By Bill Koch
In nearly 30 years of covering UC athletics, I encountered a seemingly endless stream of compelling stories and interesting, engaging interview subjects that made my job easier. At the top of that list was Connor Barwin.
One of the most popular athletes at UC during the years that I covered the beat, Barwin made his mark first as a tight end on the Bearcats’ football team, then as a forward on the basketball team, and then again on the football team, this time as a defensive end on the 2008 team that won the Big East championship and played in the Orange Bowl.
Barwin went on to play for 10 years in the NFL after the Houston Texans drafted him in the second round in 2009. He played four years with the Texans, four with the Philadelphia Eagles, and one each with the Los Angeles Raiders and New York Giants. Barwin was a Pro Bowl selection in 2014 when he played outside linebacker for the Eagles.
Today he works for the Eagles as a special assistant to the general manager focusing on player development, hoping to become a GM or a team president.
“I feel really lucky the way things worked out,” Barwin said when I checked in with him this week. “I was a kid that grew up in Detroit and never really thought about the University of Cincinnati, and now I’m so incredibly proud and so thankful. I met so many great people. I look back and I’m proud of the school, and how well the school’s done since I’ve been there.”
Barwin’s remarkable UC journey began when he was recruited out of University of Detroit Jesuit High School by Bearcats head coach Mark Dantonio and assistant coach Dan Enos. He wasn’t offered a scholarship until Dantonio, who was in Detroit to check out another recruit, stopped by to watch him play basketball. “It was one of the best high school games I ever played,” Barwin said. “The next day Mark offered me a scholarship.”
Barwin knew next to nothing about UC football before that. In fact, he didn’t even know the Bearcats had a football team. But when he talked to Enos and then visited UC he was impressed. He realized the Bearcats were serious about football and were excited about entering the Big East Conference after nine years in Conference USA.
As a freshman in 2005, Barwin caught eight passes for 144 yards and one touchdown. He improved to 13 catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns as a sophomore. After his freshman season, the basketball team, in a transition year under interim head coach Andy Kennedy following the firing of Bob Huggins, was short-handed after a season-ending knee injury to Armein Kirkland. Kennedy asked Dantonio if he could recommend any football players who might be capable of helping out.
Dantonio remembered when he had seen Barwin play basketball during the recruiting process and told Kennedy about him. When Dantonio called to tell Barwin there might be a spot for him on the basketball team, he jumped at the chance to play a sport he had always loved. He auditioned in a shoot-around with Corie Blount, a former UC star and NBA player who was helping out as an assistant coach.
“He tells Andy Kennedy, ‘All right, this kid can be on the team,’” Barwin said. “So then I go to practice.” After two days of practice, Barwin suited up for his first game on Jan. 14, 2006, against Syracuse at Fifth Third Arena. He did not expect to play in that game, or any other game really, and he was OK with that.
“My number was 51,” he said. “I didn’t have my name on the back of the jersey. We warm up and I’m sitting in the middle of the bench thinking this is going to be awesome. We’re playing Syracuse, the game is on ESPN, and Fifth Third was probably full. I grew up loving basketball. I was thinking this is really awesome. I’m just going to sit here and watch these games.
“About halfway through the first half, Andy walks down and he kind of smirks at me. I think he was just messing with me. He was like, are you ready to go in? I don’t know what I said. I took off my warm-up and he said, ‘All right, you’re in, man, go in there.’ It was probably one of the most nervous moments in my life. I was thinking, where do I go? I walked down to the front of the scorer’s table and I knelt down. The ball went out of bounds. I walk in the game, just nervous as hell. I dove for a loose ball and a minute later I’m at the free throw line, and I’m thinking, just hit the rim. I think it was a one-and-one and I missed. I was just happy I hit the rim. It was just a crazy 10 minutes of my life.”
Barwin played in every game for the rest of that season, averaging one point and 2.2 rebounds. He came back for the 2006-07 season, with Mick Cronin as the new head coach, and averaged 1.2 points and 1.4 rebounds. But he remained first and foremost a football player. He caught 31 passes for 399 yards and two touchdowns as a junior, and was looking forward to a career as an NFL tight end after his senior year.
“I totally believed I was going to be a professional tight end in the NFL,” Barwin said. “I thought that was going to happen because (UC tight end) Brent Celek went on to do that and I compared myself to him.”
But Brian Kelly had other ideas.
Kelly, had taken over as UC’s head coach in 2007 after Dantonio left for Michigan State. Barwin loved playing for Dantonio, but he was excited about what Kelly would bring to the program.
“There was a new energy about him,” Barwin said. “It was almost like Mark was a little old school and this guy was a little new school.”
He and Jason Kelce, the Eagles’ center who played at UC with Barwin, have talked about having played for two UC head coaches with such disparate philosophies.
“For a group of us that got to play for those two coaches, we were really so lucky because one was defense, one was offense,” Barwin said. “The way they coached was different. The way our weight programs were run was very different. To have Mark first, where he kind of kicked our ass for two years, made us pretty tough, and then we went to Brian and it was all about speed, efficiency, being smart. It was such a perfect balance.”
