By Packy Moore

GAME NOTES

https://gobearcats.com/documents/2024/11/26/UC_Football_Game_Notes_vs._TCU.pdf

CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati football team returns home for the final regular season game of the season this Saturday to host TCU at 6:00 p.m.

UC brings a 5-6 overall record into Saturday’s game and TCU stands at 7-4. It will be Senior Day for the Bearcats, with 29 student-athletes expected to be recognized prior to the game. It will also be UC’s Military Appreciation game.

Once the ball is kicked, however, all the focus will be on the Horned Frogs.

“We have a great opportunity this week against TCU,” head coach Scott Satterfield said. “They are a hot team right now. They are scoring a lot of points and have won four of their last five games. I believe every game this year they have scored at least 34 points except for the Utah and Houston games. games. They have a very talented bunch of guys. Offensively, their wide receivers are outstanding. They can throw it all over the place. We will have to do a great job defensively of trying to contain that offense.”

TCU ranks second in the Big 12 in scoring (34.6) and boasts the league’s best passing attack (327.2). Wide receivers Jack Bech (6-2) and Savion Williams (6-5) give quarterback Josh Hoover a pair of tall and talented targets that the Bearcats will need to contain on Saturday.

“You don’t want to give up the big plays and against this offense,” Satterfield said. “They certainly are very capable of big plays, they have four guys with 500 yards receiving. That’s where they makes it difficult, because at some point during the game, you are going to just be singled up. They are going to be one-on-one, and they can beat you. So, we have to do a great job of staying on top, not let them get behind us.”

At 5-6, Cincinnati needs one more win to reach bowl eligibility for the 13^th time in the last 17 seasons. A win would also snap a four-game losing streak for the Bearcats, who have faced three of the top teams in the conference on the road during that span: at Colorado (Oct. 26), at Iowa State (Nov. 16), and at Kansas State (Nov. 23).

A home game under the lights at Nippert Stadium may be just what the Bearcats need to end the regular season on a high note.

“It’s hard to put that in words,” Satterfield said. “We know how big that would be, obviously, right? I think anytime you can go into an offseason with a win, it just kind of springboards everything for that momentum for the offseason. You can’t really put that in words of how big that would be, to be able to have that for the next three to four weeks bringing guys in, you got bowl practices. It’s just a lot better feeling, for sure.”

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Saturday’s game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Richard Cross (play-by-play) and Barrett Brooks (analyst) on the call. The game will be broadcast on radio via 700 WLW and SiriusXM Channel 113 or 200 with Dan Hoard (pxp), Jim Kelly (analyst) and Tony Pike (sideline) on the call.

CINCINNATI TO HONOR 29 SENIORS VERSUS TCU FOR NIPPERT AT NIGHT GAME

• Cincinnati welcomes TCU for the first “Nippert at Night” game of the 2024 season. The finale will serve as Senior Night and the Bearcats will honor 29 seniors, including four scholarship players who spent their entire collegiate careers at UC: DE Eric Phillips (Cincinnati native, sixth-year senior), WR Evan Prater (Cincinnati native, fifth-year senior), LT John Williams (Bolingbrook, Ill., native, fifth-year) and P Mason Fletcher (Melbourne, Australia, fourth-year).
• ESPN’s Football Performance Index ranks Cincinnati as the 53rd-best team in the country with the 34th-most efficient offense.
• Cincinnati opened the season at 5-2, but has lost four straight games, including a 41-15 loss at Kansas State last Saturday. RB Corey Kiner rushed for 140 yards and exceeded 1,000 yards for a second consecutive season, and WR Tony Johnson caught two touchdowns from QB Brendan Sorsby, but the Bearcats found themselves in a 20-0 hole they could not dig out of on the road.
• In conjunction with the season-long celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the dedication of Nippert Stadium, Saturday’s military appreciation activation will feature elements from Jimmy Nippert’s military service at Culver Military Academy and a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in the United States Army in 1917 and 1918.
• Cincinnati (2021) and TCU (2022) are the last two current Big 12 teams that have reached the College Football Playoff.
• The Bearcats’ Big 12 wins include victories over Houston (31-0) and UCF (19-13) – both teams that defeated TCU earlier this season.
• Released last week, Cincinnati’s 97% graduation success rate (GSR) for football in the NCAA’s latest GSR report ranks No. 1 in the Big 12 and tied-for-4th in FBS, behind only Air Force, Clemson, and Northwestern.

