PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Panthers will face a ton of strong teams and talented players throughout the 2024 football season, but one of their top players may not play against them.
The Cincinnati Bearcats announced that redshirt junior defensive lineman Dontay Corleone will be out indefinitely due to a non-football injury.
Corleone told a trainer in Cincinnati he was experiencing chest discomfort and difficulty breathing, and later went to see a doctor who found a blood clot in his lung and treated it.
He spent the night at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and was released the next day, June 14. He had been recuperating at home for the past two weeks.
Pittsburgh faces Cincinnati in the River City Rivalry at Nippert Stadium on Sept. 7, a little more than two months away, and it's unclear if he'll be ready in time for the Week 2 matchup.
Corleone is a huge asset for the Bearcats and is coming off a strong 2023 season. The 6-foot-1, 320-pound defensive tackle recorded 39 tackles (22 solo), 6.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, one pass defensed and one forced fumble last season.
He also recorded three tackles (one solo), one tackle for loss and one sack in Cincinnati's game against Pittsburgh at Acrisure Stadium in Week 2. He was named to the All-Big 12 second team for his play last season.
Corleone came into his own as a redshirt freshman in 2022, recording 44 tackles (19 solo), 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
He earned numerous honors for his play that season, including AP and PFF Third Team All-American, PFF Top Rated Defensive Player and AFCA and College Football News Freshman Team All-American.
If Corleone doesn't perform well early in the season, Cincinnati will be without one of its best players to face its rival. Kickoff is at noon on ESPN or ESPN2.
This game between the Panthers and Bearcats will be the final game of the River City rivalry for the foreseeable future.
The two teams met eight times in the Big East from 2005-12, with Pittsburgh winning the first three meetings, but Cincinnati won the most important matchups in 2008 and 2009, helping them win back-to-back Big East regular-season titles.
University of Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi also served as defensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati for three seasons from 2004-2006.
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