Cincinnati Prepped for Season-Opening Battle vs. Nebraska in Kansas City

CINCINNATI – The 2025 Cincinnati Football season begins next Thursday, Aug. 28 against Nebraska in the Battle Sports Kansas City Classic at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

The game is set to kick off at 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The 2025 season will be the 138^th football season in school history, and its third as a member of the Big 12 Conference with head coach Scott Satterfield at the helm.

Fans around the country will get a look at the Bearcats next Thursday, as their battle with the Cornhuskers will be the lone matchup between two Power Four teams that night.

“It’s a little different, playing a midweek game,” Satterfield said. “This Sunday is a Tuesday for us according to our schedule, we always count back from game day. It’ll be a short week for us playing on a Thursday, but we’re playing on ESPN during opening weekend so it will be a great opportunity for us to go out and see what kind of team we have.”

The Bearcats enter the season with 39 new scholarship players, but perhaps the most impactful addition isn’t a player. The Sheakley Indoor Practice Facility and Athletics Performance Center opened in June, and it has totally transformed the way the program can work, fuel, recover, and more.

“Our guys are over here all day long,” Satterfield said of the new facility. “The interactions we’ve had with our players have been great. The ease of going from the locker room to the training room to the weight room and then coming out on the field is phenomenal. We have had a pretty healthy camp so far and I think part of that has been because of the recovery tools we have in this building.”   

Following the tilt in Kansas City, Cincinnati returns home for back-to-back games at Nippert Stadium. The homer opener vs. Bowling Green is set for Saturday, Sept. 6 and UC will host Northwestern State on Saturday, Sept. 13. Both games will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN+.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

The game will be broadcast on ESPN with Mark Jones (play-by-play) and Roddy Jones (analyst) on the call and Quint Kessenich reporting from the sidelines. The game will be broadcast on radio via 700 WLW and SiriusXM Channel 81 with Dan Hoard (pxp), Jim Kelly (analyst) and Tony Pike (sideline) on the call.

BEARCATS, HUSKERS HEADLINE THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

• All eyes are on the Bearcats Thursday night from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. It is Cincinnati's first Thursday opener since defeating UCLA, 24-14, at home in 2019. UC has also won 18 of its last 20 season openers and five-straight regular-season games in NFL stadiums dating back to 2019 (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and twice in Tampa).
• Cincinnati returns an outstanding core, including dual-threat quarterback Brendan Sorsby (33 career passing touchdowns, 13 rushing), who among his many accomplishments boasted a 425-yard passing game at Texas Tech and 125 on the ground at Iowa State, the only FBS player to accomplish the feat in 2024.
• The offense also includes projected first-round draft pick Joe Royer, whose 50 catches last year were the most by a Cincinnati tight end in program history (surpassing Travis Kelce in 2012).
• Gavin Gerhardt is ready to anchor the offensive line once again. He brings 35 career starts into the season and is the fourth Bearcat all-time to be a three-time team captain, which includes Dontay Corleone on the other side of the trenches.
• Corleone, like Gerhardt on the captain front, has proven to be the ultimate Bearcat who stuck with the coaching change amid his five-year career. The two-time All-American (2022, 2024) faced quite the adversity last summer, sidelined from late June through fall camp due to blood clots in his lungs. He missed the first game and still managed to achieve All-America status. "The Godfather" enters this year as ESPN's No. 49 player nationally and the top-ranked Big 12 defender.
• Last year's team saw 921 freshman snaps, the most for UC since 2018. Freshman All-American linebacker Simeon Coleman (32 tackles, 4.5 TFL) and safety Jiquan Sanks led the way. Cincinnati has 39 new scholarship players this year, including 21 transfers.
• The Bearcats' defense also forced 14 fumbles last year, the most in the Big 12. This also marks Year 2 under defensive coordinator Tyson Veidt and his 3-3-5 defense.

INSIDE THE POSITION ROOMS

• Sorsby's wide receiver corps saw a major overhaul this offseason. UC returns only two of its seven players with double-digit catches, with that pair being tight end Joe Royer and explosive running back Evan Pryor (7.5 ypc, seven total TDs in 2024).
• Among the new receivers are Jeff Caldwell, a Walter Payton Award finalist at Lindenwood last year who has an 11'9" broad jump. The latter landed him on Bruce Feldman's annual "Freaks" List, as it would have tied for the longest jump ever for a receiver at the NFL Combine.
• Cyrus Allen (18 catches at Texas A&M after 68 at Louisiana Tech from 2022-23) also made his way to Clifton. The 5-foot-11 speedster is joined by 6-foot-1 Caleb Goodie, who had 21 catches and four scores for Colorado State last year. He ranked in the top-five nationally among fastest receivers, per Telemetry Sports.
• The defensive line upgraded this year. In addition to Corleone's health scare last summer, expected starters Mikah Coleman and Jalen Hunt both suffered season-ending injuries in the preseason. All three of them are back and joined by newcomers Jaylon White-McClain (Old Dominion) and CJ McCray (Virginia Tech).
• Matthew McDoom, an All-Sun Belt cornerback at Coastal Carolina, will provide a great boost on the boundary.
• Despite losing Corey Kiner, eighth all-time at UC for rushing yards in his three seasons, the Bearcats gained another bruiser in Tawee Walker, who scored 10 touchdowns at Wisconsin last year and seven at Oklahoma in 2023. He is the best complement to Evan Pryor, the home-run hitter with four scores of 55 yards or more last year. One of them was an 80-yard reception.

SORSBY DOES IT WITH HIS ARM AND HIS LEGS

• Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby finished 249-of-389 for 2,813 yards and 18 touchdowns passing, in addition to 447 yards on the ground in 2024.
• Sorsby was one of three quarterbacks nationally with 2,500 passing yards, 15 passing TDs and nine rushing TDs. He was 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 were the most by a Big 12 player last season. He finished with four touchdown passes in the 44-41 loss.
• He rushed for 143 yards at Iowa State - the fifth-best rushing performance by a UC QB in school history. Seven of his nine rushing TDs came at Nippert Stadium.

MORE TO KNOW IN THE PROGRAM

• Dating back to 2015, Cincinnati is 8-4 against power-conference teams in non-conference play. Included in those victories are Miami, Purdue (twice), UCLA (twice), Indiana (twice), No. 9 Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. The defeats were to two top-10 teams on the road (Michigan and Ohio State), Arkansas in 2022 and Pitt at home last year by one point.
• Cincinnati’s 163 wins since 2005 are tied for 21st nationally and fifth among current Big 12 teams. The Bearcats are also second nationally with a 23-year home opener win streak.

SINGLE-GAME AND SEASON TICKETS ON SALE NOW

University of Cincinnati football season and single-game tickets for the 2025 season are now on sale.

All UC fans are encouraged to purchase single game tickets through Account Manager. Visit this link to sign in/sign up to Bearcats Account Manager, which will help avoid any additional fees when purchasing tickets. Read our FAQs HERE on how to sign in/sign up for Bearcats Account Manager. Please contact the Bearcats Ticket Office at 877-CATS-TIX for more information.