Cincinnati’s offensive line is getting plenty of preseason attention, and now it has a spot on The Athletic’s annual college football “freaks” list to go with it.
The Bearcats landed one player on Bruce Feldman’s 2026 list of 101 freak athletes: left guard Evan Tengesdahl, who checked in at No. 87. Feldman pointed to Tengesdahl’s 82.8 PFF rating from last season, which was the best among Big 12 guards and sixth nationally.
At 6-foot-4 and 323 pounds, Tengesdahl has already drawn notice beyond the Bearcats’ own orbit. The source notes that he could have taken offers from multiple Big Ten and SEC programs, but chose to stay in Cincinnati. He has also shown up on a number of preseason All-American lists.
He’s not the only Cincinnati lineman getting recognition. Taran Tyo, his fellow offensive lineman, has been named to preseason All-Big 12 lists, and Feldman mentioned him on the freaks list as well. The article describes Tyo, a Ball State transfer, as “almost as strong” as Tengesdahl, though his 700-pound back squat was cited as evidence that his lower body may be even stronger.
That pairing makes sense in the bigger picture. Cincinnati was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award last season, which goes to the best offensive line in college football, so the attention on Tengesdahl and Tyo fits the way the Bearcats have already been viewed up front.
The list also included a nod to CJ Crite. Feldman mentioned him among players expected to have a bigger role after the Ty Goodwill Achilles injury. In the article, Tengesdahl even gave Crite a shoutout in the weight room, saying the 207-pound defensive back is “Lifting like three times his body weight.”
Tengesdahl and Tyo also share the highest strength rating in EA Sports’ College Football 27 Video Game, another sign of how much power Cincinnati believes it has in the A and B gaps.
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