Last week marked the return to James Gamble Nippert Memorial Stadium and the official kick off of the 2024 college football season for our beloved Bearcats. The start of the 100th season in Nippert history didn’t exactly inspire Bearcat Nation to change their outlook for this year’s version of the Bearcats. A sweltering hot game, with rain in the forecast, but sweat in the stands was a struggle for the fanbase as they filed into the air conditioned confines of TUC and Fifth Third Arena for a majority of the second half. The Bearcats did walk away with a 38-20 victory, that allowed Towson to linger longer than expected. Win and move on is the mantra in these games. A looming match-up against a former rival, the Pittsburgh Panthers, is on the horizon for the Cats.

Last year’s version of the Bearcats made the trip to the intersection of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers and left Pittsburgh riding high with a hard fought 27-21 victory at Acrisure Stadium. The Bearcats stormed out to a 20-7 lead at the half, and that was about the last time the Bearcats looked like world beaters in 2023. After a mixed showing Week 1, can the Bearcats fix the mistakes that plagued this team in 2023?

Pit Beef

It didn’t take long for last year’s Special Teams issues to rear their ugly heads. After taking a quick 7-0 lead on a Sorsby scramble into the end zone, the Bearcats defense forces a quick 4 and out on the Tigers. They quickly regain possession on a Michael Mussari muffed punt on the 20 yard line, kicking a field goal to make the game 7-3. Cincinnati took a 21-3 lead out of the first quarter, but struggled mightily in the 2nd Quarter, allowing a 76 yard TD pass on busted coverage and another 28 yard TD, failing to put Towson away in the first half. The Bearcats took a 28-17 lead into halftime.

Towson came out of the half and kicked another FG, to bring the lead within one score and that’s luckily where the Bearcats stopped the bleeding. The Cats limped through the rest of the game, walking out of Nippert with a 38-20 victory. It was like looking back in time for the Bearcats last season, 2 muffed punts and a total of 5 fumbles, losing 3 of them that totally ruined the momentum the Bearcats were hoping to build in Week 1. The offense had 658 total yards, good for fifth in the country, but once again failed to convert into points. We are tied for 54th in the country in scoring offense. QB Brenden Sorsby looked great in his Bearcats debut and earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week Honors as they look towards the arrival of the Panthers. Sorsby looked the part against FCS competition, but a significant step up in talent level this week against Pitt could temper expectations. The defense gave up 438 yards, good for 109th in the country. The Bearcats did heavily rotate players in throughout the game, getting a good look at probably 3 levels of their defensive roster. A total of 26 Bearcats had a tackle in the game. The linebackers looked solid, especially Jared Bartlett who had an early sack in the game. However, big plays over the top were likely not the look first year Defensive Coordinator Tyson Veidt was dreaming of when he schemed up this year’s offense. The Bearcats will need to clean up the turnovers and start converting yardage into points if they want to shake of the 2023 stink.

River City Rivalry

River City Rivalry Trophy
One of the most obnoxious trophies in college football, the River City Rivalry trophy, currently resides in the Lindner Center and hopefully won’t be making a trip across I-70 this weekend back to Pittsburgh. The Bearcats have the momentum in the series having won 3 in a row and 5 out of the last 6. Last year’s Pitt team finished the season 3-9 along with the Bearcats last year and struggled with many of the same ailments of the Bearcats. Major changes to the Pittsburgh offense took place in the off season.

In last year’s game up the Ohio River, Cincinnati raced out to a 27-7 lead early in the 3rd quarter with two TD passes by Emory Jones and a Corey Kiner TD rush. Carter Brown added 2 FGs as well. The 4th quarter was nearly a disaster for the Cats as Pittsburgh scored two touchdowns in 3 minutes to bring the game within six. An Emory Jones interception with 5:44 left in the 4th Quarter on the Bearcats 43 yard line had Bearcat Nation fearing their first loss of the season in a late game collapse. After a huge sack by Jack Dingle on 4th down from the Cincinnati 28, the Bearcats took the ball over and ran out the clock behind some huge runs by Kiner. The Bearcats escaped a late game upset and left Pittsburgh with a victory. Bearcat Nation was still full of optimism, not knowing only one more victory was on the horizon in 2023.