Before Barwin’s senior year, Kelly called him into his office and asked him to switch to defensive end for his senior year. The team needed him there, Kelly said. Then he pointed out how the move would benefit Barwin in the long run.
Barwin wasn’t sure about that until Kelly explained that in the Bearcats’ four-wide offense, a lot had to happen for him to be productive. The offensive line had to do its job. Kelly had to call a play that involved the tight end, and the quarterback had to throw him the ball.
“On defense,” Kelly said, “it’s just you beating one guy every single snap. Your production is not based on three other people.”
That made sense to Barwin. “I loved playing defense ever since,” he said.
Barwin proved Kelly right when he led the Big East in sacks in 2008 with 11 and was named first-team all-conference. He’ll never know if he would have made the NFL as a tight end.
“I just loved to attack,” he said. “I loved hitting people, and I loved the camaraderie on defense. There’s not the stats that guys worry about on offense as much. More than anything it was just hitting people instead of getting hit. That’s the easiest way to put it. I loved every minute of it my whole career.”
Barwin retired as a player after the 2018 season. In addition to his work with the Eagles, he runs the Make The World Better Foundation, which he established in 2013. The foundation builds playgrounds in inner city neighborhoods that are sometimes overlooked.
“My dad was a city manager so I grew up knowing the importance of public spaces, interaction between communities and public space,” Barwin said. “I knew what some kids were growing up with and I knew what other kids were growing up with. I had a real understanding that this shit isn’t fair.
“So when I got to Philly, I signed a decent contract and I said, OK, I’m going to try to make a difference here. We’re working on our fourth playground project. The magic of what we do is we work with, learn from, and partner with a neighborhood and a community, and we try to help them implement what their vision is.
“We believe if you want a public space to be successful, to be a place where everyone from a neighborhood can go and interact and have fun, it needs to be a place where everyone is involved in the building process and the design. We believe every kid deserves to have a safe, fun place to go within a couple of blocks of where they live. I’m super proud of it.”
Barwin, 34, completed his history degree in 2017 to make sure, he said, that he got everything out of his UC experience that he could. His diploma is prominently displayed on his office wall.
During his time at UC, Barwin saw the football program grow each year culminating on the late November night in 2008 when the Bearcats beat Syracuse at Nippert Stadium to clinch the Big East championship and a berth in the Orange Bowl. After the game, he held the championship trophy aloft as he walked among fans on the field, many of them reaching up touch it as if it were a religious artifact.
“I’ll never forget being at Nippert and the fans were throwing oranges on the field," he said. "That was incredible,” he said.
In nearly 30 years of covering UC athletics, I encountered a seemingly endless stream of compelling stories and interesting, engaging interview subjects that made my job easier. At the top of that list was Connor Barwin.
One of the most popular athletes at UC during the years that I covered the beat, Barwin made his mark first as a tight end on the Bearcats’ football team, then as a forward on the basketball team, and then again on the football team, this time as a defensive end on the 2008 team that won the Big East championship and played in the Orange Bowl.
Barwin went on to play for 10 years in the NFL after the Houston Texans drafted him in the second round in 2009. He played four years with the Texans, four with the Philadelphia Eagles, and one each with the Los Angeles Raiders and New York Giants. Barwin was a Pro Bowl selection in 2014 when he played outside linebacker for the Eagles.
Today he works for the Eagles as a special assistant to the general manager focusing on player development, hoping to become a GM or a team president.
“I feel really lucky the way things worked out,” Barwin said when I checked in with him this week. “I was a kid that grew up in Detroit and never really thought about the University of Cincinnati, and now I’m so incredibly proud and so thankful. I met so many great people. I look back and I’m proud of the school, and how well the school’s done since I’ve been there.”
Barwin’s remarkable UC journey began when he was recruited out of University of Detroit Jesuit High School by Bearcats head coach Mark Dantonio and assistant coach Dan Enos. He wasn’t offered a scholarship until Dantonio, who was in Detroit to check out another recruit, stopped by to watch him play basketball. “It was one of the best high school games I ever played,” Barwin said. “The next day Mark offered me a scholarship.”
Barwin knew next to nothing about UC football before that. In fact, he didn’t even know the Bearcats had a football team. But when he talked to Enos and then visited UC he was impressed. He realized the Bearcats were serious about football and were excited about entering the Big East Conference after nine years in Conference USA.
As a freshman in 2005, Barwin caught eight passes for 144 yards and one touchdown. He improved to 13 catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns as a sophomore. After his freshman season, the basketball team, in a transition year under interim head coach Andy Kennedy following the firing of Bob Huggins, was short-handed after a season-ending knee injury to Armein Kirkland. Kennedy asked Dantonio if he could recommend any football players who might be capable of helping out.
Dantonio remembered when he had seen Barwin play basketball during the recruiting process and told Kennedy about him. When Dantonio called to tell Barwin there might be a spot for him on the basketball team, he jumped at the chance to play a sport he had always loved. He auditioned in a shoot-around with Corie Blount, a former UC star and NBA player who was helping out as an assistant coach.
