Gunner Trey Kiel (born July 23, 1993) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He played college football for the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

and later for the

Cincinnati Bearcats The Cincinnati Bearcats are the athletic teams that represent the University of Cincinnati. Though they will move to the Big 12 Conference (XII) the teams are currently a part of the American Athletic Conference (The American), which from 1979 ...

Early years

Kiel attended

Columbus East High School Columbus East High School (CEHS) is one of three high schools in Columbus, Indiana, United States. East is a member of the Hoosier Hills Conference in athletics and has a total of 5 IHSAA state championships. It was founded in 1972 due to the ...

Columbus, Indiana Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. The population was 50,474 at the 2020 census. The relatively small city has provided a unique place for noted Modern architecture and public art, commissi ...

. He played on the Columbus East football team. As a senior in 2011, he won the Indiana Mr. Football Award. Kiel was considered the best quarterback recruit in the nation by the

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heck ...

and

Scout.com Scout Media is an integrated sports publishing company that produces Internet content covering hundreds of professional and college teams across America. The company was founded in 2001 and was acquired by Fox Sports in 2005. In 2013, Fox Spor ...

recruiting networks.

College career

Kiel originally committed to

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. * Indiana Univers ...

, before decommitting and committing to

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

. He then decommitted and officially enrolled at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

on January 17, 2012. After spending the 2012 season on the depth chart behind

Everett Golson Everett Demone Golson (born January 2, 1993) is a former American football quarterback. He previously played quarterback for Notre Dame from 2011 to the spring of 2015. Golson chose to transfer to Florida State after graduating from Notre Dam ...

, Tommy Rees, and Andrew Hendrix, Kiel announced his decision to transfer from Notre Dame. On April 10, 2013, Kiel announced he would transfer to the University of Cincinnati for the 2013 season. After sitting out the 2013 season as required by NCAA transfer rules, Kiel made his college debut on September 12, 2014, against the

Toledo Rockets The Toledo Rockets are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Toledo. The Rockets compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The ...

. He threw six touchdown passes in that game, the most by an FBS quarterback in a first game. Kiel finished the season with 3,254 passing yards, second most in the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA ...

. His 31 touchdown passes led the conference and tied the school record. Kiel was 18 yards short of tying the Cincinnati school record for single season passing yards when he exited the Military Bowl in the third quarter with a head injury. Kiel began the 2015 season as Cincinnati's starter. He was plagued with injuries throughout the year, being replaced by backup Hayden Moore on several occasions. Kiel missed two games after being hospitalized with a head injury in Cincinnati's game against Memphis. He did not travel with the team to their bowl game in Hawaii, citing personal problems. Prior to the 2016 season, Cincinnati head coach,

Tommy Tuberville Thomas Hawley Tuberville ( ; born September 18, 1954) is an American retired college football coach and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Alabama since 2021. Before entering politics, Tuberville was the head football ...

, announced that Kiel, now a fifth-year senior, would be the third-string quarterback behind sophomore Hayden Moore (starter) and redshirt freshman Ross Trail (second-string). On October 20, Kiel was named the starter for Cincinnati's homecoming game against East Carolina after Hayden Moore went down with injury. He started the next three games but was benched again when Moore returned from injury.

Statistics

Personal life

Gunner's uncle,

Blair Kiel Blair Armstrong Kiel (November 29, 1961 – April 8, 2012) was a four-year starting quarterback and punter for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, from 1980 to 1983. He played professionally for several teams in the National Footbal ...

(1961–2012), was a quarterback at Notre Dame and played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

,Gunner Kiel gets home schooled
/ref> His brother Drew Kiel was QB for Illinois State and brother Dusty Kiel, was a QB for Indiana University.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiel, Gunner 1993 births Living people American football quarterbacks Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Cincinnati Bearcats football players People from Columbus, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana