Head Coach: Scott Satterfield is entering his 3rd year with the Bearcats with an 8-16 record. It’s been a challenging tenure so far, replacing a coach that had a lot of success before isn’t easy and neither is transitioning to a new conference. Last season offered some hope that was quickly erased by a rough finish. Now he enters his 3rd season trying to turn it around.
Program Outlook: Ohio is thought of as a state that Ohio State completely controls and most of that is true, but what most people don’t know if that Cincinnati is completely different from the rest of the state, it also bleeds into Kentucky but that northern part of Kentucky is also completely different than the rest of Kentucky. Cincinnati is really its own area and the Bearcats have embraced that, it may not have been the case a little over a decade ago but now the Bearcats are the most popular team in the city even with other people teams and fanbases infiltrating the area. Now they need to win to maintain that.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Cincinnati ranks 19th in the country returning 65.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. They also made some portal moves to fill some gaps. Key players starts with the run game Evan Pryor is a really good back who will likely take on a bigger role and Wisconsin transfer Tawee Walker will step in as well. QB Brandon Sorsby contributed a lot to the run game as well, he did a good job as a passer for a lot of the season but there was a lot on him with not a lot of receiving options to work with eventually it broke around halfway through the year and he became very turnover prone. The defense will be led by DT Dontay Corleone who is a game wrecker on the inside, he missed all of last offseason and was limited early last year due to a blood clots issue but overcame it. The Bearcats program has a tradition of strong LB play and that will continue with Jake Golday, Jonathan Thompson and Jack Dingle. The Bearcats got a key player in the secondary in former Coastal Carolina corner Matthew McDoom, and they got some guys to help in other areas of the secondary too. Question marks for UC will remain the receiver position, they completely overhauled it with portal guys and how will the offensive line look? OT Joe Cotton from South Dakota was a huge spring portal add but they’re hoping for the rest to come together. They need an improved pass rush as well, once again the hope is that the portal can help with that.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Cincinnati’s schedule is pretty tough. It opens with a neutral site game, that was once a home game against Nebraska. They follow that up with Eddie George and Bowling Green but they wrap it up with a Northwestern State team that hasn’t won since November 5th, 2022. UC avoids Arizona State and Kansas State but draws just about every contender in the Big 12 this year. There is one break, UC hosts Arizona and UCF at home both programs have a lot to sort out this year and are very winnable home games. They miss West Virginia for some reason, Big 12 why aren’t they playing the only regionally relevant team in the conference?? Why? I don’t like how the Big 12 does their schedule but I digress. UC might still miss a bowl even if they improve because of this schedule.
Final Thoughts: This is a critical year for the Bearcats, this program is only a few years removed from a College Football Playoff birth and they definitely want to get back to that level but first they simply need to win games. They have the pieces to do it but the schedule will make it difficult. They could improve and only win 4 games this year, a dramatic improvement and playing more like they did early in 2024 could allow the Bearcats to make a run at a bowl game or better. I don’t see more than 8 wins, if they were to upset Nebraska in the opener it would be an incredible statement.
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