By Packy Moore
GAME NOTES
https://gobearcats.com/documents/2024/8/27/UC_Football_Game_Notes_-_vs_Towson.pdf
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati football team will kick off the 2024 season by hosting Towson at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday inside Historic Nippert Stadium.
The Bearcats will be looking to win their 23rd consecutive home opener in their second season in the Big 12 Conference and Year 2 under head coach Scott Satterfield.
Cincinnati will wear all white jerseys for just the ninth August game in school history. Fans are encouraged to wear white, as well, during what is expected to be a hot afternoon.
“I am excited – it’s finally game week,” Satterfield said in his weekly press conference. “I feel like it’s been a long time since December, and we’ve had a lot of work that we’ve put in since that time to think about all the new scholarship players that we have.
“We are ready to get out on the field and especially ready to play at Nippert in the first week. We have a great venue that we get to play in, and I would encourage everyone to show up and show out for this game. It’s such a tremendous home field advantage for us to be able to play at Nippert. We have a lot of new guys, and they’re exciting to watch.”
UC boasts 47 new scholarship players on its roster, including 26 additions via the transfer portal. The transfers are led by redshirt sophomore quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who passed for 15 touchdowns a year ago at Indiana and was named the UC starter last week by Satterfield, and safety Derrick Canteen, who was named a team captain by his peers following fall camp.
Sorsby scored three touchdowns three times last season – against Penn State, Purdue and Illinois. The 6-3 Denton, Texas native earned the starting job in a stiff competition with returner Brady Lichtenberg and true freshman Samaj Jones.
“When [Quarterbacks Coach Pete Thomas] told me that I was the quarterback; I was fired up,” Sorsby said. “Give all the credit, though, to the other QBs for pushing me. It was a great camp, a great spring. I really couldn’t have done it without those guys, and we just pushed each other to be better each and every single day. I’m really just fired up to lead these guys and go try to win some games.”
On the coaching staff, Tyson Veidt (defensive coordinator/safeties) and Sean Dawkins (running backs) are new to the program this season. Veidt comes to UC from Iowa State and Dawkins was last on the coaching staff at Memphis.
FANS CAN BRING TWO WATER BOTTLES TO THE GAME
Fans are allowed to bring in two unopen water bottles to Saturday’s game against Towson and bags of ice will be available on The Grid.
Fans are encouraged to utilize the Fast Pass and to download digital tickets to make entry as smooth as possible on gameday. Fans are able to scan their tickets prior to gates opening at the Fifth Third Arena ticket office, outside TUC, or The Grid to obtain a wristband for fast entry at one of the designated gates. Fast Pass gates are marked on this map.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
The game will be televised live by ESPN+ with Eric Rothman (pxp) and Jerod Cherry (analyst) on the call. The game will be broadcast on the radio at 700 WLW and SiriusXM Channels 161 and 200 with Dan Hoard returning as the play-by-play voice of the Bearcats for a 25th years and Jim Kelly returning as the analyst for a 37th year. Former quarterback Tony Pike will serve as the sideline reporter and Mo Egger will be the pregame host for the radio broadcast.
NOTING TOWSON
Towson went 5-6 last season, the first for head coach Pete Shinnick, and captured two road wins against Top 15-ranked FCS programs New Hampshire and William & Mary.
The Tigers welcome back their best player from a year ago, tight end Carter Runyon, an All-American who was also named a preseason FCS All-American this season. Runyon tallied 43 receptions for a CAA-best 549 yards and four touchdowns. Runyon was one of four Towson players to earn preseason All-CAA honors, with teammates Ralph Paige Jr. (OL), Keegan Vaughan (K), and Dion Crews-Harris (DL) joining him.