“He tells Andy Kennedy, ‘All right, this kid can be on the team,’” Barwin said. “So then I go to practice.” After two days of practice, Barwin suited up for his first game on Jan. 14, 2006, against Syracuse at Fifth Third Arena. He did not expect to play in that game, or any other game really, and he was OK with that.
“My number was 51,” he said. “I didn’t have my name on the back of the jersey. We warm up and I’m sitting in the middle of the bench thinking this is going to be awesome. We’re playing Syracuse, the game is on ESPN, and Fifth Third was probably full. I grew up loving basketball. I was thinking this is really awesome. I’m just going to sit here and watch these games.
“About halfway through the first half, Andy walks down and he kind of smirks at me. I think he was just messing with me. He was like, are you ready to go in? I don’t know what I said. I took off my warm-up and he said, ‘All right, you’re in, man, go in there.’ It was probably one of the most nervous moments in my life. I was thinking, where do I go? I walked down to the front of the scorer’s table and I knelt down. The ball went out of bounds. I walk in the game, just nervous as hell. I dove for a loose ball and a minute later I’m at the free throw line, and I’m thinking, just hit the rim. I think it was a one-and-one and I missed. I was just happy I hit the rim. It was just a crazy 10 minutes of my life.”
Barwin played in every game for the rest of that season, averaging one point and 2.2 rebounds. He came back for the 2006-07 season, with Mick Cronin as the new head coach, and averaged 1.2 points and 1.4 rebounds. But he remained first and foremost a football player. He caught 31 passes for 399 yards and two touchdowns as a junior, and was looking forward to a career as an NFL tight end after his senior year.
“I totally believed I was going to be a professional tight end in the NFL,” Barwin said. “I thought that was going to happen because (UC tight end) Brent Celek went on to do that and I compared myself to him.”
But Brian Kelly had other ideas.
Kelly, had taken over as UC’s head coach in 2007 after Dantonio left for Michigan State. Barwin loved playing for Dantonio, but he was excited about what Kelly would bring to the program.
“There was a new energy about him,” Barwin said. “It was almost like Mark was a little old school and this guy was a little new school.”
He and Jason Kelce, the Eagles’ center who played at UC with Barwin, have talked about having played for two UC head coaches with such disparate philosophies.
“For a group of us that got to play for those two coaches, we were really so lucky because one was defense, one was offense,” Barwin said. “The way they coached was different. The way our weight programs were run was very different. To have Mark first, where he kind of kicked our ass for two years, made us pretty tough, and then we went to Brian and it was all about speed, efficiency, being smart. It was such a perfect balance.”
Before Barwin’s senior year, Kelly called him into his office and asked him to switch to defensive end for his senior year. The team needed him there, Kelly said. Then he pointed out how the move would benefit Barwin in the long run.
Barwin wasn’t sure about that until Kelly explained that in the Bearcats’ four-wide offense, a lot had to happen for him to be productive. The offensive line had to do its job. Kelly had to call a play that involved the tight end, and the quarterback had to throw him the ball.
“On defense,” Kelly said, “it’s just you beating one guy every single snap. Your production is not based on three other people.”
That made sense to Barwin. “I loved playing defense ever since,” he said.
Barwin proved Kelly right when he led the Big East in sacks in 2008 with 11 and was named first-team all-conference. He’ll never know if he would have made the NFL as a tight end.
“I just loved to attack,” he said. “I loved hitting people, and I loved the camaraderie on defense. There’s not the stats that guys worry about on offense as much. More than anything it was just hitting people instead of getting hit. That’s the easiest way to put it. I loved every minute of it my whole career.”
Barwin retired as a player after the 2018 season. In addition to his work with the Eagles, he runs the Make The World Better Foundation, which he established in 2013. The foundation builds playgrounds in inner city neighborhoods that are sometimes overlooked.
“My dad was a city manager so I grew up knowing the importance of public spaces, interaction between communities and public space,” Barwin said. “I knew what some kids were growing up with and I knew what other kids were growing up with. I had a real understanding that this shit isn’t fair.
“So when I got to Philly, I signed a decent contract and I said, OK, I’m going to try to make a difference here. We’re working on our fourth playground project. The magic of what we do is we work with, learn from, and partner with a neighborhood and a community, and we try to help them implement what their vision is.
“We believe if you want a public space to be successful, to be a place where everyone from a neighborhood can go and interact and have fun, it needs to be a place where everyone is involved in the building process and the design. We believe every kid deserves to have a safe, fun place to go within a couple of blocks of where they live. I’m super proud of it.”
Barwin, 34, completed his history degree in 2017 to make sure, he said, that he got everything out of his UC experience that he could. His diploma is prominently displayed on his office wall.
During his time at UC, Barwin saw the football program grow each year culminating on the late November night in 2008 when the Bearcats beat Syracuse at Nippert Stadium to clinch the Big East championship and a berth in the Orange Bowl. After the game, he held the championship trophy aloft as he walked among fans on the field, many of them reaching up touch it as if it were a religious artifact.
“I’ll never forget being at Nippert and the fans were throwing oranges on the field," he said. "That was incredible,” he said.
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