Cincinnati wasted no time blowing up the college football conversation Saturday morning.
Unranked Cincinnati knocked off No. 8 Texas Tech, 37-24, handing the Red Raiders their first loss of the season and turning the opening stretch of Week 8 into another top-10 upset. It was the kind of result that fits right into a wild run of Saturdays, and this one came with the Bearcats’ crowd storming the field afterward.
The win snapped Texas Tech’s unbeaten start at 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 play. Cincinnati improved to 5-2 and 2-2 in the league.
The Bearcats also reached a milestone at home that had been a long time coming. This was Cincinnati’s first home win over a top-10 opponent since Nov. 18, 2006, when it beat No.
7 Rutgers, 30-11. Cincinnati had already shown it could do this on the road, too, with a win at ninth-ranked Notre Dame in 2021.
Cole Tabb powered the ground game with a career-high 173 rushing yards and a touchdown, while JC French IV delivered a career-high four touchdown passes. That balance mattered because Cincinnati came in averaging 231 rushing yards a game, and even after a rough first quarter in which it had minus-six rushing yards thanks in part to a couple of sacks, the Bearcats still finished with 252 yards on the ground and averaged 6.1 yards per carry.
Texas Tech, meanwhile, never found the clean path it needed to stay unbeaten for the first time since 2013. The loss leaves the Big 12 with just two undefeated teams: No.
2 BYU, which was playing unranked UCF, and No. 10 Utah, which hosts No.
14 Houston later Saturday night.
Cincinnati doesn’t have long to sit on the moment, either. The Bearcats are already looking ahead to hosting Utah on Halloween night.
There’s also the matter of what comes next after the field was stormed. Cincinnati could be fined, but it’s not a certainty.
The Big 12 handles those cases individually, according to Jordan Mendoza of USA TODAY, via Yahoo Sports. Mendoza reported that the standard fine is $50,000, though the league office will review the footage to determine whether the visiting team and game officials had a safe route off the field.
He noted that differs from the SEC’s stricter system.
After a win like this, though, Cincinnati’s side of the equation probably feels pretty simple.
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