Waugh: It was pretty hard going through it, but talking with my
teammates they told me to just get ready since I was going to have a fresh start
to come back and do it all over again and have the chance to prove myself.
Bearcat Insider: What is your main goal this spring?
Marcus Waugh: To just be able to do everything I use to do on this knee and
show the coaches I’m 100 percent.