And 2023 Miami graduate and former football player Trey LaBounty is one of the first faces of these two organizations joining forces.
The former Redhawk tight end, who earned a Master of Sport Analytics from Miami, is now off the field and helping the Bengals while working in the team’s front office.
Credit: Andrew Wade
Credit: Andrew Wade
Part of LaBounty’s job responsibility is to provide data and research to the Bengals’ scouting department. LaBounty described it as a hybrid role that also allows him to do traditional scouting when needed.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting ingrained in our scouting department and getting to see how they operate. It’s important if you are going to support and help people to understand how they work,” LaBounty said.
Miami’s connections to professional and collegiate football are long and deep.
Famous nationally for more than a half century as “the cradle of coaches,” no other university in America has produced more NFL Super Bowl coaches.
NFL Hall of Fame Coach Paul Brown was a quarterback at Miami and decades later — after winning numerous championships including both a national title while at Ohio State University and NFL championship with Cleveland Browns – founded the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968.
In NFL circles “everyone has a connection to this school,” LaBounty said. “A lot of influential people in the world of football have come through Miami. Having that name has allowed me to open doors and have conversations.”
According to Miami officials, one person who LaBounty credits with helping open doors for him is Melissa Chase, chair of the Department of Sport Leadership and Management (SLAM) at the school who connected LaBounty with a scout who had previously been with the Bengals.
Chase said LaBounty is a perfect example of a Miami student finding the right academic program that turns into a career. LaBounty’s master’s program featured a mixture of classes in Information Systems and Analytics and SLAM.
“Those courses are very advanced and very high level,” Chase said. “He was a student-athlete in a very advanced master’s program. That’s really impressive.”
That LaBounty is still involved with football does not surprise Pat Welsh, Miami’s offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.
“He loves everything about football,” Welsh said. “Even when he was here, he was working on side projects, like with the transfer portal.”
“He experienced the portal personally, so he was trying to figure out ways to create applications to help colleges recruit kids out of the portal. He was trying to figure out apps to help portal guys get recruited. His mind just works in crazy ways.”
LaBounty said he feels at home with the Bengals’ front office.
“The people have been great. It’s a really good organization.”
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