Pitt on a Shingle

Pittsburgh made some huge changes in the offseason firing Frank Cignetti Jr who helmed one of the worst offenses in college football last season, a huge reason the Bearcats were able to secure victory last season. Cignetti’s offense finished 113th in yard per game and 114th in points per game last season. Newcomer Kade Bell joined the Panthers in the off-season as their offensive coordinator and Week 1 was a huge success for the Panther Offense. The 31 year old Bell, who’s experience is almost entirely at the FCS level, went out and brought in Alabama transfer Eli Holstein to run their offense. Last week against Kent Read Kent Write Kent State he went 30/40 with 333 passing yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, but was sacked 3 times. Holstein spread the ball around pretty evenly, with 6 players recording at least 3 receptions in the game. Kenny Johnson was the yardage leader with 7/105 and a TD in last week’s game. Johnson did not register a catch last year against the Bearcats. Censere Lee, a transfer that Kade Bell brought from Western Carolina last season had 6/72 yards as well. TE Gavin Bartholomew also registered 5/66 in last weeks game. He was the leading receiver for the Panthers last year in our game, with 3/80 and a TD. The Panthers also return Konata Mumpfield who had 2 TDs last year against the Cats. I look for Holstein to sling the ball around quite a bit this week against our pass defense. The Panthers rushing attack was also efficient, rushing 32 times for 201 yards, with starting RB Desmond Reid registering 14/145 and a TD. He had a long of 46 yards last week that went for a Touchdown and returned a punt for a Touchdown. Reid is another Western Carolina Transfer that followed Bell to Pittsburgh. It’s tough, much like the Bearcats, to judge Pittsburgh based on one game. Kent State was one of the worst teams in the country last year, last in scoring, and allowed 34.6 points per game last season. Cincinnati, despite their struggles last week, is a big step up in competition for the Panthers. The Bearcats are going to have to shut down the Pittsburgh rushing attack this week, or it could make for a long game at Nippert.

Last year’s Panthers struggled defensively compared to their past, but still remained a top 50 defense in yards per game. This past week against Kent State, the Panthers totally shut down the rushing attack of the Golden Flashes, allowing only 31 rushing yards on 38 attempts. They sacked Kent QB Devin Kargman 5 times in the game. The pressure and coverage obviously impacted the Kent offense, as Kargman only completed 50% of his passes for 181 yards, 2 TDs and an Interception. The Bearcats Offensive Line played well last week and they’ll have to step up against the Pittsburgh defensive line that opened up lanes for their LBers to wreak havoc. The Panthers LBs, Louis, George, and Biles, combined for 24 tackles, 3 sackes, and fumble recovery last week against Kent. Having early success in the ground game will open up the Bearcats offense throughout the game. A 1-2 punch of Corey Kiner and new Bearcat favorite Evan Pryor might be enough to to get things moving. Kent was able to even out the Punt Return TD with a muffed punt recovered for a TD of their own last week. Special teams might be interesting given the struggles that seem to have carried over to this year for the Cats.

I didn’t feel great about this Bearcats team walking out of Nippert last Saturday, but after hearing about the heavy defensive rotations they employed and a mostly vanilla offense, I feel a little more confident heading into this game. After recalling how bad Kent State was last year, it takes some of the wind out of the sails about the Pittsburgh offense. The Bearcats will need to clean up some issues that plagued them all of last season, namely major gaffs on special teams that are quite frankly unacceptable at this level. Pittsburgh’s Offense looked great Week 1, but they were playing a team last year that gave up almost 35 points per game last year, not that Cincinnati was much better. I think this game comes down to who makes the most mistakes, both teams are pretty even on paper, with questions on both sides of the ball. Vegas has the Cats by -2.5 in most layouts, which means this game is a pick ’em from an odds stand point. Cincinnati gets it done on a beautiful fall-like day behind a sold out Nippert Crowd.

Cats – 27
Shittsburgh -24

Juncta Juvant

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