Scott Satterfield’s Cincinnati team walked out of Saturday night with a 31-26 win over Kansas State in a loud Nipp At Night setting, and the result did more than add another victory to a 4-0 start. It offered a clearer picture of what the Bearcats are becoming.
That’s the big shift for Cincinnati right now. Through the first three seasons of the Satterfield era, the culture in the locker room has stayed strong even as the program worked through the bumps of the Big 12 transition.
What had been harder to pin down was the way the Bearcats wanted to play on a week-to-week basis. Last season, the roster had plenty of talent - Brendan Sorsby, Jake Golday, Dontay Corleone, Cyrus Allen, Joe Royer and others - but the team often looked more flashy than consistent.
The offense could swing wildly from hot to cold, and the defense never quite had the edge needed to make top conference opponents uncomfortable.
This fall, the early signs point to something more durable. Cincinnati looks like a team with a repeatable identity.
The offense is built on physical play at the line of scrimmage and a clear commitment to its backs, Gi'Brian Payne and Cole Tabb. The approach is simple: wear teams down, pound them for 60 minutes, and let the work show up late.
The wide receivers are doing their part by blocking downfield, and quarterback JC French has embraced a game-manager role built around a “Just Win” mindset.
The defense has its own edge, too. It isn’t being compared to the units Marcus Freeman had half a decade ago, but it is playing with a level of aggression and physicality that has been missing in recent seasons.
The sack and tackle-for-loss numbers may not jump off the page, but the Bearcats are getting to the ball quickly and delivering contact with purpose. Put it together, and Cincinnati suddenly has something it has lacked: a real identity to match the culture.
That matters. Good culture alone can keep a program steady, but without a winning style attached to it, teams can end up drifting from one week to the next.
Cincinnati’s 4-0 start suggests something more stable than that. The formula looks familiar, too, in the way BYU, Utah, Texas Tech, Iowa St and others have built consistency near the top of the league since Cincinnati entered.
The schedule is about to get much tougher, starting late Saturday night in the desert, and the next six weeks should reveal a lot more. For now, though, the Bearcats look like a team that understands what it is and how it has to win.
That identity showed up clearly in the backfield against Kansas State. Payne and Tabb combined for 27 carries and 250 yards, and they did it in very different ways.
Payne brings the power, but he’s also shown he can bounce runs to the edge and get vertical for explosive gains. He can also hammer away inside like a body puncher wearing down a boxer over 12 rounds.
Tabb, meanwhile, isn’t a pure speed back, but he’s decisive and slippery with his cuts to the backside, where open grass can suddenly appear.
It’s easy to want one featured back who gets 20-plus carries every week. Cincinnati doesn’t need that right now. What it has is a one-two combination that is making life miserable for opposing fronts, and that has been a major reason the offense has looked so effective through the first month.
On the basketball side, practice continues with the Ohio St scrimmage only 10 days away to open the Jerrod Calhoun era in Clifton, and a couple of younger names are making noise.
Sophomore guard Akai Fleming has been one of them. He was slow to settle in during June and early July, but his game started to rise as the trip to the Bahamas approached, and that climb continued after a strong showing at Baha Mar. He looks like someone who is going to matter once the games count.
Sophomore big man David Iweze is the other player generating buzz, and in some ways he’s the more surprising development. If he keeps earning minutes, he brings a different look at the 5 than Jayden Hastings and Riley Allenspach.
He has shown promise as a passer in Calhoun’s system, and he brings more of a power presence in the paint on both ends. The three exhibition games in October should tell more about how that translates.
There is also an update on Bowling Green transfer Javontae Campbell, who has been dealing with a foot injury since committing to Cincinnati in late August. Foot injuries can be difficult to map out, but the belief is that Campbell will be ready at some point this season. For now, he is expected to miss the early part of the schedule while the staff continues to monitor him through the nonconference stretch.
In Other News...
Cincinnati Just Made The Kind Of Big 12 Statement Fans Needed
The Bearcats Big 12 opener brought the kind of early-season validation this fan base has been waiting for, with a road win over Kansas State that pushed Cincinnati to 4-0 for the first time since 2021. What stood out was how it got done: strong run blocking up front, a rushing attack that kept producing through GiBran Payne and Cole Tabb, and a team that stayed patient after falling behind early.
Cincinnati also showed a trait that matters in a conference where games can turn quickly, especially on the road. The defense settled in after halftime and the offense kept finding answers in the second half, giving the Bearcats a win that feels bigger than one Saturday in September and more like an early signal that this team belongs in the Big 12 conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Defense Faces A Brutal Big 12 Test In Tucson
Arizonas first Big 12 game of the season comes with an immediate measuring-stick challenge, as the Wildcats welcome unbeaten Cincinnati to Casino Del Sol Stadium on Oct. 3. The Bearcats arrive at 4-0 with a ground game that has given opponents problems, with Gi'Bran Payne and quarterback JC French helping drive an offense that can make a defense work from the opening snap.
For Arizona, which sits at 3-1, the matchup is less about the calendar and more about whether its defense can handle a physical conference opener right away. Kickoff is set for 8:00 PM PT on FOX, and even before the league race settles in, this one already has the feel of an early benchmark for how the Wildcats stack up in the Big 12. [Read more 🡒]