Derrick Canteen Opens Up About Being a Captain For First Time In College Career

Cincinnati named their leaders this month.

Cincinnati Bearcats defensive back Derrick Canteen catches a pass during spring football practice, Monday, March 4, 2024, at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. / Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

CINCINNATI — Derrick Canteen is one of the newest Bearcats on the 2024 football team, but the starting strong safety has taken little time to assert his leadership tendencies and earn captaincy.

The veteran player discussed what it meant to be voted a captain for the first time in his career.

"It was a great honor, really a privilege," Canteen said to the media on Tuesday. "Something like that, coming from your teammates, coming from something that's voted upon. I don't take it for granted. Something I feel you have to earn so I'm in one sense, proud of myself, but at the same time, I'm appreciative of my teammates and staff for trusting me since I've been here. Trusting me and pushing me to lead especially the staff, since I've gone here, the message coming in was not only to make plays, but also to lead. So any chance I can, I want to do that, and I'll continue to do that."

Canteen has played nearly 2,000 career snaps from Georgia Southern to Virginia Tech and now UC. He and the rest of the new defensive faces are tasked with shutting down the big play spigot that gushed last season.

Canteen's coming off of a season where he earned a 67.2 PFF grade and a career-high 91.3 run defense grade.

"This is the first time I've actually been voted captain," Canteed noted. "I've been in many leadership roles in high school. We didn't really vote captains. Every game was kind of different. We had different people go and do the coin toss. And I've never been one in college, so it's the first time I've actually been officially voted captain. But as far as going back to these characteristics that we were talking about, I'd say probably like middle school is when I just started to see how it was different."

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