JC French IV dropped back 43 times against Miami (OH) on Saturday, completed 31 of them for a season-high 309 yards and two touchdown passes, and hit Gavin Grover on a fourth down during the go-ahead drive that flipped a 28-7 halftime deficit into a 35-31 Cincinnati win. Cole Tabb finished it with a 53-yard run on third-and-1 with 1:29 left, and Antwan Peek Jr. strip-sacked David McComb in the final minute to end it. The Bearcats are 3-0. They also just showed everyone exactly how they get to 3-0 when the ground game disappears.
Miami stacked the box and Cincinnati rushed for 137 yards, its lowest total since the Bowling Green game last season, with only 26 of those coming before halftime. Gi'Bran Payne, who had run for 108 and 102 yards in the first two weeks, got nine carries for 32 yards. Scott Satterfield said Miami was there to "stack the box" and that the plan became to "spread 'em out a little bit more." That worked. Isaiah Johnson caught eight, JV Gibson caught seven with a touchdown, Grover caught five, and Tabb added three total scores. But it meant the offense became French's arm, and the protection was not perfect. He took three sacks, including a fourth-quarter strip sack when Grant Lyons got past left tackle Joe Cotton. French, to his credit, called it "very unlike Joe Cotton" and said the line was "great tonight."
Kansas State is built to close the escape hatch
Cincinnati hosts Kansas State on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2, both teams 3-0, both opening Big 12 play. The Wildcats lead the nation in pass defense at 85.7 yards allowed per game and lead the Big 12 with 11 sacks in three weeks. Cincinnati ranks eighth nationally in rushing offense at 269.7 yards per game and has allowed four sacks all season.
So the thing Cincinnati leaned on Saturday is the thing Kansas State takes away best. French has completed 76.5% of his passes for more than 600 yards with no interceptions, and Satterfield has praised his ability to get the offense into and out of the right calls at the line, real evidence that the quarterback transition is working, but none of that is a reason to want him throwing 43 times against this secondary. Watch the first two Cincinnati drives. If Payne and Tabb are getting four and five yards a carry with a light-ish box, the play-action and the checks French makes at the line become weapons rather than a rescue operation. If Kansas State loads up and Cincinnati still can't move it on the ground, you are watching a fourth straight week of French being asked to be the entire plan, this time against 11 sacks worth of pass rush.
The pass rush has to wake up earlier
The other half of this is Woody's defense, and the pattern is hard to miss. All three Cincinnati sacks of McComb came in the fourth quarter, Josh Hough for a 12-yard loss, Jonathan Thompson, then Peek's game-ending strip sack. Kenny Worthy's diving third-quarter interception ended another drive. Peek finished with nine tackles and two forced fumbles. Miami managed 163 yards and three points after halftime. Excellent football, roughly 45 minutes late.
Avery Johnson does not give you 45 minutes. He has thrown for 618 yards and six touchdowns and run for 253 more with three scores. If Cincinnati's front waits until the fourth quarter again, Johnson will have built a lead by then.
There is a real precedent for the alternative, and it belongs to Cincinnati's coordinator. Nate Woody's Army defense beat this same Kansas State team 24-21 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in September 2025, holding the Wildcats to 48 total yards over the final two quarters and 75 rushing yards for the game, then sealing it with a fourth-quarter interception. Woody has personally solved this offense once. He is doing it now with almost entirely different players, and he is doing it now with a unit that let Miami score on three of its first four possessions.
The small thing that could decide it
One week before the Miami game, after 11 penalties for 105 yards, French said flatly that Cincinnati had to clean it up because that kind of discipline loses conference games. Kansas State is the least-penalized team in the country at 2.67 flags a game. Cincinnati is opening Big 12 play against an opponent that simply does not hand back yards. Every pre-snap penalty on a night when the run game is already contested puts French in exactly the down-and-distance Kansas State wants.
What's actually at stake
Cincinnati is a home underdog here, the market opened Kansas State around 5.5 to 6.5 points, and the model gives the Bearcats a 37% chance. Fine. This is a fun one to win, not one the season hinges on. Winning nudges Cincinnati's Big 12 title-game odds to about 1.3%; losing drops them near 0.1%. Neither number is the reason to care. The reason to care is that Cincinnati has spent three weeks accumulating a 3-0 record and no outside respect, and a night win over a fellow undefeated team would be the first result that argues back.
Full week details are in the interactive guide, and the forecasting approach is explained in the methodology.