Meet Your Insider
Hello, Bearcats, and welcome to The Cover Window! I'm Lionel Abernathy, but everybody calls me Skyline, for reasons that will become obvious very quickly. I'm an engineering co-op kid, I chart everything, and I rank it all in Cincinnati chili ways. A three-way is solid. A four-way is impressive. A five-way, with onions AND beans, is reserved for greatness. That goes for quarterbacks, defensive fronts and, yes, coaches' haircuts. When we win, I upgrade the team on air, three-way to five-way, no hesitation. When we lose, I downgrade to "plain spaghetti" and stare quietly into the distance. Every week I'll bring you the players, the coaches and the matchup, plus a food tangent that somehow loops back into a very sharp stat. I travel with this team and I live with this team. That's a five-way take.
The School in 60 Seconds
Cincinnati has played football on the Nippert Stadium site since 1901, which makes it the second-oldest playing site in college football. That's history with extra cheese. In 2021 the Bearcats became the first team from outside the Power Five to make the College Football Playoff, where they played Alabama in the Cotton Bowl. Now we're in the Big 12, and Saturday is our 100th Homecoming game. Nippert is listed at 40,000 seats, and every one of them should be full.
The Coach and the Scheme
Scott Satterfield became the 43rd head coach in program history on Dec. 5, 2022. The 2026 numbers say this offense is a five-way: 35.2 points and 460.0 yards a game, on about 59% runs at 5.93 yards a carry, with 20 rushing touchdowns. Here's the best stat in the whole league, and I don't say that lightly: Cincinnati has lost just two turnovers all season and hasn't thrown a single interception. Both are the best in the country. The defense is more of a three-way right now. It allows 26.8 points and 434.3 yards a game, and 294.0 passing yards. The pass rush has 13 sacks.
Players to Know
QB JC French IV: 1,338 yards, 9 TD and zero interceptions. At West Virginia he went 22 of 30 for a career-high 389 yards and accounted for four touchdowns.
RB Cole Tabb: 448 yards and 8 rushing TD. He had 118 rushing yards, 54 receiving yards and 3 TDs at West Virginia, his third three-touchdown game of the season.
WR JV Gibson: 342 yards and 4 TD. WR Malachi Henry: caught a 69-yard pass at West Virginia, the team's longest play of the season, plus a 59-yarder.
LB Jonathan Thompson (fifth-year): a team-high 42 tackles, including a career-high 15 last week. Josh Hough: 3 sacks.
P Max Fletcher: rolled a 66-yard punt dead at the West Virginia 1 late in the game.
The Conference Picture
Cincinnati is 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12, 4-0 at home and 0-2 on the road. The Bearcats are not ranked. They beat Kansas State 31-26 at home, then lost 34-7 at Arizona and 45-42 at West Virginia. Next up is two straight ranked teams at home, Texas Tech and then Utah. Coming home to Nippert is like coming home to a warm bowl of chili.
This Week: No. 8 Texas Tech (6-0) at Cincinnati (4-2)
Saturday, Oct. 24 · Noon ET · Nippert Stadium · FS1 · Homecoming No. 100. It's Texas Tech's first visit ever to Nippert.
Last week: we put up 622 yards at West Virginia, the most against an FBS opponent since last season. We led 42-35 late but lost 45-42 on a field goal at the final horn. Satterfield said, "We kept scoring, and we needed to get a stop." Texas Tech beat Arizona State 53-25.
Our offense vs. their defense: this is the heavyweight four-way. Texas Tech allows only 2.87 yards a carry and 82.0 rushing yards a game, and its 11 interceptions are second-most in the country. Our run game (5.93 a carry) and French's perfect interception record go right into that.
Their offense vs. our defense: Tech runs on 56% of plays at 5.12 a carry. RB J'Koby Williams ran for 165 yards last week. QB Will Hammond has thrown 5 interceptions, so there are chances to take the ball away.
Series: Tech won 44-41 in Lubbock in 2024, and the teams tied 10-10 in 1968.
Availability: I found no official availability report for either team as of Oct. 18, 2026.
What decides it: (1) Can we keep the ball safe against a defense that loves to take it away? (2) Can our run game get any room against a defense allowing 2.87 a carry? (3) Can our defense finally make the late stop?
And to Bodie Ratliff, Texas Tech's insider: you're a man of few words, so here are a few: welcome to Cincinnati. Have some chili. Three-way at minimum.
My call: Texas Tech Red Raiders 35, Cincinnati Bearcats 23.