NOTING THE HORNED FROGS

• TCU has won four of five games, including a 49-28 victory over Arizona on Senior Day in Fort Worth, Texas last weekend.
• TCU is led by QB Josh Hoover, who ranks second in the Big 12 in passing (3,485 yards) and has tossed 23 TDs and nine interceptions. The Horned Frogs have several prolific receivers led by Jack Bech (59 receptions, 1,007 yards) and Savion Williams (10 total TDs rushing and receiving). TCU ranks second in the Big 12 in scoring (34.6 ppg).
• Cincinnati and TCU have played three times before, facing off every year from 2002 to 2004 as Conference USA opponents. The Bearcats won 21-10 in the last meeting in 2004 with QB Gino Guidugli tossing a touchdown pass to TE Brent Celek and RB Richard Hall rushing for 143 yards at Nippert Stadium.
• The first-ever matchup between the Bearcats and Horned Frogs came in the 2002 season opener. UC trailed 29-14 in the fourth quarter, but came back to win 36-29 in overtime. The win began a home-opener win streak that continues to this day. Guidugli passed for 284 yards and two touchdowns with four interceptions, and had the game-winning 14-yard rushing touchdown.

CINCINNATI’S RESUME

• The Bearcats’ best win was a 24-14 victory over Arizona State at Nippert Stadium on Oct. 19. The Sun Devils (9-2 overall, 6-2 in Big 12) are currently ranked No. 14 by the AP and are tied for first in the Big 12.
• Cincinnati ranks fifth the Big 12 in total offense (424.9), sixth in rushing (181.45) and seventh in passing (243.5).
• DT Dontay Corleone, a 2022 All-American and 2024 Preseason All-Big 12 pick, ranks as the Big 12’s top interior defender (78.8) per PFF.
• RB Corey Kiner ranks sixth in the Big 12 in rushing (94.8) yards per game. He has 12 career 100-yard games, including five this season. His 1,043 yards this season made him the first back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher for the Bearcats since Michael Warren in 2018-19. His 74 missed tackles forced this season rank first in the Big 12, first in the Power 4 and third in the FBS.
• Former walk-on safety Antwan Peek Jr. leads the Big 12 with four fumbles forced. He is the Big 12’s No. 4-rated safety per PFF (84.2).He is the son of UC Hall of Famer Antwan Peek Sr, who holds the single season (7) and career (17) records for forced fumbles.
• Joe Royer leads Big 12 TEs with 43 catches. Travis Kelce’s TE school record of 45 catches was set in 2012.

SORSBY DOES IT WITH HIS ARM AND HIS LEGS

• Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby has completed 228-of-355 attempts (64.2%) for 2,653 yards and 18 TDs with just six interceptions and added 354 rushing yards and eight TDs on the ground.
• Sorsby is the only Power 4 quarterback with 2,500 passing yards, 15 passing TDs and eight rushing TDs. He is also the only FBS quarterback with a 425+ yard passing performance and a 125+ yard rushing performance.
• Sorsby’s 478 total yards, including 426 passing yards, on the road at Texas Tech on Sept. 28 are the most by a Big 12 player in a single game this season. He finished with four touchdown passes in the 44-41 loss.
• Sorsby is a two-time winner of the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week Award. He passed for 383 yards and recorded four total touchdowns in his Bearcats’ debut, a 38-20 victory over Towson on Aug. 31.
• He rushed for 143 yards at Iowa State – the fifth-best rushing performance by a UC QB in school history. Six of his eight rushing TDS have come at Nippert Stadium this season.

COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS