TicketsCINCINNATI – The Cincinnati football team began its march to the 2023 fall football season with the start of spring football practice on Monday at Nippert Stadium.
The Bearcats opened the Scott Satterfield era under near perfect conditions with the afternoon sun out and a slight breeze, practicing for two hours during a fast-paced, efficient session that featured mostly individual drills, but some up tempo team portions.
Satterfield, who was hired on Dec. 5, 2022, brings a 76-48 record over 10 years of experience as a head coach at Louisville and Appalachian State.
Cincinnati returns seven starters on offense and defense from last season's 9-4 squad, in addition to Associated Press Third Team All-American punter Mason Fletcher.
UC also added 13 transfers – nearly all with Power 5 starting experience.
The mix of homegrown Bearcats and veteran newcomers will create a vibrant competition for virtually every position on the field.
Satterfield couldn't be more excited for the next six weeks.
"We've told the guys when he got here, we reminded them again yesterday that every position is up for grabs," Satterfield said. "I don't care if you started four years, every position is up for grabs. It's going to make everybody compete and work hard if you had a starting position to be able to continue that on in your career or somebody may come try to get your job, which I think it's healthy for a program to be able to have that."
Head coach Scott Satterfield 1-on-1 following first spring practice
Redshirt senior transfer wide receiver Dee Wiggins 1-on-1
All-conference senior defensive tackle Jowon Briggs 1-on-1
NEW FACES
After the 2022 season, Cincinnati had 12 players enter the transfer portal and leave the program and another 17 either graduated or declared for the NFL Draft.
The Bearcats brought in 13 transfers for this spring.
The transfers are:
CB Rayquan Adkins
RB Manny Covey
QB Brady Drogosh
WR Barry Jackson
WR Ty Perkins
Edge Brian Simms
OL Evan Tengesdahl
TWO ALL-AMERICANS RETURN
The Bearcats opened the Scott Satterfield era under near perfect conditions with the afternoon sun out and a slight breeze, practicing for two hours during a fast-paced, efficient session that featured mostly individual drills, but some up tempo team portions.
Satterfield, who was hired on Dec. 5, 2022, brings a 76-48 record over 10 years of experience as a head coach at Louisville and Appalachian State.
Cincinnati returns seven starters on offense and defense from last season's 9-4 squad, in addition to Associated Press Third Team All-American punter Mason Fletcher.
UC also added 13 transfers – nearly all with Power 5 starting experience.
The mix of homegrown Bearcats and veteran newcomers will create a vibrant competition for virtually every position on the field.
Satterfield couldn't be more excited for the next six weeks.
"We've told the guys when he got here, we reminded them again yesterday that every position is up for grabs," Satterfield said. "I don't care if you started four years, every position is up for grabs. It's going to make everybody compete and work hard if you had a starting position to be able to continue that on in your career or somebody may come try to get your job, which I think it's healthy for a program to be able to have that."
Head coach Scott Satterfield 1-on-1 following first spring practice
Redshirt senior transfer wide receiver Dee Wiggins 1-on-1
All-conference senior defensive tackle Jowon Briggs 1-on-1
NEW FACES
After the 2022 season, Cincinnati had 12 players enter the transfer portal and leave the program and another 17 either graduated or declared for the NFL Draft.
The Bearcats brought in 13 transfers for this spring.