“Overall, we’re pumped about moving forward and to play this first game against Towson,” Satterfield said. “We know their coach is in his second season as well and last year they were around a .500 football team, but they play hard. They are coached well and get after it. They have a tight end (Runyan), and he is on a lot of watch lists. He is listed at 6 foot 6 and he’s a good player. They’re going to try to get the ball to him. Their running backs run very hard. Defensively, they’re an odd scheme and bring a lot of different pressures from their linebackers. They try to confuse offenses. They do a nice job, and we have a good opponent here in this first week.”
Six of the highest-scoring games in program history have come against FCS competition since 2000. That includes two 70+ point performances against Austin Peay in 2011 (72 points) and Southeast Missouri State in 2009 (70 points).
UC’s home opener in 2023 was a 66-13 trouncing of Eastern Kentucky. Quarterback Emory Jones accounted for seven touchdowns, throwing five and running for two, to set a new school record for total TDs by a quarterback.
BEARCATS ANNOUNCE QUARTET OF CAPTAINS
- Cincinnati voted on its permanent team captains at the end of fall camp and the team elected Derrick Canteen, Dontay Corleone, Gavin Gerhardt, and Luke Kandra as its team leaders. Gerhardt and Corleone are now two-time team captains, and Canteen was named a captain before ever playing a down for the Bearcats.
RUN GAME STALWARTS RETURN
- Cincinnati returns its entire starting offensive line from a season ago as LT John Williams, LG Dartanyan Tinsley, C Gavin Gerhardt, RG Luke Kandra, and RT Deondre Buford are back for the 2024 season.
- Behind the strength of its O-Line, UC ranked fifth in the nation in rushing in 2023 (217.1 ypg) and Corey Kiner turned in a 1,000-yard season at running back.
- Kiner rushed for 1,047 yards a year ago, securing the 20th 1,000-yard season in UC history. His yardage total marked the 13th-best mark in school history. The Cincinnati native and Roger Bacon High School alumnus was named Mr. Football for the state of Ohio in December 2020. He started his career at LSU before transferring to UC after the 2022 season, and his career rushing total stands at 1,729.
- Cincinnati and Oklahoma State are the only two Big 12 teams to return their entire starting O-lines and a 1,000-yard rusher.
ALL-AMERICA TRIO TO LEAD THE WAY IN 2024
- UC returns three former All-Americans in 2024 with Luke Kandra (2023), Dontay Corleone (2022), and Mason Fletcher (2022).
- A preseason All-American by Walter Camp and ESPN, Kandra returns as the country’s top-graded P4 right guard.
- Corleone, nicknamed “The Godfather”, was an AP All-American in 2022 after ranking as PFF’s highest-graded defensive player that year. He tallied 45 tackles, 5.5 TFL, three sacks, two forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries.
- Fletcher was the 2022 AAC Special Teams Player of the Year and a Ray Guy Award finalist after booting 14 punts of 50+ yards and ranking fourth in the nation with a 46.2 punting average.
AN ELITE PROGRAM BY THE NUMBERS
- Cincinnati, which started playing football in 1885, is entering its 137th season and owns an all-time record of 662-608-50.
- 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the dedication of James Gamble Nippert Memorial Stadium. More information about the 100th anniversary can be found on page 10.
- Since the start of the 2015 season, the Bearcats are 42-16 at Nippert Stadium and did not lost a homegame from 2018-21. Overall, UC is 86-28 when playing at Nippert since the start of the 2000 season.
- Cincinnati is 56-20 since the start of the 2018 season, which ranks ninth among FBS programs and is the best record among current Big 12 programs during that span.
- The Bearcats became the first-ever “Group of Five” team to advance to the College Football Playoff in 2021, defeating No. 9 Notre Dame on the road and finishing undefeated in the regular season along the way.
- Cincinnati (2021) was one of just 15 teams to make the College Football Playoff in the four-team era (2014-23) and one of just two current Big 12 teams (TCU, 2022) to make it. UC was the only non-Power Five program to ever earn a CFP berth in the four-team format.
COURTESY UC ATHLETICS