The transfers are:
- LB Dorian Jones (Louisville)
- QB Emory Jones (Arizona State, Florida)
- OL Luke Kandra (Louisville)
- OL Trevor Radosevich (Penn)
- OL Philip Wilder (Southeast Missouri State)
- DL Daniel Grzesiak (Utah State)
- DB D.J. Taylor (Arizona State)
- WR Dee Wiggins (Louisville, Miami)
- TE Joey Beljan (Western Kentucky)
- K Carter Brown (Arizona State)
- WR Sterling Berkhalter (NC A&T)
- WR Donovan Ollie (Washington State)
- DB Jordan Young (Florida)
CB Rayquan Adkins
RB Manny Covey
QB Brady Drogosh
WR Barry Jackson
WR Ty Perkins
Edge Brian Simms
OL Evan Tengesdahl
TWO ALL-AMERICANS RETURN
- Rising redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Dontay Corleone burst onto the national scene in 2022, earning Third Team All-American honors from the Associated Press and Pro Football Focus. He was famously nicknamed "The Godfather," and rated PFF's top defensive player in the country for 2022 (94.7) and the No. 2 returning interior defensive lineman for 2023. The Cincinnati Colerain High School product tallied 45 tackles, 5.5 TFLs, three sacks, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles last season.
- Rising junior Mason Fletcher also collected Third Team All-American honors from the AP. He will arguably the top returning punter in the country after earning AAC Special Teams Player of the Year honors and ranking fifth in the country with a 46.2 average. The Melbourne, Australia native booted 14 50-plus punts and his long of 84 yards set against SMU shattered the Cincinnati and AAC record for longest punt.
- Rising fifth-year senior Jowon Briggs leads UC with 17 career starts at Cincinnati. A former Walnut Hills High School star, he originally played at Virginia, where he was a Freshman All-American in 2019.
- In 2022, he started all 13 games at nose tackle, anchoring a defense that ranked fifth nationally in yards per play allowed (4.61).
- He finished with 60 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks en route to All-AAC First Team honors.
- Briggs is also an accomplished musician and is a married father of two.
- Cincinnati has the 13th most wins (86) in college football since 2013 and a winning percentage of 68%. Included in the last 10 years are eight winning seasons, eight bowls, three conference championships, three 10-win seasons, four AP Top 25 finishes, two New Years Six Bowls and one College Football Playoff appearance, becoming the first Group of Five team to make the CFP.
- Looking at the last 15 years, Cincinnati has won seven conference championships and advanced to four New Year's Six bowls.
- The Bearcats joins the Big 12 on July 1, setting up what will be the most exciting football schedule in school history this fall.
- Cincinnati hosts seven games at Nippert Stadium.
- Cincinnati's first conference game as a member of the Big 12 will be a marquee matchup against Oklahoma on Sept. 23 inside Nippert Stadium. The Bearcats and the Sooners are two of only 14 teams to play in the CFP.
Other highlights include renewing old BIG EAST rivalries with road contests at Pitt (already announced) and West Virginia as well as the first-ever matchups with Iowa State and Baylor with both teams coming to Nippert Stadium.
- Sixth-year senior Ben Bryant was the starter in 2022, passing for 2,713 yards over 11 games. He suffered a season-ending injury and missed the final 2.5 games. He will participate in spring practice on a limited basis.
- His backup redshirt junior Evan Prater started the final two games, taking AAC and Cotton Bowl champion Tulane to the final play and starting against Louisville in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl.
- Redshirt sophomore Brady Lichtenberg only has appeared in one series – in the Fenway Bowl, but has proven to have a top-notch, accurate arm in practice.
- Cincinnati signed transfer quarterback Emory Jones in the early signing period in December. He has started 20 games at Arizona State and Florida, throwing for 4,880 yards and 33 touchdowns over 45 career games. He started 12 games at Florida in 2021 and finished with 2,734 yards and 19 touchdowns, in addition to 758 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.
- Deshawn Pace is poised to be a leader on UC's defense following a productive last two seasons. He has started 12 games over the last two years, totaling 157 tackles and 14.5 for loss to go with five interceptions. He was also an AAC Honorable Mention performer during the 2021 CFP season as a key playmaking sophomore.
- Current season ticket holders have until March 31 to renew their tickets for 2023.
- The Bearcats Ticket Office is also accepting deposits for new football season tickets here. There are a limited number of deposits available.
- A limited number of single-game tickets will go on sale this summer.